Ready as I'm gonna get

I'm preparing for my first online-based Rohatsu. This one is two days of zazen, kinhin, samu, and oryoki with twenty-two sits. I don't know if I can do that many sits, but it has been mentioned that we can get up and do kinhin, or lie down if necessary, as needed.

I've repaired Gogo-an's Mountain Gate. It's ... more like an idea than a gate, but that's the idea. The "benevolent kings" on either side of the gate are a couple of stones, for example.

I've given most of the vegetables in the two beds to the chickens, as the bugs never went to sleep this fall, laid eggs everywhere and made lace of all the kale leaves. For samu, at least one of the times, I plan to cover the beds with leaves and grass clippings (yes, fresh grass clippings in December).

Jizo is in constant shade this time of year and bits of him are flaking off when there is frost. He doesn't seem to mind, which may be a lesson for me. I'll offer him some leaves during Rohatsu -- no flowers available around here just now. His cloak could use renewing -- if I find something appropriate, I could stitch it up for additional samu.

I've got some other stitching lined up -- but not on the kesa. It's all done as of a few days ago, and I'm waiting for my next assignment -- perhaps the zagu.

Inside, I've added a small table -- it's a bench from our picnic table, actually -- to put in front of the computer for oryoki, the ritual meal. It's parked in front of the altar here to keep it out of the way until needed. The altar looks a bit dowdy right now, but I'll leave it like that until a samu session, and clean it up during that time.

Because of my execrable hearing, I've brought an alarm clock out of storage and plugged it in. I cannot always hear the bells and clappers that announce the next activity, and get left behind, so this is insurance, so to speak.

I'm testing the ten year old laptop for the Zoom connection -- seems pretty stable.

When I'm sitting alone with Zoom I sometimes stare right into the camera. This is called Mirror Zen and was practiced by nuns in Kamakura back in the day. They would meditate in front of the mirror and then write poems. It can be a little unnerving.

There's a lot of sun today. During the Rohatsu it's supposed to rain. I brought in some heavy curtains, though, to help regulate the light during sits and keep out some of the cold at night.

Yes, I use an office chair for sits. I have a blown back and blown knee, both of which are legacies from tree planting days. So it goes.

I've brought in flip phone, food, tea bags, change of clothes, toothbrush and sleeping bag, and turned on the water hose. Ready as I'm gonna get.

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The mirror poem of abbess Shido:

If the mind does not rest on anything, there is no clouding,
And talk of polishing is but a fancy.