I've got all the days in Judah to find those words. Yeah.

[01:06]

Today, this afternoon, we're having our first lay ordination at the Berkeley Zen Center. Many people have had lay ordination, or jukai, before, but some people from Suzuki Roshi and some people from Baker Roshi But this is the first time we've had it on this premises, at our place. And I asked Bekaroshi to do it for us. I suppose we could have waited until I was able to, in a position to, give people ordination. But I felt that I would like to do it to give us some feeling, some strong feeling of practice, for our practice, and to help us understand what we're doing.

[03:56]

So I asked Baker Roshi to do it. When Suzuki Roshi And when people who were studying with Suzuki Roshi first had lay ordination, he asked Bishop Yamada to do it. At that time, Bishop Yamada was the representative of the Soto School in Los Angeles. There's a bishop, you know, who resides in America from the Soto School, and he has a temple in Los Angeles. And at that time, it was Bishop Yamada. And so he asked Bishop Yamada to give the first lay ordination for Zen Center students. That was about 1962 or something, 63. And at that time, there was about 10 or 12 people And I think Dick Baker and Bill Klong were both in that group.

[05:13]

And that was before I came to Zen Center. I came to Zen Center around 1964. And then much later, in 1970, Suzuki Roshi decided to give people lay ordination. There was quite a gap between the first one and the second one, quite a long period of time between the time that Bishop Yamada gave people lay ordination and the time that Suzuki Roshi did it. He actually ordained several priests before that time. And I was ordained as a monk in 1969. And then in 1970, Suzuki Roshi decided to give another lay ordination. So he did it himself this time. Thereafter, he did all the lay ordinations.

[06:33]

Katagiri Roshi did it once when Suzuki Roshi was too sick. It was all scheduled and then Suzuki Roshi couldn't do it, so Katagiri Roshi did it one time. But I want to read Suzuki Roshi's talk that he gave I printed it in the last newsletter. I want to talk a little bit about it. When he gave that second lay ordination, Jukai. Jukai means Jew.

[07:38]

It's a kind of double meaning word. It means to give and at the same time it means to receive. So it has that feeling of transference or Giving and receiving, in this sense, as being not two different things. One word with both meanings. And kai is the precepts. So jukai means giving and receiving precepts. Bodhisattva precepts. So that's what this ceremony is. Ceremony of receiving, giving and receiving bodhisattva precepts. So Suzuki Roshi says, as we have so many students here, inside and outside of Zen Center, we need more help.

[08:45]

I decided to have a lay ordination for you old students, just in order to help others. not to give some special idea of lay Buddhist or what a lay Buddhist is, because all of us are Buddhists, actually. Every sentient being is a bodhisattva, whether or not he is aware of it. As this is our conviction, I didn't want to give you some special idea of a lay Buddhist, but the time has come for us to strive more sincerely to help others. It's interesting because a lot of the people who are taking Jukkai are older, a lot of our older students, people who have been practicing for as long as 11, 12 years, and no one shorter than six years. And it's actually about time, you know, it should have been

[09:48]

long ago that we did this, but I'm glad that we're doing it now, actually. So Suzuki Yoshi says, I didn't want to give people some special idea of what a lay Buddhist is. And in other words, you know, he didn't want to feel that if he gave someone ordination that they would feel that it was some hierarchical step. Or that the person had some special qualities. But it's more like fulfilling our bodhisattva vow. In order to help sentient beings, we study Buddhism and we practice.

[10:51]

And in order to confirm the practice that we've been doing, we take initiation. So in a sense, because you're already practicing as bodhisattvas, you feel that bodhisattva vows are what you already have. So it's like a confirmation of what you've already been doing rather than some new step. It's not a new step, but it's... I remember when I was ordained, And Kharagiri Roshi came up to him and he said, well, do you feel any different? I said, no. He said, good.

[11:56]

So then he says, our way is like Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva. When he wants to save ladies, he takes the form of a lady. For boys, this is the way he talks, boys and ladies. For a boy, he takes the form of a boy. For a fisherman, he becomes a fisherman. A more sophisticated Chinese expression is, to be like a white bird in the snow. When people are like snow, we should be like snow. When people become black, we should be black. And always being with them, without any idea of discrimination, we can help others in its true sense. without giving anything, any special teaching or materials. This is actually the Bodhisattva way. This is, you know, more difficult way, skillful way of practice.

