Twelve people will receive lay ordination. We say jukai. Jukai means taking precepts. Kai is the precepts. And ju means giving, and it also means receiving. We also call it tokudo. Tokudo means ordination. Ordination means receiving some kind of an office. We usually associate ordination with a priest, but in our school we have priest ordination and lay ordination. Priest ordination is called shukhe and lay ordination is called zaikei.

[01:13]

So shukhe means fully ordained or sometimes it means leaving home. basically means leaving home. And zaikei means householder or at home. So this ordination is called zaikei or having ordination and living at home. not changing your clothes, not shaving your head. It's like how it's being ordained while living in the world as a householder. And the precepts that we take, lay precepts or priest precepts, are actually the same.

[02:22]

same precepts in our school. Traditionally monks or priests take 250 precepts for men and 300 for women. But in Japan, in the Kamakura period, the precepts for most schools were reduced to 16. which actually I think is a really good idea because there were the major precepts and minor precepts and various gradations of precepts. This is the Vinaya school, the school that lives through rules and regulations. And of course rules and regulations are important. They're not meant to bind you, they're meant to free you. But if you have a lot of rules and regulations for everything, it can be rather binding.

[03:29]

And the rules and regulations from India don't necessarily work in China or in Japan or in America. So wherever Buddhism goes, the minor precepts have to come out of the situation of the place where you're practicing and the times. So the 16 major precepts really cover everything in a general way. And then minor precepts are the articulation of those major precepts. the refinement and explanation. But basically there's one precept. All precepts are really one precept. And the one precept is practice as Buddha. Know your Buddha nature and express yourself as Buddha.

[04:40]

and treat everyone as Buddha. That's one major precept. First precept, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. So the fountainhead is Buddha, your Buddha nature. Everything flows, your whole practice flows from your Buddha nature. But we say bodhisattva, It's hard to identify ourself as Buddha, but we can identify ourselves as Bodhisattva, someone who is on the Buddha path. Bodhisattva is someone who is on the path to unfolding our Buddha nature. That's easier for us to accept. If you say, I am Buddha, take a look in the mirror.

[05:41]

But what you will see is Buddha, but you won't recognize Buddha. You only recognize myself. But Buddha is there. So the one who practices Buddha is the Bodhisattva. So Buddha is the expression. Everything flows from Buddha. And then there's Dharma, which is what flows, the truth. And then there's Sangha, which is yourself as a person who relates to others. You are Sangha. We say, the people who practice are Sangha. That's true. But you are Sangha. You are Buddha, you are Dharma, and you are Sangha. You embody all three.

[06:44]

Each one of us embodies all three. So, Buddha is expressed through Dharma and through Sangha. It's expressed as the truth and it's expressed as relationship, how we relate to everything around us and especially how we relate to each other and support each other. So, these are the three major precepts. and then there are the three pure precepts to do what is beneficial, do what is good, and to not do what is evil, and to live for the benefit of all beings, so that your life contributes to the benefit of this world's inhabitants.

[07:54]

And then there are the ten prohibitory precepts, or clear mind precepts, which I don't want to express today. I don't have time to talk about the precepts today. So the ten prohibitory precepts, or the ten clear mind precepts, don't kill, don't steal, and so forth. are the expression of how to practice as Buddha or how to practice as a bodhisattva. And then you can make up your own minor precepts according to the situation. A minor precept might be not to eat meat or a minor precept might be how you make some kind of rules for yourself about your work life or your family life or your practice life. You can make up all kinds of minor rules.

[09:01]

How to eat, what kind of manners you have with people when you relate. One minor rule Could be, don't walk into somebody's space eating something or drinking something. Respect the space you're in. Respect the person that you're facing by simply doing that. So there are many minor precepts that either you make for yourself or as a sangha you can incorporate. Suzuki Roshi said, in America we should make our own minor precepts, create our own minor precepts, so that our behavior corresponds to our practice.

[10:04]

We haven't done that. but that will probably happen eventually. Although, it's also important not to make too many rules. As soon as you start making too many rules, then you start losing something. We easily become rule-bound and then we start practicing according to rules instead of according to the organic a way that life unfolds. And then we start holding people accountable for our rules, accountable to our rules. So anyway, it's a balancing act. When we have lay ordination or priest ordination, we take the precepts.

