5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

It was early summer of the 12th year of training at the Monastic Academy for the Preservation of Life on Earth. The community had gathered around a fire by the pond to say farewell to Soryu and Autumn who were leaving to give a series of teachings on the West Coast. The ceremony concluded, and a table full of sliced watermelon appeared. As we were munching on watermelon, Soryu came up to me and said, “I’ve heard you want to be head monk. Do you want to be head monk?”

I tried to avoid the question by saying irrelevant things. He asked again and I tried to dodge it again. He asked again. I said, “I don’t know”. He went to the pond to rinse off his hands. As he came back I slowly tried to back away, hoping he would talk to someone else. It didn’t work.

He asked again, “Do you want to be head monk?” I tried squirming and hedging and being uncertain. He started counting down from 5 with his fingers. “5. 4. 3...” On “3” I said, “Yes”.

The following week it was announced that Kyoshin would start training for the head monk position.