It has been almost three months since the last Dispatch, about twice as long an interval than usual. What, dear reader, might have caused such a delay? A headlong, all-out work blitz to have the place ready for sesshin by September 28? Yes.

And ready it was.And now the first sesshin at Chapin Mill is history.

After months of Lou's pleading with local sub-contractors to come and finish off the work required to get a Certificate of Occupancy, they finally swooped in with their teams in the nick of time. Four electricians spent days installing lighting in the temporary zendo, the hallways, the entryway steps outdoors, and the dining room. Many of their hours went toward the code-required emergency lighting and the industrial-strength appliances in our big kitchen. Our very talented plumber also spent much of his time in the kitchen getting us up to code. The bathrooms were tiled. Bronze handrails were affixed to the entryway steps. Another sub-contractor had a team outdoors with backhoes and front-loaders, doing final grading for the building and the area behind it where Phase 2 will eventually go. (They also put in a septic system for the older buildings, on the other side of the creek, with a new pumping station, two tanks, and drainage field.) A slew of newly-required fire doors were installed. Carpeting was laid throughout the dorm rooms and corridors.

But the real tributes for the two months leading up to sesshin must go to the ZC staff and other Sangha volunteers. Besides the indefatigable foreman of the project, Lou, always at the center of things, Alan Temple spent more time than ever on-site, supervising maha-landscaping work and the installation of drainage and septic systems. He also oversaw Eric Scheider's and Holger Steinsträter's two weeks of continuous labor in laying the bluestone for the terrace to the main entrance. Mike Hurd and Britta Brückner (who, like Holger, is a key member of our Berlin affiliate group) mudded and sanded their way through the basement, helped as usual by John Pulleyn and Lou. This was the "final assault" in our 18-month drywall campaign. Tom St. Pierre continued to employ his woodworking talents to put in doors, baseboards and stairway handrails, joined occasionally by Mike Chrest and Angel Martinez. During the Ralph Chapin Memorial Work Week the oak flooring in the dining room got four coats of protective sealer, a meticulous, time-sensitive operation that took a team of four the better part of two days. And then there was the prodigious job of cleaning up two years of dust and debris.

The climax to all this effort came with the visit of the building inspector just five days before the sesshin. On his previous visit he had given us reason to be confident that, despite additional, unexpected requirements he had specified, he would finally grant us the Certificate of Occupancy we needed to hold sesshin. And lo! two days later we had the C of O in hand!

And then we shifted into high gear. In the remaining three days before sesshin the staff, mostly, had to move everything we needed from Arnold Park: mats and cushions; dividers; kitchen equipment, plates, bowls, utensils, food, and other supplies; folding chairs for the dining room, chair zendo, and dorm rooms; bathroom supplies, housekeeping supplies and equipment; and mattresses. After thrashing out a decision to hang wood mini-blinds in the twelve zendo windows, Helen Fuller did the follow-through, as she had done for the carpeting and tiling and some interior elements. That Friday Amala and I spent most of the afternoon in the zendo, working out an experimental seating configuration around the central altar. Our Arnold Park facility was all but deserted now, and sesshin participants from Germany, California, and other distant points were beginning to arrive at Chapin Mill.

On the eve of sesshin Murphy's Law kicked in. A tractor-trailer loaded with mulch (for work in on the gardens during sesshin) rolled into Chapin Mill through a steady rain, slid on the muddy road, and nearly tipped over into the pond; its many wheels on one side were hanging in the air. With the help of local support, the spill was cleaned up and disaster averted-but it was not something that had been on our work lists.

The next day found all hands on deck, bent to the myriad tasks required to get any sesshin launched, but now without our trusty Arnold Park check lists. We were sailors scurrying over a ship soon to leave on its maiden voyage: heaving, testing, repairing, arranging, improvising. And cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.

Sesshin started on time that night. Just a year or so later than many of us had hoped.

Sesshin, Al Fin

For the first couple days of sesshin the four monitors and I (four of us having worked for years on the Building Committee) were airborne. Amala remarked that when she walked around the bend in the road before the opening ceremony the first night and saw the building lit up and full of people, it was like coming down the stairs on Christmas morning as a girl and seeing the tree aglow. But there was little time in which to savor our accomplishment. The monitors and I spent most of every break period that week meeting together, problem-solving and working out new procedures and policies for this experimental sesshin that involved the three older buildings as well as the new one. Lou was so busy that he couldn't find time to take a nap until after dinner on the sixth day. But our energies were continually renewed by the country air, the pond, and the sounds of the geese, the waterfall, and the silence.

Participant's Responses

After sesshin I asked participants to write down three things they liked about sesshin at this new facility. Here are direct statements that reflect the most frequently mentioned features:

a.. "beautiful country setting"
b.. "the sounds of nature, the train whistle-and the quiet"
c.. "the spaciousness, inside and out"
d.. "the Buddha altar in the center of the zendo"
e.. "the chair zendo is a breath of fresh air-literally"
f.. "the bright, efficient, roomy kitchen"
g.. "chairs at the dining room tables"
h.. "the beauty of the lighting, the wood trim, and the painting"
i.. "going for a walk at night with hundreds of crickets shouting encouragement"

Participants also brought forth some constructive criticism, most of it raised earlier by the monitors in our frequent meetings: there was just too much empty floor space in one half of the zendo (which, remember, was designed as an exercise room suitable for 60-some people); too much kitchen/dining room noise heard in the chair zendo, and in the zendo itself; and lesser problems due to the not-quite-finished state of the place. These and other problems are being addressed.

Speaking personally, throughout the week of sesshin, in all my comings and goings, indoors and out, I felt as though bathed constantly in gratitude toward the many, many people (most of whom were not even in this sesshin) who brought us to this epochal event: donors large and small, volunteers beyond count, our architects, even our hired tradesmen-and yes, the Building Inspector. What more could anyone ask for?

Well, all right, there is Phase 2 to take on some day. But never mind that for now.

Click here for more photos of the first Chapin Mill sesshin.