Ango 2011 - Day 16

• Morning Zazen (60m @ 06:30)
• Sat on G+ with Roky
• Zen Seeds Study
• Spent some time getting caught up on Zen Seeds for the Treeleaf Bookclub
• Really enjoying this book.  Aoyama has a Shunryu Suzuki type vibe to her writings.
• Shakuhachi Practice
• Spent some time on Choshi again and it's slowly getting better.
• Today I just focused on the middle of Choshi and trying to hit the notes.
• Tomorrow I plan on focusing on playing the entire piece through...regardless of quality.
• Sewing Practice
• Today I was able to finish up the rakusu for Jukai.
• No major problems at all.  Only complication was when I had sewn two of the sao backwards...so had to remove and switch. :)  This of course was right after watching the video where Taigu warns about this. 
• Very happy with the end result and even happier that I enjoyed the entire practice.
• I think after sewing a kesa the rakusu is like a breath of fresh air.
• Treeleaf Tea Party
• Joined the tea party again this week
• This time it was just Shohei, Fugen and Grace on the call.
• Felt like I talked too much but I blame Shohei as he kept asking me questions. 
• Was nice however to be able to ask about 25 questions about the rakusu, it's sewing, it's wearing and hear some great stories from Shohei on his trials and tribulations.
• Evening Zazen (30m @ 23:00)
• Sat solo sans G+ tonight.
• Mostly because I didn't finish the rakusu until later in the evening and I didn't feel like dragging my laptop over to the altar and getting it all setup.