I vow to taste the truth and not talk it to this world. Morning. Can you hear me in the back? Okay. So this afternoon, we're having a lay ordination. Six people are being lay ordained and three people are receiving a lay recognition raksu and a certificate of lay recognition. So I want to talk a bit about ordination in our practice, in our lineage.

[01:04]

When we had the first ordination, at Zen Center in 1970, I think it was, Suzuki Roshi said something like, when we receive lay ordination, it's not that you're receiving something that makes you better than other people. We don't just receive lay ordination for ourself, but we do this to encourage other people, to encourage everyone. And we do it to encourage each other's practice. He said we should be like a white bird in the snow.

[02:11]

In other words, to blend with people, not necessarily to stand out from them. So, and he said, you know, we should work. A white bird in the snow means that When we meet someone, we blend with that person. When we meet a situation, we harmonize with the situation. And we do all this with compassion. When we have lay ordination, or any ordination, we take the precepts.

[03:13]

We take the three refuges and the ten clear mind precepts. And the basic meaning of precepts is compassion. To try to meet every situation with understanding and to see things as they really are. So, if you really look at what the precepts are, don't kill, don't steal, don't do... inordinate things, you realize that the basis of all the precepts is just act compassionately. And if we act compassionately in every situation, we're keeping the precepts.

[04:21]

This is called living precepts, not just following precepts by rote. But living precepts is to assess the reality of each situation and act appropriately with compassion. So when we have ordination, we take the precepts and we sew Buddha's robe and we receive Buddha's robe. we receive Buddha's robe from the preceptor. So the preceptor is acting as Buddha, and the preceptor is acting as Buddha and giving Buddha's robe to Buddha. The receiver, the recipient, is also Buddha.

[05:26]

So Buddha is giving the precepts and the robe to Buddha. So when we receive the robe, we receive a certificate of a lineage paper. And this lineage paper shows that we have become a member of Buddha's family. And we become a member of this long lineage, which includes all the people that have gone before us. I want to read you something about lay ordination, about receiving the precepts in the Iraksu.

[06:54]

I think this was given to me by Maezumi Roshi. I can't remember, but it really gives us a feeling for what is going on when we take the precepts and receive the robe. He says, shobogenzo jyukai. Shobogenzo is, of course, Dogen's writings, and jyukai means taking precepts. Jyu is to give and receive, and kai means precepts. So he says, Shobogenzo Jukai states, all Buddhas and ancestors taught that receiving the precepts is the first step of the way. Dogen Zenji also tells us that upon receiving the Buddha's precepts, we immediately enter the position of all Buddhas.

[07:56]

How so? Because these wonderful precepts arise from the purity of self-nature and reveal the Buddha nature, our true nature. You know, we think of receiving the precepts as something from outside. But actually, receiving the precepts awakens what's already innate. It's kind of like the hen tapping the shell and helping the chick to come out of the egg. So taking the precepts is not imposing something on us, but simply awakening the precepts that are already inherent within us. So we say taking the precepts, but it's more like awakening our own inner desire for enlightenment.

[09:08]

So because these wonderful precepts arise from the purity of self-nature, our own self-nature, and reveal Buddha-nature, Sometimes we think that, you know, the precepts, 10 precepts are usually called grave or prohibitory. Don't do this, don't do that, don't do this. That's the negative side, but we also have the positive side. Cherish life and so forth. So when I give the precepts, I use both the negative and positive sides. So we call that clear mind precepts rather than just prohibitory precepts. So precepts are not simply chains that bind us or try to restrict us, but simply a way of giving us freedom, true freedom, within bounds.

[10:14]

We have true freedom through right behavior and right understanding. So, the ceremony of receiving the precepts as lay followers is called zaikei tokudo, or lay ordination. We have two sides of ordination, priest ordination, lay ordination. Priest ordination is shukei tokudo, lay ordination, zaikei tokudo, but they're both tokudo, which means ordination. According to definition, ordain means to invest the functions of an office or position. In understanding Buddhist ordination, we should know that the functions we are invested with are those of a Buddha. So we're receiving the office of a Buddha or the position of a Buddha.

