(#82/365) Offerings

"A friend told me of visiting the Dalai Lama in India and asking him for a succinct definition of compassion. She prefaced her question by describing how heart-stricken she'd felt when, earlier that day, she'd seen a man in the street beating a mangy stray dog with a stick. “Compassion,” the Dalai Lama told her, “is when you feel as sorry for the man as you do for the dog.”


Title: Westie Eating Water Drops
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365 Offerings

While my Mom was visiting - we had several lovely conversations. One of the best and most insightful - was a conversation with her about my (mostly) successful anger management, my personal spiritual path and the embracing of mindfulness and compassion as life-altering goals. While she was here - we discussed the "offerings" that I have been posting them here to my blog.

Since January I've been posting a quote from a Buddhist daily meditation book called "Offerings: How Buddhist Wisdom Can Change Your Life" - each day in the devotional - there is a quote from a Buddhist teacher. Then I go and search flickr and post an image to go with it. The book is organized into 52 themes, including spirituality, ancestors, money, trust, and dependence - with quotes from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Kalu Rinpoche, Chogyam Trungpa, Shabkar, Jack Kornfield, and Arnaud Desjardins — each conveying to us their vision of existence.

anyhow - back to Mom. While she was here - we spent some time each of the mornings over coffee discussing them - and she helped me pick the 'image' to go with them. and often we'd come back to that morning's "offering" during the day in our other discussions - she did some gentle pushing that just posting the "offering" wasn't quite enough - that I should start learning and living these ideas. I told her that I did my best to do that already. (and 90% of the time these days - I think I accomplish that goal.)

She wrote me today - and asked if I could email her the offerings each day - and continue discussing them with her - that she found them both insightful offerings to consider - and an interesting way to share and discuss my spiritual path. It makes me very happy that Mom wants to continue the conversation.

I've found this #365 project to be way more impactful than I thought - and it has opened a lot of new conversations with people.

I sent this link to my Mom - and figured I'd offer it out there in LJ land....

if you'd like a link to all the "offerings" posts - they've been tagged and are available at:

http://low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com/tag/365%20offerings