More on my Mt. Equity weekend...

Oriyoki - It didn't do as bad as I thought. One small mess-up that needed a gentle correction from a senior student, I forgot all about my lap cloth and was about to tie up the bowls without it. Then later, at the next meal, I jumped the gun on placing my lap cloth over the bowls before wrapping the bottom and top corners over the bowls first. Ooops!! But the tying part that I had so much trouble with last visit was spot on, almost without thinking. In fact, I found myself teaching a new comer who was having trouble with it. It felt good to teach something that was difficult once upon a time for me.

Japanese Tea Ceremony - One of the biggest challenges of the weekend though, was sitting seiza for 25 minutes without a cushion on tatami mats for the Japanese tea ceremony. My legs went completely numb from the knees down. Breathing through the pain and uncomfortable sensation of the increasing pressure and numbness was a huge teaching for me. Contrary to how I felt during my very first experience sitting seiza like this for the tea ceremony, I was actually able to focus on the ceremony itself and less on my own experience of uncomfortableness and pain by staying with my breathing. Amazing!