So this is a very special, auspicious day for us. This afternoon, we're going to have a priest ordination ceremony for Nancy and Eric and Titus. So I wanted to talk about that a little bit this morning. I know some of you won't be able to be here, but you're welcome. You're all welcome if you'd like. I'll start at 3. Please be here like quarter to 3 if you can. So I spoke last weekend a little bit about what it means to be a priest in this Soto Zen tradition and in our lineage from Suzuki Roshi, and I'll say a little bit about that. But I actually wanted to go over the ceremony this morning and talk a little bit about what it is we're going to be doing. So We are doing this, we use the word priest ordination.

[01:02]

Any English word we use when we're talking about Buddhism has all these connotations of Western religion. So what does it mean that they will join Hogetsu and me as priests at Ancient Dragon Zen Gate? First of all, in the Japanese traditions, In all of Japanese Buddhism, the clergy is not monastic at all in the sense that mainland Asian and South Asian monks. So, going back to the 13th century in Japan, the founder of Jodo Shinshu, or True Pure Land. And starting in mid-19th century, officially, for all of Japanese Buddhism, priests are not necessarily celibate. They don't. They may eat afternoon, unlike South Asian monks or many mainland Asian monks.

[02:12]

we may handle money unlike South Asian monks. So it's not exactly the same thing. One aspect of this, though, is that in the tradition, in the Seto Zen tradition, and Rinzai Zen, in Japan and now in America, part of being a priest usually means having some monastic training. either before ordination or during the training, to have some experience of monastic or residential practice as a background for being a priest. So this is obviously a lay storefront Tsonga in the middle of Chicago. We're here to make Zazen available to everyone, but we will see how, what it means and how it evolves to have five priests here.

[03:16]

One other thing to say is that, so for Nancy and Eric and Titus, they will be priests in training officially, so formally in Soto Zen in Japan and America, One is a priest, but some people use the word novice priest. I don't know what those English words mean in Western religion, but they're in training. happens until one has received dharma transmission or authorization. In the Suki Roshi lineage, we have a color code, blue for lay ordination, black for priest ordination, brown for dharma transmission. Not everybody who gets ordained as a priest in training becomes a teacher, necessarily. Many do other, express their being a priest in many other ways. They're still connected with some teacher in their various phases of this. Many become chaplains or other helping professionals or just help out ensembles.

[04:21]

So that's a little bit about what the Soto Zen priest here and elsewhere in America are not. I want to say again, maybe three main things that priests are committed to. And so there is a commitment involved. I'm going to go over the ceremony. And in many ways, it's very similar to the lay ordination ceremony that numbers of you have done. But particularly for priests, there's a particular commitment, a public commitment to, I would say, three things. To make Zazen available, which means to make Zazen available to lay people. which makes us unavailable to themselves as well, but helping out in our Sangha, which we're all creating, to make this practice of just sitting upright available, as we are doing here this morning. And there are many ways to do that. Eric leads, a few of you are here from Hyde Park, Eric leads our

[05:26]

group in Hyde Park, which sits every Wednesday late afternoon in Rockefeller Chapel, but also helps here, as do Nancy and Titus, to make zazen available. So that's maybe the first and most important thing that suttas and priests do, to help share what it is to sit zazen and help make that available for folks. The second is to keep alive a particular dharma or teaching tradition and practice tradition. to help sustain that. And to keep it alive means to make it real for us in our time. We have this tradition going back to Shakyamuni Buddha 2,500 years ago in Northeast India. And then through all the great Chinese masters, Bodhidharma, who's on our altar on the left, who brought it from India to China. And then Ehe Dogen, who I talk about a lot, 13th century Japanese monk who brought this tradition from China to Japan.

[06:33]

Suzuki Roshi, my teacher's teacher, who brought this from Japan to San Francisco, and here we are. How do we keep this tradition alive? So in each generation, The lineage that we sometimes recite may not be exactly historically accurate, particularly in India, but in each generation, it's pretty hard to get this practice just from reading about it in books, to actually see it and get some guidance in it is important. So does M. Priest study the practice? help keep that alive, and study the teaching tradition too, and are available to share some of that. So that's the second thing. And then the third is just supporting Sangha. So each of these priests has already done quite a lot, and many other people here are doing quite a lot to make this event of Ancient Dragon Zen Gate possible and available.