[11:09]

We take the 16 precepts. And I want to read Suzuki Roshi's talk about lay ordination, about the first lay ordination that we had at Zen Center. This was in 1970. Suzuki Roshi died in December 1971 and in 1970 we had created Tassajara in 1967. Suzuki Roshi came to America in 59 and around 1962 or 63 there had been a number of students that had started practicing with him And he invited Bishop Yamada from Los Angeles to come to a Zen center and do a lay ordination ceremony.

[12:21]

And that was the first lay ordination ceremony. And then he didn't do another. There was no other lay ordination ceremony until 1970. So this is what he has to say about it. He said, I am so grateful to have this lay ordination ceremony for you, our old students. Actually, they weren't so old. We thought that in 1970 there were older students, not in age, but in practice. But maybe they've been practicing for five years. That was considered an older student. Today, when I look at people that have been practicing for 10 years, I don't think of them necessarily as older students. Then he says, this is actually the second ordination for Zen Center.

[13:28]

The reason that we hadn't had lay ordination more often was because I didn't want to give you some idea of lay Buddhists as something special. In other words, he didn't want to give people this lay ordination and have people think that I have something special. Be very careful about that. Suzuki Roshi's most important teaching was how we don't think of ourselves as special and how we don't think of ourselves in some egotistical way. So he didn't want us to feel that because people had lay ordination that it was going to feed their ego. According to the Bodhisattva way, all sentient beings are Bodhisattvas.

[14:33]

Whether they are aware of it or not, they are actually disciples of Buddha. And I thought about that, you know, what does that mean that whether people know it or not or think so or not, they are all Bodhisattvas and all disciples of Buddha. And so when I'm thinking about that, I thought, Everyone is looking for the right way, even though it doesn't look like it. It doesn't look like everyone is looking for freedom or for the way that goes through, the way that actually leads somewhere. Everyone's looking for that. But it's like a maze. The world is like a maze. And there are all these paths that lead to dead ends. And then there is one path that winds around but it doesn't, it goes all the way through to the end.

[15:35]

And that's the path that everyone's looking for. And we call that the Bodhisattva Way. When one is on the Bodhisattva way, one is a disciple of Buddha. Not some Buddha in the sky, you know, but Buddha in their own true nature as Buddha. Everyone's looking for their own true nature as Buddha. And when everyone's looking for their own true nature, we call that Buddha. So everyone is a disciple of themselves. We are all disciples of our own true nature. hopefully, and that's called being a bodhisattva. So, everyone is really a bodhisattva, and we should really treat everyone as a bodhisattva, whether they know it or not. I often say, just address everyone as Buddha. And it's interesting, when you address everyone as Buddha, people will realize for the first time, without knowing it, that they have Buddha nature.

[16:42]

This is what Suzuki Roshi did. He addressed everyone as Buddha. I mean, he didn't say, you are Buddha to everyone, but he addressed everyone's Buddha nature and then everyone felt something wonderful because for the first time they recognized their Buddha nature even though they didn't realize it. That was his manner, his way. So he says, whether they are aware of it or not, they are actually disciples of Buddha. So there's no need to do anything special, right? But the time has come to strive more sincerely to help others. As we have so many students here, inside and outside of Zen Center, we need more help. So I decided to have lay ordination for you just for the sake of helping others and not as lay Buddhists to set you apart as something special."

[17:49]

Just because people, you know, to have lay ordination means to confirm your practice. And to recognize, you know, through to recognize and join you with all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the past, so-called past. When we have ordination, all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas come forth as the present. They all join us here. The one who gives ordination is the representative of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the past who are actually giving you their blessing and their acknowledgement of your practice.

[18:53]

So this is why our transmission is very important. The transmission is handed down from one generation to another. And then the one who has the transmission is giving the precepts, which is flowing from Buddha through all the ancestors to whoever is having the ordination. So, he says, this is not a conceited idea. It is the spirit transmitted from Buddha to us. Accordingly, our way is like that of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva. When Avalokiteshvara wants to save women, she takes the form of women, or he takes the form of women. And for, he says, boys or men, he takes the form of, or she takes the form of boys and men.

