Thank you. Thanks. In an unsurpassed penetrating and perfect Dharma, it is really that with even a hundred thousand million Kalpas, having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept, I vow to taste the truth of the

[09:12]

Good morning. The sound and the feel of the rain were quite wonderful. We're lucky to have it. It just felt wonderful as I'm walking over here. Today, five members of our community, our friends, are going to receive lay ordination. And so I'm going to talk about lay ordination, about receiving the precepts, and leave time for questions that you may have. But I wanted to preface it by... just relating where a discussion or a circumstance that I just came from, like I was sitting in the living room, looking over my notes and thinking about the talk and thinking about the precepts.

[10:32]

And a longtime friend, somebody that I have known for for 60 years almost, and have great affection and respect for, called to want to talk about and listen to what we respectively were making of the crisis between Israel and Palestine. you know, immediately we were drawn into a very deep conversation. And I'm not going to have that conversation here. But what occurred to me as I was walking over was, we need to be having these conversations.

[11:38]

And we need to be having them in the context of the the precepts, the ethical framework for how we want to be in relationship to people. And that's the context that I keep trying to... It's not something I can just invoke that provides a map in some really direct way, but it does keep me thinking about how to get in relationship, how to be in relationship, how do I want to respond, how does a community want to respond in circumstances where terrible things are happening, which may or may not be within our control.

[12:47]

And so I just wanted to say that this is the tender context for the ceremony that we're going to be doing this afternoon. And I want to remind you of that and just remind you to keep the precepts in mind when we're having these conversations. And also to say, you know, each of us, both as individuals and as a community, it's important for us to hear each other and to not to expect that we're all going to agree, but to respect the complete humanity of each person that we're speaking to, and try to hold that in mind, even where we may have really significant differences of opinion.

[14:07]

So I think that we've been, some of us have been discussing, you know, how to create a context or a form for having these discussions within this community. And there's some models that I think some of us are familiar with. And hopefully that'll be happening. But this just, you know, I was just very moved to hear from this old friend who took the step to open up a conversation. And I realized, and I've been having conversations like this, you know, with people in the community here, in my extended community.

[15:11]

This happened to be somebody who was a musician. And I think it's important. And again, the context there, the Bodhisattva presents. So let's take a couple of breaths before I move on from this. So as I said, Five of our members will be receiving lay ordination from Ryushin and myself this afternoon. And we've been holding these ceremonies for nearly 40 years. And I can pretty clearly remember the first one that I attended.

[16:20]

which was either in the spring or the fall, I can't remember that clearly, either in the spring or the fall after Sochin Roshi received Dharma transmission. He received Dharma transmission in the, I guess it was 39 years ago, it was in the fall of 1984. And then shortly after that, we had the first large Dukai group. And I remember being in the Zendo, and I've never seen a ceremony. Maybe many of you haven't seen the ceremony. You can think the Zendo is pretty full, right, Laurie? But you can watch online. And I remember just there's a point in the ceremony where you receive a new Buddhist name that your teacher has arrived at as expressive of who you are, or pedemptively expressive of who you are.

[17:45]

Usually it's pretty good. and just where it's revealed because you haven't heard this before and nobody else has heard it either. And just, I remember tears springing to my eyes in seeing people that they were my elders that I respected being somehow uncovered or revealed to to each of us and to themselves. So that's part of the ceremony. So in this ceremony, students receive, and the ceremony is an initiatory ceremony. It is, when I had mine,

[18:48]

my sisters were there, and she said, oh, this is like your Buddhist bar mitzvah. Which is true. It's a confirmation. It's not a graduation. It's confirmation of a step that you've already taken, but it's the affirmation of that step. And so, in this ceremony, you receive the sixteen Bodhisattva precepts. So that's the three refuges. Refuge of Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. The three pure precepts to avoid evil, to do good, to save all beings. And then the ten pure mind precepts, And in the form that we have them is a pair of prohibitions and affirmations.

[19:59]

So I vow not to kill, but to honor all life. I vow not to steal, but to practice generosity and so forth. The phrasing is a little, different than that, but that's the sense. So it's not just the prohibitory dimension, it's also how are we going to go forward in this world. So you receive the precepts, you receive a raksu, which, if you look at it, Joe's got his raksu there, which is a a Buddhist robe that's constructed in the same manner of construction as the robe that I'm wearing or that Ryushin is wearing.

[21:03]

It's just, it's a smaller robe. And it's a preset garment. Wearing this robe is like wearing the concretization of the precepts themselves. So you receive a row which you have sewn. That's something in our tradition that is quite wonderful. A student sews their own raksu. And if you doubt that you can do it, you can do it. Thousands of, hundreds of people have done it here. And you take refuge with every stitch, every stitch that you place in this garment. Say, I take refuge in Buddha.