[07:37]

So just to support Sangha. So we take refuge in Buddha, which you can say is zazen and dharma, the teaching, and then the community. How do we do this together? How do we support each other? So just to show up is to support sangha. So all of you, whether you're here for the half-day sitting or just are here for the period before in this talk, are supporting each, all of the rest of us to be present and to make this an opportunity for dharma community. So thank you. So that's a little background to talking about the ceremony we're going to do this afternoon. So I want to just go over some of the basic parts of that. The first thing that will happen is that, and again, I know some of you may be here, some of you won't, but just to go over this and let you know what it is I think is helpful.

[08:45]

And everyone's welcome to come back then. But the first... thing is that I will come in with Hōgetsu as Jisha and Douglas as Eno and make offerings. And the first part of that is maybe the most, to our culture, most, I don't know what to say, a strange part of the whole ceremony, which is the water purification. So I'll do that twice, in the beginning for the assembly and then later on, during the ordination for the three ordinees. And that involves literally, well, there's various Iranian things I do, but literally sprinkling water on the assembly and on them from a distance. And this goes, this tradition is very much like the tradition of anointing

[09:47]

Well, in Europe that was used for anointing kings and for anointing apostles in the Catholic Church. But it recognizes that there's some energy, actually. And I don't know how to talk about this coherently. I just know what it feels like, and I've seen it, that there's some energy which is conveyed to these people, and which we all partake of. And so that's what that represents. That's the first thing that I'll do. And then we'll all, well, I'll do three bows and I'll get to it. And Douglas, probably there'll be, I should have mentioned for our ceremony this afternoon, if you're thinking of coming back, it's basically standing room only unless you have a reserved seat. We're expecting a decent crowd, but there'll be room for everyone to stand in the back. So people in the assembly will just do standing bows.

[10:52]

Then the ordinees will come in. They will have been sitting in the Doksan room getting ready. And then first myself and then all of us will chant homages to various, to the Buddha, Dharma Sangha, to various Buddhas, specific Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, to ten aspects of Buddha. This is, again, part of our tradition, but it's invoking the beings in space and time who support us to do this practice. The various aspects of Buddha, the various bodhisattvas. So we'll do that, and then There's some things that I will say to the Ordinese about the situation of their lives, the causes and conditions that allow this to happen for them.

[12:11]

So for all of us, we enter this practice, which in some sense includes something that is beyond causes and conditions, that is unconditioned. that partakes of the universal truth of dynamic total interconnectedness, this reality that goes far beyond and much deeper than our personal histories and our sense of self, this constructed self we carry around. And yet, we come to this through causes and conditions. This is not about abandoning the phenomenal world, but it's recognizing something deeper that's right in the middle of it. So I will say some things to them about the causes and conditions that allow this present circumstance, which is right now just all of us here sitting together, me talking and you listening, but all of us as Buddhas being present and upright. At that part of the, after that part of the ceremony, they will

[13:19]

do a full prostration to me as their teacher, and then a standing bow to their parents and family. So this is to acknowledge all of the beings, especially close to them, who allow this to be possible. The next part of the ceremony has to do with shaving their heads. So you'll notice that the three of them look like they had shaved heads, but there's a little bit of hair. It's harder to see on Eric, because he's blonde. But there's a little bit of hair on the back. And so part of the ceremony is finishing to shaving that hair. So this is different from the lay ordination ceremony. A lot of the lay ordination ceremony that a number of you have done pretty similar, and that includes a time when I come and snip a little bit of hair to represent renunciation.

[14:29]

But there's a kind of deeper renunciation involved in this ceremony this afternoon. So I'm going to say a little bit about renunciation, but first I'll just describe what happens in the ceremony. There's a little patch of hair they all have on the top of their heads, and I will cut most of that the first time. There's two different times when that happens. By the way, they'll be wearing their kimonos, which are this part of these formal robes. putting all but the last little bit of hair. And at that time also, we will be having photographs taken of them. So this is part of, once this happens, they will be registered. in the American Soto Zen Buddhist Association as associate members.

