the lay ordination ceremony. So I'm going to talk about what that means. I'm going to talk a little bit about the history of lay ordination in our lineage. I mean, in our American lineage. Bruce Copland, Susan Helene, Mike McVeigh, Paul Farber, Stephanie Solar, Tom Painter, and Margaret Watkins. So all these people have sewn their robe, you know, the raksha, which is a small robe, which they receive.

[01:19]

And I'll talk about that, what that means. And they receive a Buddhist name, and they joined the lineage of all the Buddhists. So, back in the... well, of course, Suzuki Roshi came to America in 1959, and around 1960 or 61, 62, I'm not sure exactly what year that was, there was a lay ordination, and Suzuki Roshi invited a bishop from Los Angeles to come and conduct the lay ordination for Suzuki Roshi's few students. He did not have very many students at that time. But he asked someone else to do this. You know, there is a Zen that are Japanese temples.

[02:30]

There's one in Los Angeles, I think it's 80 years old. They just had their 80th or maybe 100th, maybe 80th anniversary. city, including myself. And then I built a new temple and moved a couple blocks away on Sutter Street. We initiated our monastery in Tassajara called Beginner's Mind. It's Zen Shinji.

[03:35]

We were practicing there for a couple of years, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970. By that time, there were a lot of Zen students. As soon as Tassajara was initiated back in the mountains of Big Sur, the Ventana Wilderness, students started coming to the Zen Center in droves and practicing. pretty soon sensei was getting pretty big and Suzuki Roshi wanted to encourage people. So he decided in 1970 to give people lay ordination. I was given priest ordination in 1969. We didn't have any lay ordination at that time. So I was only ordained as a priest. I was not ordained as a lay person.

[04:42]

So I'm going to read you Suzuki Roshi's little comment on this event of the first ordination, besides the first ordination, the first ordination that he did. So this is 1970, in August, at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. So he says, I'm so grateful to have this lay ordination ceremony for you, our old students. They were not so old, but they seemed old. If you had been practicing for five years at that time, you seemed like an old student. When I look at people who've been practicing 10 or 15 years now, I think, oh, they've been coming both ways. Anyway, the reason we hadn't had lay ordination The reason we hadn't had lay ordination more often was because I didn't want to give you some special idea of a lay Buddhist, for lay Buddhists.

[05:58]

I didn't want to make you into special people. According to the Bodhisattva way, all beings are Bodhisattvas. Whether they are aware of it or not, they are actually disciples of Buddha. What everyone is actually seeking is their own Buddhahood. Everyone is seeking themselves. We're all seeking ourselves. So, no matter what you're doing, you may not believe in Buddhism. It doesn't make any difference. Buddhism is just you. But the time has come, he says, to strive more sincerely to help others. As we have so many students here, inside and outside the Zen Center, we need more help.

[07:03]

So I decided to have lay ordination for you just for the sake of helping others. But well, you know, monks, Buddhist monks who are celibate and live that kind of life with only three robes and a bowl, those are the ideal Buddhist monks for him. But the rest of us are all lay people, even the priests. So, we're actually half lay and half priest.

[08:06]

Because the robe that you sew, each one of us sews our own robe. This is not common in Japan. When Katagiri Roshi was one of our teachers, and he came to help Suzuki Roshi, in 1963. He had studied with Hashimoto Roshi, who had researched the old robe, the original robe, and was trying to promote that in Japan. And Katagiri Roshi had studied with him, and so he was kind of, he wanted us to sew our robes as well. in the stores. So that's how the tradition of sewing the robe in America started. Suzuki Roshi wasn't so interested in that, but he went along with it.

[09:12]

And it's actually been very good for everybody, because sewing your robe takes a long time. There's a special stitch, and if you do it wrong, you have to undo it So, sewing the robe is a practice in itself. The robe, when it comes out, you see all your mistakes and you say, oh my God, you know, I would like to do this over again and all that, except that that's what you have. And when you look at the robe that you sewed and you see all the stitches and the way it's I thought it was one thing, but when I look at the room, I see that I'm somebody that I overlook. Sometimes it turns out beautiful.