[22:08]

Or as Zeke Blanche Hartman should say, I plunge into Buddha. So as you're sticking the needle in, you plunge into Buddha, and then you draw back up through this particular stitch. And there's a lot of stitches, but you get a lot of help to get through this process. So you sew a robe, and then you receive, as I said, a Dharma name and a lineage paper. which is called Ketchimiyaku. And the lineage paper is a beautiful document that at the top is the name of Shakyamuni Buddha. And then it goes, there's a red line, it's called bloodline, which is what Ketchimiyaku actually means, that leads through all the Indian ancestors and then all of the Chinese ancestors.

[23:18]

of the Rinzai lineage and the Soto lineage, and then converging in Dōgen, and then continuing down from Dōgen to Archeachers, so to Shinryu Suzuki Roshi, and Suzuki Roshi's son Hoitsu Suzuki Roshi, the Sojin Roshi, and then in our case, from Sojongoshi to me, or to Ryushin, and then your name, your new name, and the line continues around from you, back up to the top, to the head of the Buddha. So this is a continual, continuous, circular inheritance of the Dharma. over the last 15 years, we've also been part of the creation of a new document.

[24:31]

And we confer that as well, which is a document of women ancestors. It's not... You know, the Hegemiyaku is the official Soto lineage, which is somewhat, I think it's somewhat real and somewhat fictional. And we don't exactly know, but it purports to be direct transmission from one ancestor to the X. And... It's, if there are any actual, if there are actually any women in there, it's not so clear, because it's a patriarchal tradition, which I am not, I'm not proud of the fact that it's a patriarchal tradition.

[25:32]

So, after a lot of discussion and research, a number of people really felt it was necessary to honor women known and unknown in our Buddhist tradition. And so that's what this women's document represents. And it's also a beautiful document of women's names in a circular fashion and continuous to you. at least how we do it here is that this is not just a document that's given to women, it's given to everyone, which is important. And it's an important effort to recognize that in this, in the patriarchal dimension of the Zen tradition, there have always been women.

[26:48]

There's always been leading women and they have often been disappeared from the history. And so this is at least an effort to bring them back into, bring some of them into memory, into visibility at a time when I like to think that the tradition is not so, is not as patriarchal as it was. I was really, when we had Segin, was it last week Segin? You know, at the closing of aspects, it's like all the teachers that were standing in front were women, you know, which is, It's not all the teachers that we have, not all the senior students, but, you know, it's like, this is a shifting ground.

[27:56]

And so I just, we wanted to honor that. So at the bottom of this document, there's also a text that talks about the transmission, the transmission from the Buddha to Makashapa, from Dogen's teacher, Rujing, from the fifth ancestor, sixth ancestor, from Rujing to Dogen, from Owitsu to Sojin, from Sojin to me and Ryushin. And the text says, In the text, it's got this beautiful line, which comes back to what I was saying at the beginning. The preceptual vein of the Buddha, so the precepts, is the one great causal condition of our lineage gate.

[29:06]

Personally passed from Buddha on Gurdakutta peak. Protect and hold these precepts. Do not let them be cut off. This is the pivotal beating heart of this process, to remember that without the precepts, we don't have a tradition. You know, we can, anybody can meditate, right? You know, and Anybody can develop concentration. One of our teachers, Katagiri Roshi, used to talk about going to a casino in Las Vegas and seeing how concentrated people were in front of the slot machines.

[30:14]

That's not dogma. It is concentration, but it's minus that ethical dimension. And that ethical dimension is what gives it life. And also, then, one of the things about this ceremony, which is beautiful to me, is that it's The precepts are being transmitted to you from a teacher who's received them correctly in a ceremonial and ritual way, and then they are transmitting that to you. And it works when it's working right, it puts some mysterious

[31:16]

ontological shift within yourself, having received them correctly, we are changed. I often think about it, I think about like what I felt when I got married. It's like, oh, something's changed here. And I couldn't put a name to it or figure out quite what it was, but with that ritual, something shifts in one's inner being. And I feel like that's what we are enacting by the process of taking refuge as we sow the rocks, a process of receiving the precepts, having them transmitted to us, of finding our place and our name in the lineage, all of this is to locate us in this preceptual place and to take on the responsibility in that, in those last two sentences, protect and hold these precepts.