[11:18]

This is exactly the meaning of, upon receiving the precepts, we immediately enter the position of all Buddhas. To have zaikei dokudo is to acknowledge our true nature and confirm our intent to realize it fully. The ceremony itself consists of several significant elements to which we should give thought. First, there is the invocation in which the officiant priest invites all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to be present as witnesses. So in the beginning of the ceremony, we invite all the Buddhas and ancestors to come and participate as witnesses. The officiant acts as their representative, but we should know that actually the Buddhas are our ācārya, our preceptor. Therefore, we receive the precepts directly from all Buddhas. Secondly, all who wish to receive Buddha's precepts must first purify themselves through confession and repentance, in which one acknowledges past and present wrongdoing and delusion.

[12:33]

We do this by chanting the verse of formless repentance and personally looking into our own hearts. So we say, all my ancient tangled karma. We say twisted, all man is a twisted karma from beginningless greed, hate and delusion. Born from body, speech and mind, I now fully evolve. This is a formless repentance. I like to use the word tangled karma. Twisted, it doesn't mean evil, you know. Tangled seems to me like it, all our entanglements that create problems and entanglements is like attachments. And attachments imply ignorance. So most of our problems come from ignorance and attachments, and sometimes that's called evil.

[13:47]

So either twisted or tangled, but I like the tangled. So, having purified ourselves, we may receive the Bodhisattva precepts, that is, the three refuges, Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, the three pure precepts, and the ten prohibitory precepts, a total of sixteen. The Nirvana Sutra states, although all living beings are replete with the buddha nature, they must uphold the precepts as the cause before they can perceive it. Therefore, let us give thought to the meaning of keeping the precepts is exactly Buddhahood. Until we fully understand our true nature and penetrate it thoroughly, we may understand the precepts as guidelines for daily living and a framework for Buddhist practice." That's interesting that he's saying this.

[14:54]

He says, first he says, although all living beings are replete with the Buddha nature, they must uphold the precepts as the cause before they can perceive it. Dogen states it a little differently. He says that although we are all endowed with Buddha nature, it is only through practice that we can perceive it. So practice, he used the word practice instead of talking about the precepts, exactly, he talks about the practice. But either way is correct. And until we understand our true nature and penetrate it thoroughly, we may understand the precepts as guidelines for daily living and a framework for Buddhist practice. Well, what happens when you do penetrate your nature, right? It means that Instead of following the precepts, you follow a compassionate mind, which is keeping all the precepts.

[16:08]

So we use precepts as a guideline before we actually can act compassionately as our total being. Precepts are a kind of stage or a kind of structure to help us until we can actually be free of them. Suzuki Roshi rarely talked about precepts. He said, if you follow the precepts too literally, that's heretical. That was a strong word to use. But what he meant was, if you stick to some rule, stick to some idea, without actually going to the fundamental, it's wrong, not correct practice.

[17:16]

So for someone like Suzuki Roshi, who could actually embody the precepts without following them literally, because whatever he did came out of compassionate action and selfless action, we need the precepts until we can do that. That's what he's saying here. Until we totally embody selfless, compassionate action, we need the precepts to remind us of how to act that way. So he says, until we fully understand our true nature and penetrate it thoroughly, we may understand the precepts as guidelines for daily living and a framework for Buddhist practice. But don't think that you never need them.

[18:20]

If you think, I don't need them, then you need them. And this is easily misunderstood by someone who may think, well, I'm fully enlightened, so I don't need the precepts. So it's a little bit dangerous to think this way. But we have to understand this. So he says, we have to understand this because selfless, compassionate action is more important as living precepts. Lastly, in acknowledgement of our receiving the precepts and joining the family of Buddha, we are given a raksu. a small Buddhist robe, which one sews according to the traditional way, and a kechimyaku, or lineage paper, upon which our Buddhist name, given on this occasion by the teacher, is written along with the names of all ancestors in the lineage, from Shakyamuni Buddha to our present teacher.

