When practicing being aware and developing a sense of continuous awareness, your temple becomes wherever you are in the moment. Right now my temple is my office at work. It's the end of the workday and I am about to meet up with my kids and their mom for supper before their Christmas concert as school. If I needed a temple to meditate or pray in to be mindful right now as I type then I would be in trouble. If a temple is required then there would be no way to feel the keyboard, to notice these thoughts that I type, or my breath as I sit here.
It's not that I have anything against temples. Sometimes our introduction to mindfulness is through so called "sacred environments" when we witness a monk lighting incense or a priest performing a ritual. We may have visited Thailand and seen meditators in a state of peace and acting with grace and mindfulness. These environments and experiences can be important inspiration and learning experiences for us. The problems arises when we feel that we are at a disadvantage because we are not in that environment now, or that it was such a long time ago since we had such a "special" place to pray or meditate in. Our experience of mindfulness could become a memory like "oh yeah, I did that in Thailand, I got that going on." when all that is really going on is an internal discouragement. If I ever find myself thinking that I am at a disadvantage for mindfulness practice because of my environment I try to remember that the temple for this practice is everywhere. It is wherever you are right now.
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