[32:37]

Do not let them be cut off. There's a beautiful chant at the end of the ceremony that we do three times. We live like a cloud in an endless sky, a lotus in muddy water, one with the pure mind of Buddha. The cloud in an endless sky, you know, it's like that's us. We have the form, this form that is Fluid and changeable that is existing within the entirety of the sky of life, if you will. And we have a particular shape, that shape can change. Cloud in the sky. A lotus in muddy water. How can we be, you know, if you look at, if you've seen a lotus, it's just incredible.

[33:46]

brilliant flower, this, you know, this upwelling of extraordinary life, you know, in the middle of muddy ponds, you know, and this is what we're encouraged to be. We're encouraged to flower and rise and somehow draw from, you know, not this beautiful, clear water that we all like, but water that's muddy, that's mixed up, that includes suffering and life forms that are decaying. And out of that, we rise. And we are one with the pure mind of Buddha. So the name of this ceremony, there's two names that we use for the ceremony.

[34:51]

Kind of shorthand, we use the word jukai. And the other expression that we use is lei ordination. And that in Japanese means zaikei, tokodo, which means accomplishing the way as a householder. So we have zaikei tokodo, householder's ordination, and we have shukkei tokodo, priest ordination, which is home leavers ordination. And to be quite honest with you, the distinction in our particular tradition is, we'll talk about muddy water. It's a little unclear. But there are different paths in which, different paths in terms of what you might, how you might be manifesting or expressing your practice.

[36:03]

But the fact of the matter is that we have, you know, we're not celibate monks, so whole believers. Well, you know, I've been living up there for 35 years, 36 years. You know, but the home leaving is a symbolic home leaving in a sense. And the home dwelling is a symbolic home dwelling because your home, this is my home. This is your home, each body. And we are here. And, you know, some of the priests are married. And some of the lay ordained people are celibate. You know, it's like the tradition. I like this expression that I got from Bernie Glassman.

[37:05]

You know, this whole tradition is what he called, it's marked by MSU. which is making stuff up. It's all been made up. All ritual is made up, but that doesn't disconnect it from meaning. At any rate, Jukai literally means accepting or receiving the precepts. And as I said, Saikei Tokido, or le ordination, ordination as a lay president. It really is an ordination ceremony. And I think that lay ordination is the more accurate translation for what we're doing here. And it's different. It's really a principal ceremony that we have

[38:15]

here in the West, much more so than you would find in Japan or in China. Often, it's a different function of this basic ceremony that you would find in Japan, which is that it usually happens as part of a funeral. So, you receive the precepts And you may receive a roxu, or you may receive, there's another precept garment that Ryan is wearing. It's like a collar. You may receive that at the funeral and an aid, so that you can be reborn in the Pure Land. Well, we want to be reborn in Pure Land now, here. And so we don't wait until you're dead.

[39:17]

And so that is, it's a way of looking at the ceremony. Dogen writes, there's a beautiful fascicle that he has, that's called Jugaid. It's one of his last fascicles. He says, all Buddhas and ancestors taught that receiving the precepts is the first step in the way. He also says that on receiving the Buddhist precepts, we immediately enter the position of all the Buddhists. So that's pretty challenging. What is the Buddhist position when your old friend calls you to talk about Israel and Palestine.

[40:19]

It's a lot of responsibility to understand what that position is. So much more that I can say about it, but I just wanted to add also that the way this unfolds for people is we prepare for lay ordination each year by doing, by sewing our rocks. We have a sewing class that meets for a number of months and people people's silver rocks too. And at the same time, along with that, we study the bodhisattva precepts.

[41:24]

And so we're immersing ourselves in the act of creating this garment, but also in our reflection on the precepts. And in order to do that, that's available to people who have who really feel at home in practice and been practicing here a while. And if you're interested in doing that, you would ask permission from me, from one of the teachers, whether they're priests or someone who is a senior student, not a priest, who you see as a teacher. and ask their permission to do this ceremony. And then you begin on this path together.

[42:26]

And one thing that's lovely here is that basically we sew together. So there's a sort of cohort of people who are going through this at the same time. And so that's something that some of you might think about, and you can approach one of us if that interests you. We'll probably begin sewing in January or February, I believe. And it's a matter of discussion. You know, your teacher may feel this is an appropriate step at this time. They may feel, oh, perhaps you should practice here a bit longer and we'll, you know, we'll look for this, to do this in the coming year, next year. But it's something that I invite you to think about.

[43:29]

And I really invite people to tune in this afternoon because it's quite beautiful. So I think I'm going to stop there and leave time for thoughts, discussions. Ryushin, is there something you would like to say? Thank you so much for your talk. I really appreciated it. Maybe the one dimension we didn't touch on is how, and we won't feel it as much today as we do sometimes, but every year when we do a ordination, it's an opportunity for everyone to renew their vows. whether they hold the precepts in their heart and they have not yet taken them, or whether you've taken them before 40 years ago. It really is a very joyous inspiration to reawaken and connect with our deep intention to wake up and be of help.

