Maintaining practice when away from home?

[Chikyou]

I am going on a business trip soon (the date hasn’t been scheduled yet but in the coming months) and while I will only be gone for a couple of days, I want to continue my practice in some fashion. I know the easy answer is to just sit. But for those who travel and who like to maintain a practice with a few extra trappings, what do you do? Obviously incense is out of the question in a hotel room and while I have a folding bench I intend to pack, I’m not going to bring my home altar with me.

I usually think about this before going somewhere and what happens is I just stop practicing until I get back home; I am determined not to do that this time!

Gassho,
SatLah,
Chikyō

[Jundo]

I am going on a business trip soon (the date hasn’t been scheduled yet but in the coming months) and while I will only be gone for a couple of days, I want to continue my practice in some fashion. I know the easy answer is to just sit. But for those who travel and who like to maintain a practice with a few extra trappings, what do you do? Obviously incense is out of the question in a hotel room and while I have a folding bench I intend to pack, I’m not going to bring my home altar with me.

I usually think about this before going somewhere and what happens is I just stop practicing until I get back home; I am determined not to do that this time!

Gassho,
SatLah,
Chikyō

Kotei has his cool film of making a Zafu from a blanket and belt ...

.

Otherwise, I would remind that everywhere is it, and anything is a Buddha statue. I just wrote a little essay about that, in fact ...

https://forum.treeleaf.org/forum/teacher-talks-tips/teacher-talks-tips-aa/544721-here-there-everywhere

I once packed a really really tiny Buddha statue, about the size of a postage stamp, when I traveled, and also a print of a Buddha about the size of a business card. In truth, "big and little" are human judgements. A big Buddha and a small Buddha is still a Buddha. In fact, everything in the room is Buddha. What is not?

Have a good trip.

Gassho, J
stlah

[Tairin]

I used to travel a lot for work. My advice is don’t over think this. I used to use a towel spread on the floor and fold one of the bed pillows as a Zafu. It was comfortable enough for me to be able to sit Burmese for 30 minutes. In some rare cases I just sat on the office chair that is inevitably in the room.

You don’t need a lot of stuff. Zazen is very portable.


Tairin
sat today and lah

[Hokai]

I’m away from home a lot.
I just sit down somewhere, anywhere really and that works.
kind of brutal minimalism.
Gassho
Hōkai
satlah

[Shinshi]

I have a Altoids tin (smalls) and I made a little alter out of match sticks for an incredibly small Buddha statue, and I have a medallion of Avelokiteshvara that I found in a thrift shop on the other side. But, as Tairin said, you don't need much. Just sitting is the whole world - nothing more is needed.

Gassho, Shinshi

SaT-LaH

[Bion]

I always take my practice with me, as long as I can carry myself. Nothing changes whether I am home or somewhere else. My hands can hold the gassho the same, my breath is there, so is my voice and painful back. I chant the verse of refuge every day, my morning starts always with a bit of metta as I make the bed and wash my face, I chant the vows and verse of atonement. Zazen needs no special setup and a prostration is just as appropriate whether facing a plastic Buddha, a wood Buddha or an air Buddha.
Meditation is also readily available for any moment when one is idle and the mind starts to navigate towards not helpful things. That’s about it. Each moment can be a whole ceremony if one approaches it like that.

Gassho
sat lah

[Hosui]

The only trappings I took on a recent trip to the USA, Chikyou, was Jundo's book (The Zen Master's Dance) and a decent data roaming package for my phone so I could join the sits with Onki, Shokai and our EST timezone friends: a few early sits in the hotel lobby and one in the airport. That's the beauty of Treeleaf - you're never alone when you want to sit.

Gassho
sat/lah today

[Hokai]

4.50 sitting on a train
and the camerawork throughout is fabulous

https://youtu.be/TUAOC8OJG1c?si=vnyVD0BdMBFwKfyX

Sometimes I take my portable altar in this little box
IMG_2926.jpg
Gassho
Hōkai
satlah

[Junsho]

4.50 sitting on a train
and the camerawork throughout is fabulous

https://youtu.be/TUAOC8OJG1c?si=vnyVD0BdMBFwKfyX

Sometimes I take my portable altar in this little box
IMG_2926.jpg
Gassho
Hōkai
satlah

Portable altar

Gassho!
SatLah

[Seiryu]

I want to continue my practice in some fashion.

Where could your practice possibly go?
Is it something you pick up and put down, like a suitcase? Something that exists only in one place but not another?
On your trip, sit when you sit and walk when you walk, no need to "continue" anything for it has never ceased.

Gassho
Sat/Lah