Oasis
Today started overcast, but the sun soon came out. In the morning we went to Oasis and had a very nice service with our friends there. I try to give my Dharma talk partly in French so as to be understood by everybody. Sometimes I am struggling to find the words, but sometimes it works. It is a pleasure seeing Adam progressing with French and taking every opportunity that he can to try to chat with French people. Many people in his situation would be too shy.
Dogen
When we got back I did a bit more work on my Dogen book. i have noticed from reading the Eihei Koroku - Dogen’s Extensive Record - a point about his use of language that has some relevance to my translation of Genjo koan so I have been going back and revising some small details here and there and occasionally adding a paragraph here or deleting one there. It is coming on.
Work & Energy
Then I put on my working clothes and went out to continue work we are doing in the big barn where we have begun to lay an upstairs floor on one side. I started this project some months back but it got set aside as there is much other work to do here. Broadly one can categorise the work into that which maintains the status quo and that which effects longer term improvement. In the first category are such things as cutting grass, gardening, housework, cooking, shopping and so on, which are all good things, but which will need doing again after a short time. These tasks frequently take up the whole energy of the community. Consequently, the second category jobs which often involve building work of one sort or another only happen in fits and starts when we have the surplus energy to tackle them. However, when we do make some progress it is very satisfying. Jobs of this kind that are currently on the go are repointing and lime washing some of the external walls, laying paving in the back area, clearing out the big barn to make newly usable space, and laying flooring on the upper level. Since none of us are skilled in any of these jobs we are all learning a good deal as we go along by trial and error. Rome was not built in a day.
Replies