[10:14]

It's always beautiful, no matter what it looks like. It's really beautiful, no matter what it looks like, because every one of us is beautiful. We just don't know it. I suppose when we look at the room, we look like the person we didn't want to see. So it speaks truth to us. So he says, the time has come to strive more sincerely to help others as we have so many students here inside and outside of the Zen Center. So I decided to have lay ordination for you just for the sake of helping others. a fisherman, you will be a fisherman.

[11:23]

In other words, Avalokiteshvara, Konyan, Karnan, the Bodhisattva of Mercy, actually, is our practice. Not to look at the Bodhisattva on the altar, but to embody the Bodhisattva as our own practice. The way I always practice. When I would go to Tassajara to practice, that's a great practice, a monastic practice, because you embody the practice. There's nothing else. And then coming out, you embody the practice in a different way. My idea was you do Zazen in the morning and you do Zazen in the evening. any study, whatever. But whatever you do in the world is your practice, is your daily practice of helping others.

[12:32]

And the wonderful thing about lay practice is that when you sit zazen in the morning, a practice, and then you do your secret practice during the day, and whatever you're engaged Nobody knows that that's your practice, but you're always embedded in practice. That's bodhisattva practice. When you see something that needs to be done, you do it. When you see someone that needs to be helped, you help. But it's all done in secret. Nobody knows that that's your practice. They just are helped. It's not like I am helping somebody. It's just that whatever you do is a help for people. That's the highest practice.

[13:42]

Lay practice is actually the highest practice. We have priest practice and lay practice. Priests put on the robes. necessarily, but your daily life, just being with people and knowing what your practice is, helps people. We don't know the far-reaching effects of our virtue, of our practice. You can't know that. You don't know that by doing something subtle, the effects are maybe multiple. So we take on the form of whatever situation we're in.

[14:45]

So this is Avalokiteshvara's practice, you know, the coin in with a thousand hands and arms, each one. tool with which to engage in the world, to help people. And so he says, a more sophisticated Chinese expression is to be like a white bird in the snow. This is Tozan's expression. To be like a white bird in the snow. We also say like a snow in a silver bowl or a heron in the moonlight. When you look at them, you know, it looks the same, but when you really see, when you really look, you can see that they're different, but they're the same and different. So, how you blend with people so that there's no difference.

[15:50]

And yet, it's two and one. So, a more sophisticated Chinese expression others in a true sense without any idea of special teachings or materials. This is the Bodhisattva way. And how we actually have this kind of freedom from everything, and this kind of request, and this kind of soft-minded spirit, is to practice our way. criticism of a formal practice, you know, the ceremony of receiving a precept is very formal.

[16:53]

So you may think we are He said, will you, da, da, da? And you say, yes, I will. Positive. Yes, I will. So we're not forcing you to say, yes, I will. This is your own idea. But these things I provided He's talking about that day.

[18:04]

He said, that is why we have this ordination ceremony today for all of us, including various great teachers. When we have this ceremony of ordination, we always invite all of the ancestors to come and witness. When we used to have incense, offering incense is to invite Buddha, or to invite the spirit of Buddha, to invite the spirit of Avalokiteshvara, to come and invite all the ancestors. We offer this incense to invite all the ancestors to come and join us in this ceremony. And also, the preceptor is simply the agent So, he received the precepts through the preceptor, but the preceptor is acting on behalf of the Buddha.

[19:11]

So, he says, it is not at all easy to be like a white bird in the snow, but then anyway, somehow we should make our best effort to do so. Remember that this is not an easy task. In this way, if through practice you can help yourself, you can help others. Without anything, just to be with people will be enough. So then he says, I'm very glad to have had this formal ceremony with the guidance of Yoshida Roshi. Yoshida Roshi was the first sewing teacher to come from Japan. back in the 70s, early 60s. So with the guidance of this Yoshida Roshi, this nun, who came to be with Zen Center and help our practice, we could do this very formal ordination ceremony.