[19:40]

The red line that connects your name and all others written therein illustrates the truth that the precepts are indeed the lifeblood of all Buddhas. So lastly, I'll go over this. In acknowledging, in acknowledgement of our receiving the precepts and joining the family of Buddha, we are given the Raksu. The Raksu, of course, is a Buddhist robe. It's a small version of the Okesa, Kesa, kashaya, is monk's robe or priest's robe which covers the whole body. The raksu, which we wear, is the same thing, only smaller. I think in Japan in the middle of the 19th century, somewhere there, the raksu was developed for several reasons. One reason was that a lot of the rules were relaxed in some way.

[20:47]

The government put a lot of pressure on the clergy, the monkhood, to change their way of practicing. And so the raksa was developed as a kind of work robe. It's smaller and it's a little cumbersome to work with a full-size robe. And then this is extended to lay people as a lay ordination robe. So both priests and lay people wear the raksu. Priests wear it informally and lay people wear it as they wear it. And each person sews their robe. Of course, in Japan, most people don't sew their robes. And the sewing of the robe has always been a part of Buddhist practice, but only as a specialty.

[22:01]

Some monk will say, I am going to devote so much time to sewing a Buddhist robe. But it's not common. It's a special practice. And what they do often, in the most formal way, is to make one stitch and then do nine bows or three bows, for instance, and then do another stitch, for instance, do three bows, make another stitch. This is a very time-consuming project. But the robe, you know, has gone through many changes over the years, over the centuries. And there was Sawaki Roshi and Hashimoto Roshi were two Japanese monks who researched the old way of making the kesa, the robe.

[23:03]

And back in the 30s, 20s and 30s, I think, 40s, 50s. And this is the robe that, this is the style that we have taken up, because Katagiri Roshi was a student of Hashimoto, and so he got that dharma, and he wanted us to sew our robes. So that's the style we have. Everybody, except me, I don't sew my robes. I buy them in Japan. They're actually much easier to manage. But when I asked Suzuki Roshi should I sew a robe, I told you this before, he said no. He said you're too busy. He actually didn't, he wasn't so keen on everybody sewing their robe. You know, one of the things he said about that was,

[24:08]

There are certain places where people have a lot of time to do something, and it's very convenient to do something like sewing a robe, whereas other people are very busy and they never have an opportunity to do something like that, and they may not have availability of materials or enough money to sustain themselves. inherit these kind of financially established people with time to do all this, you know, and poor people who, you know, don't have the time to do all this because they have to do other things. So he wasn't too sympathetic with that, although he did go along with it. Suzuki Yoshi was always very concerned that we don't become elitist. He was always, you know, always, the fact that we have time to sit sashin and do zazen practice is a kind of luxury.

[25:27]

In most parts of the world, people don't have that luxury. So he said, the suffering you have when you're doing Sashin is nothing compared to what people in the world are suffering all the time. He says, you know, we should be careful not to be so, not to have so much luxurious living when so many people in the world are suffering. If we do have that, we should at least acknowledge it. It's okay for us to do what we're doing, but we should acknowledge that and understand that and appreciate the fact that while other people are suffering, we have this opportunity. So then, after the sewing the robe, which one sows according to the traditional way, a kechi-myaku, or lineage paper upon which our Buddhist name is given, on this occasion by the teacher.

[26:36]

Kechi-myaku means blood line or blood lineage. And for those people who have already received a a raksu and done this, we give the lineage paper which has the names of all the ancestors from Shakyamuni through the Indian ancestors, the Chinese ancestors. These are ancestors which are recognized by, as people who in their generation made the practice available for that generation. So it's not everybody, it's simply the key people, key figures, and they're mostly men. But there's also a women's lineage, which has never been established until now. And of course, we've been making this effort to establish a women's lineage.

[27:39]

And somehow, in time, that will be part of that, I assume. But it's This is one of the advances in our time, recognizing the practice of women and their contribution. So then the red line runs through all of the names and back up to Shakyamuni. And this red line is the blood vein that runs through all of the ancestors, including yourself. So this is like family becoming a member of Buddha's family.

[28:45]

So the Kechimiyaka were lineage paper upon which a Buddhist name, you receive a Buddhist name as well. In Japan, usually they give one name. We give two names. And I just realized why Suzuki Roshi gave two names instead of one name. because in Japan there's a ceremony called Jukai, and then there's also Zaikei Tokudo and Shukei Tokudo. So the two Tokudos are ordination, whereas Jukai is not an ordination. Jukai is simply taking the precepts. I've explained this before. where people who feel an affinity with Buddhadharma come together and take the precepts, but it's not an ordination.

