Quote
Awaken7
Can somebody please tell me why do members from SGI need to put offerings to the area around the Gohonzon? And what kind of offerings they need to put? What do you do with the water or the apple after you offer it? Do you eat it or do you throw it away? !
SGI and Nichiren Shoshu members put the following things on their altars (which can be just a small stand or end table -- I had a really broke friend who used a cardboard box as his altar.):
1. The Butsudan, the box that contains the Gohonzon (a scroll that we look at when we chant).
2. A vase with branches from some kind of green plant, In Japan, many members use a plant called "O-shikimi." In other parts of the world, you use whatever green plant you can get. If it's winter, or you're someplace where you don't have access to greenery, you can use plastic or silk leaves. Evergreens symbolize eternity; they can survive and be green even in a harsh winter. This reminds us that the Buddha and our lives are eternal. We can have the Buddha nature within us even in harsh circumstances. Some religions put flowers on their altars; SGI/Nichiren Shoshu don't, because flowers live a short time and die.
3. A cup of water. Water nourishes and sustains our lives, and cleans and purifies -- as does our spirituality. You fill the cup with fresh water every morning, and take it off in the evening. You can drink the water, put it in the dog's water dish, water your plants with it...whatever you want. India, where Buddhism originated, is a very hot country and drinkable water is especially precious there -- offering someone water was an act of the kindness and hospitality that a good Buddhist should strive for.
4. A small bit of non-animal food. Most places, this is fruit. Some of my Japanese friends put a small dish of cooked rice, covered on their altars. Food sustains our lives...as does our faith. You take the food off of the altar before it goes bad and eat it. I think that another reason we put food and water on our altars is that as humans, in a human body, we need these things -- and in this Buddhism, we also believe that we can achieve enlightenment in our physical bodies, as humans. We don't have to die and become spirits and only then become enlightened.
5. Incense, which we burn while chanting. I remember being told that, as the smell of incense spreads through the room, the truth and fragrance of Buddhism spreads through the universe.
6. Candles, which are lit while we are chanting. Light takes away darkness, and helps us to see, as Buddhism does -- light is symbolic of wisdom and truth.
So really, a lot of these offerings are symbolic, metaphoric --that faith can be like water, to clean and purify us, like food, to nourish us, like light, to show us the way. Other religions use some of the very same symbols -- the menorah to celebrate Hanukkah, pagans burning the Yule log to celebrate the Winter Solstice. I believe that pagans also decorated evergreen trees with candles at the Winter Solstice? Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Light. I've attended Catholic masses where there were candles, and flowers on the altar, and incense was burned. Some Christian friends and relatives of mine make advent wreaths, with evergreens and candles. Bread and wine in Christianity. Water in baptism.
There is some flexibility in making offerings. If you have allergies or asthma, or you really hate incense, you don't have to burn it. If you can't easily get branches from a green plant, you can use a plastic or silk plant (plastic certainly is eternal). Some SGI members who have small children choose to use a lamp or electric candle on the altar, rather than a candle with a real flame.
Some of the offerings can also serve as triggers, particularly the incense and the candles -- you light the incense and the candle and then begin chanting --pretty soon, just smelling some incense, or candlelight can trigger the same calm, meditative state that chanting does. It's like the experiment that Pavlov did with his dogs -- feed the dogs, and ring the bell. Soon, all Pavlov had to do was ring the bell and the dogs would start drooling, even if there wasn't a scrap of food around.
I found it difficult to go to a certain yoga class right after I left SGI because that particular yoga instructor liked to burn incense -- and it triggered memories of SGI for me. I went to a Catholic mass with a friend, a memorial mass for her late father. I smelled the incense and just automatically began chanting. I don't think anyone noticed; they were all saying the Our Father -- but I caught myself and thought, "What!?" For all my education, I'm no better than a laboratory dog? Ring the bell and I drool? Smell can be a very powerful trigger, I find. I smell something, and I'm taken back to what I thought and felt the last time I smelled that particular scent.
Candles, fortunately, don't seem to affect me the same way. I can go to a birthday party and watch someone blow out their candles, without wanting to declare my love for President Ikeda.
If anyone is interested in a more detailed explanation of offerings than I've given here, you can go to enemy territory -- the SGI website:
www.sgi-usa.org/
You'd get on the home page, and click on "Beginning Your Practice,"
And then scroll down to, and click on, "Explanation of the Altar."
And I can't believe that I'm actually suggesting that someone go to the SGI website.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/2009 09:33AM by tsukimoto.