Fossils as offerings to alters/shrines

TheEccentric

Recently I have been down to the Jurrassic Coast a world heritage site in the UK where they have loads of fossils in the cliffs and have bought a fossil there and have loads of other ones that I collected myself when I was younger on previous trips. I thought it would be nice to offer them on my alter as they remind me of death and impermanence and how we should be mindful of them but I am wondering whever I should offer them or not considering that they are the remains of dead things which isn't really "Fresh and Beautiful" as I have heard offerings and might not be considered appropriate.

lobster

The intent sanctifies the offering. Everything is profane. All is sacred . . .

Jeffrey

I think it's fine. The alter is meant to be YOU fresh and alive and these fossils are alive to YOU.

BhanteLucky

I don't know of many things more beautiful than fossils. They are so delicate, fragile, and mind-blowingly old.

how

Many alter offerings teach not by their beauty but by how everything changes with time like us. Flowers that fade or fruit that ages being obvious examples.
If it's for your own alter I would just put on it whatever reminds you of the Dharma that you value.

Jeffrey

I remember 'trilobytes' from where the glacier dumped off fossils near my aunt in Cincinatti Ohio.

TheEccentric

Thanks everyone for your input I have put them on.

TheEccentric

@Jeffrey

Jeffrey said:

I remember 'trilobytes' from where the glacier dumped off fossils near my aunt in Cincinatti Ohio.

Yup I have a trilobyte fragment that I put on the alter, the fossils that we tend to get in Britain the most are ammonites, those squidy things that had snail like shells, I'm not sure how common they are other there in the states though quite often icthyosaurs, those dolphin things that had teeth are found in the English coast as well. I'm quite a fossils nerd

vinlyn

It's fine, but what it is you think you are "offering"?

Jeffrey

I think it is dhana. Offer all real and imagined precious treasures to the Buddha.

vinlyn

Which is fine. To each his own. But I remember once in a temple in Bangkok some monks asked me to discuss Christian prayer. So I explained it to them and they started laughing and asking what a dead man (Jesus) could do with a prayer. And I guess that's kinda what I'm asking here.

It seems to me that giving an offering to someone who is incapable of accepting is kinda...well, not sure how to describe. Or does he really mean showing respect?

Jeffrey

Yes but Buddha is outside of time. No birth and death. (birth and death is anhihilated by the prajna paramita sutras and Nagarjuna's Madyamaka analysis). It doesn't sound like Thai Bhuddists are mahayana Buddhists. But the Mahayana teaches the trikaya, where Shakyamuni is just nirmanakaya Buddha.

vinlyn

They're not. They're almost always Theravada.

TheEccentric

vinlyn said:

Which is fine. To each his own. But I remember once in a temple in Bangkok some monks asked me to discuss Christian prayer. So I explained it to them and they started laughing and asking what a dead man (Jesus) could do with a prayer. And I guess that's kinda what I'm asking here.

It seems to me that giving an offering to someone who is incapable of accepting is kinda...well, not sure how to describe. Or does he really mean showing respect?

The object of showing respect to the Buddha is not so that he is pleased but to develop deep respect for him, doing so will produce respect the for the Dharma and help you develop the wish to practice it.

Jeffrey

Until the samboghakaya is reached as a bodhisattva we only have trust in Buddha's teachings going into the world. Once we are a bodhisattva we perceive Buddha directly as the sambhogakaya.

Zero

vinlyn said:

So I explained it to them and they started laughing and asking what a dead man (Jesus) could do with a prayer.

And I guess that's kinda what I'm asking here.

It seems to me that giving an offering to someone who is incapable of accepting is kinda...well, not sure how to describe. Or does he really mean showing respect?

...but they flip out at the underside of a foot being pointed anywhere but downward!

It may seem many ways - offering to some, respect to others - there are quite a few assumptions there that serve to crystallise a view - remove the assumptions and who knows...