Altar Space

After Chris' question the other day, I was prompted to look through my files to see what pictures I have taken of my altars over the years. The oldest digital one I could find was this, from my first practice period back at Tassajara in 2006, when I was living in the Gatehouse. I am assuming it was a personal day, as my oryoki bowls are unwrapped, so I must have been washing the cloths.

Other conspicuous objects are my first kechimyaku, a picture of my great-great grandfather James, a jizo from Great Vow, a Manjushri that was given to me when I left the kitchen as fukaten in 2005, and above all of those, a calligraphy that Daigaku did for me of the kanji 'sho jin', or diligence. You will see most of these things in subsequent photos.
Fast forward a year or so, to cabin 14:

 I think I took this picture mainly for the cherry blossom branch, but in the gloom you can make out most of the same objects, as well as the wrapped oryoki, and some of my favourite stones.
Next, having moved down to less luxurious summer quarters at Tassajara:

Now, we are back in the city, in the other corner room, one of the rooms that has this sweet small shelf that is just right for a basic altar:

The two smallish calligraphies came from an artist in Pacific Grove - one of them came from a wonderful machine called 'Art By The Inch', a converted cigarette machine, where, if you inserted something like $3.50 in quarters, you could buy an artwork. The one on the left is the kanji for faith; the one on the right I found in an empty room at Tassajara, and is the kanji for horse (I will explain the appropriateness of this sometime). The calendar below was by Ninsho, who also did a drawing I have on the altar in the ino's office right now.

Now we are onto the room I have just moved out of. The incensor I bought from Richard Urban at his previous show in the art lounge; the fan, which the eagle-eyed among you might spot furled in an earlier picture, is a memento from my last practice period at Tassajara - the teacher traditionally gives all the students a piece of art to commemorate their participation. The Buddha statue was a tokudo present, as was the piece of manzanita. The blue cloth is an old prayer flag - I think I told someone that I found it on Flag rock after the fire, but then I wasn't sure if that was the case; I think I gave that one to someone else. In any case, it was a remnant of a set of prayer flags that had been hanging somewhere high over Tassajara - one summer, I was part of a plot to put up flags on the highest points around Tassajara in various directions. I suspect they all got burned in the fire - maybe I will post those photos sometime...

And so to the present. The lotus picture was another practice period offering by Linda Ruth, you can see various scrolls of poems and picures that people have given me over the years; the mountain painting was another tokudo present, and there is also the mala I found at Tassajara that nobody claimed, and my current rakusu sitting on top of the old blue one, as well as the current selection of stones, which come from Canada, Tassajara, Ocean Beach and Cornwall to the best of my memory.