[13:00]

That's why Suzuki Roshi wasn't so keen on whether a person was a lay person or a monk. Of course, if you're a priest, you appreciate other priests very much, and you feel very special about them. But Bodhisattva practice is how to move invisibly. To be like a white bird in the snow means to not stand out in some special way as a Buddhist. But to know how to become, blend with things and become what things are so that you can help people in any kind of situation.

[14:11]

That's why you may feel that your work is a hindrance to practice, but actually it's the field of practice. It's the practice of being a white bird in the snow. You don't need some special place to practice, but wherever you are is where you practice. helping people in every situation. Softness of mind is the foundation of our practice to help others. You may think that we are forcing you into some form, forcing some rituals on you or some special teaching, forcing you to say, yes, I will. But these things are provided for you just to be like a white bird in the snow.

[15:13]

When you have ordination, you ask, will you receive these precepts? And you say, yes, I will. You say, just like that. Yes, I will. And various things are asked during the ordination. You say, yes, I will. So that's what he's referring to here. Yes, I will. When you practice zazen in this way, You have the point of zazen and the point of practice. This is why we had an ordination ceremony today. None of us, including various great teachers, find it easy to be like a white bird in the snow. But somehow we should make our best effort. If you help yourself through practice, if you help yourself by way of practice, you can help others without anything, without using any special means. Just to be with people will be enough.

[16:18]

In spite of your busy everyday lives, you found time to sew your raksus, that is your small robe. I think this is a good example of the Buddhist way. Even though we are busy, there is some way to practice the most formal practice, Even though all human beings in the city are busy, there is no reason why they cannot practice our way. If all join our practice of being a bodhisattva, the result will be great." Raksu, you know, is a small robe that we wear. And the people who have been... who are being ordained have been sewing their raksas one stitch at a time. And it's taken about a year, hasn't it? About a year.

[17:22]

It doesn't have to take a year. It can be done in a month. But you have to be pretty free to have to do it in a month. And they've been... sewing with Blanche Hartman, who teaches people to sew raksus and robes. And the raksu is laid out in a very special way. Just like this robe, you know, this is a large robe, and priest's robe. And priest also wears a raksu, like Fran is wearing. informally. Formally we wear the Okesa. This is Okesa. Okesa means, O is an honorific term, means special feeling.

[18:33]

Dogen put a lot of emphasis on using the term Oh toward everything. And he said everything you address you should address using the term Oh or some elevated feeling about it. So kesa, he said, is o-kesa. And so raksu and o-kesa are really made in the same way. And each time you make a stitch, you say namu kie butsu, means I take refuge in Buddha, something like that. And each stitch has to be just exactly, you come up and then you go down again and you make a little knot like, and then you follow these very straight lines.

[19:57]

And each stitch has to be just exactly the same space apart. It takes a long, long time to do it. And it's a very concentrated activity. So if you make a raksu, sew a raksu, it's something you have to really want to do. And so they'd, almost every Sunday, they'd be going to that class for a year, spending several hours sewing. And if they get it wrong, if they get it wrong, they have to take the stitches out and do it over again. So we appreciate this kind of effort to do something. And it gives us a very intimate feeling about

[21:05]

our practice. I never had the opportunity to sew my okesa. This is the first okesa that was sewn at Zen Center. And I think Mrs. Katagiri and a few other people worked on it. And it was a kind of experiment. And there were, I think, about eight, six or eight of these cases that were made at that time. And this was the first one. It was made out of the old robes that we used to wear at Tassajara. Old gray robes that we used to wear there. So I didn't really have the opportunity to make one.

[22:14]

After that, people started sewing their own robes. I made a raksu, but it took me four years to finish it. I asked Suzuki Roshi if I should make a rock so he said, you're too busy. I don't think you should do it. But I did it anyway. Oh, thank you. I have one. Oh, all right. No, there's some cough drops here. Oh, it's OK. This is fine. Thank you. I think as soon as the weather turned cold, most of us got a cold. So I'm just about over mine, even though it doesn't seem like it. So it's going to be very nice to have more people wearing robes in Zendo and around here.

