An American Zen Buddhist training center in the Mountains and Rivers Order, offering Sunday programs, weekend retreats and month-long residencies.
Cause for Celebration
A dinner party invocation
My inner entertainer and my inner practitioner might learn from one another. I could certainly bring a little more joie into my practice and put a little more sanctity into my dinner parties. In traditional practices, we begin with an invocation of our outer and inner buddhas, and then to please them we offer water, flowers, music. So it’s kind of like a party. I should have that celebratory mind-set when I sit down to practice. At the same time, thinking of a gathering of friends, sangha, or even just one friend on a week night is cause for celebration.
I like checklists. The eight substances of the traditional Sanskrit offering mantra make a pretty good checklist for dinner parties, or for just having dinner with a friend.
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- The Tricycle Blog - our diary of the global Buddhist movement
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