Shintoist Thanksgiving at Antaiji, October 17th 2013
Florian Wiltschko, an Austrian Shinto priest living in Shibuya, Tokyo, performs a thanksgiving ceremony in Antaiji’s main hall. After the ceremony, we ate the first new rice this year with ground yams. It was delicious!
GalleryPresenting two books by Uchiyama Roshi and Seigaku, October 16th 2013
Presenting two new Japanese books by Uchiyama Roshi and Seigaku. Segaku is a young Japanese monk who has a dojo in Berlin. Here is his Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/undoinberlin
And this is his “Unsui Cafe” in Japanese:
http://unsui.net/
Below are links to the respective books by Seigaku and Uchiyama on Japanese Amazon:
Yoshin’s dharma talk: Zazen is getting comfortable with the fence sticking up your bum, October 15th 2013
Today was another one day sesshin. Apart from the 5 day sesshin at the start of each month, we hold these “mini sesshins” four times a month, on the 10th, 15th, 20th and 25th. On these days we sit from 4am to 3pm, with breakfast at 9am and curry rice at 3:15pm. The evening is free.
Today’s sesshin was interrupted for one hour before noon, during which seven of us transported the rice from the bamboo construction into the barn, so that it will not be blown away by the typhoon that is scheduled to pass through tonight.
On the evening before these sesshin, the practioners take turn giving dharma talks on Shobogenzo Zuimonki. Yesterday was Yoshin’s turn. She spoke about chapters 3-10, 3-11 and 3-12.
The English text can be found online here:
http://global.sotozen-net.or.jp/common_html/zuimonki/03-10.html
http://global.sotozen-net.or.jp/common_html/zuimonki/03-11.html
http://global.sotozen-net.or.jp/common_html/zuimonki/03-12.html
Work on the stone wall, October 14th 2013
Already 5 years have passed since wet set the first stone for this wall. but if we can keep the present pace, we might be able to finish the work this autumn. Or maybe next year after all…
Sports fest in Kutoyama, October 13th 2013
Today was the sports fest in Kutoyama, which takes place once a year in autumn. All the villagers come together at the old school to compete in a variety of disciplines. The event starts with a warm up exercise:
Next, rolling a wheel with a stick. the start had to be delayed because of Izumi:
The veterans from the village were quite fast, but then came the monastics from Antaiji.
Steffi was good at the golf competition, she did not even need to take a second shot (but shot twice anyway).
Tsukan almost learned to fly during the tug of war with a team of elderly villagers.
Counting the number of balls in the “Tamaire” competiton. Again Antaiji lost.
A last try by the monastecis to impress at the “Kutoyama dance”:
Samu meeting, October 12th 2013
Takes place every morning at 7:30, before work starts:
Antaiji’s forest group goes to Hamasaka, October 11th 2013
Antaiji’s forest group, which consists of Eko, Gusho, Tsukan, Yudai and me, went to the townhall in Hamasaka today to discuss the three year project which is starting this month. On the way back Jisui and Hiromi, who went shopping on the free day, and the kids who came back from school, 10 people altogether, rode in Antaiji’s 660cc mini van, which is only designed for 4 people normally:
Cleaning the main hall, October 11th 2013
On free days, there is no zazen. Instead, we give the main hall a thorough cleaning. today it had been raining since the early morning hours, therfore we could not dry the cushions in the sun.
About the greatness of Japanese Buddhism, October 10th 2013
Today was another one day sesshin. The video of last month’s panel discussion on “The greatness of Japanese Buddhism” has been uploaded on Youtube: