Tuesday 15 April 2014

Yesterday we had our 1 day sesshin: zazen and kinhin from 4am - 3pm with breakfast and a short break halfway through. For many people it was their first experience of extended sitting. Afterwards I overheard many comments about back pain. I also had a lot of tension building up during the day. In the evening we had a hanami party to celebrate the arrival of cherry blossoms.


Kampai!



Up on the hillside we lit a bonfire. It caught very quickly. Then a wind blew up and the surrounding grass caught fire. And then it was the cherry blossoms!





And then the surrounding forest. It looked like the whole hillside would become an inferno! Half an hour sparring with flames using spades and wet blankets, and the fire was brought under control.





The younger children were oblivious to the drama. The boy on the left is the child of a visiting yoga teacher who gave a talk two nights ago. The boy on the right is Docho san's youngest child, Izumi.



Izumi and Anastasia who is from Moscow.



Takeo and Zheng Hong



Hikaru with his own (more manageable) campfire.

No comments:

Post a Comment