Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

On the cusp of a (hopefully) restful end of year, I had a very busy week: on Monday, after my morning Suzuki Roshi class – which is better attended than ever, which has added some extra angles on the conversations – Zachary and I drove off to Green Gulch for the second shuso ceremony of the season. 

We are early, so I had time to wander in the garden and catch a little sun on the leaves (there are more pictures on my Patreon today) before getting dressed and going to the zendo. Kika held her own on the seat, with her usual wry style, also showing much warmth and care for the residents who asked questions. As is often the case, I didn’t get to stay for dinner, but it was also nice to get home and have a little down time before the very early start on Tuesday.

I had slept lightly, and was awake before my alarm, which allowed me to feel unhurried. I left the house at six, and did not get back until nine at night. We picked up Kim and Lucy on the way out of the city, and encountered a drama on the Carmel Valley Road, following a driver weaving erratically across the road for a couple of miles before running his car off onto the dirt. It turned out he had his five-year old son in the back; the dad – most likely on meth – was suddenly distraught, though his driving could have killed them both and possibly someone coming the other way, and the son was understandably shaken. We drove them back to their family compound in Cachagua before resuming our journey. I was asked to drive the town trip truck in over the road, which is always an experience.

As always, a chance to catch up and say hello with a number of familiar faces, and check in with those who had sat the practice period. For the ceremony, Dojin Brent was fully himself, and it was clear that he had been very popular with the students. It was a little uncomfortable for me on two mundane levels: it was a remarkably mild day, and the heating seemed to be fully on in the zendo, so I think everyone was sweltering; also, having sat on a cushion that was too high at Green Gulch, I had one that was too low, and had to endure painful knees.

There was a great lunch, which we had to hurry through before getting back in the car – this time squeezing Paul in as well, so it was less comfortable on the way back.

The next day, having slept a little better, I had little to do except flesh out the talk I had to give at City Center. I was fairly tired all day; the month of chilly weather had changed into a drizzly morning, the prelude to the wet week we have in store for us over Christmas. Thankfully I had clear skies when I did have to ride over. 

I knew that many people were off at a big meeting, but there was still a decent crowd in the Buddha Hall. As has been the case recently, I was not at all nervous, since I was confident I had all the ideas that had been floating around over the last few weeks noted down. As usual, it was a short talk, even with some long pauses. Since I was talking about death, I felt it might have been a little sombre overall, and I thought I could have leaned a little heavier on the part about cherishing life. 

Thursday was a day of work; I have one more on Tuesday, plus the Monday group again, and the Tuesday morning meditations, but that’s about it until the New Year. I had to cancel both roams this weekend as the weather was set to wet. I managed to get up San Bruno Mountain despite a couple of flats on Friday morning, and hope to squeeze in a few more rides between storms, but otherwise I will be relaxing and also catching up with some projects that I haven’t had a chance to tackle for a while.