Dear Zen friend
                                         

1)  May sesshin   from 05/12 to 05/16

2)  This year almost all firewood for next winter have been obtained in April. This is the fastest job I have ever done. I had two big trees, which were cut at noon and can be burned in the evening. Dogen Zenji talked about it. 

I do not like engines nor sound of engines. I was grown up in a village where there were no car, no telephone, no engines. A bus ran on highway which was far away from the house.

Sometimes family needed a machine for harvesting rice or pumping water. Those machines were rented with caring people. A machine often stalled. People gathered around the engine and tried to solve a problem with oily hands. The picture did not look pretty. Engine and agony were closely associated in my memory.   

For making firewood one has to use chainsaw. This was the only reason I touched a chainsaw. A saw needs frequent sharpening. I did not know how and where to sharpen. It was too complicated to learn. I asked a professional to take care of the saw.

Last year the professional sharpener died. He was a nice person, but old and frail. I was the last person to ask the sharpening. I was dependent on him for almost ten years. Abruptly I was pushed to a situation in which I had to take care of my chainsaw by myself. I finally began learning sharpening.

Sharpening is subtle and difficult. Success is not in sight. At least, though, I have become familiar with the engine and the mechanism of chainsaw. I’ve become less panicked. Sometimes a condition of the engine is felt through the saw.

I met another professional sharpener the other day. He sharpens 30 saws a week. That is why he became a professional. I sharpen a saw two times a week. I cannot catch up to his skill. But I have to keep practicing Zen and the art of chainsaw maintenance.

In India there are three great gods. They are Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. Vishnu is the god of maintenance and most popular. Brahma is god of creation, Siva is of destruction. 

Our daily life requires constant maintenance. A knife should be sharpened, floor should be swept, rents in clothes should be mended. Enough firewood must be stacked every year. Little wonder Vishnu is most popular among the Three.

Regards.
Eishin Ikeda
Valley Zendo