interesting observation, the shrine room and the pretty outdoors.....
There is a local Zen group that meets in a palacial house, it is owned by a wealthy woman who lives next door in an even grander estate, I am not completely comfortable there.
Last Sunday I went to my local Quaker meeting, a plain rectangular large room with semi- formed curves of chair rows,
not formal except for the silence and the form of the unprogrammed meeting.
I got a glorious hug from this whisper of a gracious lady, with her speckled purple cane. My jazz photographer friend Herb Snitzer was there as well.
I like some formality to the Zen meditation scene, but also a heaping bit of informality as well.
Like the contrast you mentioned Amok one, still with residual absinthe high, eh? Can you see the green fairy down by the pond?
All in all tho, when I peruse the shrine room, the red actually becomes deeper, more soothing, sort of soothing and energizing at the same time, The gold I would change into perhaps fiber weavings, tapestries of hues that appeal to one's inner sanctum and the group transpersonal meditative experience.
I am very color sensitive, and can see how one could find the gold to be distrracting. Personally I'd prefer something like turquoise and silver. However, when one submerges into the shrine room scene, the essential forms and colors both stimulate and soothe, it takes a while to settle in. Oh those cushions look comfy!
click the "om" to hear the chanting then click the shrine room picture for an immersion experience, the shhrine room with Tibetan monks chanting.!!! How's that for going amuk?
