Moving Right along...

Last night I Sewed finished sewing the last bits to complete the 7 strips (sets). After a couple of funny mishaps including sewing one line of stitches to the table cloth/ironing pad and having to pull a set completely apart because I mixed up to of the longer bits ... Measuring after each stitch is a really good move, wish I had of thought of that before! Anywho I ended my night by preparing, very carefully, the centre set, marking out the measurements, double checking, ironing and then rough stitching a flanking set.

I'm now seeing just how tough it can be sewing with varied material... though only 2 kinds in this kesa the coarseness of the blue fabric (coarse and fluffy??) makes it grab onto other fabric and makes it almost impossible to make small adjustments by slipping on set back or forth, up or down. Also this makes marking things tough as the brown is a tight weave and very easy to mark out measurements the but the blue moves with any amount of applied pressure ... tricky.
Much like sitting... lean towards a goal and you've change the way things happen heck even holding things in place changes the game (sewing and sitting).

Im making progress, Im making mistakes and Im learning. I'll stop rambling and show where the Kesa is at currently :) (YEAH Pictures!)


Picture Below: As you can see this project has moved to the floor due to size, I mean it makes the bus look like a toy :P Also in the upper left is a white shiny thing that is the sum of the instructions i gleened from Rev. Taigu's blog on sewing the Nyoho-e Kesa (with manny thanks and again with deepest gratitude!!!).

click pic for a full view

On that bit of paper I have written out and broken down the measurements for each bit and drawn out by hand with lables for everything. I really recommend doing this as its nice to have more than just your numbers written out. The diagram shows me how those numbers fit in and how it all works out. This may seem sort of obvious or simple but if your like me... You leave something for a week then come back to it... I rarely remember why I left and extra 4 cm here and not there. :D

New year, old pace

My wife is now off work for our soon to be arriving new bouncing baby boy in March and so this has freed up a couple of extra hours an evening (LOL in theory).

So I hoped to move a bit faster than what I have been with sewing on the Kesa but such is life!
I'm working away on my sixth set out of 7 and I expect to have that 7th done by Mid week. Aiming to have some sets stitched to each other by next week. Then the scary bits (en and smaller bits :S).

Tada?

The ceremony is over, rakusu is complete and I have received the Precepts - and the Dharma name Shohei. Cool.

The ceremony its self was wonderful! Separated in to a couple or 3 groups (done to accommodate the video conference sites limitations), there were 2 designated speakers for each group, just to prevent 34+ people speaking at once and feeding back in to the speakers. All went quite well (as you can watch for your self on the Treeleaf video blog- Deepest gratitude to Jundo, Mina, Taigu and Everyone, who made this possible for this backwoodser)

As mentioned by others, the need for mics and speakers meant a lot of reverb when the designated speakers for groups spoke and the "Yes I Will"s echoed on beautifully.

And now back to work, parenting and the other daily tasks that are Zazen that takes place with little ceremony, but its definately some of the most important goings on!

Rakusu - A sort of mini-kesa?

I have read that often, but it needs to be said that for me its been one large undertaking. Sewing at first seemed tough but actually vowing to keep the precepts has me looking back at the cake walk of sewing and being rather introspective, im not going to get all that deep here but suffice it to say im not approching this lightly.

Tomorrow is our Jukai (receiving the precepts) ceremony at Treeleaf (first ever jukai ceremony done entirely online?) and after a few months of preparation, studying and discussing the precepts and what they mean, mean to each person and so on, its really sinking in tonight.

Quite greatfully(and selfishly- as I have simply been lurking in the shadows with out so much as a 'Thank you I have been reading up on Mike Cross' blog his wonderful translations of the precetps from Saundrananda as written by Ashvaghosha (the preceding information I must admit I hadn't heard of before I began following Mikes blog - and i may have that info all assed up:)) and im extremely greatful to Mike and those who share via the comments on there! Many thanks are owed.

Well on the sewing front, I finished the Rakusu with the back panel (with bit with Jundo's brush work), and stitched on the 4 joro (little squares that aid in holding the back layers to the rakusu). I will continue sewing on the Kesa this weekend and hopefully will be able to start joing the sets together.

ah ah ah Panel Five!

