Jukai Photos
Zaike Tokudo, Staying Home and Attaining the Way
Like a cloud in an endless sky, like a lotus in muddy water, we live in the pure mind of Buddha.
This post is mostly for sharing the photos …
— but first, a little context …
The best-laid plans …
We prepared for an indoor ceremony, with many guests—family, friends, sangha members, and neighboring Buddhist practitioners—when everything changed, as everything has a way of doing. Maybe you remember this from earlier this year—
Sewing Buddha's Robe
“The robe has some symbolic nature, but I don’t think of it as symbolic. I think the robe is a material manifestation of our Buddha nature. We take one piece of cloth, cut it into many pieces and then sew it back together again in the image of rice fields. This is the way everything in the world exists. Originally, everything is one piece, one whole clo…
Covid struck our guest, Korin Charlie Pokorny, who went into isolation as soon as he arrived from Brooklyn to lead the pre-ceremony retreat and serve as Preceptor for jukai. On the first days Charlie gave dharma talks by Zoom and met by Zoom with students, and on the last morning, with gentler weather and his fever broken, offered his dharma talk in person—all ten of us masked, outdoors on the deck, where in the afternoon we would hold the ceremony of giving the precepts to five new bodhisattvas.
Receiving a New Name
And here they are — in ceremony order, Jodi, Brent, Britt, Varun, and Westri — receiving their new dharma names.
Kiko Yugen, Playful Tiger, Courageous Manifestation
Meikan Yugetsu, Bright Mirror, Courageous Moon
Kigen Yuryu, Returning to the Source, Courageous Dragon
Koji Yukan, Luminous Word, Courageous Investigation
and Dokai Yuzan, Servant of the Way, Courageous Mountain
New Dress and Family
After receiving their new names, one by one each ordinand came forward to receive the rakusu they had sewn and delivered to Korin for his calligraphy.
Then they chanted together before putting on the rakusu and bowing.
O Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas, please concentrate your hearts on me …
Receiving the Precepts and the Bodhisattva Precept Lineage Document
As the ceremony continued, the ordinands came forward again, one by one, to offer incense in a gesture expressing their request to receive the precepts. After the ritual steps of renunciation, confession, and purification, they took refuge together in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha and recited and affirmed their commitment to observing the precepts. Finally, they came forward individually once more to receive the lineage documents of a practitioner in the Soto Zen line brought to California from Japan by Shogaku Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and passed on by our teacher Tenshin Reb Anderson to Korin Charlie Pokorny, my dharma brother. Now all five new bodhisattvas are Tenshin Roshi’s dharma grandchildren and my own dharma niece and nephews.
More bows and words of celebration and gratitude followed, and after the last formal bows, the line-up for celebratory photographs …
The full collection of photos, courtesy of Dan Patel, can be found here
And the next day, when all the celebrations, clean-ups, and departures were ended …
Fire cat found the tatami room …
… and filled it with light.
Happy interim, everybody. The schedule starts again on September 19. Announcements for fall, coming soon.
Congratulations one and all!