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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 … Read more
Emptying 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” … Read more
Sesshin on a rainy day, October 25th 2013
Because of another approaching typhoon, it has been raining a lot the last couple of days. Fortunately, most of the rain this year fell on sesshin or free days. In the past, we had years when the sun shone in the blue sky during sesshin, and when we went to work in the fields it … Read more