The Sitting Hall

[Myozan Kodo]

Re: The Sitting Hall

Hi all,
I am going to try and sit shortly after 7am each morning for the next few weeks (Dublin / GMT time). I will start ay 7.05 or 7.10 am, sit for 40 mins, follow with a 10 min Kinhin and a recitation of the Heart Sutra (in Japanese), the Four Vows (in English) and end with the Taking of Refuge (in Pali).

Let's see how I get on. Kids may stop me some mornings, but I'll give it my best shot. Anyone that wants to join me, I'll be happy to see you in the sitting hall. Let's hope you see me! :wink:

Gassho,
Soen

[Shugen]

The Sitting Hall

Got booted out of the downstairs so my wife and kids can have "Harry Potter" night. Guess I'll be sitting upstairs. :-)

Ron

[Shujin]

Re: The Sitting Hall

Soen -- I calculated the time difference the wrong way, & figured I would sit with you. Then I looked on the schedule and realized that's 0200 my time. D'oh!

Ron -- My three year old has been seizing the desktop for Netflix lately, so I sympathize. I sat the zazenkai at 0500 this morning, sans coffee. As you can imagine, this was a strategic disaster of epic proportions. My mind was a carbon-copy of the dog from the Beggin' Strips commercials ("IT'S BACON!!!! BACON! BACON! BACON!). Replace bacon with coffee, though. :P

gassho,
Shujin

[Shugen]

The Sitting Hall

Shujin,
I would have just fallen asleep and my wife or kids would have gotten quite a scare! :-)

Ron

[Myozan Kodo]

Re: The Sitting Hall

Hi Shujin,
Thank you for your intention. I hope we bump into each other in the hall sometime.
Gassho
Soen

[Shugen]

Re: The Sitting Hall

Shujin,

Thank You for the company in the koowy zen-hall tonight. I really appreciate it. _/_

Ron

[Shokai]

Re: The Sitting Hall

Try as I might, I stil connot get into the koowy zen-hall :roll:

[Shujin]

Re: The Sitting Hall

Y'all -- I was looking at my Google Calendar this evening, and saw they now have "appointment slots" available. I've been thinking about how the Sitting Hall schedule could be improved, and switching to Google Calendar might be an option. The main thing I like about the appointments is that it appears you can have more than one person signing up for a slot at once. I don't know if we could embed the calendar in the Sitting Hall page, however.

If you have the inclination, and a Gmail account, I'd like to know what people think of Google Calendar v the current schedule. The Sitting Hall has always been underutilized, and a new scheduler isn't going to change that. I think if one could see when people are sitting in groups this would be quite helpful to both newcomers and regulars, however. (eg Peter Lin, Shokai & Chessie sitting at a particular time in the AM, or Ron, Engyo & Shujin in the PM)

There are plenty of other calendars and schedules out there that I have no clue about. If anyone has another option, bring it.

Thank you all for your practice.

**Edit** If you don't care about this, you can say that too. :P

gassho,
Shujin

[Dosho]

Re: The Sitting Hall

Shujin,

I'll admit that I don't typically use the sitting hall as I once did when I came to Treeleaf. Some of that is purely because I usually don't know in advance when I'll be able to sit, the times I do certainly aren't consistent from day to day, and I have a very slow computer that can barely stream and rarely view videos. Add to that fact that I haven't been sitting as much lately, but in the last couple days I've really thought that I'd like to sit more with other folks. The current scheduler doesn't help in that regard for a few reasons, some of which you already noted: Can't sign up more than one person, can't sign up for 3pm when it's 3:01, can't input the fact that you were there after the fact to encourage others to sit with you in the future, etc.

My point is that you are right when you say a new scheduler isn't necessarily going to change anything, but it might help the problems noted above and perhaps have some unintended positive effect as well. I have never used Google Calendar so I can't speak to that, but I can say that I am behind any effort to increase the use of the sitting hall and will do what I can to use it as it is and to help make it better in any way I can. That may not be saying much, but I thought I should at least offer my support in what you are trying to do. It is undoubtedly a worthy goal and thanks for trying to get our attention!

Gassho,
Dosho

[Shohei]

Re: The Sitting Hall

Hi Shujin
I had done a really rough mock up a bit ago and had made just such a calendar
Using google calendar for scheduling your self in the the hall is a great idea as you said it allows multiple persons to schedule the same time (the point of the zen hall right!) The catch is for persons to put themselves on they have to have their email account as some one who can edit. Not a big deal really as the old scheduler requires similar right and you only need to do it once. The other minor catch is there needs to be some one acting as the maintenance guy adding people to the calendar as they request to use it.

I have the calendar set up and a volunteer tester if anyone else would like to give it ago please pm me your email address and I will set you up on it.

Now the real issue is finding a conferencing application that is A) stable B) fully functional cross platform C) wont break the bank.

Here is a link to the cruddy page I slapped together as a mock up for the zen hall a bit ago (on it you will see the calnedar).

http://web.me.com/shoh3i/Site/Movie.html

Id like to get you all together on this as you use it and with out you, technology bugs or not there is no zen hall

Gassho
Shohei

[Shujin]

Re: The Sitting Hall

Dosho -- thank you for your kind words. I can certainly identify with some of your situation; I try to sit with the times I've scheduled, but sometimes my kids have other plans. I'm sure this is a great surprise to you. :P

Shohei -- thank you for taking up this idea. I know you're busy with quite a few more important issues. My work filter won't let me look at anything video related, so I'll have to start hunting for conferencing applications when at home. I don't think I'm going to find anything you haven't already considered, but I suppose anything is possible. I heard an ad for the radio for GoToMeeting awhile ago... and almost had a stroke when I saw the cost.

Unrelated, but has anyone been following the LulzSec story from a couple of days ago?

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/lulz ... ation/8892

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/lulz ... ealed/8905

The whole thing kinda reads like a William Gibson novel.

gassho,
Shujin

[Onshin]

Re: The Sitting Hall

That's looks quite easy to use, nice work

[Myozan Kodo]

Re: The Sitting Hall

Hi all,
I agree that the Sitting Hall is not used enough. I love the public aspect it potentially gives to sitting. I am usually alone when I sit there, but the very idea that someone might sit "beside" me gives my sitting the feeling of being in a flesh and blood zendo, where space is shared with others.

Sitting with others helps my discipline in sitting ... even if I am alone, I have the feeling that I am not.

No doubt the Sitting Hall will become more and more central to Treeleaf as the technology improves.

Deep bow to all,
Soen

[Shugen]

Re: The Sitting Hall

Thank You Shohei.

Ron

[Eika]

Re: The Sitting Hall

Hi, all.

I've had no luck getting getting in the sitting hall for a number of months now. I rarely know when I'll be able to sit until just beforehand, so if I can't just drop in to the hall, I probably cannot make it work for me.

I've got a mac, so most of my problems are still just getting anything to work . . . It either continually says connecting to oovoo or contacting Shohei. Either way, I've not been able to get in.

Shohei--I really appreciate your hard work on this. Please don't take any of what I'm saying as complaint. I sit with everyone here nightly even if I can't connect on the computer, so it is a non-problem. I'm just adding my experiences to the conversation. With macs such a common platform, it surprises me that it is still difficult for online conferencing sites to make their stuff compatible.

See you all tonight, even if I don't see you tonight!

Gassho,
Eika