Brief Notes

Someone reminded us at work meeting the other day that, although there is an enormous amount of work to do for the Mountain Seat, we should not forget to regard it as an amazing occasion where we all got to pull together to make it happen. Right now I am trying to hold both sides...
It feels like this week mostly involves meetings and rehearsals. On Monday, having failed to get to it last week, I sequestered myself in my room and reviewed all the 2007 footage again, rewriting parts of the script as I did so; having done so I felt much more on top of things. We had another huge Young Urban Zen meeting in the evening, where we introduced a passage from Dogen's Tenzokyokun, which seemed to go down pretty well, and I came away feeling enlivened as so often happens.
Tuesday started with Bodhidharma's birthday ceremony, then I worked on the myriad other things in the morning; after lunch was two hours of Practice Committee, straight into an hour and three quarters of script review with Abbot Steve, from which it was straight to the zendo, and then after dinner I made adjustments to the script, then it was pretty much bath and bed.
Yesterday, two hours of staff meeting, then two hours of rehearsal with the jishas after lunch. I made a sortie to Rainbow so that I don't run out of toothpaste or chocolate before Monday, onto zazen, where my head was full of details, then the Full Moon Ceremony after dinner. I had missed the rehearsal for this, but trusted Konin and Djinn to know what they were doing. I confess that I tuned out in parts of the ceremony and was going over things I needed to remember for the next few days...
Today, after the Young Urban Zen study group, which has been an uplifting addition to my calendar these last few weeks, there is a rehearsal in the morning for Paul's Stepping Down Ceremony, which I have been rather neglecting so far, and for the Ryoban in the afternoon. Tomorrow afternoon will be a full-on dress rehearsal, or flow rehearsal as we call it, as it is about getting the movements in your body. Then the usual Saturday morning program, an afternoon of setting up, the Stepping Down, dinner, and then Sunday will be more setting up and then Stepping Up.
It might sound like a lot, but I am grateful to know how many details other people are taking care of as well - things occur to me and someone else has already done it, or not forgotten that they are going to do it. We are all pulling together to make it happen.

I was glad to come upstairs after dinner in time to catch this