Gassho,

Well, it is quarter after three and I have just bowed out of the retreat. I would like to begin by congratulating Jundo for the success of the retreat thus far, and thanking him for all the preparation that went into making it possible. It was quite a positive experience. I experience some technical difficulties at fist this morning that had me a bit concerned, but they cleared up just before the retreat began, and were fine from there on (all were probably due to the old age of my laptop and not the server or host).

At your end Jundo, the audio and visual were good throughout, though twitchy from time to time (again, probably due to my old laptop). The sound was not lost during the Oryoki chants; it was only just a bit lower than usual (I just had to turn up the volume a bit).

At my end, things also went well, though this would be a very long post if I listed all the errors (AKA non-errors?) I made throughout! Haha ops: . I am rather pleased I was alone as I’m sure I would have thrown everyone else out of sequence!

The greatest challenge for me, being my first time attempting anything like this, was keeping up; turning the pages of my chant book without missing a beat, finding the appropriate chant quick enough, and taking all the proper steps during the Oryoki meal while attempting not to spill anything, feed myself, and watch to see what stage everyone else was at. At a few points I simply found myself laughing as I broke perhaps every Oryoki rule trying to play catch-up… I think I could have used more time there, but that is probably more an expression of how green I am to the ritual!

Anyways, I thank you again Jundo, and all those who I was sitting with. Enjoy the Samu and the rest of the retreat.

Gassho,
KElly

PS- I think my cat also enjoyed the retreat as she curiously spent half of it curled up napping on my chant book. I had to bring her bed over so that she could lay beside me for the other half. :roll: