Buddhist initiation ritual

For the Japanese forest, see Aokigahara.

In the Jukai ceremony the students receive an empowerment called "Shassui" (or Shasui). Dennis Genpo Merzel is holding a pine twig. The water he sprinkles bestows a transmission of wisdom, or we can say, an awakening of innate wisdom. It purifies body and mind.

Jukai (受戒, shou jie in Chinese; 소게, su gae in Korean) is a public ordination ceremony wherein a lay student of Zen Buddhism receives certain Buddhist precepts, "a rite in which they publicly avow allegiance to 'The Three Refuges' of Buddhist practice: The Buddha, the dharma and the sangha." In the United States, "jukai is a formal rite of passage that marks entrance into the Buddhist community. At that time, a student is given a dharma name, such as Chozen in Jan Chozen Bays. He or she also makes a commitment to the precepts, which are interpreted a bit differently in various communities." In the Soto school, as well as the White Plum Asanga founded by Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi, students take refuge in the Three Jewels (or, Three Refuges), the Three Pure Precepts ("to do no evil, to do good, and to do good for others") and the Ten Grave Precepts. Students must undergo a period of study for their jukai ceremony. It is interesting to note that in the Diamond Sangha, established by Robert Baker Aitken, jukai is "commonly practiced" though some members never undergo the ceremony because they are members of another religion which prohibits such initiations. Therefore, some would say, they are not Buddhist by definition. At the Rochester Zen Center and its affiliated centers, the jukai ceremony involves taking the same precepts as in the Soto and White Plum traditions; however, from school to school or lineage to lineage, interpretation and translation of precepts can vary. During their ordination, "The Zen teacher individually [anoints] each participant with sanctified water (shasui). In this ritual a special wand tipped with pine needles is dipped in sanctified water and then touched to the head of the initiate, thereby establishing a physical bond between the initiate, the Zen teacher, and the teacher's spiritual lineage." Following their ceremony a student receives a rakusu, which is, "[a] rectangular piece of fabric worn around the neck." According to the late Houn Jiyu-Kennett, "This is the most important set of ceremonies in the life of a [Zen Buddhist] layman, and no person may become a [monastic] trainee unless he has undergone the week of training that these ceremonies occupy, either before his ordination or within a year of entering a training temple."

See also

• Shoken (ceremony)

References

• Bodiford, William M. (1993). Sōtō Zen in Medieval Japan. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0824814827. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Chodron, Thubten (2000). Blossoms of the Dharma: Living as a Buddhist Nun. North Atlantic Books. ISBN 1556433255. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Johnson, Fenton (2003). Keeping Faith: A Skeptic's Journey. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0618004424. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Olson, Phillip (1993). The Discipline of Freedom: A Kantian View of the Role of Moral Precepts in Zen Practice. State University of New York Press. ISBN 079141115X. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Seager, Richard Hughes (1999). Buddhism In America. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231108680. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Spuler, Michelle (2003). Developments in Australian Buddhism: Facets of the Diamond. Routledge. ISBN 0700715827. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

Further reading

• Loori, John Daido (1996). The Heart of Being: Moral and Ethical Teachings of Zen Buddhism. Charles E. Tuttle. ISBN 0585068143. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)