[30:03]

So they receive one name. one Buddhist name. But ours is an ordination, our Zazen. The reason why we have lay ordination is because in America, lay people are practicing like everyday Zazen. It's a real practice, and not just an affinity. Not just taking precepts, but actually engaging in practice, a daily practice, which is unique in the world. So we give people two names, just as we would give anyone who was ordained. Although I only received one name when I was ordained. I was never given lay ordination. I only had priest ordination. And Suzuki Roshi gave me one name. And I realized that what he expected was that when I had dharma transmission, that I would receive a second name.

[31:11]

which I did. So the lineage paper in which our Buddha's name is given on this occasion by the teacher is written along with the names of all ancestors in the lineage from Shakyamuni Buddha to our present teacher. The red line that connects your name and all others written therein illustrates the truth that the precepts are indeed the lifeblood of the Buddhas. The precepts are the lifeblood of the Buddhas, but Strictly speaking, there's only one precept. And all the other precepts are commentaries on the one precept. And the one precept is act like Buddha with compassion and selflessness. That's the one precept.

[32:14]

and then all the rest illustrate what that means. That's why we call it formless precepts. There's no special form. So receiving the precepts is an important part of Buddhist practice, available to anyone regardless of mental or physical ability. It is the way by which we manifest the truth of our own Buddhahood here in the world right now. So it's open to anyone regardless of whatever, but we usually wait. I like to wait two or three years, but we wait for a person to establish their practice, and then we give the precepts. And of course, people usually ask for it.

[33:16]

then sometimes I ask people to wait if they haven't been practicing so long. But it seems like people who receive the precepts are people who feel an affinity with the Dharma and with the practice. So sometimes people say, Well, why should we do this? Why do we have precepts? Why do we have the ordination and so forth? The ordination is a, actually joins you to Buddha's family. And the robe, The robe has some symbolic nature, but I don't think of it as symbolic. I think the robe is a material manifestation of our Buddha nature.

[34:32]

You know, we take one piece of cloth, cut it into many pieces, and then sew it back together again. which may seem funny, but this is the way everything in the world exists. Originally, everything is one piece. And then we cut it up, it's all cut up into smaller pieces and arranged in different ways to make whatever. There's nothing that exists that's not little pieces of this and that put together. So Buddha's robe is like that. One whole cloth. Everything is really one whole cloth, but we only see the parts.

[35:36]

So Buddha's robe symbolizes, in a way, one whole cloth in a certain configuration called the robe. Sometimes it's called your shoes or your socks. when Buddha was walking. Someone asked Buddha, you know, in order to distinguish your students from other students, there should be some distinguishing mark. So Buddha invented the robe. It doesn't set Buddhists apart, but simply distinguishes.

[36:40]

said, oh, that person wears Buddha's robe, so I know where they're at in some way. The robe is many pieces sewn together. And when Buddha was walking down with somebody in a field, he was wondering, well, how should I design the robe? And then he looked at the paddies, the rice pad, the rice fields, and he said, realized that he would make the robe in the image of rice fields, or whatever kind of fields, probably rice. with paths and fields and the paths intersecting the fields. So Buddha's robe is like covers the earth in a sense. It covers everything and has that symbolism.

[37:48]

So when I give people names, I've done a lot of ordinations, well over a hundred. Or maybe, I don't know. I counted it one time, but I can't remember what the figure was. And then, you know, there's only so many words that are appropriate, you know. So I mix them all up and scramble them and so forth, look for new ones. But probably some of your names overlap. I try to make them all different. Did I ever give that name before? But it really doesn't matter. It's fine if you all have the same name. Sometimes, like in China, Chinese way, and in Korea too, is to, when you have a bunch of Ordinese, a group, one of the names is all the same, same name.

[39:00]

And then the other names, second name is individual. which is kind of nice, actually, because you have the feeling that you all belong to the same ordination group. And when you're ordained together with someone, there's some kind of affinity that you have with that person that you always feel.

[39:24]

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