I bow to face the truth of the Tathagata's words. Good morning. Well, since we're going to have a rather large ceremony next week, I thought I would talk a little bit about it, and maybe you can ask some questions. I don't know if it's usual to have an opening ceremony and a Mountain Seek ceremony at the same time.

[01:01]

Maybe it is, but our opening ceremony when we completed the Zendo was delayed. I can't remember when we opened the Zendo exactly, when it was more or less completed. About in April, two years ago. We were going to have our ceremony then, and then there was a big Zen crisis. and it just got shoved into the background. And when I went to Japan last September, and we were talking about Hoitsu, who we call Hojo-san. Hojo-san is the name that you usually use for

[02:04]

the head priest, or the abbot of your practice place. He said, well when we do the installation ceremony of abbot, then we can do the opening ceremony too. So, I think that ordinarily you'd do two different, do them at two different times, but since he lives in Japan, we'll do it in both the same times, rather than have them come back and forth so many times. And of course, the Mountain Seat Ceremony is the other ceremony that we're going to do. And that's the installation of someone as head priest or abbot sometime after dharma transmission. It varies according to circumstances.

[03:10]

In our particular situation, the Berkeley Zen Center, we grew up, I always like to think of the way we developed as like an acorn. We planted this acorn or seed in the ground and Suzuki Roshi and I and some of his students just kind of grew out of this situation. And over many years we developed the practice. And then I became a priest in 1969 and studied with Suzuki Roshi at Tasahara and so forth in pastry and sokoji. And then about six years ago we found this place.

[04:18]

This is like transplanting our practice after it had become a tree. Then I received dharma transmission from Suzuki Roshi's son last year, and the next step is for somebody to be the head of the place, so that's logically me. Could be someone else. But it all seems to follow that we're taking these steps, successive steps. hopefully at some time there'll be another abbot. And we don't know where that person will come from. Maybe from some... we'll ask somebody from some other practice center or some place. Or maybe someone else will grow up here to be this successive abbot.

[05:21]

We don't know. So it's a big step. actually, even though it's already is what's happening, you know. That's already what we're doing. I'm already here. So it seems like the ceremony is kind of ceremonious, kind of confirmation. But I think it's a very meaningful ceremony and the actual installation because it gives us some legitimacy in the eyes of the world. It's most important is our own legitimacy, our own inner legitimacy, our own confidence.

[06:26]

That's most important. And the ceremony and installation is really a confirmation of that. A practice place is usually, even though it's not in the mountains, it's usually considered a mountain. So when you install an abbot, It's called ascending the mountain or mountain seat, taking the mountain seat. In China, the various ancestors were all called after the name of their mountain. Tozan, for instance, is just the name of the mountain that Ryōkai practiced on. So they call it Tozan Ryōkai.

[07:29]

from Mount Tozot. And most of the patriarchs, or ancestors, have that kind of title. They just called after the place where they practiced, and it's usually the name of a mountain. So even though we're in the Flatlands, Berkeley Flatlands, still it's considered a mountain. When you have the installation ceremony, it's called Ascending the Mountain. So, one part of the ceremony of installation is, there's a, I'll try to remember, I've been to three installation ceremonies, three mountain seat ceremonies, called Shinsan Shiki, Japanese. I was at Baker Oshii's ceremony at Page Street, 1971.

[08:39]

And I was at Bill Kwong's ceremony at Kenjoji. I was the Jisha for him. And then I went to New York for Tetsugan Sensei's installation. at the New York Zen community. That was... 1976, I think. No, just a few years ago, about four years ago. And then I went to an opening ceremony of the Kongo-ji, the Daibosatsu Zendo Edo Roshis group built this huge $5 million temple. You know about that place in the Adirondacks? I think it's the Adirondacks in upper New York state. It's a beacher lake, huge lake, which they own.