[20:03]

And for a fisherman, he will be a fisherman. In other words, To be with people and identify with people, Dogen says, identity action is one of the basic compassionate practices, is to identify with everyone. When you meet someone, you identify with this person. When you talk to someone, you identify with them. It's not like you are the subject and they are the object. But there's something that flows between you. In order for that flow to take place, you find a level. And that level is blending. So he says, a more sophisticated Chinese expression is to be like a white bird in the snow. It is a Chinese expression, but it's actually Indian.

[21:07]

Kanadeva. Kanadeva was one of the Indian ancestors. Talked about the white bird in the snow. But Chinese Zen masters used this expression, Sekito in the Sandokai, to be like a white bird in the snow. It's like a heron in the moonlight. You know, a white heron against the moonlight blends in. Even though you know that, you can see that there's a heron there, it's very subtle. And when you put snow in a silver bowl, you can see that there's snow there, but it's very subtle. So when people are like snow, we should be like snow. When people are black, we should be black.

[22:09]

People being always with them without any idea of discrimination. And we can help others in a true sense without any idea of a special teaching or materials. This is the Bodhisattva's way. So, it's not something that we learn necessarily, but it's something that we intuit. We allow our intuition. So intuition means directly touching. You don't have to think about it so much. You don't have to have so many rules about it. You simply allow your compassionate intuition to lead you without fear and without discrimination. So how we actually have this kind of freedom from everything, and this kind of request, and this kind of soft-minded spirit, is to practice our way.

[23:20]

So he talks about three things here. He talks about freedom from everything. This is true freedom. Suzuki Roshi always used to talk about people think that freedom means the unrestricted activity to do anything you want. He said, but that's not real freedom. The freedom to do anything you want is actually creating karma for you. When we just do everything we want, we hurt people, we hurt ourselves, we are following our desires, our feelings and our emotions and creating karma. So the freedom, real freedom, is freedom from that kind of activity.

[24:25]

I remember Bishop Sumi Suzuki Roshi used to invite him to sashin once in a while. And he had a stick that he used to hit people with. And the stick had these characters on it. And the characters... I said, what did those characters mean? He said, free from everything. Free of everything. And then he says, soft-minded spirit. First, and then he says, and this kind of request. He talked about our inmost request. He said, you should find your inmost request. Precepts come from your inmost request. It looks like precepts are golden

[25:30]

golden wires to bind you, but actually they're to free you. And they don't come from outside, precepts come from within, even though it looks like they come from outside. But this is our inmost request, how to, and the precepts our inmost request to give us this freedom from everything, so that we can flow with everything in a way that is non-binding. And then he says, in this kind of soft-minded spirit, soft-minded means like grass, It doesn't mean soft in the head, but it means like when the wind blows, the grass bends.

[26:34]

Oak trees fall over in a gale, but the wind, but the grass bends in the wind. So to have a soft enough mind to bend with the wind and to flow with things, and to not be rigid. So you may think we are forcing you into some form, forcing some rituals on you, or forcing some special teaching on you, and forcing you to say, yes I will. Yes I will is what we say when we take the precepts. the father of the Wade does not take life. Do you promise to do these things? Yes, I will. That's in the ceremony. So, at that time, there were a lot of people who said, this is too formal for me.

[27:43]

You know, you're kind of forcing me to take these formal precepts. No, I'm not. I'm not forcing you to do anything. This is your request, not mine. But this is the way we do this thing. We have this formality to help you, not to hinder you. But people would feel, and they still do today, that I don't want to do anything that will bind me like that. Sometimes people say, I don't want to take, even though people have been practicing 10, 15 years, I don't want to take the precepts because I don't want to get caught by them. Or I don't feel that I'm good enough to fulfill the precepts. No one is good enough. I don't want to say good enough. No. No one is capable of keeping all the precepts completely.

[28:45]

It's impossible. That's why we have precepts, because it's impossible. If it was possible, it wouldn't mean much. It's more than you can do, so do it. If practice wasn't more than you could do, there wouldn't be any need to do it. It's always pushing you to the edge, always pushing you to your limit. And I'm sorry about that because we have a very busy life. We're pushed to the limit as it is. But practice pushes you even further if you take it on. So you kind of get worn out, but you also get rejuvenated. It shouldn't wear you out. Practice shouldn't wear you out. If you really engage in practice without resistance, you'll be energized by it.