[15:31]

The full members are those who become teachers, but we also have associate members, and they'll be registered. But also, for the Japanese Soto school, they require, which they will also be registered in, They require a photograph of me cutting their hair twice. So there'll be photographs taken. So the photographer's part of the ceremony. So I'm registered as a teacher in Japanese Soto school. This doesn't mean that they necessarily are ever going to go to Japan. We are registered as a temple in Soto school. After the first head shaving, and there are various things that I will say and that they will say, but at that point, I will present to them one at a time their koromo, which is the outer black robe that priests wear, and they'll come up and get that and go back and then put that on. So part of the ceremony is to watch them actually become priests, and that means putting on various clothing and taking off various hair.

[16:39]

After that, there's the final head shaving, the last hair, which, again, I will do and they will be photographed. So, again, this idea of renunciation. Again, priests in Japan, clergy in Japan, are not renunciants in the same way as solvent monks and nuns in South Asia or in most of mainland Asian Buddhism. And yet, there is this significant aspect of renunciation. And I would say that's something that, all of this is something that we do together. I'm authorized to perform this ceremony, but actually, we do this as a sangha. This would not be possible without each of you, actually. All of us share in this aspect of renunciation. And each of these people have waited most of the many years for this.

[17:51]

And doing this practice of being publicly a priest, as they will, does involve giving up some things. And it's rather individual, but there's some way in which there's this priority of being a priest, being a Zen priest, being a Buddha priest in the world. So for me, it's not necessary that any of you be Buddhist, particularly. In some sense, when people take lay ordination, they are taking refuge in Buddha and are formally Buddhist. But I don't really care if you're a Buddhist or not. You're welcome to be anything else, but Zazen is available still. And these teachings and practices are available. And part of our job in keeping this alive is to, in this world, in this time and place, is to present this to our culture.

[19:05]

So there are many Buddhist teachers who don't overtly teach us as Buddhists, but are involved in mindfulness training in hospitals, or helping as chaplains, or doing many other things. Not necessarily as Buddhists, helping, as Eric does, with meditation groups in prisons, for example. But for people who take on, in some ways, just to take to come here and sit for a period of shazam, you're renouncing all the possibility, all the other wonderful things you might be doing, all the great entertainments and video games and who knows, whatever else you might be doing if you weren't here this morning. But for priests particularly, there is a kind of public renunciation of the world of fame and gain, the world of ego. That doesn't mean that we aren't also human beings with greed, hate, and delusion, but there's an intention, a public intention, to go beyond that.

[20:14]

So there's an aspect of renunciation here, and I'll come back to that later in the ceremony, but I wanted to say that in connection with the head-shaving. The next part of the ceremony will be name-giving. So each of these three people I've already given, when I do lay ordination, some of you have received from me Dharma names, which have four Chinese characters, with these three, they've already received that, but I'm changing one of the four characters in each of their names today. So that in some ways changes the character of the whole name. So that's the next part of the ceremony. Then there are various things that, various things like priestly equipment, yogic equipment that they will receive. on the mat in the center there in front of the Buddha, which we use as priests when we do prostrations to protect the okesa, the priest robe.

[21:17]

Then I will give them raksus, which Kathy could show yours. That's the same structure as this monk's robe I'm wearing, but it's used symbolically. On the back, there are things written Everyone has Kathy's name in my name. So let me see if I can remember her. Seisho Kiwa. Quiet Illumination. Joyful Harmony is Kathy's name. So with Nancy and Eric and Titus, I will be changing one of the characters and their names. So that will be on the back of their Roxes. I also will then give them Okesas, which is this robe that my kogetsu is wearing, priest's robe, and also oryoki bowls, which some of you have now, which we'll be using later in some of us in the meal. So that's a series of things where they come up and receive things and go back to their places.

[22:20]

And then when they get the okesa, they will put that on, and that'll be interesting. because it's a little difficult to get used to, all of this cloth. Then what's next? Oh, then the precepts. So this part is very much similar to the layered nation ceremony. We have 16 precepts, but before the precepts there's a kind of confession, or you could say this relates to renunciation, a kind of avowal of our karma, of our humanity, of our greed, hate, and delusion. And we don't, we have a Monday night service here and services during all day sittings, but we haven't really incorporated this chant, and I'm hoping we will do that, but I thought we'd do it now.