[09:41]

And it's on the edge of the lake. It's a Japanese-style monastery. So I did the sashin there, the opening sashin, which was on the 4th. It ended on the 4th of July. And that's when they had their opening ceremony, which is very elaborate. So I've been to several opening ceremonies and three installation ceremonies. So I remember something about it. Most of them are pretty formal. There's a procession of priests and maybe older members. And they stop. Usually, it starts out from some house down the street. which is symbolic of asking someone to be abbot from a distance and then they're traveling along and they stop at this place to rest and have tea.

[10:46]

So that's kind of been ceremonialized and so starting out from that place where they have tea and some refreshment after the long journey They come to the gate, the procession, these long processions come to the gate and then there's some gata or statement and offering incense at the gate. And then coming into the zendo, I'm not sure that we offer incense at all the altars, maybe. in the Buddha Hall. We don't have a Buddha Hall. Everything's done in here. But I would do something in the community room offering incense. And this is just the very gist of the outline, not the details. And then we come into the Zen Do and offer incense to the founder and to Buddhas and so forth. And then we leave.

[11:49]

And then come back into the Zen Do and ascend the mountain. the abbot ascends the mountain and we build a kind of a mountain we actually build a mountain in a zendo I'm not sure exactly where we're going to build it but it's maybe on the tan here we have a couple of steps coming up to the tan and the jisha and the abbot come up to the mountain onto the mountain and do some things up here, offering incense and make offerings and so forth. And then there's a questioning of the abbot, a kind of dharma combat. The abbot's students, maybe eight or ten people, like we did, remember when we had our shosan ceremony after Sishin last year? Question and answer.

[12:50]

It's like that, kind of like that. And then there's a little talk and some statements. And that's the main gist of the ceremony. There are a lot of details which I haven't included, and which I'm not sure exactly how we're going to do it, because Hoitsu, Hojo-san, is coming On the 14th, I'm going to pick him up at the airport in San Francisco, 540. And so from the 15th to the 19th is when we're going to be preparing the ceremony. And we'll be very busy doing that. And so I don't know what exactly, if he's going to do it exactly the same way as he did it with or not, but it'll be something like the ones I've seen before.

[13:58]

And then the opening ceremonies, some of the things that I've seen at opening ceremonies, one of the things that the abbot does, or the teacher, is to paint in the eyes of the Buddha. The Buddha has eyes so it's kind of done symbolically with a brush. You paint in the eyes and then the Buddha is alive. And that's done in a very ceremonious way. And then you go around to all the altars offering incense and chanting. scattering flowers, flower petals in front of the altar. It's a very nice ceremony, very nicely done.

[15:01]

I remember when we had the opening ceremony at Page Street, I was scattering flowers. So this is a kind of procession, scattering flowers around. So those are some of the things that we do. And when we combine these two, I'm not sure how we'll combine them. I'm not sure if we'll... I think there's some things that overlap. But it's a very kind of joyous occasion. Altogether, a joyous occasion. And then afterward we'll have some treats. Yoshi, you know Yoshi's restaurant? Japanese restaurant. Yoshi's going to supply that they've offered to have them make sushi and things like that for us afterwards.

[16:03]

So that's been nice of them. I mentioned the word Hojo, Hojo-san. Hojo-san, Hojo means 10 by 10, that means a 10 square mat hut. Not 10 mats, but I can't remember how many, three, four, 10 square feet hut, which comes from Vimalakirti's little house. You know about the Vimalakirti Sutra? In the Vimalakirti Sutra, Vimalakirti is a famous layman whose understanding is as great as all the Buddhas. And so all of Shakyamuni's disciples go to question him one day in his hojo, which is his ten-foot square hut, and somehow everybody fits.

[17:20]

the whole universe fits inside of his little hut. And so Hojo is like the abbot's quarters or abbot's room. And so usually in Japan they call the abbot Hojo, Hojo-san. And if you had a room full of abbots and you said Hojo-san, they'd all turn around. So it's not somebody's name, but it's what you call your own abbot in Japan. So, Karage Roshi, we call him Hojo-san. We also call Hoitsu, Suzuki, Hojo-san. You don't have to call me Hojo-san. It's kind of Japanese. I don't know if we need so many Japanese titles. But it's kind of nice. It's a very informal way to address somebody rather than calling them teacher or something like that.

