Mindfulness Meditation as an Offering
offering (noun) a thing offered, especially as a gift or contribution.
David Brazier writes an article on Mindfulness and reciting (the name of Buddha) as an offering (original article below) While he doesn't specifically refer to meditation, it is interesting to consider meditation or mindfulness as an offering, especially if we practice secular meditation. It is a way of looking at meditation as being more connected to the welfare of others, whereas meditation can often seem as an individual, even solitary process or activity. Practicing mindfulness, consciously as an offering, off the cushion, could be as simple as paying respectful attention to someone. But even if we don't practice conscious offering to others, the fruits of sitting in regular meditation arise automatically, in the form of compassion for others, for example. In this way, sitting in meditation is an offering in itself.
Dr Brazier uses the word "unconditional" in his article (below) and it led me to think how important a part of meditation & Zen an unconditional mind is. Maybe we can think about changing the word "mindfulness" to "unconditional awareness". Unconditional awareness sounds less like an intense holding-on to a specific state of mind than mindfulness might sometimes imply, and it also brings in the open, non-judgmental aspect of mindfulness.
We sit in meditation 'unconditionally'. We sit for nothing. Without expecting any type of result or any sort of conditions or feelings to arise. We sit with an 'unconditional awareness', an unrestricted, spacious, open awareness - as we do when we sit in Shikantaza. The peaceful mind we attain is then not something we strive for, but an incidental grace or blessing. And from this unconditional sitting and resulting peace, positive results do arise. "Sooner or later it will burst forth into foliage, flowers and fruit."
When the practice of meditation itself is the practice of gratitude and it is for nothing that we sit, then we are already linked to the wellbeing of our family, friends and the world in general, in a positive sense, and this is our offering.
From the original article posted by Dr. David Brazier on August 29, 2017, entitled "Offer Everything" as below:
Mindfulness is remembrance of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. This is most easily done by saying and hearing the Buddha's name. Hence the practice of reciting the name has become widespread in the Buddhist world. Reciting the name when something happens, be it a good or a bad thing that has occurred, makes that thing into an offering. One does this rather in the spirit of thinking that the Buddhas know better than we what to do with these miscellaneous occurrences of life. We offer everything to them. This is not in order to get rid of it, nor to cleanse or purify ourselves, it is simply that this is what we have so this is what we can offer.
When we make an offering, the Buddhas bestow peace upon us. We can feel this peace in our physical being. However, we do not practice such mindfulness in order to acquire such peace - it is an incidental grace or blessing. Rather, we practise out of love for the Buddha and gratitude for the Dharma and Sangha. When such love is established in the heart, it is like a seed buried in the ground. Sooner or later it will burst forth into foliage, flowers and fruit. When practice is love it is for nothing, but results inevitably do come. These are then like miracles and carry infinite merit. Whereas if we practice in order to get something what we get is merely a worldly benefit of limited value.
The spirit of practice is love. It is unconditional. Everything that happens is made into an offering by the utterance of the Buddha's name and so we are liberated over and over again. Even my impure thoughts, words and deeds become material for the Buddha to use in his great work. Thus my foolishness is redeemed by his blessing and becomes easier to bear and life becomes full of sparkling stars that appear out of nowhere and encourage us to dance.