[23:29]

So I'm gonna just read through it, and then I wanna recite it and have you all recite after me, one line at a time, it's four lines. All my ancient twisted karma, from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion, born through body, speech, and mind, I now fully avow." So this goes back to early Buddhist confessional ceremonies, sometimes where the early order of monks and nuns, they would confess specific things they'd done in the last week that were a little iffy in terms of the precepts. But this is just a general say confession, a vowel of our beginningless greed, hate, and delusion, that we do arise in causes and conditions. So I'm going to say, chant each line, and please everyone recite after me. All my ancient twisted karma. All my ancient twisted karma.

[24:32]

From beginningless greed, hate, and delusion. From beginningless creation, born through body, speech, and mind. Born through body, speech, and mind. I now fully avow. I now fully avow. Thank you. So during the ceremony, I'll do that with the Ordinese actually three times. But I thought it would be good for all of us to say that. At that point, I do the wisdom water with them. And then there's the 16 precepts that are part of our Sotosan tradition. So I will recite them. Hokus will hit the pappas. And then the three ordinaries will say them after me. The first three are, I take refuge in Buddha. I take refuge in Dharma. I take refuge in Sangha. So in some ways, all of the 16 come out of just turning towards Buddha.

[25:36]

taking refuge. Refuge is a funny word. It means, in some ways, sanctuary, but it also means to return home, to come back to this underlying reality of Buddha, of Dharma, which is the teaching and reality of self. And I take refuge in Sangha, the community. And so we have this community of ancient dragons, Zen Gate, as a spiritual community, but all of us have many communities, actually. And to use those as nourishment for our practice and to support the other people in the communities is part of our practice. So those are the first three. Then there are three pure precepts. And the version of them that we'll do this afternoon is, I vow to embrace and sustain right conduct. I vow to embrace and sustain all good. I vow to embrace and sustain all beings.

[26:39]

It's very important to embrace and sustain right conduct. Sometimes it's translated as not to do evil. But to take on right conduct is important. And to take on goodness, which we could also say is just being helpful to ourselves, to each other in the world. And then a very important one, I vow to embrace and sustain all beings. This is a practice of all beings. It's not about just one particular sangha or one particular tribe or group, but that we act with awareness of all beings. And in Buddhism, that doesn't even mean just human beings. To be aware of all the beings and our environment and how we consider them. and do our best to take care of them. Then there are ten grave precepts, and these, well, I'll read them. A disciple of Buddha does not kill.

[27:41]

A disciple of Buddha does not take what is not given. A disciple of Buddha does not misuse sexuality. A disciple of Buddha does not lie. A disciple of Buddha does not intoxicate mind or body itself or others. A disciple of Buddha does not speak of others' faults. A disciple of Buddha does not praise self at the expense of others. A disciple of Buddha is not possessive of anything, not even the Dharma. A disciple of Buddha does not harbor ill will. A disciple of Buddha does not disparage the three treasures of Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. We will actually, for those of us doing a half-day sitting at our midday service, I'll do all 16 of these and then everyone will respond. But these 10 sound a little bit like the Ten Commandments. They're not commandments, they're kind of guidelines. These are the areas in which we find difficulty in, or we may find difficulty in expressing

[28:49]

This meditative awareness in our life, in the world, so what does it mean to not take what is not given? What does it mean to not misuse sexuality? To not harbor ill will? Sometimes that sounds like it is not to get angry, but it really means not to hold on to whatever aversion or anger arises, to not turn that into grudge. So each of these is not clear. There's one level of it that is like, don't kill. But what does that mean? Each of these is a koan. And in the Rinzai tradition, they're actually one of the highest levels of the koans. Each of these is an area. So whether or not you do this ceremony of formally taking precepts and taking refuge as lay ordination or priest ordination, it's the same, these 16. But to be aware of these areas. What does it mean not to intoxicate mind or body itself or others?

[29:51]

Tuesday evenings we had a meditation and recovery group for people who want to take that on in this way. Each of these, though, it doesn't mean just don't you get intoxicated. Well, here, that one says mind or body itself or others, but also for others, to help others not to kill or not to take what is not given. So each of these 10 is very complex. deep study. And they each have a positive side too. Disciple of Buddha does not kill, also means the disciple of Buddha supports life and vitality and energy. How do we do that? So these are questions to live with. These are guidelines. These are areas sometimes we don't, you know, if you, for people who've taken some of the ceremony or lay ordination, you may not think about this as you're walking around during the day. But then something comes up, and you're reminded, oh, was I emphasizing somebody else's faults?