[18:29]

Less formal. But I am interested in what this will mean for us. One thing it will mean is that I will be able to ordain people, to give jukai, tokudo. Tokudo, there are two names for ordination. Toku-do is confirmation, and Jukai is taking precepts. So when we take precepts, when we have ordination, it's called Jukai Toku-do. They're actually both names, but we usually say Jukai, which means taking the Kai, or the precepts.

[19:40]

Ju means to give, and it also means to receive. One word has the opposite meanings. It means to give and it means to receive. And also priest ordination. So our practice will have a stronger feeling of... could have a stronger feeling of dharma, or a commitment to practice, or a commitment to dharma. And we can keep, continue the Buddha dharma in that way. In June, we're having a five-day Sashin.

[20:50]

And the last day of Sashin, after Sashin is over, Sashin will be over around after lunch. And then early in the afternoon, right after that, we'll have the lay ordination. There are about six people who will have lay ordination. They've been sewing their rope. So that will be a major event for us. Mostly people who have had what we call lay ordination have done it at Page Street or the Suzuki Roshi or Baker Roshi. And this will be the first time that we'll have it here with me doing the ordination. So that will be a major event. in June. And hopefully it will help to clarify what Coordination is and what our understanding of Buddhadharma is.

[22:07]

and hopefully deepen our practice. Maybe you have some questions. Yeah. Since you're being seated on a mountain called Berkeley, does that mean that you will be Berkeley's soldier? No one knows. There's no telling. It's rather unusual for us to call, to address people in that way. It's more usual in China. So, probably not. But who knows? Closest mountain is Tamil Pai. It's the best one for lawn. Yeah. Tamil Pai is no. We'll have to find out what the Indian name of Berkeley is.

[23:21]

The Ohlone Indians used to live here. Maybe it's Ohlone. Ohlone on the mountain. Ohlone on the mountain. Yes. Well, you mentioned that this would give us legitimacy in the eyes of the world. I'm kind of curious if you'd die for us. Oh, yes. What would I mean by that is You know, one, it's good to have your own legitimacy and your own confidence, and that's one side. The other side is to feel confirmed by, not the whole world, but yeah, the universe. But not, you know, you don't expect that everyone in the world will confirm you, but you feel accepted by people.

[24:48]

in a way that is like say you're living together with someone and your marriage is a confirmation of your living together and people accept you as a married person and you may say well it doesn't matter because you know we love each other and We live together and that's all that matters. But when you get married, it's a confirmation and people recognize you as being married. And you may say, that doesn't matter. But it does. It makes a difference. There is a difference. It makes a difference. So that's what I mean by people recognizing. Yeah. I've heard that Suzuki Roshi had another temple besides Rinzolin.

[25:55]

Is that true? Well, Rinzolin was Suzuki Roshi's temple in Japan, which is about 550 years old. And in that length of time, It had babies, children. So there are many, many, many temples related to it, maybe. Nobody would tell me for sure. I've heard anywhere from, I don't know, to 200. But Rinzong doesn't take care of all those temples. There's some kind of relation. you know, this priest went there, started this temple, and so it's related, you know. But he himself, I don't think, had more than that temple.

[26:57]

So Ritsu has not done any more ascending seat ceremonies in Japan. He's got some once he's done it with you in Tokyo. Maybe. I don't really know. I don't know what his experience is, frankly, in Japan. That I don't know. Will you allow me to take pictures of you? Oh, yeah. Please take pictures. Be fun to take pictures and see what they turn out to look like. Please take pictures of each other. It comes at an interesting time because it comes at a time when within his own community there are some people that are moving away

[28:08]

And so first, I'm glad that we're not, that you're not saying now, this will be my name and call me by this name. I'm glad that we have the opportunity of having whatever happens happen amongst us. And it just is very interesting to It seems to me that this ceremony and the coming up ordination, later ordination ceremony, will just give us more concrete opportunities to evaluate what our practice is. I mean, I've been married for a long time, and in the last 10 years have chosen not to wear a wedding ring. But having the choice of wearing it or not has been an important one. So I'm glad that we can have the choice of having something very formal and what our attitudes towards that are.

