home altar

[Amelia]

Re: home altar

Jinyu's description is pretty accurate. It is not too different from Buddhism (and yet very different from Buddhism!). There are the concepts of karma and oneness, there is also ahimsa. There are meditation practices and all that... There is just a lot more of that New Age flavor that turn a lot away. I like to think that I was a Wiccan without a bunch of frills. I hardly did ritual-- what I was interested in was meditation and learning. I also wanted to know if there were certain patterns of thought which would create certain situations in my life, and I can't deny that "magic", however it works, has some effect. To me though, it is just further evidence to suggest that we are what we think. No rituals needed-- no worship of any particular deity. However, I don't really consider myself having switched from one religion to another-- it's more like I enjoy learning about all religions, I keep the information I like and find useful, and I let go of the rest, or pick it up again when appropriate. Right now, I am finding Buddhism most useful, though I also really enjoy Daoism.

[disastermouse]

Re: home altar

Jinyu's description is pretty accurate. It is not too different from Buddhism (and yet very different from Buddhism!). There are the concepts of karma and oneness, there is also ahimsa. There are meditation practices and all that... There is just a lot more of that New Age flavor that turn a lot away. I like to think that I was a Wiccan without a bunch of frills. I hardly did ritual-- what I was interested in was meditation and learning. I also wanted to know if there were certain patterns of thought which would create certain situations in my life, and I can't deny that "magic", however it works, has some effect. To me though, it is just further evidence to suggest that we are what we think. No rituals needed-- no worship of any particular deity. However, I don't really consider myself having switched from one religion to another-- it's more like I enjoy learning about all religions, I keep the information I like and find useful, and I let go of the rest, or pick it up again when appropriate. Right now, I am finding Buddhism most useful, though I also really enjoy Daoism.

I wonder if Wicca is a bit like Taoism in drag....like a western version of Taoism....just a thought.

Chet

[Amelia]

Re: home altar

I don't know. Words are just words. Names are just names. The Dao that can be named is not the Dao. :P

[Jinyu]

Re: home altar

I wonder if Wicca is a bit like Taoism in drag....like a western version of Taoism....just a thought.

Never thought about it... it is not false at all... but the New Age influence in the very eclectic practices of Wicca is difficult to describe and imagine...

gassho,
Jinyu

[disastermouse]

Re: home altar

I wonder if Wicca is a bit like Taoism in drag....like a western version of Taoism....just a thought.

Never thought about it... it is not false at all... but the New Age influence in the very eclectic practices of Wicca is difficult to describe and imagine...

gassho,
Jinyu

I see similarities, but it's no doubt wrong to equate the two.

Chet

[murasaki]

Re: home altar

My little chalkboard-backed altar (I like the black backdrop and we have this chalkboard laying around the house). Boyfriend gave me the buddha for Christmas -- before that, the presiding buddha was Master Mu given to me by my mother: http://www.etreasuresgifts.com/chpldo.html. (Yes, a commercialised Zen product like what we were talking about, but it's Mom, gotta give her a break.)

I made the beaded lotus. The other objects were thrift-store findings. There's a painted pin sitting there from the last Matsuri, or the one before it. Black square dish with sand in it for incense burner. Sake cup holding the incense (does that violate a precept? :O) The silver ball is a Christmas candle, putting the little lid on snuffs it right out. I don't even know what that textile placemat-thingy is supposed to be, maybe a tissue box holder or a chopstick keeper? I just like it there.

Oh yes, and the big mind-blowingly adorable maneki neko collection my daughter and I share...I want a separate wall shelf for them, but they are very good at sitting, so I'll leave them where they are for now.

The Thai box has some incense, matches and some other crap in there, I don't know what.

The whole thing has sort of evolved over time; I never meant it to get that elaborate, but the pieces all seem to fit there now, so I don't want to change it.

gassho
Julia

Attached files

[Fuken]

Re: home altar

My little chalkboard-backed altar (I like the black backdrop and we have this chalkboard laying around the house). Boyfriend gave me the buddha for Christmas -- before that, the presiding buddha was Master Mu given to me by my mother: http://www.etreasuresgifts.com/chpldo.html. (Yes, a commercialised Zen product like what we were talking about, but it's Mom, gotta give her a break.)

