A Brief Summary of my Daily Buddhist Practices as an Aspirant Mexican Buddhist ☸️

Just wanted to share with you my homemade Buddhist practices, which are helping me in various aspects of my personal life, depression and grief syndrome, as well as many general Personal Issues, between the things they help me dealing with the most.

Through this post I’ll talk you through how through Buddhist practices, along with some mindfulness techniques which are part of it, I manage to cope with what I’m carrying and manage to survive another day to have the privilege of seeing the sun rising.

Let me Just tell you How, Through 4 Practices I’ve acquired, my Day Switches Quickly from Bad Day to “Meh” Day, and then finally to Good Day!

Being an aspirant to become a practitioner of a religion and a culture, that also englobes and includes a certain way of living ones’ life is not something easy todo when around 90% of the people that surround you don’t practice it or aren’t part of the customs and lifestyle you’d want to.

However, one of the things I’ve learned the most closely, which actually to this day I’m also kind of insecure of wether it’s a Buddha’s teaching not, is that through small pieces, steps, or, if you want to make it even smaller, breadcrumbs, is how we all start our best journeys and get deeper into what we want to do and eventually, once the breadcrumbs form a loaf of bread big enough, set ourselves to wandering off with the whole piece of bread with us to serve us as support in case we got hungry and need it during the road.

Basically that’s one of the most fundamental things I’ve learned (here I mean fundamental for others, since it certainly was not so for me at the beginning): how have Buddhist practices changed and affected for good the way I deal with some of the stuff I used to find the most difficult before.

You can navigate here through the Four Points I Will Mention:

• Paying Respects to my Homemade Latin-Flavored Buddhist Altar.
• Doing some Basic and Fulfilling Tantra as Simple Activities
• Ending of Part 1.

Coming up on my next post, for part 2:

• Expanding my Everyday Tantra Practice With a Yoga Session
• Dedicating an Hour (sometimes More, sometimes Less) to Meditation, Reflecting on Myself, or Devoting Myself Through Some Everyday Activities

Let’s move forward.

Paying Respects to my Homemade Latin-Flavored Buddhist Altar

This, although it may sound kind of complex or unattainable at the beginning, it’s actually the simplest and the most compelling for me; simplest in the sense that in only consists in the following:

• I Light up an incense or a pair of candlelights if I have some available (it also works with one candle)
• I dedicate some minutes of my thoughts to the well-being of my beloved ones and everyone else in their afterlives.

The first point of this activity, as the previously mentioned bullet states, consists in me lighting up an incense and also, if I have a pair at home, or even if I have only one, light a pair of candleS at my homemade altar.

Here is a photograph of the right side of my altar. As you can see, it’s ostentatious nor seems expensive at all. Since I’ve had difficult times money wise recently, all the depictions I own I made myself.

I would like to elaborate further in the How I Made My Altar Part, therefore I will leave any other detailed explanation about the process or the basis I took into making it for a more suitable and detailed Entry later in this blog.

Well, if you have yourself a home altar already, I’ve been told it’s okay (and some people have actually told me it’s the best) for you to just add Buddhist depictions of your worshipping, such as Buddha figures, iconography, or anything crafted that represents him, just making sure the depiction or form of iconography you choose always has a close spot to the center (or has most spots as in my case) so that it don’t seem less important than your other items on the altar.

It won’t cause you any hurt or bad fortune to put it somewhere else, though, but it is considered disrespectful for the Buddha for it to be positioned as less or below the other icons and deities you have put in your altar, since altars serve as a way to connect with those ones who are asleep in the afterlives (as well with those ones who are awoken during theirs), they should represent or pose a point of unique respect and dedication in the household.

Tip: I suggest you put the Altar in the same room you meditate indoors, since that way your worships and the spiritual energy from their realm will benefit your meditation (if done correctly, thoughtfully and in a honest way)

In my case, as mentioned in the photo captioned, since I haven’t had much money to buy something worth putting there besides candles and incenses, I’ve pasted all the drawings and crafts I’ve made by hand on my altar, which along them being iconography depictions of the Buddha, they also have imbued some of my essence imbued in them, invisible to the eye but present through the devotion I put into making them (the last one is the rosé one, I chose to called it “Serenidad”, which means serenity in Spanish).

I do this as soon as I get downstairs from my bedroom after waking up! I light up the incense, then dedicate some of my time to the people in the photos and the portrait, as well as to the Buddha and the “everything”.

For me it turns out to be extremely soothing and relaxing just before having all my responsibilities and chores thrown on my face! I hope you feel the same way!

Before I started up with Tantra, my body felt different, like stuck or frozen. It was hard for me to barely move and it was harder for me to not move at all. After Tantra practice and yoga, I haven’t felt this way.

Doing Some Simple and Fullfiling Tantra as Part of My Everyday Activities

The definition and meaning of the word Tantra is certainly something difficult for someone just initiating in Buddhism to understand (unless that someone has grown up in a context where those concepts are widely spread, which me, being surrounded by 90% of catholic people wasn’t naturally exposed to).

For me it was hard but, through reading and meditating I’ve come to understand Tantra, in simple terms, as the most intimate and deep connection one has with his or her own body, as well as any activity or activities that may develop said relationship and strengthen it further through practice and devotion.

So, after saying all this bunch of confusing and somewhat ambiguous stuff, how, you may think, can you practice something I can’t finish putting into words? Something that also is not yet comprehended by you?

As I mentioned before, doing Tantra (I actually am not sure if “doing” would be the correct word here, though) is, on larger scopes, the act of doing activities that strengthen the relationship one has with its body, making the body feel better with the mind the has, and giving the mind more access granted from the body.

Consider the definitions I’ve put above is just my own, personal, western-minded meaning and way of having learned it with my Mexican flavor! Don’t expect the fruits of an apple tree to taste like grapes !

The simple activities I was talking about, that I consistently do and help me to feel better and also count as easy-to-do-Tantra are:

• Taking a shower everyday (not a hot, relaxing bath, but a probably cold, shower bath).
• Taking care of my body and thus making it a better place for mind to be in.

I hope you didn’t expect the taking a shower part! Since I couldn’t Believe it neither the first time someone even suggested it! I mean, how could I feel better just by showering?

Well it turns out that, when showering, we are fully in contact with our limbs and extremities, and when we rub them with soap, we recognize and develop the knowledge our mind has with them, resulting in getting a bit deeper in knowing your body just by exposing it to water and to your hands rubbing with soap.

I’ve gotta admit though, having depression, it’s not easy to take a shower every day, as in, it’s not actually something a depressed mind like mine uses to have present or usually wants to do, since sometimes when my depression attacks I just want to lay down and sleep: well, breaking news! by following the “breadcrumbs” principle at the beginning of this article, by the time you ended up your shower (if you start it out as a breadcrumb), you’re going to have a full loaf in hand once you finish to push you and help you to get along and feel a bit more motivated in doing your everyday activities and to eventually reach anything you pursuit!

I’ve decided to let the post end here. Since the post was originally intended to both serve a form of personal worshipping and also to inform and expand Buddhist knowledge around me just so I can feel that I’ve come further in that I’m understanding it.

Therefore, I will continue on another post later during the day! Since it’s taken me 2 hours to do this by phone and right now it’s batteries need charging ! 😯

I really Hope this has helped someone or it eventually does 🙏🏻 , and if you need any help or guidance through anything feel free to comment and leave your answer ! ☺️

Wish you an amazing day.

— aléph L.

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