Some tips for buddhist altars...
Buddhists (cept for zen and I think perhaps all of japanese buddhism) do water offerings. It's very meditative and really makes you focus in the morning and helps you throughout the day. Seven bowls are in a stack. You place them in a line in front of the symbol of worship, where the bowls are upside down. If you place the bowls right side up, it symbolizes offering up nothing, and that's rude. You put the bowls from the left to the right, so that the middle bowl is aligned perfectly with the symbol of worship.
No, don't put the middle bowl down first. Left to right, so that the middle lines up perfect. Concentrate. Think. Each bowl also needs to be a rice grain's width apart.
Now, from left to right, pick up the bowl, holding it, pour scented water into it and set it down. The water needs to be a rice grain's width from the top of the bowl. Don't set the bowl down empty on the altar, or it's offering up nothing, which is rude. But you can, when you're starting out, or ill or something, set the bowl down half full and fill it up the rest of the way, but try to improve. Remember, it's got to still be a rice grain's width from the next bowl over (it's harder than it seems when typed, because the next bowl is upside down still, remember? And bowls are funny shaped so you gotta concentrate).
Keep going. You can either fill them all up with scented water, or you can go all out with the some are scented, some are clean, some are with rice and incense and food and flowers and other such things. I was just describing the water.
It's one of those exercises that constantly gets harder as your concentration gets better, but it always stays right at your pace. You will never be able to do it perfect, but it will never be so difficult for you that you just give up. Because, at the end, you're just pouring water into cups of water.
Practical tips: cover your altar with plastic and then cover it with cloth and then be sure to have some sort over special thing to put your candles on for candle safety. That way when the water spills (oh and it will) you wont ruin your furnature, and it will still look pretty, and you wont burn down the house.
If you get matching cups of the same size and shape it's easier, buuuut getting mismatching cups is more humbling. I used mismatching cups, and even uneven cups, for a while, and it kept me thinking a lot about how even when I can't afford a thing, I should still be offering up stuff to -insert someone here-. |