[29:55]

Or without complaining. Oh, this is so hard. If I tell myself, oh, this is so hard to get up in the morning, if I do that for a week, I'll really be dragged out. But if I just get up and do it, I'm energized. So he says, You may think we're forcing you into some form, forcing some rituals on you, or forcing some special teaching on you, and forcing you to say, yes, I will. But those things are provided just in order to help you to be like a white bird in the snow. When you go through these practices, and when you practice zazen in this way, you have the point of zazen, and the point of practice, and the point of helping others. That is why we had this lay ordination ceremony today, for all of us, including various great teachers. It is not all that easy to be like a white bird in the snow, but then anyway, somehow, we should make our best effort to do so.

[31:07]

Remember that this is not an easy task. In this way, if through practice you can help yourself, you can help others. Without anything, just to be with people will be enough. Helping yourself means to practice as your own practice. And if you really practice your own practice sincerely, then you'll be practicing with others. And you'll be helping others without trying to help anybody. And then just being with people will be enough. Although we give talks, the main thing about practice is how we do it. Just being present and consistent is helping others. It's the best way to help others, just being present and consistent and sincere and putting your whole effort into whatever you do.

[32:19]

That's the best example. So, we teach by example, and we learn through example, and without saying so much, you know, the Dharma gets communicated. So in this way, if through practice you can help yourself, you can help others. Without anything, just to be with people will be enough. I am so glad to have this very formal ordination ceremony. With the guidance of Yoshida Roshi, who came just to be with us at Zen Center and just to help our practice, we could have this very formal lay ordination ceremony.

[33:25]

Yoshida Roshi was one of the... Joshin-san and Yoshida Roshi were two Buddhist nuns. two Zen nuns who came from Japan to help us and to show us how to sew our robes. So Yoshida Roshi was the first one and she came and taught robe sewing, the way, the style that we sew our robes. And then Joshin-san came later and showed us a little different style. Somehow the two styles kind of got amalgamated and we have our way of sewing our robes. So these were wonderful, wonderful women who came and when they came they totally devoted themselves to what they were doing and they were really good teachers for us. So he's talking about that.

[34:26]

So he says, sewing your robe in spite of your busy everyday life is a good example of a Buddhist. Now, for those people who have sewn their robe, when you have lay ordination, you receive a small raksu, small robe, which you sew, and a lineage paper, which ties you to the Buddha and all of the ancestors through what we call the blood lineage, And so sewing this robe is one stitch at a time in a very distinct manner. And it takes a while to do that. And people lead busy lives and they do it. And so anyone who's sewn the robe knows what I'm talking about. But just the fact that you are able to give yourself to this activity with your busy life, is a wonderful practice of extending yourself.

[35:40]

Even though we are busy here, even though we are busy, there is a way to practice the most formal practice. Even though we human beings in the city are busy, there's no reason why we can't practice. our way to be like a white bird in the snow. So we can practice, even though our lives are busy. But in order to practice, we have to look at our lives and see, well, what's really necessary in our life? And then, in order to give ourselves to that practice, we have to let go of something. So, Zen practice, you know, is little by little letting go of what's not necessary. In Zazen, Zazen is a perfect example. When you sit, you let go of everything that's not necessary.

[36:47]

to doing this activity and eventually you let go of everything. So the practice of zazen itself, the practice of practice, is little by little letting go of what's not necessary and always focusing on the fundamental And we may say, well, I can't do this, I can't do that. Good. You can't do those things. You can't do everything. And that's why there aren't so many Zen students. One reason. It's true. One reason why there are not so many Zen students. Although everybody knows about Zen, something, there really aren't that many Zen students. Because You can practice.

[37:51]

Anyone can do it, even in our busy lives. But there has to be some devotion. And it means that you can't do everything. And there are a lot of things that we don't want to let go of. But, you know, still people want something. They want enlightenment. And what is enlightenment? It's the most important thing. Right? So, if you want the most important thing, you have to do the most important thing. If you want the big prize, you have to do something in order to get it. Otherwise, it's not really what you want. But I don't want to discourage anybody.

[38:55]

You know, we practice and people say, well, I can't do this and I can't do that and it's hard and so on. You know, practice is one tiny step at a time. Just take one tiny step at a time. And if you have a little improvement, that's great. A little bit of improvement is great. Just a tiny bit. And then you're encouraged. And then you have a little tiny bit of improvement again. And that's good too. So without expecting big results, just to make little tiny strides is real practice. But with consistency. So he says, even though we human beings in the city are busy, there's no reason why we cannot practice our way to be like a white bird in the snow.

[40:02]

If all of us follow your good example and join our way with the bodhisattva practice, the result will be great. So do you have a question? I'm a little envious of Suzuki Roshi being able to meet everybody like Buddha. And I was just wondering if you had any tips? Tips? Well, you have to see everyone as Buddha in order to do that. Any tips to do that? Well, it's like we see the facade. Everyone has a facade, which isn't necessarily false, but it's a face. And we say, oh, you're the tailor, you're the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker.

[41:09]

That's the face. It's not untrue, but you have to go see beyond the face into the heart of the person. And then there are layers and layers and layers and layers, and some people it's really hard to get in there, and some people are rather open. But when you address somebody, you address that part which is in you. What you meet is yourself. When you address somebody, you're actually meeting yourself. So, who are you? When you make your raksu, when you make your robe, you hold a raksu. It's a mirror. It becomes a mirror of you. It's really interesting. We all want to sew the perfect rock suit, and we make a special effort to sew each stitch as well as we can.

[42:15]

But it always comes out, you know, and you say, geez, what a terrible job I did. When somebody else looks at it, they say, oh, that looks really good. But because you are so intimate with each stitch, you see nothing but the faults, you know. but it's a mirror for you and you just see yourself there and so when you address someone that person is a mirror for you and what you get back is what is what's being mirrored to you each person is a mirror and so I'm a mirror for you and you're a mirror for me so when we see, when we don't have anything, any preconceptions about somebody, but simply are there for that person to reveal themselves, because there's no threat.

[43:26]

Most of us are threatened. You know, we build our personality on defense mechanisms. But we don't necessarily realize that our postures are formed by our defenses against the world. I mean, we're driving down the street and it's all defensive action, right? All these other people are driving down the street too. And then how do you defend yourself against all this? Or how do you just let it all happen? So, to let down the barriers is to be as open as possible, without any preconceptions. You know, someone is an angry type, someone is this type or that type, and we know that, but we don't let that, we don't base our opinion on that, of that person.

[44:29]

We don't hang on to our opinions about somebody. We're simply open to the possibility of someone's true nature. So by opening ourself as a mirror, we're revealing our true nature. And then people can respond to us through their true nature. But as soon as you react to someone's facade, then we're taking an adversarial position, or a jockeying for position. are jockeying for dominance. Will they think I'm intelligent? Will they think I'm good looking? Will they accept me because they're making a lot of money and I'm not? We have all these defenses. So how do you just beat yourself? Which is your true nature without your defenses. In Zazen, we're totally defenseless.

[45:32]

It's like you're exposing yourself to the universe as with nothing. And then when you get off the cushion, it should be the same. Yes? I've heard you say that practices really implies not enlightenment. Say that again? practices being the real ordeal and enlightenment is not what we're really, you know, that's not what we're trying to achieve here. We really need to be simply present to the practice. Which is enlightenment. We're not trying to get enlightenment, we're simply trying to be real, which is enlightenment. So if you try to get the enlightenment, You're going after the wrong animal. You're going after the tail instead of the head.

[46:36]

So it's not that there's no enlightenment. It's simply that it comes through the activity. But if you're trying to get the thing, you want to get the present, but you don't want to do the work. Most people are like this. Most people want the prize, but they don't want to have to do the work. So never mind the prize. Just do the work. You don't go to work to make money. Even though you think you do. You go to work because that's where your life is. You're spending your life. And if you're only going to work to make money, you're cheating yourself. If you only come to Zazen to get enlightened, you're cheating yourself. Fooling yourself. Just do the work. Forget it, you know. The enlightenment will be within the activity, even though you don't see it. The reason you don't see it is because you want something different than what's there.

[47:42]

If you want something different from what's there, there's no enlightenment. Enlightenment is accepting what's there. That's what zazen is. In zazen, you accept what's there, pain, pleasure, whatever. You accept it totally. That's enlightenment. You sit with pain, but you don't attach to it. Attachment is ego. Simply let everything pass. Everything reside and pass. That's enlightenment. You're doing it, but you don't know it. You think there's some other enlightenment. But it's just, you know, your dumb little self. Okay. It's like the man or the woman standing in the middle of the river

[48:55]

and say, well, I understand, I'm saying, but where's the water?

[49:01]

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