Working
Yesterday we collected Jan from the train so there are noe four of us here and already it feels like a well integrated community as though she had been here for months. We have all been out working today, weeding the strawberry patch, shreddi
Read more…Having had an interval from it I went back to editing the draft book manuscript about Dogen's text Genjo Koan. Satya has kindly done some copy editing and it is good to gradually work through her very useful comments. We also spent some time comparin
Read more…This morning we had a service. For the past two weeks I have been bellmaster. Adam explained it all to me. I have quite a few texts to learn by heart. I am enjoying it very much. It gives me a much stronger sense of involvement in the rituals. The be
Indoors
I always like it when I come across and interesting new word. I was reading about Aristotle and the author used this word ‘zetetic’. I mentioned it to Elja and she looked it up in her on-line dictionary and got a message to the effect of ‘you
Read more…This morning, as often on Fridays, we visited Oasis and gave a morning service there. I gave a Dharma talk based on the work of the great Japanese poet Saigyo. The name saigyo means "westward journey" and refers to the journey to the Pure Land, and,
Read more…It is a considerable satisfaction to see progress in our projects here. The fact that we now have more space and flexibility in the use of the buildings affords a considerable improvement. I find myself continuing to marvel at what has already been a
Read more…West Europe is in the grip of a heat wave and here in central France it has been 40 degrees and even at 8pm it is still pretty hot. Really too hot to work. This morning after service and breakfast we did another class on Summary of Faith and Practice
Read more…This morning Tara slept a bit longer then usual. She woke us up at six in the morning. She wakes us up by nuzzling at our fingers or ears and purring very loudly. This morning David decided to get up at six too, in order to have the advantage of a fr
Read more…At the moment we are having glorious weather. At the height of the day it is very hot and nice to sit under the walnut trees or in the cool of the refectory.
Adam and I have been building a metal storage cabin and in the hottest part of the day we ha
Read more…Recently, I have been having troubles with my laptop. Almost no internet at all for a couple of weeks, but now I am back. After the retreat with the Amida Sangha and after the deparuret of Jnanamati and his two Dutch friends I had to adapt a bit and
Read more…Two young hedgehogs came to see us today
and had a feed
and a stroll
and met Tara
Phase One...
Phase Two...
Phase Three...
Phase four...
Phase five...
Still needs a ceiling, but we are getting there.
Today has been a bit cooler, though we had some hot sunshine in the afternoon. We have all been working hard. Elja is in a cleaning mood and has been blitzing the kitchen and also washing sheets and duvet covers. Adam has been laying more concrete sl
Read more…I'm busy preparing for my bike ride to Santiago de Compestela.
All kind of things, from gear to route booklets.
I decided to start with the St. Jacobs Route from Netherlands to Orléans, then go to the Euro Velo 6 (along the Loire) to La Ville au Roi
In the meditation hall...
Outside the meditation hall...
Weather
'Orage' is the French word for a storm, especially the kind of rather dramatic, short, thunder and lightning storms that occur during high pressure periods in summer, punctuating the build up of' la grand challeur' (the big heat) that goes on
Silver sunlight at dawn filtering through the walnut tree makes the washing line into a stream of colourful flags. The settee in the garden is so French. The little cat is already twice the size of when she arrived and her then blue eyes are now near
Read more…While doing quite a lot of physical work in the course of the day, my mind has been much occupied with the political developments. This is both intellectual and emotional. Like many others I feel a profound sadness at the Brexit vote and each day we
Read more…On Wednesday we often go to market in Sancoins, the nearest market town. This week I stayed home for the morning and most of the group went to town. While there they picked up things for a picnic and in the afternoon we all went to St Bonnet, a pictu
Read more…