[20:18]

So then he says, so many some way to practice the most formal practice. Even though we human beings in the city are busy, there's no reason why we can't practice our way to be like a white bird in the snow. If all of us follow your good example, I think he's talking to the Ordinese, your great example, and join our way with the Bodhisattva practice, the result will be great. You know, sometimes people say, I would like to be ordained as a priest, because it looks like priest is the high thing, you know, so they can be specialists. But priest is just, priest and lay people are the same. Priest just happens to have a certain kind of career or job that's visible.

[21:22]

But priest should not be put up on a pedestal. the priest is because of the conduct, not because of course we do respect the robe. We can maybe respect the robe without respecting the priest. But people don't realize that lay ordination is ordination. Someone will say, can I be ordained? And I'll say, well, you're already ordained. You were ordained as a layperson. So layperson ordination has its function, and priest ordination has its function. But basically, they're not different. So we take the same precepts. So I want to talk a little bit about

[22:28]

the robe. We sew the robe and then we give the robe to the teacher, the preceptor. And then the teacher gives you a name, which is called a gift. The name is a gift from the teacher. And so the gift But I'll just talk about my own way of thinking about the name, how we give a name. I always try to put together a name which is very encouraging and supportive of your practice. So traditionally, it's impossible to work traditionally from Japanese style because we can't possibly understand Japanese style, but we do to a certain extent.

[23:47]

And so we follow that style to the extent that makes sense for us in America. When Suzuki Roshi gave names to laypeople, he gave two names of four characters. Often, for laypeople, the teacher would give one name. But Suzuki Roshi apparently didn't try to make such a distinction between laypeople and priests, so he gave the laypeople two names, the way you would give a priest two names. So that's become our style at Zen Center. So there's one name which is called the Hōgō. Hō means Dharma.

[24:50]

If you do Takahatsu in Japan, which is begging, you go from door to door. And when the monks are doing this together, when they're walking, they say, Ho, Ho, Ho. That's their chant, Ho means Dharma. And then people come out and they either do this or they do something. They're usually generous. So the Dharma name is like your foundation. The name that gives you a feeling of foundation. And then there's the Dogo name. The Do. Do is Tao, which means the way name. So the Dharma name and the way name. The way name is like the feeling of encouragement for you.

[25:55]

So, the foundation name and the encouragement name. But it's not always that way. But that's generally the way you think about it. And so the first character of the first name should have some coordination with the last name of the second name. And then the two middle characters should have some correspondence. So I'll give you some examples. Like a genzan, seitoku. There's also the sound and the feeling of the characters also has meaning. they should go together in a nice way that feels comfortable.

[26:59]

So, I seem to have an intuitive feeling for the sounds, but sometimes, you know, you put the sounds together and the Japanese always laugh at you. Because the language is so subtle, you know. I usually make... You've been knocked out a lot. I used to. But now, I'm pretty... I know how to be safe. I gave Gozan his first name, which... They say, oh, not so good. But it's a good name. The first one. The Dogo. So they liked Dogo. Your Dogo. They liked my Dogo, which is Gozan. They didn't like your logo. It's Kushiki, which is formless form, but actually it's a really good name.

[28:12]

It is, yes. So Ginzan means dark mountain, but dark also means profound, or deep, or mysterious. So that's a really nice hogo. It's a real foundation. And then seitoku means quiet virtue, which is kind of more encouraging. That's nice too, right? So those all go together nicely. And then another example would be ko-sho.

[29:18]

Ko-sho means tall pine, which is a really very nice name. Pine tree has a feeling of everlasting. It's green all year round. So pine trees are very special. And in the back of the rock stone is a stitch. I don't have mine on, but if you're looking at the person ahead of you that has one, the pine stitch in the back is called a pine stitch. It's like a broken... You know how pine needles come out from the little root and then when it's broken, that's a So, tall pine and then kansei means generous, generous spirit, but kan can also mean flexible.

