Monday, February 13, 2012

The Weekend Starts Here

It has been showery and blustery all morning - not great weather for a long-awaited bike ride, but good weather for drinking coffee and going through the hundreds of photos I took during the past week, which I had only been able to skim through until today. Here are a few less formal shots.

An inkin lesson with Hoitsu and Hakujin - Greg looks on

Christina's and Hoitsu's shoes outside the kaisando during rehearsals

Name card

Speeches after the Stepping down

Anna, Jana and Jeremy after the Stepping Down

Laura and Diane of the Livestream crew

Orchids punctuated the building

The back room at the Angesho tea

Marsha and Christina before the Mountain Seat

Making sure the seating arrangements are right

Temple documents and seal

Taiyo arrives

Myoki took care of the planning for this event

Cynthia and Lisa off for tea

Siobhan and Gyokuden

Jinen and Yuji - the guys from the Sotoshu

Hoitsu 

Christina and Reb at the Angesho tea

Flower girls waiting for the grown-ups to be ready

The procession waits during the Jiden portion of the Mountain Seat

Fu and Anna, two of the jishas, check the script before part two

The monk is left holding the baby - Norman with Rio



6 comments:

Michael said...

Thank you for posting these intimate shots, Shundo! Having joined in for Hoitsu's talk and ceremonies via livestream now it feels like I was truly there. Have a good rest.

Shonen said...

Great photos as always Shundo - hard to pick a favorite. However the contrasting sandals outside the kaisando might be the one for me. You've captured the grandness and also the intimacy of the occasion.

The only Mountain Seat ceremony I attended was Reb's at City Center and it was nothing like this! Residents and non resident sangha were all fairly easily accommodated in the Buddha Hall and there was no special dinner afterwards (although I'm sure something more private was arranged for the senior staff).

Hope you have a light load this week and get to catch up on sleep.

Ruth said...

Lovely photos and it was so great to watch most of the ceremony on the live stream.

Shundo said...

Thank you all - Shonen you are showing your age. I wonder if the old ones were more formal even if they were smaller.

Shonen said...

thanks Shundo - rub it in why don't you!!

Reb's Mountain Seat ceremony was surprisingly understated. There was a big carved wooden chair off to the side of the altar - it was more like a glorified Shuso ceremony only without the questions being asked. I was heavily involved with the doanryo at the time and didn't even have to ring a bell so for me to get the day off should give you an indication of how little pomp and ceremony went on.

Shundo said...

Of course it wouldn't have gone out live on the internet either....