I'd like to relate a neat thing I recently experienced. A couple of days ago I was at a meeting where a gentleman related a heart-wrenching tale of suffering. His wife is diabetic and he has to change the dressings on her feet, which are covered with infected sores. He says it takes him two and a half hours to do it, and it is a highly unpleasant experience. He mentioned the odor of the infection as being particularly unpleasant. Please pray for me, he said.
Well, his story touched me deeply, and I did pray for him. In particular, I included him and his wife in a Medicine Buddha practice. I also had the idea to give him an object that had been given to me by Lama Norlha, which had been prayed over and blessed by many Buddhist nuns for several months. So, before the next meeting, I put the object in my pocket. At the meeting, this gentleman could hardly restrain himself. He said that he had felt everyone's presence in his room that night and that he had felt individual people's prayers too. In the end, he said it gave him renewed strength. This really knocked me over. When I prayed, I sincerely hoped it would have benefit, but I had no idea the effect would be so dramatic. It also shows that spirituality is nondenominational, since most of the people in that room were not Buddhist, and, in fact, reflected a wide spectrum of spiritual belief.
I ended up not giving the man the blessed object because I didn't feel the time was ripe, and maybe it will never be. He is a dyed-in-the-wool Christian, so I'd rather not cause further confusion by offering him a sacred Buddhist object.
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