Worship, Service, and the Immeasurables

A spiritual genius approaches worship not as ritual ornamentation, but as a profound method for strengthening compassion, dissolving self-grasping, and energizing the work of benefiting beings.

The Nature of Worship

Worship begins with a mind of deep, steady faith.
With such a mind, one offers robes, lights, fragrances, and other material supports to the awakened ones — both those present in the world and those who have passed beyond. These physical and imagined offerings are means for enriching the stores of merit and wisdom.

Yet the highest form of worship is not material at all.
It is the worship made from non-apprehension — no clinging to giver, given, or recipient. This form arises in those who vow that the birth and presence of awakened beings will never be wasted, that they themselves will carry forward the work of wisdom and compassion.

Worship also takes the form of developing immeasurable beings: planting the seed of awakening in every mind one touches. It arises through offerings of wealth, offerings of service, offerings of teaching, and offerings of mental resolve. When worship is done from faith and sincerity, even intention becomes an offering.

There are subtler forms still: worship through sympathy, through tolerance, through realistic practice, through facing reality without distortion, through direct realization, through liberation, and through resting in suchness. These reveal worship as a living expression of the path itself.

Each form of worship can be understood through its object, materials, process, dedication, cause, intuition, field, and resources.

• The object is all awakened ones, whether seen or unseen.
• The materials are robes, lights, pure substances, and so forth — or the offerings of the mind: reverence, gratitude, clear understanding.
• The process is a mind bright, open, and harmonious.
• The dedication is toward the completion of the two vast stores.
• The cause is the ancient vow: “May I never allow the awakening of buddhas to be fruitless.”
• The intuition is the wisdom that sees no worshipper, no worshipped, and no act of worship.
• The field is immeasurable beings, whose potential is nourished by the act.
• The resources are both material offerings and inner attitudes of faith, appreciation, congratulation, and delight.

In this way, worship becomes a dynamic force that nourishes the awakening of oneself and others.

The Types of Worship

Worship can be understood in multiple ways:

• As cause or effect — offerings made in the past giving rise to present blessings; present offerings generating future unfoldings.
• As personal or through others — offering one’s own body, energy, or contemplation; or inspiring others to give and serve.
• As offerings of wealth and devotion, or offerings of practice — coarse when based in material expression, subtle when enacted through disciplined action and inner realization.

Some forms of worship are inferior, occurring within narrow aims or motivated by attachment.
Some are superior, grounded in insight and free from pride.

Even practice-worship varies:
near when enacted in this life with unwavering continuity,
distant when deferred across lifetimes or interrupted by migrations.

The Spirit of Worship

At its heart, worship is not performance.
It is the willingness to give oneself repeatedly to the immeasurable field of beings.
It purifies miserliness, dissolves egoistic pride, and steadies the mind for the vast work of liberating others.

To worship is to affirm:
“I will not allow the appearance of enlightenment in this world to be wasted. I will continue its work.”

Such worship becomes inexhaustible,
because its source is not desire,
but compassion integrated with the wisdom of non-apprehension.