Temporary home Buddhist altar

Posted: August 11, 2008 | Author: Doug | Filed under: Buddhism, Jodo Shinshu, Jodo Shu, Religion | 1 Comment »

Most of our stuff is still being shipped over from Seattle (to Ireland), but my wife has done a nice job organizing the new place since we moved in. Here in Ireland, we haven’t found any Pure Land Buddhist temples in our area. In downtown Dublin, you’ll find mostly Tibetan temples, but we don’t follow Tibetan Buddhism, and there is one Zen temple, but it moved to the north side of Dublin in an area I’ve been repeatedly warned to avoid. A Vietnamese Pure Land temple does exist in Dublin, but it’s very far out on the west side, and we don’t have a car (nor do we speak Vietnamese).

So, as expected, we’re making do with the Pure Land Buddhist resources we already have. The day after we moved in, my wife setup this little temporary altar, as the main altar is still being shipped:

From the side:

That’s a picture of our deceased dog, Napoleon on the right. The paw print was something the vet had taken and sent to us with a nice card after he was put to sleep.

The statue was a little souvenir statue I purchased when I visited the Great Buddha statue of Kamakura, Japan back in 2005. This is a statue of Amida Buddha, even though people often confuse it with the founder of Buddhism, Shakyamuni Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama).

The red book is a Jodo Shinshu service book, in Japanese, my wife received from her mother in Japan a while back. It is published by the Nishi Hongwanji. I can read it ok, and some of the chants I knew from Seattle Betsuin are in there, but then there is liturgy that I’ve never seen before. I never used it much, but my wife used it on occasion. I preferred to chant other stuff.

Having the altar setup is kind of nice because it’s been a nice reminder of the Buddha and the Dharma. Since moving to Ireland, things have been terribly chaotic, and my practice greatly diminished. I was lucky to have time to the nembutsu 10 times, and would often forget. I followed the Five Precepts in daily life, which is good, but the rest was forgotten in hectic life this last month. With the altar up somewhere prominent, my practice is getting back to normal again, which is a good thing.

I’ll be even happier when the real altar comes in any day now.

Namuamidabu

P.S. Big thanks to my wife for having the good taste in putting the temporary altar where she did. A house is always much better when it has a woman’s touch.

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