Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

My class starts tomorrow, and I have been reading commentaries, character-by-character translation studies, and other random things that have caught my attention. It has felt good to get stuck into this and let it seep in fully, even as I resumed the regular schedules.

On Monday I had four teaching sessions: my England-facing group at 11:00 (if you would like to join, you can see details on the Calendar page); heading to South San Francisco for my student’s company meditation at 3:00; the Dogen study group at 4:30; and my ongoing student group at 7:00 – we decided to switch the day and the time as more people could make it.

Sometimes I look at a day like that and think it is full, but as I move through it, I appreciate both that there are spaces between commitments, and that each activity is actually energising in the connections that happen. Even though – or perhaps because – the 11:00 group was small, the conversation was deep and lively, and in my student group, having wrapped up the year strongly a few weeks ago, we also kicked off the year with reflection and intentions from what we had learned.

Garret from Belfast has been in town as he prepared to go down to Tassajara for a month of the practice period; we had time for a social visit and a quick oryoki refresher. It is that time of immersion.

And a time of sun and rain: I postponed another roam, this time just twenty-four hours, as Saturday was miserably wet in the afternoon, and Sunday was clear, if a little chilly. More strands of rain have passed through during the week, which allowed me more time to stay in and study – I am glad that I have been able to pick up sustained reading again, after allowing it to fall away during the pandemic, which I think is a common experience.