As we continue with Zen practice, it is common that our commitment and involvement deepen and that we wish to express this in some way. There are three ways to do this:
Shoken committing to a teacher
Jukai receiving the precepts
Tokudo ordination as a monk
Each of these is described below. There are also excerpts below of a talk Roshi gave describing what the stages mean and his expectations of students.
It is vital to understand that there is no merit attaching to these stages, they are not badges nor ranks of attainment. They reflect each individual’s own personal commitment to their practice, and their own lives. And some sincere practitioners who have been in the practice for many years have chosen to embark on none of them – they are optional not compulsory!
Shoken – committing to a teacher
Shoken is a ceremony in which someone formally enters the student / teacher relationship; the student makes a personal commitment to the teacher and the teacher to the student. The short shoken ceremony done in private during a daisan or interview session with the teacher.
Shoken is a private ceremony in which a practitioner formally asks a teacher if they may become their student. The ceremony is short and normally takes place in the interview room. It marks a mutual commitment between the two.
If a student wants to do shoken, he or she must ask the teacher to accept her or him as a student, it is not something that the teacher will initiate.The student will not always be accepted and may have to ask more than once. It is important to reflect on why you want shoken and what, for you, it implies both for yourself and the teacher.
The teacher’s job is to allow the student to develop and mature along the Buddhist path and to provide a vehicle for spiritual and psychological development. Basically the teacher ‘holds the seat’ for the student. The student commits to walking their own path, step by step, and accepting full responsibility for their own actions.
As Roshi has described
“ ‘Entering the Way’ intrinsically involves, for all of us, change and especially personal change. This will for most people, at some point, lead to resistance to that change and a possible, potentially difficult relationship between student and teacher. Shoken carries with it the agreement on both sides to allow this process, if it arises, to happen and to clarify it without (or before) walking away.
On a personal level, if somebody asks me for shoken and I agree then there are certain general expectations I will have of that person. I would want them to support the sangha and to occasionally do some physical work e.g. in maintaining the zendo, preparing equipment for sesshin, helping in the making of mats and cushions. Or I would want them to support the sangha in other ways, such as administrative work, helping with the website, accounts, charity status etc. I would expect them to attend the zendo at least once a week ( if they live in Liverpool), to see me in interview at least once a month, preferably more, to do a minimum of two sesshin a year. I may also ask a practitioner in an explicit or implicit way to take on a task or change their behaviour towards a particular situation in some way and part of the practice is to pick up on that without it being spelled out.”
Jukai – Taking Precepts
In taking the Buddhist Precepts, students take refuge in the Three Jewels – Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, in a ceremony known as Jukai. It is a formal acknowledgement of wanting to lead your life according to the Buddha’s teachings. Jukai is a personal and public commitment to aspire to lead your life in keeping with the sixteen precepts that form the basis of the Soto Zen practice tradition of which StoneWater Zen Centre is a part. This is not a casual undertaking and so a period of consistent practice is needed for taking jukai. Students usually undergo a period of study for their Jukai ceremony.
The Sixteen Precepts
Our tradition and lineage maintains a set of sixteen precepts for lay students. This format originates with the founder of Soto Zen, Dogen Zenji, though the precepts themselves are older, with the Ten Grave Precepts originally laid out in the Brahma Net Sutra.
Unlike some traditional religious contexts, these don’t form a set of laws or commandments that you might be punished for breaking. They are more of collection of guidelines to living one’s life as a follower of the Dharma, as a Zen practitioner.
If you decide to receive Jukai, you will have a chance to study these precepts in greater detail and will be able to ask the teacher about any concerns you might have.