[29:31]

Yeah. Well, you know, I've never been one who likes ceremony. I've never really been drawn to ceremony. You may not think so, because I'm the upholder of formal practice. But I don't see formal practice as necessarily ceremonies. But I've grown to appreciate ceremony and formality. as well as informality. So, both sides. I appreciate both sides. I appreciate our formality and I appreciate our informality. And I think to always maintain a balance so that formality doesn't just become empty

[30:42]

mechanical activity. And it has some vitality and meaning. And also, informality doesn't just become sloppiness and slothfulness. Those are the two dangers of those extremes. I mean, those are two dangers. There are other dangers also. But those are two dangers. One, the danger of formality is that you just become mechanical and stiff and stop thinking, stop creating. And the danger of informality is that you never have any form or backbone or become lazy or disrespectful.

[31:52]

I would like to make a compassionate plea for ceremony. It seems to me the most wonderful thing in all other cultures is that People get to have a sense of the drama of their own lives by the rites of passage that they have. And in our life, I think our ceremonies have been taken away from us so much. For instance, death becomes the business of the hospital instead of the business of the family. Young people coming into puberty no longer have those big ceremonies where you find your name and all those wonderful things that happen. And I think that's part of the reason why people are driven so to vicarious entertainment. It's because they no longer have the opportunity to feel their own lives as dramatic and important by the great moments that you celebrate.

[33:01]

But it should be alive, not dead. I feel a lot of people going, looking towards people not satisfied with their own life and their present just because they're always looking towards the future or looking at the past just because their present is not rich. And having the ceremonies add some real beauty to the situation. I think a lot of us because of the beauty and the simplicity. Ceremonies allow you to really realize a lot of the hidden knowledge.

[34:11]

It makes the awareness, it intensifies the awareness There's an interesting article in this issue of Ten Directions, and I don't know if it was Knight's Encyclopedia or someone else's, but the person talks about Buddha's practice in part being a devotional practice, in part being a ritualistic practice, and in part being a meditation practice. And different schools of Buddhism might focus on different things. But really, it's all three. And I agree with what everyone's saying.

[35:15]

And I think maybe this point is a really important point. Ritual is our way of enacting, our human way of manifesting that absolute spiritual, and we really have no other way. But I think Nellie's point that people are looking at is how easily that just becomes, as she was saying, it just becomes sloppy. That can even become sloppy. We can do the service perfectly, it can be sloppy enough. Here, I think it's People are stopping it. People are maybe taking off robes, but I think the real test is when they put them back on. If they put them back on.

[36:20]

I feel that the quality of our rituals, whether it's a big one-time ritual, like mountain seat ceremony, or an everyday ritual like our chanting service, really It depends a lot on the quality of our Zazen. And if we are one with our practice in Zazen, then it's easy to be one with the Vow of Enchantment. And if the Zazen is not somehow strong enough, then we don't need anything to follow the Buddha. for me. Kate just reminded me of something. In Minnesota, the Category of Emotions. And the practice was fairly new when we did this. And we didn't really know if it was blabbering or not.

[37:23]

Category of Emotions. We just say that as long as you continue to sit and continue to practice, that in reality that was the only essential. All the rest were very nice. That was the core. That's the core. But the core also needs support. So there are a lot of factors that go to make up a practice. but the core is most important. I appreciate what Kate's saying, that the quality of the way we do things comes out of the quality of our zazen and that strength.

[38:23]

And no matter how much you teach technique, technique is a kind of supporting, is a kind of way of helping. But a technique without the heart or without the devotion doesn't mean a thing. And the strength that comes from actual devotion and faith and absorption, that's the real key. And if you have that, then there's some real vitality. And if you don't have it, no matter how much technique you have, it doesn't mean a thing. So, when you teach people to chant or to hit the bells or make the music, the main thing is that they should do it with their heart.

[39:35]

And then technique helps. Now close. In particular, I'm kind of a little curious, do you kind of have a sense of how it's happening over here? Pre-stormation, we haven't had that before. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about how you see that part of it. I'm curious in general about that malaria.

