I'm soon going to creat a new "Monk posts" category to this blog. I need to leave the house in 30 min, so this will stay quite short, but I just need to say this.

Have I ever mentioned that young monks are a pleasure to look at? :)

I just came back from the Ôsejikie that was held today at Rinsenji. It's one of the important ceremonies of our temple with many people coming for it, so people from our zazenkai were asked to help if possible. So, I've been cleaning the graveyard, carrying boxes, packing bentô lunches etc etc for the whole morning. I had to leave a bit earlier because I still have iai practise in the evening, and I really really can't skip it in favor of the ceremony (although I'd want to - if the shinsa wouldn't be next week I would have skipped today's iai), and couldn't help with the cleaning up - not mention the PARTY aftertewards! The woe!

I'm still thinking about coming for the sanjikai (=3rd party) that will probably be going on at the temple by the time I'm free from my practise, at least if I'm at all alive and get back relatively early... :D Only I can't really drink since I have practise tomorrow morning, too, and on top of that have some interpretation to do afterwards. But still, I could go for a few beers to the temple. I'll let you know what happened - I might be too shy to go when I'm a bit unsure whether there even is anything. Then on the other hand, knowing our zazenkai people... ;)

It was also very interesting to see a buddhist service with several monks - usually we have only jûshoku and Manabe-san, but today I counted 14, of which 12 officiated in the service. And about half of them a pleasure to the eyes... *drool* Ok, I'll behave now, I promise. *g* Maybe that's why we are facing the wall when doing zazen, because if one would be meditating face to face with those guys, I know that at least MY zazen would stay very very shallow. :P

Now I need to start going to Yokohama, but you can be sure that I'll do it with a smile on my lips, thinking about ... *g* I think I just came up with the best stress reliever ever - it's second only to skydiving.