One day sesshin, November 10th 2013
Today is Jisui’s 26th birthday. She is the one who cares for our garden.
Antaiji forest project and problems with the caterpillar, November 7th 2013
Cutting the first of the dead pine trees in the west of the main hall
And now the second one:
During the work, the caterpillar of the power shovel came off:
Good job!
First cut with the new chainsaw, November 6th 2013
Blue sky, colouring mountains
Finally the engine is moving!
A happy Tsukan in his element
5-day Sesshin, November 1st – 5th 2013
Shinrei (wake-up bell)
Zazen
Kinhin
Sowing wheat, cutting trees and a trip to the hot springs in Yumura, October 29th 2013
The day started with sowing wheat. I got the seeds from a friend in Austria, the sort is called “Amadeus”. Hopefully it will survive the heavy snow during the Antaiji winter.
At ten o’ clock, three people working in the forest business came to teach us about using chain saws safely. They began with theoretical lessons.
As wood cutting is not about theory, we sonn moved to the forest. One of the guys showed us how to cut the big sugi trees.
Next, it was Tsukans turn. Being from Oregon, he had no difficulties with using the saw.
After that came Eko, the leader of the “Antaiji forest group”.
When Gusho tried to cut his tree, difficulties arose:
The three professionals had to use their manpower to fell the tree.
After that Takeo, our fresh man, showed his seniors how to cut properly. “Not too bad”, Gusho said.
Jinen is one of those meditative types. As could be expected, the tree would stand firm.
Last came Yudai. Being the youngest in our group, we thought he would fell his tree with one cut, but…
After the training course had ended, all of us went to the hot springs in Yumura to relax.
GalleryEmptying the tosu, October 27th 2013
One of the many technical terms in a Zen monastery that even present day Japanese hardly understand is “tosu”.
The oldest and biggest tosu in Japan can be found in Tofukuji in Kyoto. Today it is used as a zazen hall, but originally it used to be a huge toilet. The literal meaning of “tosu” is being in charge of the East, but most tosu buildings seem to be located on the Western side of the monastery compounds.
Today, in Tofukuji as well as Eiheiji and most other Zen monasteries, the monks flush their toilets. Some even have washlets. You will have to search for places like Antaiji where the manure from the toilets is still collected in tanks and used to fertilize the fields.
Here Jinen empties the tank to transport manure to the carrots, so they can grow until the winter.
Other work today includes spreading straw and rice powder in the harvested rice fields, collecting persimmons, and tending to the gardens.
And our genius mechanic Tobi gives his loves to the machines, as always. seen here with Adrian repairing the brakes and cleaning the caterpillar with his new “water pistol”: