I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I All right. Today, this afternoon, we're having our first lay ordination at the Berkeley Zen Center.

[02:55]

Many people have had lay ordination, or jukkai, 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 Baker Oshie 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 so that to give us some feeling of some strong feeling of practice and 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 When people who were studying 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 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, something like that. And at that time, there was about 10 or 12 people.

[05:03]

And I think Dick Baker and Bill Kong were both in that group. And that was before I came to Zen Center. I came to Zen Center in 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 priest, or a monk, whatever you want to call it, in 1969.

[06:07]

And then in 1970, Suzuki Roshi decided to give another lay ordination. So he did it himself this time, and thereafter he did all the lay ordinations. 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 went 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, Jūkai, you know, jūkai means, jū means to, it's a kind of double word or double meaning word.

[07:42]

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, is being not two different things. One word with both meanings. And kai is precepts. So jukai means giving and receiving precepts. Bodhisattva presets. So that's what this ceremony is. Ceremony of receiving, giving and receiving Bodhisattva presets. 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 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. It should have been long ago that we did this, but I'm glad that we're doing it now, actually.

[09:59]

So Suzuki-Yoshi says, I didn't want to give people some special idea of what a lay Buddhist is. In other words, 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. And in order to confirm the practice that we've been doing, we take initiations. So in a sense, because you're already practicing as bodhisattvas, you feel that bodhisattva vows are what you already have.

[11:21]

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, Karagiri Roshi came up to me and he said, well, do you feel any different? I said, no. He said, good. So then he says, our way is like avalokitesvara bodhisattva. When he wants to save ladies, he takes the form of a lady. For boys, this is the way he talked, 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.

[12:26]

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. 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 know, you appreciate other priests very much, but And you feel very special about them. But bodhisattva practice, you know, is how to be, how to move invisibly.

[13:43]

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. 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 proves where you practice helping people in every situation.

[14:47]

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. 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 here. This is why we had an ordination ceremony today.

[15:52]

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. In spite of your busy everyday lives, you found time to sew your raksas . 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 is a small robe that we wear.

[17:04]

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. It doesn't have to take a year. It can be done in a month. But you have to be pretty free to do it in a month. And they've been... sewing with Blanche Hartman, who teaches people to sew raksas and robes. And the raksa is laid out in a very special way. Just like this robe. This is a large robe and priest's robe. And priest also wears a raksa, like Fran is wearing. Informally, we wear the okesa.

[18:14]

This is okesa. Okesa means, oh, is an honorific term. It means special feeling. Dogen put a lot of emphasis on using the term O toward everything. And he said everything you address, you should address using the term O or some elevated feeling about it. So kesa, he said, is okesa. And so the raksu and okesa are really made in the same way.

[19:18]

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 that. And then you follow these very straight lines. 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

[20:21]

And so almost every Sunday they'd been 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 a stitch and do it over here. So we appreciate this kind of... effort to do something. And it gives us a very intimate feeling about our practice. I never had the opportunity to my okesa.

[21:27]

This was 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 okesas that were made at that time. And this was the first one And it was made out of the old robes that we used to wear at Tassajara, old gray robes that we used to wear there. And so I didn't really have the opportunity to make one. After that, people started sewing their own robes. I made a rock sew, but it took me four years to finish it. I asked Suzuki Roshi if I should make a rock salute.

[22:31]

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, hi. There's some cough drops here. That's okay. 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 didn't seem like it. So it's going to be very nice to have more people wearing robes in Zendo and around here. At times I felt very lonely. not having more people ordained.

[23:39]

So I never did have lay ordination either. Usually, you know, you take steps, lay ordination of Jukkai and then Tokudo, which is priest ordination, or Marx ordination, and 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 jibkai first and then monks' ordination. you get a feeling for that kind of confirmation. And somehow, having this piece of material, this material thing,

[24:59]

this formless form. Sometimes we say, well, why do we need to do that? I'm practicing. I've been practicing for ten years. What's the difference if I have a piece of cloth or not? We get that kind of feeling. But there's something important about the tangibility of things. In the morning, you put the rock star on top of your head and chant the robe chant. And then you wear the rock, and you take care of it in a very special way. You fold it in just the right way, and you put it in this little bag.

[26:04]

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 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, and get up here to give a lecture, you know, and fooling around with the robe, and everybody's sitting there waiting, maybe getting impatient. 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.

[27:12]

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 bothering. 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. If we're going to help people, then helping people slows us down.

[28:24]

And taking care of people, taking care of the world, taking care of our situation, always slows us down. And we need to be able to take care of things gracefully. Even though things are slowing us down, Sometimes it's like walking through a river that's really coming down hard and taking one step after the other, 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, it's, I remember when they came out with, in about 1935, 36, 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. But 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. Bodhisattva way is to let things hold you back, to be hindered by things. to not be up in the front, not at all costs to be at the head of the line. Bodhisattva's freedom is in being able to change.

[31:47]

a chameleon to take on the color of the situation that you're in. 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 and the new send-out, 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]

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. Satsang with Mooji

[34:26]

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