[30:24]

So, tall pine, flexible, or generous spirit. So, if you want to combine the first and the last, You can say high instead of tall, high-spirited, high-spirited, and flexible pine. Pine trees are really flexible. So it's not like you give a name. You can't point to something exactly, but it's a feeling. You get the feeling. If you try to pin it down to mean something, then you lose it. It's like dissecting the frog, you know, to learn what a frog is. So just watch the frog jump, then you know what a frog is. So this is a basic way of giving names.

[31:26]

And so the teacher has to think up, you know, put all these names together. I have sometimes worked all day on one name, and then when it comes down to it, I didn't like it, so I started over again. But that's my fun. That's where I get my fun. And then I have to make all the covers for the... We give you a... It has all the lineage of ancestors from Shakyamuni Buddha down through the person, the ordinate. And the ordinate's name is at the bottom. But there's a red line, which is a blood vein, which runs through all the names down to the ordinate.

[32:28]

It's a vertical circle. There are other circles. Zen is. In the Tang Dynasty, they taught, there was a lot of teaching through circles. Master Isang had a hundred circles, and each one was a teaching vehicle. A lot of that has been lost, but there are ten Oxford pictures. five ranks, all these circular forms were a way of conveying the teaching in those days. So the circle of succession is important in our liturgy. Those circular forms are a big part of Zen teaching. So I'm not going to have any discussion this afternoon, because we have this ceremony.

[33:57]

But if you have any questions, now. Thank you. Sometimes I hear people say that priests are able to help more because they're visible or have more authority somehow. than what lay people can. Not so. Could you speak to that? No, people are just people. Priests are people. Lay people are people. Those who help, help. Those who don't, don't. That's all. There's no special... Priests don't help people anymore than people who don't even know anything about Buddhism. It's not that. That's not it. The thing about priests It's like you're tending the dharma. So the priest is the servant, but also provides leadership, hopefully, and maintains the flame of the dharma.

[35:12]

Everybody else can come and go. My thought was that people would come and go, experience a little dharma, and then go out. So I have to adjust to that. I have to adjust to people sticking around. Sorry. You have to come up with new materials. But just maintain the practice. The practice is actually the same for everybody. And lay people provide the same support for the practice as priests.

[36:28]

But there's a certain kind of commitment that a priest has that doesn't make you any better or worse. It's just a certain kind of commitment. that you take certain vows, that's all. And you wear the robe and get a lot of flack for it. word mission name, I heard the explanation also that, or maybe I made it up, I'm not sure anymore, but the first thing is something that reflects, I don't know, something about an area of growth for the person.

[37:39]

Yeah, well that's, yeah, that's The dogo, I mean the hogo. You know the dogo? The dogo. Way name. The name that support for your practice. Encouragement. It's like a direction for your practice. That's the dogo. The way name. Encouragement for your practice. So like when I'm solitary praying, maybe I'm too solitary, the second part is like, you know, showing to the heavens, I'm like, you should get up and become part of, you know, active with everybody. So I've always thought of that as being like characteristic and then how to work on, have your practice work on that. Yes. Yeah. Can you break down your dharma name the way you did with the other dharma names?

[38:58]

Yes. Suzuki Roshi gave me one name. This is not uncommon. For the teacher, when you're gaining a priest, is to give them one name. The dogo. No, the hogo, which is soju. So I only had one name for a long time, Sojin, which means essence. So is essence, or essential essence. And Jun is purity, essence of purity. considered a very nice name. Sorry. And then when I was given dharma transmission by Tsukiroshi's son, Awitsu, he gave me the name of Haku Ryu.

[40:12]

Haku is white. So that's my name. I don't know what it means. Essence, dragon essence, and pure, pure white, pure love, pure, white means like pure, also pure. It has a feeling of purity or emptiness, actually. White isn't the feeling of emptiness. You said white paper being empty. It's good for whites, man. Well, that's not... Sometimes you give a person the name that sounds like their name.

[41:21]

Like less K, it's K-do sound. Yeah. So you incorporate them into the new name. That's very common. So if everybody came to the ceremony this afternoon, we wouldn't have any space. But please come anyway. Don't let that be.

[41:51]

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