Anzenkai

Anzenkai

About the Blog

Anzenkai is a loosely knit community of friends practicing zazen every day, regardless of religious creed and on the basis of a few principles taught by Master Nishijima. This blog is a forum for sharing thoughts on teachings and activities related to Anzenkai. You are welcome to comment on the blog posts and to email me at: info@anzenkai.com

Priest Training

2009Posted by Gustav 27 Sep, 2009 02:26

Hello everyone! I am sorry for not having written any blog posts for several weeks. It has been a busy month, and now it is time for an update. Here we go...

Shortly after the sesshin in August, the final year of my Christian priest training for the Church of Sweden began. This means that I travel to Uppsala, about 600 km from Umeå, and stay there for a few days every week. This final year includes studies, but in general it is more practically oriented. If all goes well, I will be ordained in June 2010.

My wife, Emmy, is pregnant and we are expecting our first child in the beginning of November. We are both very happy and looking forward to welcoming our new little family member to the world! When I am not in Uppsala, I do my best to support Emmy and prepare for the arrival of our child. The staff at the training school in Uppsala are helpful and understanding. In November and December, I will mostly do homework, so that I can be in Umeå with Emmy and the baby.

There are cheap flight tickets to Uppsala, but it is expensive to travel every week. Therefore, I still do some night shifts at the prison every month. The church gives me a scholarship, and I can start working as soon as I am ordained. I am grateful and looking forward to that. Actually, I am writing from the prison night shift right now. When it is quiet here, it is a good time for writing.

In the weekends, I usually enjoy working a few hours with the Nishijima film. I am currently adding subtitles to the clips, and I think it will be finished before Christmas. When it is finished, I am looking forward to editing the dialog that I have had with Nishijima on Buddhism and Christianity. Maybe the text will be finished around the time for my ordination. That would be cool, but I do not want to rush it. I think I also need to be really lazy and relax a lot sometimes, to keep balance during this busy year. smiley

I will keep on writing blog posts regularly, but perhaps not as often as before. Now it is time for me to walk the hourly round here in the prison corridors. Then my colleague will take over, and I can go to do zazen, say evening prayers and take a rest for a few hours.

The air is getting cooler here in Umeå. The sunsets are amazingly colourful, and soon the snow will come falling from the sky.

Take care, peace.

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