This afternoon we're having a lay ordination ceremony. In Japanese it's called zaikei tokudo. Tokudo means ordination, and there are two kinds of ordination. One is lay ordination, which is called zaikei means without leaving home. And shukkei, ordination, tokudo means being ordained as a priest and presumably leaving home. In America, our practice is somewhere in between and sometimes a little confusing.

[01:08]

But for a priest, how the problem is, how to leave practice as a left-home person without leaving home. A priest is a visible ordinee who wears robes and attends to the business of the Sangha. And one's career or life is dedicated to the practice in that way. Late ordination is for people who have jobs and careers and live in the world, yet practice in a very consistent way.

[02:29]

So one is visible, more visible, and the other is less visible. But they're both two sides of the same ordination. So we take our lay ordination very seriously. Sometimes people say, well, it's not so as... It doesn't have that same status, maybe, as priest ordination. But without comparing, it's important to take seriously and take to heart the presets and the confirmation of one's practice, having had lay ordination. It doesn't make sense to compare. They're just different functions. When I look around, I see so many of us who have had lay ordination over the past 20 years or so.

[03:49]

And it really feels wonderful when I see someone wearing their raksu, sitting zazen, and encouraging everyone's practice. Suzuki Roshi said, when we started to have lay ordination in around 1970. I guess it's been about 28 years since that time. And he said that he was doing this not to create some kind of status for people or to set them apart, but just to encourage everyone's practice. He didn't start lay ordination, but we didn't really have lay ordination, except maybe one time in the 1960s or something, there was a lay ordination at Zen Center, after the first couple of years.

[04:57]

But until that time, up until 1970, there was none. So I myself never did have lay ordination. I was ordained as a priest in 1969. So, in the next year, he started giving lay recognition. He said, you should be like a white bird in the snow. It's an allusion which you can see in the Hokyo Zamai, the Jewel Mirror Samadhi. To be like a white bird in the snow. or like a heron in the moonlight, to have this practice and not stand out in some way, to blend with people, to blend with your environment, to become part of the texture of your environment, so that your practice

[06:03]

blends and becomes part of the fabric of your environment and your work. And in that way it becomes woven into the society. Not just to stand out in some way and preach to people, but just to let your life and your practice move in that subtle way. And Suzuki Roshi also used to say, when your practice is real and genuine, you don't have to do anything. All you have to do is be yourself. And your practice will influence people and move people. So, Sometimes it looks like you have the ordination and then you have your small robe and you have some status, but please don't think of it that way.

[07:20]

You know, people sometimes say, think that a priest, when you become a priest and you wear the robes, that you have some high status, but actually, you become a servant. You have to be willing to become a servant, not an exalted person. But of course, if you're a true servant, you will be an exalted person. But you will suffer. Today we have 15, no, 14 people who will be doing ordination. Originally it was 16, 17, and for some various reasons it's now 14, which is the most I've ever done here at one time.

[08:32]

A lot of people. We have a wonderful number of people who have been practicing for the last three or four years and who are now ready to take lay ordination. In the ordination ceremony, there are four elements. The first element is invoking all the ancestors, all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the past, and inviting them to be present in this ceremony. Although I will be the preceptor, The precepts actually will be given by all the Buddhas.

[09:37]

And I act as a vehicle for all the Buddhas and ancestors. Although I'm doing this, I'm really doing it for the Buddhas and ancestors. So when we offer incense, Offering incense is to invite a monarch or a deity. Sometimes we offer incense and invite the spirit of Prajnaparamita, the spirit of great wisdom, to practice in our midst. And we offer incense and invite Buddha to come forth in our midst.

[10:42]

So we offer incense and bow and ask Buddha to do the ceremony. So we feel that all the Buddhas and ancestors are present within this ceremony. And then, there's the aspect of confession, or acknowledging our ancient karma. Before we have this ceremony, We say ordination. And ordination is to give someone a charge to do something. And the charge in this case is to bring forth Buddha nature. We are ordained to bring forth the Buddha nature within yourself.

[11:55]

in order to be reborn, in a sense, one should be clean. So we acknowledge and bring forth and purify ourself through a vowel of our ancient karma. And then we can proceed. So we chant the a vowel of karma, we say, all my ancient twisted karma, which is a kind of paraphrase, in a way, that only appears in our particular ceremony. Ancient twisted karma. It's really all my, literally, all my bad karma from beginningless greed, ill-will and delusion, born through all my greed, anger and delusion.