[23:26]

At times I felt very lonely, not having more people ordained. So I never did have lay ordination either. Usually, you know, you take steps, lay ordination, or jukai, and then tokudo, which is priest ordination, or monk's ordination. then Dharma transmission, and there are other kinds of ordination after that. But I was ordained as a monk before, and so I didn't have to take the step of lay ordination. But I think it's good to do that, to have Jukai first, and then monk's ordination. you get a feeling for that kind of confirmation.

[24:39]

And somehow, having this piece of material, this material thing, this formless form, sometimes we say, well, why do we need to do that? I'm practicing. I've been practicing for 10 years. What's the difference if I have a piece of cloth or not? You get that kind of feeling. But there's something important about the tangibility of things. Having, you know, in the morning you put the raksa on top of your head and chant the robe chant. And then you wear the raksa and you take care of it in a very special way.

[25:54]

You fold it in just the right way and put it in this little bag, you know, and you carry it carefully. And if you carry nothing else, if you do nothing else carefully, you should take care of your robe carefully. And taking care of your robe very carefully is gives you some sense of practice. Just having to take care of that piece of cloth helps you to realize how you take care of everything. When you wear, if you're a monk and you wear monk's robes, you're always fooling with the sleeves, you know, and fooling with your robe. get up here to give a lecture, you're not fooling around with the robe and everybody's sitting there waiting, maybe getting impatient.

[26:58]

But, you know, it really focuses you on how you take care of yourself and how you take care of things and how you take care of others. The robes that people wear at Zen Center now have short sleeves, so you don't have to bother so much with them. But we always used to wear the long-sleeved robes like this. And they take a lot more bother. You know, you're always fooling with your sleeves. Seems like a lot of bother. Why have so much stuff, you know, when you can just trim down and be more... easy about things. Why burden yourself with something else? That's an interesting concept. It's really... We need to know how to take on some kind of burden, or some kind of difficulty, or something that slows us down.

[28:12]

If we're going to help people, then helping people slows us down. And taking care of people, taking care of the world, taking care of our situation, always slows us down. we need to be able to take care of things gracefully. Even though things are slowing us down, sometimes, you know, it's like walking through a river, you know, that's really coming down hard, and taking one step after the other, you know, just trying to stand up. Sometimes our life is like that. And we need to know how to be able to do that when we have to. I think there's a tendency in our world today to strip ourselves down so that we don't, to streamline, you know, so that we don't, so we can go faster.

[29:30]

Streamlining is, I remember when they came out with, in about 1935, The old Nash was streamlined, first streamlined car. It had a, from the top to the back it went like this, teardrop shape. And that teardrop shape got taken up by General Motors and perfected in the 1950 Chevy. I used to have one of those. It's like the attempt to get rid of everything that hinders your going faster. But when we do that, you know, we neglect... It's easy to neglect things. The faster you go, the less opportunity you have to take care of things, or to take care of people around you, or help people.

[30:34]

it's easier, you know, it becomes a burden. Everything that catches on you becomes a burden. So more and more we tend to neglect things around us as we become more streamlined and more fast. We don't want anything holding us back. But Bodhisattva way is to Let things hold you back, to be hindered by things. To not be up in the front, you know, not at all costs to be at the head of the line. And Bodhisattva's freedom is in being able to change like a chameleon, to take on the color of the situation that you're in.

[31:58]

As Suzuki Roshi said, to blend with our surroundings. So we're not so much in a hurry to get someplace or to make a name for ourself or gain some fame for ourself or be some kind of worldly success. But just to, when we can forget about that, then we can turn our attention to just bodhisattva work. just helping people and allowing ourselves to be hindered. I'm not going to give a very long talk today because we're going to have the ordination in the new sendo and there's still a lot of work to be done to clean up the place and get everything in order and set up so that we can start on time.

[33:31]

So I'm going to stop there. If there's anybody who can help this afternoon cleaning up and feels free to do that, we welcome your participation. Shreem Brzee Shreem Brzee

[34:23]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