Architecture
While the exteriors of the centers often fit in with the areas they inhabit the interiors tend to have Asian influences. While not required, most Zen centers have a zendo or meditation hall. Zen centers may have residents, also known as monks (for males) and nuns (female), who may live in the center's residence area. Most have kitchens and communal areas.
Some centers do not have mirrors in the bathrooms. This is to assist the practitioner from focusing on unimportant parts of zen practice, such as facial appearance.
Read more about this topic: Zen Center
Famous quotes containing the word architecture:
“And when his hours are numbered, and the world
Is all his own, retiring, as he were not,
Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art
To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone,
Built in an age, the mad winds night-work,
The frolic architecture of the snow.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“Art is a jealous mistress, and if a man have a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture or philosophy, he makes a bad husband and an ill provider, and should be wise in season and not fetter himself with duties which will embitter his days and spoil him for his proper work.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“No architecture is so haughty as that which is simple.”
—John Ruskin (18191900)