[44:37]

So please come. Yes, and the thing I would add also in that context is This is a ceremony that we do in community. And so, you know, from the lineage paper, you're in the community of the Buddhists and ancestors, but you've been sowing in community, you receive, you do this ceremony in community, and it's witnessed by the whole community. It's not... a private individual ceremony. It's a public affirmation and recognition. That's why, you know, I think that my sister describing it as my Buddhist bar mitzvah is not so inaccurate.

[45:39]

Someone else? Other thoughts or questions? And if you have anything, if there's anyone out there online, feel free to raise your hand as well. I'll call on you. Would you say the names of the people that are taken? Yes. I will be ordaining Jamie Kimmel And Jim Erb. Jim's here. Jamie's not here, right? At the moment. And you shouldn't be... Do you want to say who you are? If you can hear me, I'll be conferring three steps for Greg Hertz, Pauline Kirshen, and Evan. Yeah, thank you. Peter?

[46:42]

Thank you, John. That was really great to listen to. Thank you. As I'm sitting here, I'm thinking of a commonly used phrase, which somehow points to something about what we're trying to do here. Say the phrase again. I missed it. I'm sorry? What is the phrase? The phrase is... Well, don't take the microphone away. What does it mean to you? It means to me that there's a certain connection between the practice process and how you receive the results.

[48:09]

Yeah. I think that, to me, so in a sense you're speaking about karma, correct? the Buddhist idea of karma, often when we think about karma, we think about it as like fate or predestination or something like that, which in some Asian religious traditions, it's pretty close to that. But to me, what karma implies in the Buddhist tradition, you have karma and vipaka, you have provisional action and result, a fruit. And what karma implies, it creates a space between

[49:17]

what you sow and what you reap. And you need to flip them backwards. So, if you sow something, or before you sow something, maybe, I don't want to get too abstract. Before you sow something, if you can see what you're going to reap, you have a space to do something else. you recognize there's going to be a result. Certain actions are going to have a result. So, you know, you can look at that on a microcosmic level of our smallest thoughts and words and actions. And you can also look at it, you know, in an international or geopolitical dimension.

[50:21]

You know, in another way of looking at what the Buddha called dependent origination, the simplest formulation is because this arises, that arises. If this doesn't arise, that doesn't arise. So the position that we have as humans is right in the middle of the actual choices that we have in terms of what we do. And recognizing you're going to reap just what you sow puts you in the position of, if you receive the precepts, you have the wherewithal to reflect on that. before you do something that's harmful. And then all of the precepts, once I asked one of my teachers, Harada Roshi, about the precepts, and he said, well, you know, I was asking, do we need precepts?

[51:40]

And he said, basically, well, if there were no people, there'd be no precepts. I paused on that for a moment. But then when you think about it, the implication of that is that the field of the precepts is entirely the field of relationships between oneself and others, between oneself and oneself, between oneself and all of the objects around us. It's completely inclusive. It's about relationship and it's meant to be a guide to a wholesome way of being in relationship to people and to ourselves. Yeah.

[52:43]

Marco. Oh, there's some hands out there too. Um, you were talking about how, uh, in this example of, like, being in Los Angeles and this, like, concentration is not, um, uh, I forget exactly what you said. It's not dharma. Not dharma. Yeah. And I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit more about, um, the importance of, or a little bit more about practicing in community and in tradition when kind of in a more fundamental sense, maybe like awakening is always accessible? First of all, just to go back a moment. Concentration is one of the factors of enlightenment. It's also one of the steps on the Eightfold Path, but in

[53:46]

in each case, they're talking about right concentration. And right concentration is really the concentration that's been infused by the wisdom of the precepts. And for me, I think that You're asking about community. Community is the context and the setting within which I practice. You know, I contain the practice or manifest the practice in my own life as best I can. But the real cauldron that it's cooking in is the cauldron of community, of relationship.

[54:49]

And so that's where it's really always evolving to me. And I think that's our whole practice. I think that the Zen practice is very explicitly organized that way. Perhaps in a sense more so than some other Buddhist traditions. I mean, just look, we sit right next to each other. We walk together. We're not just walking as individuals, we're walking as a kind of like a millipede, you know, as one organism that has where our legs are moving independently, but we're all moving in a collective space. We eat together.

