Spring 2010 Practice Period Photos

I decided to get this blog somewhat up-to-date by posting some pcitures from the most recently completed practice period led by Tenshin Reb Anderson. Hoshin Catherine Gammon was Shuso for the practice period. Catherine recently returned to the East Coast for a break and to visit here recently arrived grandchild. The practice period had 21 participants from several countries. This practice period Green Gulch experimented with adding an extra sesshin.

A 5 day sesshin was held at the beginning of March as well as the usual 7 day sesshin at the beginning of April to complete the practice period.

The March sesshin was followed by an ordination of five new Priests. It was quite an exciting and busy time for me as the new Ino. And now after only three months on the job I feel like a seasoned pro at preparing for priest ordinations, lay ordinations and okesa receiving ceremonies. During this practice period we also had an okesa receiving ceremony where Meiya, our sewing teacher presented Tenshin Reb Anderson with and okesa and rakusu sewn primarily by Steph Wenderski. The rakusu calligraphy was done by Reb's grandchildren.

The Shuso ceremony was exciting and the rehearsal brought forth alot of emotion as we prepared for the big event only an hour after completing the 7 day sesshin. This ceremony was followed by an almost extemporaneous raksusu receiving ceremony on the last day. Reb presented Catherine with a rakusu that the practice period sewed for her as Shuso.

These are some of the highlights of the practice period.