If you have a home obutsudan (altar), wonderful! If you don’t, I will tell you why it’s important and how to incorporate one into your daily home life. A home obutsudan will add an essential and fulfilling dimension to your Shin Buddhist practice.

Last month, EverydayBuddhist.org released my course “At Home Practice – Being Buddhist Everyday.” The course seems especially relevant now as the pandemic is nearing its second anniversary. During this protracted-time period, we have been faced with the question of how to maintain our Buddhist practice with minimal temple accessibility. 

The sangha has done a remarkable job keeping people connected and engaged, but sometimes these experiences fall short of filling the gaps in our Shin Buddhist practice. I would like to recommend an at-home practice that may help relieve some of this disruption and provide spiritual comfort. 

There are many ways to bring Buddhism into your life daily. Of particular importance is having a home altar, called an “obutsudan.” The “o” in front of “butsudan” is an honorific signifying our respect for the altar. An obutsudan can take a variety of sizes, shapes, and forms, from elaborate to simple. Figure 1 below presents two examples: 

The obutsudan on the left of Figure 1 was made by a specialty store in Japan, and those are usually rather expensive. If you are fortunate to have something like this in your home, that is wonderful. If you do not, the example on the right of Figure 1 illustrates how a homemade obutsudan can be effective and meaningful. It also allows for creativity in assembly, as long as the four basic elements are in place.

To qualify as a bonafide Shin Buddhist obutsudan, four elements are essential:

1. A standing Amida image or myogo scroll

2. Incense burner

3. Flowers

4. Candle

Other aspects that one could add to their obutsudan include a bell and ringer, fruit and rice holders, decorative cloths, incense, incense stick holders, among other accouterments, and are optional (but fun to have!). Onenju (a string of beads) and a service book is also important.

Figure 2 shows two examples of a standing Amida image: a scroll (left) and a statue (middle). On the far right, the myogo is the six Chinese characters for “Namo Amida Butsu.”. 

No matter what kind of home altar you have, the most critical message here is to please use it!! Placing your obutsudan in a prominent place in your home can become a focal point for the family to be used regularly. The Eastern approach believes that your heart and mind will follow your actions, as opposed to the Western idea that thoughts happen first, followed by action. Thus, simple devotional acts can be powerful catalysts for deepening your spiritual understanding. This is how centuries of Shin followers were able to come to spiritual awakening without studying scriptures or knowing how to read or write.

Lighting incense and doing a simple gassho each morning are ways to start the day with mindfulness. The need to replenish flowers from time to time reminds one to think about the obutsudan while out shopping or running errands. There is great joy in making a simple 4” arrangement and placing it in front of the altar. Lighting a candle, then meditating or chanting is a way to calm a busy day. Some like to place a photograph of departed loved ones near their obutsudan, while others make occasional fruit or cooked rice offerings, called osonae and obuppan, respectively. (Did you notice the honorific “o”?) 

These gestures are expressions of gratitude—for the teachings and the life of awakening we call Shinjin. Standing before the obutsudan helps us be mindful of all we have received. It is a physical manifestation of our Buddhist path and a reminder to incorporate the teachings into our everyday lives. It is where the entire family can gather, put our hands together, bow in gassho, and say Namo Amida Butsu.

In Gassho,

Rev. Ellen Hamada Crane