[13:08]

Twisted feels a little... Everybody likes that. Tangled, I think, is probably more appropriate. All my ancient tangled karma, You know, your past is tangled with so much, tangled up. So, twisted is okay, but it also has the feeling of a little bit off. But we acknowledge this, our old karma. Even though we may not have done a lot of things that are inappropriate, we should still acknowledge the inappropriateness of our tendencies. So, in order to take the precepts, we first acknowledge our karma.

[14:20]

And then, we take the precepts. So, precepts and a vowel of karma go together. First we acknowledge our karma and then we take the vows in order to continue on our way, on our path. So vows are a guideline for our path. We can live without taking precepts, but precepts are the blood vein of the ancestors and gives us a container or an outline or a way of practicing in our life. In Suzuki Roshi, he used to say,

[15:27]

You think that freedom is to be able to do anything you want. He said, but this is not true freedom. Especially in America, you know, we feel that this is the land of the free and we should be able to do whatever we want. And you see it all over the place. People are doing whatever they want, no matter what. But we have to have some limitation. in order to express our freedom. Freedom only manifests, true freedom only manifests within a container, within some borderline. And if you want to know yourself, you have to come up against something. In order to, you know, if you want to know yourself, you have to let something hit you on the head.

[16:33]

And then you say, oh, that's the head. But unless you come up against something, you don't know the head is there. So we have Zazen as the ultimate container. And you always know where you are in Zazen. because you're always coming up against something. And to have the ultimate freedom, let's say we take the position of the ultimate restriction in order to have the ultimate freedom. In Zazen, which is a very confined position, we find our absolute freedom. When you have absolute freedom, then you have some enlightenment.

[17:44]

But if you just run around without any restrictions, that's not freedom. That's just escape. We love to escape, and we call it freedom. If I could only get out of this. We think of running through the tules, right? Spring day forever. Unfortunately. So, precepts. is our natural true request for taking care of our feelings, our emotions, our surroundings, our society, our family, our friends, and

[18:54]

how to behave in this world without creating karma. And no one can totally live up to the precepts. So people say, well, I'm not sure that I want to have lay ordination because I don't think I can keep all the precepts. But if that were the case, nobody would have it. So precepts is more than we can actually manage, much more than we can actually manage. But that's Buddhadharma. Buddhadharma is always out of reach, a little out of reach, more than you can actually do. We say, I vow to save all sentient beings. than we can actually accomplish.

[20:03]

It should be so. If you could actually accomplish it totally, then you'd have to do something else. So, there's no end to this practice. And with this impossible vow, these impossible vows, we have a way to a place to put all of our energy and it will take every bit that you have So you say, I take refuge in Buddha.

[21:10]

I take refuge in Dharma. I take refuge in Sangha. Or you can say, I now return to Buddha. I now return to Dharma. Sangha. Dharma. I now return to Sangha. So refuge means returning to your true self. We take refuge in the Buddha. Who is our true nature? Not some Buddha outside of ourself. And the main precept is be Buddha. Bring forth Buddha nature. Bring forth the Buddha nature. practice. That's the main precept. And all the other precepts are ways of doing that.

[22:13]

Don't kill, don't steal, etc. Don't lie. And then, there's the aspect of being connected with the lineage of the ancestors, all the Buddhas and ancestors. So when one takes lay ordination, or priest ordination, one is given a lineage paper, And the lineage paper has all the ancestors from Shakyamuni Buddha, which all the ancestors that we chant in the morning, and then all the way down to Suzuki Roshi, who brought our practice to America, and then his son Uitsu, and then my name, and then your name.

[23:29]

Each name is added. And then there's a bloodline that runs through all of them and then back up to Shakyamuni Buddha. And each one is standing on the head of the next one. And then the line goes all the way back up. And so you're standing on the head of Shakyamuni. So it's a great equality. And it's a wonderful family lineage. It doesn't mean that you give up your love, your inherited family lineage, but you become a family member in Shakyamuni Buddha's family. And it acknowledges your practice. Also, each one of us sows the raksus.