[30:54]

It's like, look, Buddha does not speak of others' faults. Or how do I talk about others in a way that is actually helpful, and trying to be helpful to them and others? So these precepts are at the heart of actually all Buddhist ceremonies. So after this ordination, and after some instruction, Nancy and Eric and Titus will be available to perform weddings and funerals and other ceremonies, all of which in this tradition include these precepts in some ways. It may not mean taking the precepts formally, but acknowledging this approach to precepts. So a little bit more of what's going to happen this afternoon. The next section is a presentation of the lineage papers. So part of this ceremony in priest ordination and in lay ordination is a kind of formal connection to a particular lineage.

[31:57]

I was talking about taking care of a tradition of teaching and practice. They will receive lineage papers with their names at the bottom and then a line going back up to Shakyamuni and then all the names of the people we honor in India, and China, and Japan, and the United States, and my name, and your name. So it's a connection to a particular teaching tradition and lineage. So then I'll make a couple of statements, including talking about their new names. And then we'll be finished. And there's a reception afterwards for anyone who wants to come around 4.30. We'll see how long it all goes. But at the Lincoln Restaurant down the street here, just from Lincoln, just north of Irving Park. So I wanted to say a little bit beforehand for those of you who are going to be here this afternoon and for those of you who aren't about what this is.

[32:58]

But it's kind of neat that we're doing this. And I really appreciate Nancy and Eric and Titus for being So this is, for me, part of keeping alive this tradition. This is something that I did with my teacher. And yet, it's not just about them. It's about all of us making possible this situation. And it's not that they are higher status or something like that in some hierarchy, but they are available to help. And so you can ask them questions about the teaching or the practice. So maybe that's enough for me to say, but if anybody has any questions about this ceremony or what it means, we can have a little bit of time for question and discussion.

[34:02]

Please feel free. Douglas? This is a profound question. Are the money traders different than the ones for priest ordination in Japan? No, not at all. So many of you have, as lay people, have received those already, and again, as I described, it's, they're called, many newspapers are called ketsunyaku, which means blood vein. It's a red line. So part of this is about what's called sometimes Buddha's family. And in China, that was really a big deal. And traditionally, monks, priests are called home leavers. And maybe that applies more to the South Asian and Chinese monastics.

[35:07]

But in some ways, it's our situation too. And again, there's the part of the ceremony where they will bow to their families. It doesn't mean abandoning families. In China, that was very radical because Confucianism is so much about ancestry and family adoration. So in some ways, this importance of lineage developed in Buddhism in China is a response to that. But the idea of Buddha's family goes all the way back to the Buddha, that everyone here is part of Buddha's family. You don't have to be, you know, call yourself a Buddhist, but participating in this, you're part of Buddha's family. And these lineage papers are kind of a seal of that, a kind of affirmation of that. Other questions or comments? Jeremy?

[36:10]

So I usually, sometimes I get really good questions from people who Well, you can do that. But if it's a question that you have something to say about, you can say, well, this is my understanding of it, and you can respond. So we don't have in Buddhism, in Soto Zen, or we have these associations in America and Japan. There's an abbot of Eiheiji and Sojiji, the two headquarter temples. But it's not like there is a pope or something like that in Buddhism. And Buddhism is more different forms than there are in Christianity by far. And this particular lineage of Suzuki Roshi's teaching in America, we have a particular style.

[37:12]

and maybe particular understandings so they're not exactly the same understandings between Soto and Rinzai or between Soto Zen and Jodo Shinshu Yet we are all, as those of us who are priests and those of us who are Dharma teachers, try to express as best we can that which is ultimately inexpressible. Ultimately Zen is about your experience. I can't tell you how to be Buddha. Each of us in our own body and mind has to explore and find that through this practice of sitting upright and being upright in our life and breathing and meeting how it is to be Buddha in this body and mind. So you're welcome to respond.

[38:19]

It's good to qualify it. And one of the things I was going to say in talking about the priest training, I've taught at Christian and at the, I still teach at the Jodo Shinshu Pure Land Seminary online, but in that kind of, minister or priest training, where they're in seminaries, it's often very specific and it's all kind of, there's a program and it's all very structured. Some Buddhist teachers do that too. In our tradition, in Soto Zen generally, but I think in Tsugi Roshi Running Edge particularly, it's very personal and individual and intuitive, so it's not, it's hard to define it exactly.

[39:16]

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