In Eight Steps to Happiness Geshe-la says "'Self' and 'other' are relative terms, rather like 'this mountain' and 'that mountain ... 'This' and 'that' therefore depend upon our point of reference. This is also true of self and other. By climbing down the mountain of self, it is possible to ascend the mountain of other, and thereby cherish others as much as we presently cherish ourself."

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Offering a Mandala on Shrine

For January Lamrim retreat, following the instructions, we offer a long 37-point mandala where the sadhana calls for a short one. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to continue with it, but only when I was happy to, which turned out to be most days.
We're reminded that our spiritual practice should be like a child at play. When I make mandala offerings, I feel like a kid making sand castles at the beach. And both are clearly impermanent, as we usually collapse the mandala right after we've constructed it.

When I was admiring Chondzin's extra-small mandala kit, she said that it was a good size because it fit on her small shrine. (By the way,  I've only seen for sale at KMC New York; if you want one, maybe they'll have them at US Festival next month.)
On the other end of the size spectrum, I remember Demo's mandala kit because it was huge. Of course, the physical size of the offering isn't the main factor, but I do associate it with her vast collection of merit, from all kinds of Dharma activities.
Chondzin's comment gave me the idea that I could also offer my mandala on my shrine, as we used to do at my Center before other offerings took up that space on the shrine.
I feel more energy in my mind for spiritual practice when I make this larger offering.

Because I have more practice, my mandala offerings are now more beautiful - that is, more symmetrical / less wonky. But also messier: Rice tends to spill onto the floor and onto my shrine.
Because the center's mandala offering had rice beneath it, I do the same thing - I associate it with putting rice in my hands before holding the mandala base.
I'm thinking that a plate with a lip would help; if I was more of a shopper or less of a procrastinator, I would have bought one already. I did buy a small whisk broom and dustpan for my meditation room, because they're better than my vacuum at picking up rice.

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