Forming Dharma affinities 

one smile at a time. 

Unless we’re absorbed in our thoughts, we tend to mirror others’ reactions. Say someone looks at us and smiles. Normally, we would return the smile. Normally.

Last week in a restaurant, a person in my line of sight looked at me. No smiles. Glared is a harsh word, so let’s just say he stared. While I usually would have smiled, it had been a tiring morning, and my energy was running low. So I just looked back. No smile from me either. We both resumed eating our own lunches, and I thought “Well darn. I just blew my chance to form a Dharma affinity.”

Fortunately, on the way out, his companion stopped by our table and asked what I was having (it was a vegan burger). She then explained that she was newly vegan. We ended up talking, and even her friend became friendly. So the opportunity wasn’t lost after all.

But because I had allowed myself to be affected by another person, I came perilously close to losing the opportunity to form a Dharma affinity.