The 3 Refuges
I take refuge in the Buddha
I take refuge in the Dharma
I take refuge in the Sangha
The Three Pure Precepts
Do not create evil
Practice good
Actualize good for others
The Ten Grave Precepts
Affirm life – Do not kill
Be giving – Do not steal
Honour the body – Do not misuse sexuality
Manifest truth – Do not lie
Proceed clearly – Do not cloud the mind
See the perfection – Do not speak of others errors and faults
Realize self and other as one – Do not elevate the self and blame others
Give generously – Do not be withholding
Actualize harmony – Do not be angry
Experience the intimacy of things – Do not defile the Three Treasures
Jukai Ceremony
The precepts are usually taken at the end of a sesshin (traditional meditation retreat) in a ceremony attended by the sangha and any family and friends who you want to attend. The ceremony is a public declaration of your intention to follow the Dharma and maintain the precepts. During the ceremony, the preceptor will ask you to repeat the 16 precepts, you will be handed your rakusu and you will be given your Dharma name.
Eligibilty for receiving Jukai
Jukai is only given to those who have shown commitment to the practice, for example by turning up regularly to sit with the sangha or, if you don’t live near a group and by attending sesshins. If you would like to take Jukai, you must discuss this with Roshi or the techer you are working with. Generally, you must also be able to attend a sesshin at which the Jukai ceremony will take place.
Preparing for Jukai
Our sangha does not have a formal ‘Jukai curriculum’ that needs to be studied, but you will be encouraged to read around the issues of precepts and commitment to zen practice (some materials are provided). If you have questions, Roshi or the teacher you are working with are is of course available in the usual ways (interviews etc.) to discuss any issues that you want clarified
Sewing your rakusu
Our tradition, like many Western schools, expects students to sew their own rakusus in preparation for their Jukai ceremony. The rakusu looks sort of like a patchwork bib, which represents the original robe of the Buddha. The origins of the rakusu are not entirely clear (see this Wikipedia article for some interesting background), and the tradition of sewing your own rakusu – rather than buying one – is far more common in the West than in Japan. Instructions for sewing your rakusu – see resource page.
Here is how Roshi described Jukai in a talk:
“Tokudo means “leaving home and entering the way”, the correct name for Jukai is zaike tokudo, “staying at home and entering the way”. My sense of what happens at Jukai is that that this practice is a bit like when you’re walking through fog or a mist, and slowly you start to get really wet. To begin with, you just feel a bit of dampness, but after a while you feel really wet. Regular practice seems to have that effect, and slowly but surely we start to think that maybe this is the way, that I’ve found a way, a path I can lead my life by, that maybe I even want to lead my life by it right the way through until I die. And slowly it starts to dawn on us that this is what we want, this is how I want to do it. And at that point, the Jukai ceremony becomes a formal way of recognising this. Both you recognising and allowing other people to recognise that you’ve made a decision to commit yourself to this path. To the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, the Three Treasures. And in a way, as a rite of passage, it marks the fact that you have – not necessarily embodied and understood at every level, but have embraced or accepted at a lesser level that you are the Buddha, that you’ve really got a handle on that. And that you want to practice the teachings of the Buddha. You want to manifest that in a formal way, you want to manifest formally that you are a member of the sangha, and that this practice is a guiderail for you, and part of that guiderail is taking the precepts, or receiving the precepts from me.
There are 16 precepts, and they’re not rules that are laid down from the outside or imposed upon you. They offer a picture of how we might lead our lives which will bring harmony, perhaps, a sense of ease, or more of a sense of ease. All of these things are relative of course, you could still be not at ease, but more at ease than if you didn’t take the precepts, or try to follow them! But the hope is that though the practice, manifesting the precepts will become a natural expression of who you are, rather than an external body out there imposing anything on you, that you’ll suffer if you don’t, that they will become a natural expression of how you live your life.
The other important thing about doing jukai is that you form a link. When you do jukai, you receive a dharma name, and you also receive a lineage chart. The lineage chart shows, with a red line, the Buddha, and a red line all the way down through his successors, and then finally down to me, and then a red line from me to you, to your new dharma name, and you become part of that lineage. It’s a red line because it’s kind of like a blood lineage. You have a connection all the way back to Shakyamuni Buddha. And I know that adds a kind of weight to how you feel about the whole thing. In this sangha, through Maezumi Roshi, and then through Genpo Roshi and then through Tenshin Roshi and then through me, we are all empowered to transmit the kai, the precepts, to you. The mark of jukai, the external mark – because of course it’s much more internal in the flavour, the way you decide to see the world, to be in the world – the rakasu is a mark of that. I like people to make their own. There are situations in which people don’t or can’t because of time, circumstance or other reasons, but essentially I like you to make your own rakasu. There’s no fixed tradition, but in this lineage they’re usually black, and the black is usually white. The rakasu is made up of 16 strips that represent fields, and the rakasu is a miniature version of the kesa. It arose because at one time in China, monks were banned and couldn’t wear the kesa publically, so these miniature rakusus were made which could be worn under your clothes.
