Went to my local orthodox Christian Church (Easter Sunday, thought they might have stayed open all night) 6 AM and shut. Ah well . . . short walk to a local Vietnamese Amitabha temple, not been to before but seen the Buddha in the front . . .
Lights on, can see three people meditating in the front room. Don't like to disturb them. Side door shut. Ah ha, garden basement open and I am in . . .
So joined them, eventually everyone left me to the empty shrine room to meditate in . . .
Not visited the temple before, when I looked it up, it is classed as a private residence . . .
Wait - did I just gate crash someone's home shrine . . .
:eek2:
They did not seem perturbed and I left as quietly as I arrived.
Comments
I trust you did not touch the family silver....
There was 'gold' all around. Done more research, it is an 'unofficial' temple. They are looking for a permanent residence as a place of worship. Will visit again and maybe chat to some of the residents, certainly got an impressive number of statues, here is a couple of Kwan Yin in the garden . . . which had plenty of side shrines like the Amitaba one in the second pic . . .
Wow...beautiful.
That's very similar to a Vietnamese sangha meeting near my house. They took over a home with a large yard and have been steadily landscaping to a state similar to your pix.
I stopped by on a sunday afternoon and asked if it would be ok to wander around their gardens for a bit, which they gladly allowed. I was introduced to the resident monastic who invited me to have lunch with the sangha. I had to decline.
They seemed like nice folks.
There are a number of Vietnamese sangha in my part of denver. 5 centers in a circle five miles from my house. There happens to be a concentration of Vietnamese immigrant families around here. Best Pho joints in town!