EXPRESSING CREATIVITY: your zazen practice space

[Doshin]

In addition to outside I have a more “standard” zen place. This is where I sit with you on Zoom. My printer shares the space because my computer is next to the altar. The Green Tara represents restoration/Mother Earth to me. The tea cup with the Heart Sutra is a reminder of Treeleaf and my time with Jundo and Jishin and the comb is for trying to look my best before the Zoom camera goes live

I am working on ideas to comply with Jundo’s request above to add to the altar.

63C3AED8-F5BA-46D2-99DE-116985CE1D31.jpeg]

Doshin
St

[Kokuu]

Hello all!

I love this prompt and this is my newly made portable 'altar in a box'!

Altar in a box 1
Altar in a box 2

This is my sitting room shrine: https://postimg.cc/gxfnw5Bc

And my bedroom shrine: https://postimg.cc/sB715ctY


Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-

[Cooperix]

altar.jpg

This is a tiny altar in my bathroom.
(Maybe that combines Jundo's 'ugly'...?)
The tiny (2") bowls are Acoma Pueblo pots. The Acoma believe themselves the descendants of the Mimbres, who disappeared from southwestern NM many centuries ago. They are known for their amazingly beautiful pottery and design work. The Acoma replicate many of the Mimbres designs. As shown in these sweet little bowls.

Gassho
Anne

~lahst~

[Jundo]

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This is a tiny altar in my bathroom.
(Maybe that combines Jundo's 'ugly'...?)

I told folks, at the end of our Zazenkai this week where my "Buddha" was a piece of rusty tin roof from our collapsed pig house ...

https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?17899-June-26th-27th-Treeleaf-Weekly-Zazenkai-BYOB-%28Bring-Your-Own-Buddha%29&p=264587&viewfull=1#post264587

... that they do not need to keep the "ugly" on the Altar all the time. They can keep beautiful and peaceful things because an Altar is to serve as a reminder (re-MIND-er) of the beauty, peace and goodness which is the Buddhist ideal. That is why we usually put a peaceful statue, flowers and sweet smelling incense, not a plastic ketchup bottle, broken glass and gasoline.

However ...

... they should keep in their hearts always and recall from today's lesson that Buddha is all things, even if buried in ugliness and hard to see. There is beauty shining through the rusty tin can at the side of the road, but let us clean it up. There is Buddha Nature even within the person who acts with greed, anger, violence and jealousy ... but it is not manifest until we stop acting so. A shining precious jewel still shines and is precious even when buried in the mud, yet let us constantly polish away the mud as best we can.

So, no need to keep the ugly things on the Altar if you don't wish, but don't expect a Buddha's Beauty to always look beautiful to the human eye.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Jinyo]

Another inspiring thread!

Thanks,

Jinyo

[Nanrin]

I love the idea of matchbox shrines!

Gassho

Nanrin

Sat today

[Kotei]

Hello everyone,

beautiful large and small altars!

Thinking about what items in the back of the drawers could be assembled to a matchbox altar,
I thought about this 'Buddha' metal ring, I found decades ago in the sand, at the baltic sea,
a 'Buddha Nut' (don't know, why it is called so),
a small Lotus seed is from last years flowers of a plant, I am growing in a wooden bucket.
I stitched a few flowers on a piece of old fabric.



20200710_143242.jpg

Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

[Onka]

That's awesome Kotei
Gassho
Onka
ST

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[Meitou]

Thank you all for your contributions so far. Believe it or not I'm struggling to find matchboxes!
Gassho
Meitou
Sattoday lah

[Hensho]

Here is a little altar box I made years before it even occurred to me to practice shikantaza. Interesting how, when one looks back, one finds signs we could have read had we only been perceptive enough.

Gassho,
Hensho

Sat

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[Onka]

Here is a little altar box I made years before it even occurred to me to practice shikantaza. Interesting how, when one looks back, one finds signs we could have read had we only been perceptive enough.

Gassho,
Hensho

Sat

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Gassho
Onka
ST

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[Kokuu]

http://hanseriff.de/treeleaf/mb_altar.jpg

I love that, Kotei!

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...dccdd45822.jpg

Also this one Hensho!


Do we need to send you some matchboxes, Meitou?


Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-

[Doshin]

All nice

Doshin
St

[Juki]

FB_IMG_1594563971073.jpg

This is portable only in the sense that I can move the small table from room to room. Traditional elements with the whimsical addition of the cat.

Gassho,
Juki

Sat today and lah

[Cooperix]

Wow, some wonderful, intimate, expressive and touching 'altars' for us to enjoy. Kotei, I love your miniature altar and the use of plant material, but of course you would use your garden! And Hensho, Unfortunately I can't make out what is in the box, but the box looks to be quite unique and interesting. I agree with you, everything in my life led me to this moment even if at the time I had no idea where I was going...
Juki, beautiful and I do love the whimsy of the cat. That Buddha is splendid. Looks inlaid. lovely. I have a Zuni carved fetish bear on my altar. I have a strong bear phobia and I hope his presence helps me be in awe rather than fear.
bear.jpg

Thanks everyone for posting.

Gassho
Anne

~lahst~