My wife has a theory that whatever you do on New Year’s Day will be your focus for the coming year. For example, she studiously avoids housework on this day. Instead, today she is making cookies. I spent way too much time configuring my new Pixel 4 phone, so to avoid technical dilemmas as my New Year focus I’ve fired up the laptop and I’m working on my blog as I listen to a Spotify channel called “Coffee Table Jazz.”
As can be surmised from the video above, I attended the New Year services at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church. Those are illegal fireworks being launched by residents of the nextdoor apartments. Don’t particularly care for driving at night and especially not after midnight on New Year’s Day, but I enjoy the year end and New Year services. We even had a stranger show up who lives in Tokyo but is visiting family in Sacramento. He heard about the service on our website. He said he routinely attends the midnight service in Tokyo.
Today I offered some mochi and a tangerine on my altar. I’ve done some reconfiguring since the last time I posted a photo. I now have water cups for Kishimojin (left) and Daikokuten (right) that I purchased from Gasshodo. (Didn’t realize they were different sizes when I ordered them.)
Gone is my side altar, which looked like this:
Instead I’ve moved all of those “decorations” to some new glass shelves that I installed in corner next to the altar.
Back in July I explained my gods on the altar and my decorations. In addition to Jizo (who I misspelled Jizu in my original post), I have added a collection of Hotei Bodhisattva statues that my son collected as a child. The larger Hotei is a contribution from my wife. The gold plated pagoda next to the Ryusho Jeffus’ painting belonged to my wife’s parents. It is from Japan but I have no idea which Japanese pagoda it represents. And, as illustrated, I’ve made an altar for Ryusho Jeffus’ gohonzon that he and Rev. Kanjin Cederman created for Jeffus’ book designed for prison inmates. The cup is another Gasshodo purchase.
I should point out that the slab of lapis lazuli and the crystal represent the purified Buddha lands described in the Lotus Sutra.
Happy New Year!