The Ino's Work

There were a lot of different things happening last week, and I have been wondering how to group them in the blog. I usually need to be in a certain kind of headspace to be able to tease out ideas in a way that seems satisfying, and despite my best efforts during zazen, this has not always been easy this week. I just wrote out a couple of episodes where things did not quite go according to the plan I had had in my head, and then deleted them, as the details aren't really important; what was important was that I was able to put aside my expectations of how I was going to spend my time, and turn myself to do what was needed and not feel resentful about it.
I often need to remind myself that an important part of my work is just being present in the zendo, and the other afternoon we had a real occasion when being there wasn't just about sitting. It takes six people for afternoon zazen to function smoothly: the doshi, the jiko, the fukudo, the doan, the kokyo and the doorwatch (please check back to the glossary if you need these roles explained). I had already had phone messages from the doan who was not well and not going to be there, and from the kokyo who was going to be late for zazen, but there for service. When I got downstairs the doorwatch was there, but then I remembered that we had no-one assigned for fukudo for this one afternoon, which I should have remembered earlier. I was going to do the doan's job, but after lighting the candle, seeing no-one yet in the zendo who was a trained fukudo, I went out to start the han; luckily Charlie, our reliable afternoon head doan, beat me to that one. I thought we were all set until the jiko came in with no doshi - then I had to start planning...I ended up being doshi for service, and was ready to be kokyo only the regular one did make it in time, and then I had the jiko be the doan, and Charlie be the jiko as well as the fukudo. Thus did it all happen...