My Office Shrine

23 Feb

This is my little office shrine. It is a little quirky and little traditional, which kinda reflects me. I know it seems like a hodge-podge of mismatched devotional and decorative items put together into a space that I call my office shrine. I didn’t realized how it evolved into this but it just came together over time.

The three main objects of worship are the Manjushri statue, gold-framed picture of Geshe Langri Tangpa in the middle and a neat black and white framed black and white picture of Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche on the left. The Manjushri statue was one of the many offered to Gaden Monastery many years back and it was offered to me by the senior monk of Gaden as one of the pilgrims who traveled to Gaden to make the offering with Tsem Rinpoche. It is very sacred and I always love Manjushri because he blesses people with inspiration to be smarter and have better memory. Contrary to what some people say, I think I have a horrible memory so Manjushri is just what I need!

Geshe Langri Tangpa, the central frame picture is a Kadampa Lama of the Atisha lineage. This may not mean anything to you but he was famous for compressing all the teachings on compassion by the Buddha into 8 famous verses. Tsem Rinpoche gave it to me many years ago to put on my desk, I guess, to inspire my work. And the white framed black and white photo of Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche is a favorite of mine and was also gifted to me by Rinpoche to plant further blessings on my dense skull. Hehe!

Everything around it are offerings I have accumulated over time. Some were given by friends and some I bought myself. The R2D2 toy beeps when you press a button on it and the other Star Wars Lego characters were bought in a set of three. There was another Darth Vader character that went missing so I had the remaining 2 along with R2D2 permanently offered as servants to safeguard the enlightened Lamas and Manjusrhi. The wooden giraffe was a gift that eventually was offered as Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche’s pet. The Emperor of China was fascinated with the giraffe when they first saw it and thought of it as a mythical Qilin – a good omen.

So there you go. I have given a rather lengthy description of my mismatched office altar. I submitted this picture to enter into a contest organized by eDiv hoping to win a prize. Well, come to think of it, I don’t think people will be impressed with its lack of symmetry or theme. So, there goes my hopes.

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