The Ozesshion begins! The center of the Osession is time spent in zazen meditation in the zendo, pictured here. We sit zazen posture (cross-legged) in two main rows, facing each other, on the cushions you see here. We beginners are on a third row, behind the one on the right, so that our wiggling does not disturb the others.
In the front center is an altar to the Buddha, but you cannot see him from inside the zendo. You do not look at any particular thing so that you can focus on all things, or the essential thing.
We are all on a break at this point, free to get up and stretch our aching legs (and they are QUITE aching). There is one yound monk, however, who only ever takes the briefest stretch, the shortest breaks, and is always back on his pillow before any of us. He is the only one sitting in the zendo here.
I almost hate to take the photo so that I do not disturb him, but it seems as if none of this disturbs him. The pain... (does he even feel it..), the noise, nothing. I could never be that focussed.
I wonder why I seek to compare myself to him. I have so far to go.