Well its been way too long with out an update. Lots of everything but sewing going on sincemy last post but as you may have guessed by the title of this post I just finished the 5th panel. Soon the really tricky bits like joining the sets and the frame (eek!) but all in due time.

I had been sick all last week with the flu and after basically laying down for 5 days straight, I was really motivated to do Anything but sit around watching TV or the like. Still I decided to put a bit more time into this project over the holidays since I'm free from work until the the new year.

Well here is what I have done so far (note:also pictured is Sir Wobblington (upper right) guarding the castle and keeping an eye on the Field of Happiness ;) )

click me for a full view

JUKAI & ROHATSU 2 day retreat

Well not much to tell on the sewing front this week. I still have to finish up a line of stitches on the fourth set and will perhaps after this weekends mini-sesshin... which to me will be the longest yet.

On that subject I am rather excited to be able to participate live. So in anticipating a longer sitting I had been getting all the reading in I could (at the expense of my sewing endeavor) and had run across this wonderful gem on Mr. Crosses blog "Treasury of the Eye of True Sitting" (along with many other excellent translations and such) That I thought was a particularly fitting bit to read with this retreat forth-coming and it really resonated with me.
(permission was granted to post this- with many thanks!)

58. Rules of Sitting-Zen

Zen practice is sitting-zen. For sitting-zen a quiet place is good. Lay out a thick sitting mat. Do not let wind and smoke get in, and do not let rain or dew seep through. Preserve an area big enough to contain the body. There are traces of ancients sitting on a diamond seat or sitting on a bed of rock, but they all spread out a thick carpet of grass and sat on that. The sitting place should be bright; it should not be dark, day or night. To be warm in winter and cool in summer is the way. Cast aside all involvements and cease the ten thousand things. Good is not considered. Bad is not considered. Mind, intention, consciousness, is not it. Awareness, thought, reflection, is not it. Do not have designs on becoming buddha. Drop off sitting down and lying down. Eat and drink sparingly, and guard time closely. Enjoy sitting-zen unreservedly -- as if putting a fire out, on your head. The fifth ancestor on Obai-zan mountain had no other occupation: he practised nothing but sitting-zen.

For sitting-zen wear a kasaya and use a round cushion. The cushion does not go under the whole of the crossed legs; it goes under the backside. So the underside of the folded legs is on the sitting mat, and the sitting bones are on the cushion. This, in the time of the sitting-zen of the buddhas and the ancestors, is THE Method of Sitting -- whether it is full lotus sitting or whether it is half lotus sitting. In full lotus sitting the right foot goes on the left thigh and the left foot goes on the right thigh, with the toes placed symmetrically on each thigh, not out of proportion. In half lotus sitting the left foot just goes on the right thigh. Let robe and gown hang loosely and keep them neat. The right hand goes over the left foot and the left hand goes over the right hand. The thumbs at their tips connect into each other. The hands, like this, are drawn in towards the body, and placed so that the tips of the thumbs meet opposite the navel. Letting the body right itself, practise upright sitting -- neither leaning left nor leaning right, neither slumping forward nor arching backward. Allow without fail the ears and the shoulders to be opposed and the nose and the navel to be opposed. Let the tongue rest against the roof of the mouth. Let the breath pass through the nose. Let the lips and teeth come together. Let the eyes be open -- not wide open and not half-closed. Having readied the body-mind like this, let there be one full out-breath. Sit totally still, thinking into that zone which is the negation of thinking. How is it possible to think into the zone that negates thinking? It is by non-thinking, which is the key to Sitting in sitting-zen. Sitting-zen is not the zen that is learned. It is the gate to the great and effortless ease of Sitting. It is untainted practice-and-experience.

Treasury of the Eye of True Sitting;
Rules of Sitting-Zen

Delivered to the assembly at Kippo temple in the Yoshida district of Esshu [Fukui prefecture], in the 11th lunar month, in the winter of the first year of Kangen [1243].

4 of 7

Not much to update about really. I am still working albeit very slowly on the 4th panel out of 7. Been very busy around the house with projects for winter etc. Installing a dishwasher where there was none before turned out okay my 3rd attempt at plumbing that finally went right.
Gassho Dirk