[24:30]

the small robe. Small robe, this is a large robe, which is cut, you know, you take one piece of cloth and cut it up into many pieces and then sew it together into another piece. This is the nature of life, is that we take one whole piece of cloth and cut it into many different shapes and sew it together to make a garment. And of course, originally, Shakyamuni and his disciples would go to the graveyards and dumps and get material that had been used and discarded, all discarded materials. And then they would wash it and cut it into pieces and sew it together and then dye it.

[25:34]

But it's not necessary to do that. They did that because they didn't have any money, they didn't have any materials. They used everything that was discarded as kind using things to the end. Nowadays we go to the store and buy the material, but that's our way. And so it takes a long time to sell these small robes. We say, namo ken butsu, which means, I take refuge in Buddha, on each one of these stitches. And there are many, many stitches. So the robe and the lineage paper, the bloodline,

[26:48]

are an acknowledgment, given an acknowledgment of your practice, confirmation of your practice, an acknowledgment of your dedication. So, these are four elements of the Coordination Ceremony. Do you have any questions about it? Yes? Yeah, I was wondering why we couldn't go back to Buddha's way of doing the ropes, okay? Pieces like that, and then dying them. Why do we have this way? Well, we don't have to do anything.

[27:54]

If you want to, you can do that. But why do we have this way? What? Why do we have this way, if someone who understands? Why do we have... When we go out and buy material, why do we have this way of doing it? Well, you don't have to. It's just the way we do it. You can do it another way. You don't have to do it that way. It's just the way we do it. You know, why do you have to wear that shirt? You don't have to wear that shirt. It's just the way we do things. We wear shirts, you know. If you wanted to do it that way, it'd be fine. Could you say something about the naming part of it?

[29:06]

Yes. So each person in the ceremony gets a Dharma name, a Buddhist name. And the name has two parts. One part is one is a Dharma name and the other one is a way name. And one part of the name kind of expresses the feeling of the person, and then the other part expresses the aspiration that you would have for that person, generally. It's hard to say exactly, but something like that. So you have your role in your lineage paper and your new name.

[30:15]

So you have the opportunity to, it's a nice opportunity to feel like you have a new lease on your life. So I have to think up There's a lot of names. There may be 500 Japanese names. Of course, the names are not like your ordinary names, you know, like Open Cloud or, you know, something like that. names that, kind of like American Indian names in a way, but different.

[31:28]

Yeah. I just want to congratulate the ordination. I had my ordination ceremony a year ago, and I took my vows just not really knowing what it would mean to me, you know, just a kind of unknowing, wondering, kind of, why am I exactly doing this? And I just wanted to say it's made a huge difference in my life that I didn't expect. And I keep thinking all the time, it's because of what you said about the vows being, especially the vow to save all beings, being so impossible. You know, it just comes to me over and over and over in my life how that's the genius of the vow It's sort of exactly like how hard it is to try to just live a life is impossible too. So when you have the vow, for me, just having the vow, it just reminds me all the time, well, since I'm trying to save all beings here, I might as well try to at least just do this little bit right now.

[32:37]

You know, at least I can do that much, whatever it is, and it really helps my life so much. And the other thing that's changed is having this place as a home, sort of far from not leaving home, it was more like getting a new home. And even though I don't show up here that much, it's a home for me, like a base for me, as it wasn't really before. And having you for my teacher has been really wonderful, always seeing you and hearing you. It has made a big difference in my life and I appreciate it very much. Thank you. Well, being ordained has made a big difference in my life. Although, I remember when I was ordained in 1969, and Kali Giriroshi came up to me and said, well, do you feel any different? And I said, no. Good. Oh, well that's too, it's not a formula.

[33:56]

Sometimes it's one way and sometimes it's the other. You'll know when you see it. But the name is always very important to the person. When you see the names of it, it's very personal to you. You kind of keep it in the background of your life. It kind of sits there in the background of your life. What is your name? My name is Sojin. Is that your dharma name? Yeah, Sojan, my dharma name.

[35:00]

And it doesn't have a way with it? It doesn't have any meaning. When I was ordained, I was only given one name, Sojan. So, that means essence of purity. And then when I had dharma transmission, Hoitsu gave me another name, which was Haku Ryu, which means little mouse. It means white dragon. That's why it's nice to have our names just in Japanese, you know. It's good to keep it in the background.

[36:10]

Well, you're all invited to come. Except for me. Although I hope you don't all go. We won't have any room. But please feel free to come.

[36:32]

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