antaiji

Seikan was the first monk ordain after I became the abbot 12 years ago. It was his first visit in four years, and he could stay for only one night. Let him talk for himself: After returning to Australia nine years ago, he started a Zen group and is also running a “Zen Hospice” in … Read more

Breakfast is called “shukuza” in Japanese Zen monastery, which can loosely be translated as the “gruel session”. In Antaiji though, we have brown rice, miso soup and two side dishes for breakfast, to give us the strength necessary for samu. Here you can see us recite part of the morning chant: Hitotsu ni wa ko … Read more

Back in Antaiji, the first rice field has been harvested. The sounds that you can hear at the beginning of the video are the voices of dear that can be heared a lot in autumn, especially in the morning hours. They are in heat during this time of the year.

9:30 am in Shinagawa. I avoided the rush hour. Even funnier than watching the monkeys at the zoo is observing these humans on the loose (Kodo Sawaki) Today I visited an Austrian Shinto priest in Shibuya, Florian Wiltschko: They finished harvesting rice in Shibuya as well. Could make out Antaiji from the plane on the … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

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.

The view: The weather: