Things look a little different when I look out the Zen Center’s kitchen window these days, to say the least.  In earlier springs, I might have seen perennials peeking their way out of the earth, turned soil in preparation for vegetable seeds, and a brick path I remember helping lay…reminding me of the satisfaction of hard work.  Now, I see a roughly 30 x 25 x 6 foot-deep pit in the ground.  The cross-section reveals layers of clay, sand, and topsoil, and right now we’re hoping the sand layer won’t begin crumbling apart before the concrete walls are poured. 

Did I appreciate the old garden and all of its unrefined beauty?  You bet.  Do I miss the old garage…not so much.  The first step of the project was to demolish the garage, and when I walked out the side door after demolition had cleared, the first thing I noticed was how bright and clear the area had become.  Even THAT, in my opinion, was an improvement over the dark, disused garage.  I’m happy the final plans include a courtyard so we can maintain some of that new brightness in the space. 

 I’m going to be Myung ju’s assistant this summer, which I’m sure will entail a lot of work around this green project.  I’m paying extra attention to plans and details now, and although much of it is like a foreign language at this point, I’m looking forward to learning more and helping all of this come together.              

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June 5, 2007

 All of this construction has been a bit curious to me these past couple of weeks.  Since I have a 9 to 5 job during the week, I’ve been coming home from work to find the pit as quiet as it was when I left in the morning.  When I make my way over to the site though, I can see that, step-by-step, progress is being made.  Three large holes were cut into the basement wall last week, making room for two windows and a sliding door that were installed this past weekend.  These openings have brightened up the basement nicely, and since they’ve demolished one of the bathrooms and removed the furnace, the space is really opening up.  We were hoping to save the old tiled bar that was being used as the candle-making station, and it looks like we will be able to.  Now, we’re considering the basement of the house for a common room, or a receiving area with a coffee and tea bar. 

 Some of the people involved in the design of this project have paid welcomed visits to the Zen Center lately.  A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of hosting Kigen, who is one of Roshi’s monks, a friend of our community, and the landscape architect for this project.  He spent the weekend here getting familiar with the space, working on designs and, overall, taking in the beauty of Detroit.  This past weekend, long-time friends and project architect Thomas Garland, wife Brigit and their 8-month-old son Nicholas came from New York for a visit.  It was a busy weekend, and very enjoyable.  Sunim, Myung ju and Thomas met to fine-tune the plans, Brigit provided good conversation and social support, and Nicolas took his natural place as Head Cutie-Pie.  We have a wonderful group of people working on this project, and I appreciate having the chance to spend time with everyone.

 At this point, I’m happy Myung ju’s head is shaved, else she would likely have missing patches by now.  She’s emailing away at 10:30 on a Monday night…emailing who?  Who knows, but her smile as she’s tapping tells me she’s doing allright.

 To be continued…

 Jinju

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June 8, 2007  From San Muuk David Killen

 Looking over the photos of the Green Renovation Project as it begins to take shape, it is easy to forget just how far we’ve come… 

My first memories of the project date back to October of 2005, when (as a fairly new member at the Zen Center) I was excited to be asked to accompany Sunim, Myung ju, Sonshim and Kido on a tour of the green roof at the Ford Rouge Center.

 Along with my fond memories of cramming into the back of the RAV4, getting somewhat lost along the way, and at one point getting separated from the rest of the tour group (an early lesson in the value of paying attention…) I recall being very impressed at the simplicity of the green roof system itself.  It’s really just plants over a layer of soil, over a layer of fleece, over a drainage layer on top of a standard roof – as Clayton Rugh (one of our tour guides from MSU) so aptly demonstrated: 

 So the question became:  why couldn’t we do this at the Zen Center?

 This question was somewhat academic until July of 2006 when we first started noticing little piles of sawdust on the floor of the old garage.  Upon further inspection, we discovered that we had a problem with carpenter ants in the roof deck: 

 It was clear that the garage had to come down before our little guests discovered the rest of the building.  But what to do in its place?

The answer to this (and more!) to come in next week’s installment of San Muuk’s Green Renovation journal…

From Sosan on August the 14th
 

Dear Diary,

 Perhaps this last weekend is worth commenting on.  The rest of the staff was away studying with Roshi, and Sunim stayed behind to spend some quality time with the 14 oak trees now sitting in the future courtyard.  We were treated to a work party on Saturday (ten people or so), which was formed in order to strip all the bark away from the enticing oak posts that lied beneath.  And stripped they were.  Quite the experience for me personally, being the computer-tv-etc child that I am.  Manual work was once a chore, but after enough of it I've slowly come to appreciate its value, and now I'm finding myself looking for more - some of the reason I entered into full-time training here.  This week, Doban, the timber-frame carpenter, is here to work on the framing with us, so we shouldn't be running low on work-meditation.