Somewhere, years ago, I heard from someone the following story purportedly about Suzuki Roshi. There was a pile of rocks that he assigned a monk to move to a new location. Once they’d all been moved the Roshi reconsidered, deciding the rocks had really been in the best place previously. The monk dutifully returned them to their previous location. But then, maybe, suggested the Roshi, and here the story ends with each of us allowed to project ourselves onto the monk, the teacher, and the activity.
A couple of weeks ago a group of us had an opportunity to live our own version of that story. I'd been told about a type of tree that would be perfect at the Four Acres Zen Center for accomplishing our two aims of beauty and privacy. Our local nursery, not having that tree nor any source for it, suggested another type that would be as beautiful and serve as well our wish for less visibility into our neighbor’s property. The trees were already 8 to 10 feet tall so would need holes 4 feet by 4 feet by 4 feet. Wow. That’s a big hole. Really, that’s necessary? Oh, yes. Well, if we must, we must, but we’re not going to do this with picks and shovels so let’s call Justin, our dear friend with every type of large machinery known to humanity. Busy time of year, not available. Not a problem, he tells us, we can rent what we need. Great. We call the company and, sure enough, they will bring us a backhoe and we can dig those giant holes ourself.
The trees were not 8-10 feet, but more like 18-20 feet. That 8-10 feet was the size they were when they arrived at the nursery in January, the lovely folks at the nursery explained. Ok. The good news is that while extremely wavy/floppy, they aren’t terribly heavy. Into MoJo they go for their journey across the field to their new home. Their new home consists of enormous amounts of original dirt mixed with 3 MoJo loads of top soil to get the holes up to the level the root balls need. In they go. How much water will they need? Oh, they’ll need to be watered every day in this dry weather. How much? Well, enough to keep them watered.
At this point we’ve made dozens of calls to the lovely folks at the nursery (and they truly are lovely folks), resulting in equally unhelpful answers, so, of course, we turn to the internet. Way, way down in the available information we encounter this titbit: “Never plant these trees near a septic or sewer line as they have extremely aggressive roots that will destroy the lines.” Where are the trees? Within a very few feet of a sewer line running along the edge of the property. Dern and drat.
When I asked said lovely folks about this they hastened to enthusiastically agree. “Oh, yes, you should never plant those trees near a septic or sewer line!” Good to know. What to do?
Fortunately, when one knows how to plant a tree, one knows how to unplant a tree, and replant a tree.
Going forward I suspect we will focus on not harming the trees that nature plants, nurturing the trees nature plants, and limit our own planting to the habitat that supports the birds, butterflies, and bees. Excellent lesson learned! Much appreciated.
Recently I mentioned the story of the young Japanese woman who had one of the most profound awakenings in modern Zen. Here’s the link to the record of her experience and the comments from her teacher.
We’ve been having regular group discussions along with the guidance, process Q and A, yoga, and working meditation at FAZC and surrounding areas. Some tend to have the same “tone” we’re accustomed to encountering in those conversations, while some of these from the Summer of Sangha can best be described as rollicking. Too goofy? Are we having too much of a good time? You can decide for yourself should you choose to access those groups.
PS
This very morning we used the structure of group at FAZC to explore a particular place in practice that arose in the Yearlong, but during which we didn’t have enough time to delve deeply. You can find it in the group dated July 11.
Gasshō