I made the beaded lotus. The other objects were thrift-store findings. There's a painted pin sitting there from the last Matsuri, or the one before it. Black square dish with sand in it for incense burner. Sake cup holding the incense (does that violate a precept? :O) The silver ball is a Christmas candle, putting the little lid on snuffs it right out. I don't even know what that textile placemat-thingy is supposed to be, maybe a tissue box holder or a chopstick keeper? I just like it there.

Oh yes, and the big mind-blowingly adorable maneki neko collection my daughter and I share...I want a separate wall shelf for them, but they are very good at sitting, so I'll leave them where they are for now.

The Thai box has some incense, matches and some other crap in there, I don't know what.

The whole thing has sort of evolved over time; I never meant it to get that elaborate, but the pieces all seem to fit there now, so I don't want to change it.

gassho
Julia

It is beautiful! Have you ever considered using the blackboard to draw a Rose Apple Tree behind the Buddha?

[murasaki]

Re: home altar

Thank you! That's a brilliant idea, but I'm a poor drawing artist at best...sounds like a job for my talented daughter

...or, I could just write "NOW" above and behind the buddha

[Fuken]

Re: home altar

Thank you! That's a brilliant idea, but I'm a poor drawing artist at best...sounds like a job for my talented daughter

...or, I could just write "NOW" above and behind the buddha

Perfect!

[ChrisA]

Re: home altar

Saw this quotation from John Daido Loori and thought of this topic:

Americans like to refer to one of the old Zen stories about how a master took a wooden Buddha image, chopped it up, and made a fire, warming himself by its flames. Seeing this, a monk asked, “What are you doing, setting fire to the Buddha?”
The master replied, “Where is Buddha?”
The opposite goes on in America. In America we want to burn the Buddha images to begin with. You see, that monk was stuck on the form. In America, we are antiform, so the pointing goes in another direction. If you’re attached to neither existence nor nonexistence, you manifest a sixteen-foot golden Buddha in a pile of rubbish, appearing and disappearing.

(I saw this in Essential Zen, but thanks to google I learned that Treeleaf's own Fugen has posted about it on his blog!)

Got me to thinking about whether I too held the desire "to burn the Buddha images to begin with." Hrm....

[Seiryu]

Re: home altar

I like altars and there are some great pics u here of them!

I have a Tibetan style altar

_/_

Seiryu

[Kaishin]

Re: home altar

I don't have an altar. I've been thinking up some designs for a "matchbox" altar, a small box with a few items that could be put out anywhere one needs. The box would serve as the platform itself, with little fold-out legs for a makeshift table. Just thoughts. Right now my altar is just a patch of carpet

[Jundo]

Re: home altar

Saw this quotation from John Daido Loori and thought of this topic:

Americans like to refer to one of the old Zen stories about how a master took a wooden Buddha image, chopped it up, and made a fire, warming himself by its flames. Seeing this, a monk asked, “What are you doing, setting fire to the Buddha?”
The master replied, “Where is Buddha?”
The opposite goes on in America. In America we want to burn the Buddha images to begin with. You see, that monk was stuck on the form. In America, we are antiform, so the pointing goes in another direction. If you’re attached to neither existence nor nonexistence, you manifest a sixteen-foot golden Buddha in a pile of rubbish, appearing and disappearing.

Hi Chris,

Yes, this is a comment by Daido that I always recall, and I am very much of the same mind. If I encounter a student of Zen who is all "Bowing is stupid, statues are made of wood, chanting is pointless" ... I strongly encourage them to bow, place a statue and chant. We learn so much in this way by doing what we resist. Also, if a practitioner thinks "Buddha is only within and has no form" ... I tell them that Buddha is not "inside" or "outside" "both" or "neither", is form and formless.

If I meet a practitioner who thinks one must bow to a statue and chant ... I encourage them to sometimes stop or give it up for a time, or to find that bowing, statue and chanting that is accomplished and sung silently within one's heart without need for external manifestation. If a practitioner thinks "Buddha is only found in such traditional forms and rituals" ... I tell them that Buddha is not "inside" or "outside" "both" or "neither", is form and formless.

In all cases, I encourage the student to find the meaning of these things in one's own life without attachment or need for outside show or objects, or only looking within.

Gassho, J

[ChrisA]

Re: home altar

Gassho, Jundo. I remember reading something you wrote about chanting that had a similar effect on me, and has prompted me to be sure to include the Heart Sutra each and every time I sit now.

Meanwhile, on the subject of Buddhas, I think that this little guy is about to make an appearance on my stepstool altar:

[murasaki]

Re: home altar

Awesome little guy!

gassho
Julia