[55:52]

We work together. There's this dimension of sangha is really manifest. And so I think that's beautiful. I'm so grateful to have that. I think in part because if I look back over my life, All my life I've been leaning towards community in one form or another. And I've got, I have these various communities that I'm part of. And it's always been tremendously meaningful to me, you know, well before I took up this practice. And this practice just really kind of brings it all back home. So you'll get to. Thank you, Hozan.

[56:56]

Last year, when I was with my cohort, sewing our Raksus and getting ready for Jukai, I was really struck by how this the process. really sort of guided me in a way that I didn't know exactly what was going to happen. And I didn't know exactly. I mean, I knew I signed up for this and I knew that it's just a reflection of where I am in my process. And here I am a year later, so excited for the new people and getting to, you know, be a little bit involved in, in their ceremony today. And I just feel like this, some, there's something that the precepts are like, you know, I'm, I'm in this stream and I'm, I'm, I'm going along in the water and I'm, and I'm flowing in the right direction because they kind of, they,

[58:18]

guide me in a way that is good for me. And every day I can be looking at the precepts and like, oh, yeah, is this, am I giving or am I stealing? Am I, you know, am I killing something like myself, you know, or am I giving life? So I don't know exactly where I'm going in the future. But I know that right now I have enough. I have my sangha, I have my community, I have the principles, I have the precepts. And it is a just I feel really grateful that I got to do this. And I'm so excited for the people who are getting to do this. Well, thank you for testifying. You're preaching at us. Yeah, I mean, two things that come to me from what you were saying.

[59:26]

One is to cherish this feeling of not knowing what you're doing. There's a koan where the teacher says, Not knowing is most intimate. And if we can set aside our knowing, there's all kinds of things that we might bear witness to and see and allow to rise. So that's one point. The other point is just the whole the implication of the Ketchum Yaku is to really express the fact that you are in a stream. You know, you're not just in the stream of ancestors who are on that page, you're also in the stream of all the women who we see on the Women Ancestors document, and of all the people who have ever

[60:44]

received the precepts. This is, this is now the world that we have together. And for me, that also includes people who live by the values of the precepts, irrespective of whatever faith they may be, you know, they're, they're all around us. You know, they may call it by a different name. So thank you. Time for one more, perhaps. Anyone else here? Did you have a question, Sid? No, I was. Hallelujah. Thank you, sister. Just looking around, see if there's anyone else, anyone else out there? And if not, we will say good morning.

[61:54]

Beings are numberless. I vow to awaken with them. Delusions are inexhaustible. Special welcome to anyone who is joining us for the first time.

[65:03]

My name is Joe. Here are some announcements. First of all, as mentioned, the Jukai ceremony is today, and you are all invited to join us online, and that's at 3 p.m. in the online Zendo. Tomorrow, we have a women's session. I believe you can still register if you go onto the website. That'll go from 8 a.m. until noon tomorrow. and it's being led by Mushim Akita. On Monday morning at 8 a.m., Tom Painter will give away Seeking Mind Talk, and that's in the online zendo. Thursday will be a zendo holiday. Please keep an eye out on the listserv for an email about when informal zazen will be offered. And next Saturday, John Bush will give the lecture and also rohatsu registration is also open. And so please see the website if you'd like to sign up for the seven-day session starting December 4th.

[66:08]

Here's some recurring announcements. The Wednesday night drop-in group meets from 7, 10 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday evenings, and the group particularly welcomes newcomers to Zen practice. Please contact Ikushin Jerry Oliva if you want any more information. Her email is in the Zoom chat. And if you want her contact information and you're here in the Zendo, please let me know. Also, as a reminder, the Zendo is a scent-free environment. So please refrain from wearing scented body care products or laundering your clothes in scented body products so we can help take care of our friends with chemical sensitivities and they can be at ease here in the Zendo. If you'd like more information about our programs or membership, please check out the website or the bulletin board that's in the courtyard. And to make a donation to support BCC, you can also visit the website. There's a generosity tab and we have a donation box that's just by the bulletin board outside.

[67:11]

Today, due to the unpredictable weather, we will not be having our usual informal tea. I apologize for that. Please feel free to hang out on the porches or if it's not rainy and socialize. Those in the Zendo, until you get off the, until you're outside the Zendo, please maintain silence, but feel free to chat after that. And for those online, you can feel free to unmute and greet one another. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Good morning, everybody. Do we need anyone to help set up? Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Good morning. How are you? Better. Thank you. Recovering. Lots of exercises. All right. See you guys in a few.

[68:14]

Bye-bye. Bye-bye. You will. Here we go. Another week. Love the fireworks. Thank you. Whoever did that.

[68:31]

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