Due to circumstances I didn't expect (nothing dire, just logistics), I'm missing the weekend trip to the temple for samu day & sesshin. But as has been said before, "All you really need is a zafu and a wall."

Changing direction....

A discussion this week brought to mind the potential value of noting both bad moments/days on the path as well as better ones.

In that spirit, I thought I'd mention a few things I might not have otherwise blogged about my current efforts.

Just in the last several days I've gotten it in mind to start stretching toward sitting in the lotus position over the next several months. So far, about the best I can say is that I don't seem to have meaningfully injured myself in the effort yet.

I also set the bar a little higher by taking on oryoki. I ordered a prefabricated set from an online store (which arrived here dizzy fast... wow) and have googled up a bunch of information to set me on the course.

Among the most interesting finds so far is this video on youtube called "Oryoki: open and close".



I took the set out of the box today and pored over the "close" part mainly, and parroted as best I could, resulting in this first attempt:

From dharma

Even more useful in some ways are the following videos by Jundo of Treeleaf Zendo:

Make an oryoki set from household items

Simplified ceremonial oryoki

I don't want to promote the myth that oryoki is hard. I'll just say there's a lot of room for me to practice here.