[40:40]

The lay ordination, so-called, in Buddhism, usually you take five precepts. Jukkāi in Buddhism, for a lay person, is taking five precepts. And when they go into, when the lay person, it's the first five of the precepts, and of the ten prohibitory precepts. And when you go into a monastery, Traditionally in Buddhism, lay people take five precepts and then when they go to retreat at a monastery, maybe for a week or two weeks or three months or three days, then they take three more precepts, which is eight precepts. in which they give up all their money and they take off all their jewelry and they, some other, they said, giving a high bed or something, sleep on the floor.

[42:00]

And so that's in order to enter into that retreat or into the monastic life for a short time. They take three more precepts. And in Theravada Buddhism, people get ordained, actually, as monks, men. I don't know about women, but I don't know if they have a women's ordination anymore, Theravada. But they shave their head and put on monk's robes. They don't become priests, they become monks. which means that you can retire from lay life and become a monk for a training period or for a year or for some period of time when you go into the monastery. Then you go out and you take off your robes again, become unordained. So they go back and forth that way. We don't have that kind of situation.

[43:06]

We have In our particular practice, which comes from, I don't know if it's this way everywhere in Japan, but this is the way Suzuki Roshi did it, and I'm not sure about everybody else, but late, when he gave lay ordination, everybody, whether they were monk, priests, or lay people, they all take the same precepts, the 16 Bodhisattva precepts. which is very Japanese. They don't have the 16 precepts in China or India, but it's peculiar to Japan. I can tell you a little bit about the history of that, but I won't, it's too long. So, Jukai and Tokudo, for lay people, isn't different than for priests or monks. But the lay people have it for their householder practice, and the priests have... take the priesthood for their priest practice.

[44:12]

But the householders are householders, and the priests are priests. And the priests are... When you become a priest, Your ordination is more, it's when your life is directed toward the Sangha, toward studying Buddhism in a more concentrated way and devoting your life to Buddhist practice. That's why you would become a priest. Now, you know, several hundred years ago, in Japan, the emperor made all the priests get married, but there used to be some of it, mostly. Not all together, but mostly. And so there's a tradition of married priests with families.

[45:15]

But the married priest is still not a layperson, even though they have a family. so forth, their attention is toward being a priest. That's their main attention. So the family really suffers a lot of a priest in Japan, from our point of view, because the priest's attention is always on, or should be always on, the practice, the formal practice, that side. householder layperson's practice is focused more on, can be much wider. So to become a priest means that you would wear the robes of a priest and your attention would be more on making the practice work and less on taking up things in the world.

[46:23]

even though you have a family, you're really not taking up things in the world as a priest. You let that go. Even though you may have a job, still, you're not trying to get ahead in the world. So the function of a priest is to take care of the Dharma, and develop their practice that way, and help other people to do it. And a layperson is confirmed in the Dharma, and they definitely have a practice, but there's a lot more flexibility for a layperson. And the responsibility is very different. Does that make sense?

[47:30]

And then, in between priest and laparism is a monk. And a monk is the time that you are practicing in a monastery, whether you're a priest or a laparism, is the time that you're called a monk. you could call yourself a monk at that time because you've left lay life for that time. And whether you're ordained or not is not... That's when your lay ordination, because you've been confirmed, you could call yourself a monk at that time. Someone told me that in Japan, Sometimes a layperson will sew a robe, a priest's robe, and wear the robe, even though they're a layperson. It's a kind of in-between thing, and I don't know much about that, but it's something that I've heard that is done sometimes in Japan, where the layperson may be practicing like

[48:46]

or to have the feeling of a priest but is not taking the priest's ordination. Some kind of recognition that way. Does that answer your question Carlos? There's a lot more to it. I was thinking along that line, Okay, that's a whole other question, which we'll take up. I don't know how people have had their mission fit in with our people, but we've never had a priest better than you. Right. Okay, well let's save that and bring it up. I appreciate what you said. Okay. Okay. Thank you.

[49:48]

Please, Let's make it a joyous occasion next weekend.

[49:54]

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