Monthly Archives: September 2013

From today, Tsukan will be tenzo for the next five days, September 16th 2013

The tenzo (cook) changes every five days, after each sesshin. Tsukan from Oregon will be tenzo for the next five days, and today he is preparing an Italian style lunch. Steffi from Germany helps cutting bell peppers.

One day sesshin, September 15th 2013

The view:

The weather:

Yudai’s dharma talk, September 14th 2013

On the days before one day sesshins (the 9th, 14th, 19th and 24th, starting at 6pm), the practioners take terms lecturing on “Shobogenzo Zuimonki“. Today, Yudai is lecturing on chapter 3-3. Usually, a dharma talks takes about 90 to 120 minutes maximum, but tonight a lot of the foreign practioners took place in the discussion, which ended only after 9pm.
Here is the first part of Yudai’s talk which concentrated on tenzo work and the vegetables in the garden.

English text:
http://global.sotozen-net.or.jp/common_html/zuimonki/03-03.html

Yudai reads Kaikyoge, followed by text in original Japanese, English translation and first minutes of his Japanese talk:

First minutes of English talk:

Haza, September 14th 2013

It is not yet decided when we will start to harvest the rice, one of the main jobs this autumn. Today we started to cut bamboo to build the “haza”,a construction on which the cut rice will be dried before threshing.

Altogether we have about 4 acres of ricefields, which will be harvested and threshed in 3 stages. As the autumn is also the taiphoon season in Japan, the excact timing of the harvest is determined by the weather conditions. The branches of the bamboo will be burnded in a big campfire which we usually have once a month after sesshin (also depending on the weather of course).

Antaiji on a sunny day, September 13th 2013

With 15 residents, it is possible to do many different jobs at the same time. Today’s samu was divided into 6 groups: Yudai’s hatake (vegetable field), Eko’s tanbo (rice field), Steffi’s herb garden, Jisui’s Zen garden, Tsukan who did shissui (carpenter) work, and a group that builds a new stone wall for a new rice field.

Picking Megumi and Hikaru up at the Ike-ga-naru bus stop, September 12th 2013

Bringing the kids to the school in the morning and picking them up again in the afternoon is also part of my job.

Work in the Zen garden and in the vegetable garden behind the main hall, September 12th 2013

Today is a regular (nyojo) day. Shoko from Germany, who designed the garden behind the mainhall, and Jisui from Singapore plant new stuff, while harvesting is done in the vegetable field close by. The net that covers the vegetable field was donated by fishers in Hmasaka and serves to protect the summer vegetables from crows.

Snake eating a lizard at Antaiji、September 11th 2013

Filmed by Ellie from Australia. This is the mating season of snakes, they can be seen everywhere:

Tenzo makes breakfast on a free day, September 11th 2013

The schedule at Antaiji does not depend on the week day, but rather the day of the month. From the 1st to 5th each month was sesshin, when we sat all day long. On the 6th was a free day. After that, the schedule changes depending on a five day cycle: The first three days, 7th to 9th, are regular “nyojo” days where we sat zazen in the mornign and evening for two hours each, and do agicultural work during the day time. the fourtth day in the cycle (10th) was a obe day sesshin, and after that, there is a free day again. That means that we have free days on the 6th, 11th, 16th, 21st, 26th and last day of each month. there are sesshins from the 1st to 5th, and then again on the 10th, 15th, 20th and 25th. The other days are the days where we do samu during the day.
Normally, breakfast would be at 6am, but today, as it is a free day, the camera observes the cooks during meal preparation at uarter past 6.

Werner Penzel and Ayako Mogi from Nomadomura visit Antaiji, September 10th 2013

Today was a one-day sesshin. After the tea meeting at the end of the sesshin, Werner and Ayako arrived from Awajishima, an island in the south of Hyogo prefecture. Werner explains about their film project that will start in November.
http://www.nomadomura.net/nomadomura/index.html