Jukai Sesshin

We just got done with our annual week-long Jukai sesshin, where we gave the precepts to 21 new lay buddhists. I was jisha (teacher's assistant), and my teacher Kyogen did sanzen (formal interview) during every block of meditation -- 4 times a day! Each time I had to set up a row of cushions for people to sit and wait, and then put it all back away when they were done. At the beginning of the week I was also doing a lot of instruction about how the process works and making sure that people got in okay, etc. It was tiring, but rewarding.

I got through it just fine, even the back, though I was lying down for 1-2 periods each day as well as during rest periods. The ceremony itself on Sunday was beautiful and went very well. We had one fellow who had to sit in a chair, couldn't kneel at the altar, so we (jikko and I) whisked a chair in there, moved the zabuton under the table, and kept handing wagessas and certificates and ketchimyakus to Kyogen. It was very smooth, no glitches this time (the last few ceremonies I've been participating in have had their share of glitches -- Monday night when we did the Kyojukaimon ceremony and I had to bow several times in front of Kyogen with the sambo, I managed to bonk him on the head with it at one point. Ah, well.).

We're having great weather, though today is partly cloudy -- it's supposed to warm up a bit the next few days. Quite lovely, with lots of flowers blooming.

During the week, I found myself enjoying the experience of sitting in that hall as the day unfolded. Here's a bit of a poem I wrote about it:

dark morning meditation
eyelids droop
pipes hiss and gurgle
crows call
construction rumbles and beeps
the world wakes
light grows
daily ordinary miracle

gold light through gold window
lights up gold carpet
rows of black zabutons
topped by people in black robes
sitting like mountains

a flotilla of black boats
on a golden sea