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Rice harvest and panel discussion, September 19th 2013

To make the best use of the nice weather we have these days, we got up and started with the harvest first thing this morning at 5am, before sun rise.. The plan is to finish the first field by tonight, allowing us to do a one day sesshin tomorrow. The other two fields still need time for the rice to ripen.

Ante from Australia is leaving Antaiji today. After dropping him off at Tottori station, I am checking in at the airport to go to Tokyo.

Quite a different atmosphere at Shinagawa:

A couple of minute of zazen in my hotel room:

The panel discussion took place from 6am to 8am. I will be uploaded on the channel https://www.youtube.com/user/BukkyoDendoKyokai during the next days.

Soji (wiping the floor), September 18th 2013

Cleaning is done every morning, right after breakfast:

Four of us went to help with the rice harvest at a different temple in Tottori prefecture today. Therefore, Antaiji’s harvest will have to wait for another day. Yesterday we harvested only about 20% of the southern rice field. The rest is planned foo tomorrow.

Shoko from Germany, who can be seen wiping the floor in the video above, has a Google+ account with many Antaiji pictures:

https://plus.google.com/u/2/116218708782376154359/posts

Also, a radio crew came today for an interview. It will be broadcast in the Kansai area on October 12th and 19th, 7am to 7:15 (558Khz). Some pictures might be uploaded shortly on the interviewers FB page:

https://www.facebook.com/TamaokaKaoru

Fine weather, lots of work, September 17th 2013

Another typhoon has passed, and we have good weather again.

The rice in the southern field has fallen over again, wo we decided to start harvesting today.

The soil in the field is still swampy, therefore we tie the rice on a plastic sheet outside the field. from there it will be transported to the haza construction to dry in the sun.

In the vegetable garden, the weather is just right to plow.

In another area, we are planting the Chinese cabbage for winter food.

And in the Zen garden, Shoko shows where a hole needs to be dug to plant lotus flowers next spring.

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.