And on the back is written your dharma name and the verse of the kesa,
Vast is the robe of liberation,
A formless field of benefaction.
I wear the Tathagata’s teaching,
Saving all sentient beings.
Shukke Tokudo
Some students may choose to take monastic vows in the Shukke Tokudo ceremony. This is an overt commitment to supporting the sangha and is a very serious commitment.
This is how Roshi described Tokudo in a talk:
“Tokudo is quite simply ordaining as a priest. And when you ordain as a priest, it allows you to do various ceremonies that you wouldn’t do otherwise in this tradition, and also – not necessarily but normally – if you’re going to receive transmission you need to have been ordained.
The vows that we do in tokudo aren’t that different to what we do in jukai. It’s called “leaving home to enter the Way,” but my understanding of leaving home, and this is not how I used to think about it, I used to think about it literally, is that you are actually at home wherever you are. So wherever you are in the world, you’re at home. That’s what leaving home means, enter the Way, rather than staying at home.
The vows are the same, but there is a deeper commitment. When you do tokudo, there is an intrinsic commitment that this is your life, and more importantly, that not only are you working towards your own clarity and development and growth as a human being, but you’re also absolutely committed to work in that way for other folk.
If you were in a monastic setting, or you’d been a full-time monk, you would be seen to be wearing these robes, they would set you apart, and because you’re set apart, you’re being watched, there’s more pressure to lead the monastic life and maintain your vows. Because it’s changed in the west, and we don’t wear robes all the time, the person who does tokudo has much more of a responsibility to sustain an inner sense of their commitment and the change that it’s made in their life. It’s not going to be externally seen and checked anymore, so it requires more inner commitment, and inner integrity, to sustain.
And there’s much more expectation from me of what I want from you. There’s a real expectation that you will uphold the traditions of the practice and what it means to be ordained. I can tell you, just to give a brief flavour, the Japanese Soto school of America’s guidelines for Soto Zen priests, seven principles of training
- Zazen,
- Mindfulness,
- Deepening understanding through personal effort,
- Self-reflection,
- Working with a teacher,
- Studying Buddhist literature, and
- (the most important for me) Sustained effort.
Let’s just get back to that thing about transmission only coming through ordination: the whole thing about transmission is problematical for me, because somehow it’s fallen out that we’re not successful – and it’s absolute nonsense – in this tradition unless that happens. It’s absolute nonsense, it’s crap. As a layperson who’s been in the practice for a long time, there are many different ways in which you can teach, and even just by being who you are, you teach. Regardless of who’s empowered you, or what rituals you’ve been through, if your commitment is powerful and strong and has that sustained effort and endurance that I’m talking about, then hopefully you will manifest who you are. And that is the best teaching. The absolute best teaching. So did everybody hear that? It’s important to me that you heard that.
There’s a lot of difficulty around what to call a Zen monk. Some people prefer to be called priests, some people prefer to be called monks. Incidentally, men and women are both “monks,” there’s no separation, no gender difference between men and women monks in this tradition, both are called monks, both are called priests. I suppose I would only call myself a priest if I was involved in lay ceremonies to do with births or weddings, or those things which we understand a priest would normally do. Otherwise people get confused. But there’s also confusion about ‘monk’, because in the West people things of monks as (1) being celibate, and (2) living in a monastery. And neither of those are true within this tradition. They haven’t been since the Meiji Restoration, 1868.”
If you want to know more about tokudo, please speak with Roshi or your teacher.