Work on the stone wall and green house, April 8th 2014
Today, the Buddha’s birthday is celebrated. in Antaiji, it is samu as usual.
Snow during our April sesshin, April 5th 2014
Spring is approaching, the road is free again, and before sesshin we had the first new arrivals. We are eleven now (6 Japanese, 5 foreigners), and seven newcomers will arrive tomorrow.
In the warmer parts of Japan, like Tokyo or Osaka, the cherry blossoms have already fallen. Many Japanese celebrate this event with a pinic and lots of drinking. Here at Antaiji though, because of the colder climate, it will take another 10 days or so for the sakura to blossom.
Work has started again. There are still some amounts of snow sitting here and there, but most of it has melted by now. On the last day of the sesshin it snowed for one more last time (hopefully!), below you can see us during outside kinhin on the rainy fourth and the snowy fifth day:
Yudai’s new toy, March 27th 2014
Since yesterday, the road to Antaiji is open again. To new practioners arrived, on from Japan, another from Estonia.
There is still snow in the fields, but some tasks outside can be done already.
Yudai is building a new barn to store trees, and today he is training with the power shovel, pulling some logs out of the forest:
First work, March 19th 2014
This year’s samu started yesterday.
As the road is still covered with snow, and it is too early to plow the fields, we continued with changing the window screens.
Also, we now have a brand new wood stove in the kitchen.
But the chimney needed some cleaning.
Foot steps in the snow, March 15th 2014
Today: One-day-sesshin.
Tomorrow: Changing of the individual rooms.
Day after tomorrow: Deadline of the winter report.
After the 18th: Start of samu. As we still have snow, we will first remove the winter protections, make miso paste, change shoji paper, and chop wood.
Bottles
We treasure the narrow side as our inside
and fill it with sake, or soy sauce, or pills
living our compact lives the way humans do
But maybe these little creatures whom we call bottles
think of that wide open space
that we humans call the “outside”
as their inside?
Open minded as these creatures are
maybe they contain everything within their skin:
Us humans, and the earth, the galaxy,
and the whole universe
Even the smallest bottle
like those eye drops over there
might just as well contain all the other bottles
as it is contained inside them
Mado Michio