The Feast of Maximum Occupancy

'Good disciple of Buddha, the source of mind is still; the ocean of Dharma is profound. Those who realize this are liberated immediately'.
These words jumped out at me when I was going over the tokudo ceremony on Friday - the title of the post comes from somewhere else; bonus points if you know where. It was a big and joyful day. Rather than go on about what happened, apart from the fact that the 150 people who Daigan said would be there all showed up, we'll just move on to the photos. I enjoyed having my ringside seat to all the action, and was glad to be part of such an occasion in the community:

Good Disciples of Buddha

Susan made a lovely observation in her speech after the wedding, that it was entirely due to Djinn and Richard's love for each other that everybody was gathered there. Yesterday the community gathered at Green Gulch for a tokudo, so you could say that it was due to the sincere practice of the three ordinands that we were all there. It was a very sweet ceremony; something about the way the Robe Chant resonated around the zendo, and the harmonious chanting of the three Ms - Mary, Maria and Michaela - brought out the beauty of the occasion. Afterwards it felt like a huge family gathering in Cloud Hall and then in the dining room. I was glad not to have to do anything other than attend and take pictures; here are a selection, including a rare coming together of the three inos, which I was very keen to have documented - Greg took this picture for us.

The preceptors

Michaela with her father

Mary

Maria

Maria

Cloud Hall crowds

Three inos - Kathy (ZMC), Shundo (CC), Connie (GGF)

Head Shaving

Before I was ordained, Greg asked me who I wanted to shave my head. Any of the Tassajara crowd, I replied. In the end I was happy that my older dharma brother Graham did the honours for me, and it was a beautiful occasion, in the dokusan room, as Koji and Jared took care of Steven and Trevor alongside me. We were given a verse to contemplate during the process, which underlined the ceremonial aspect:
Shaving off the hair,
Dedicated to all beings,
Dropping off all worldly desires,
Completely entering Nirvana.
It was the second line that most caught my attention - dedicated to all beings. That seemed like a tall order, and it still does, but that is the task we undertake when we devote ourselves to practice, whether as a priest or not.
It was a joke among my friends in England when I announced that I was going to study zen that I already had the haircut for it - I had been buzzing my hair very short for a number of years (having just looked at some childhood pictures, where I have seventies-style pudding bowl cuts, it really was from one extreme to the other). Shaving it altogether is a different feeling though. Afterwards I put the verse on my altar, and though I don't look at it when I shave my head in the bath, it does come to mind pretty much every time - I shave my head every four days, close to the traditional schedule of monks doing it on four-and-nine days, and each time it feels like a renewal of intention.
I was honoured to be present at Alison's head-shaving, with Colin as the hair-dresser, or hair-undresser as I thought of it. I  hope Alison won't mind me sharing these pictures from the different stages of the event - she had much more hair to be rid of than I did...

Back in robes

While it has been very refreshing to have a restful week - even if I did wake up around five or five thirty almost every day - it is always nice to put my robes on again after a hiatus.
Today we are back in the schedule, with a full zendo this morning, and an overflowing Buddha Hall, including a spider that I watched making its way from the mokugyo (reminding me of the famous story from Tassajara), all around the foot of the altar, which it proceeded to climb. I last saw it scampering along the picture rail near the ceiling...

There were several ends to interim this time - I went and sat on Friday afternoon as a prelude to the Suzuki Roshi Memorial before dinner; we had the second part of the Memorial on Saturday, and I went to 9:25 zazen, and the dharma talk, ending up with the newcomers' table at lunch, which was as entertaining as ever.
Also on Saturday, there was a tokudo for Alison  Kreider, whom I practised with at Tassajara a few years ago. Kosho did the ceremony at Sokoji, as he had Jared's, but there was a strong turn out from Zen Center, as well as the contingent from Austin - I think I counted about twenty priests. I was the official photographer, and this is the 'official' picture:

Ryaku Fusatsu

Even though yesterday was cooler than Monday or Tuesday, and even though the fog was rolling in during the evening, it was very warm in the Buddha Hall for the Full Moon Ceremony last night. In fact I would venture that I was hotter yesterday than I was at Tassajara a month ago, and that is saying something. We were pretty full, as is often the case when we schedule the ceremony on a Wednesday evening (we know the full moon was actually on Tuesday, but sometimes we fudge it for the sake of the schedule), and the assembly was in fine, strong voice, being led by Linda Galijan as the kokyo, with Anna Malo the doan. I have been alternating between having new people as kokyo and doan and having experienced teams, and this was definitely the latter - I remember Linda as kokyo at Tassajara more than six years ago, when we were on the doanryo together, and I was hitting the bells, and yesterday was as faultless as always.
I have mentioned in the past about how I am bowing and kneeling right in front of the White Tara statue, and the effect this has on me during the ceremony, so I thought I would include a photograph of it. The sun was not shining this morning - the fog is back - and this is not the view I have during the ceremony, but it looked better in the photograph than a head-on view

It might seem that I am often saying something about how hot I am, and this is largely due to my robes. I am not complaining about them, because they are very beautiful, they came from Japan, and they were given to me at my tokudo. Nevertheless, the jubon and kimono are both quite heavy cotton, and as for my koromo, after the tokudo ceremony, when we were standing out in the courtyard being photographed, Paul rubbed the sleeve between his fingers and said "It's basically a plastic bag", and that is how it feels as soon as it warms up. When you add the okesa on top, that is a lot of layers to be doing prostrations in.

A third thing today is my lack of voice - this started a little bit yesterday, I could feel my throat was very dry, and this morning I was croaking more than chanting, which was an interesting experience for me, especially as I am used to being almost the loudest person in the room; I felt like a bystander at service this morning. Before work meeting, a number of us were comparing notes about feeling sick, or strange, and the amount of coughing and sneezing in the zendo this morning was widely noted. The sudden changes in weather seem to be the likely culprit. I shall try not to say very much today, which will doubtless be to everyone's benefit.

Shaving the Head and Again Shaving the Head

We had a lovely tokudo on Saturday,with a full Buddha Hall witnessing Lucy's ordination.
There was plenty of laughter - even during the ceremony, as the wisdom water that Paul brushed on Lucy's scalp ran down and dripped off her nose. It was a long and busy day for the ino, from zazen at 6:30, service, oryoki, zazen at 9:25, lecture, helping set up the Buddha Hall, rehearsing the ceremony, printing and reprinting the scripts and programs, and then the big event itself, and the photographs and reception afterwards. It being a warm day, and wearing four layers of robes for most of it, I felt like I was sweating for the best part of eleven hours, but everything went very smoothly, so I had nothing really to worry about. As Paul was giving the lecture, I remembered that it was my Dharma birthday, which brought back some happy memories, and reminded me to keep my vows uppermost in my thoughts.
Here are a couple of pictures from Saturday. As you can see, everyone is offering Lucy some hair to replace her newly bald look, although if you are familiar enough with the Zen Center website, you will recognise the recreation of a photo from a few years ago...

Just us

This week has largely been taken up with preparations for Saturday's Shukke Tokudo with Lucy Xiao, who will become my dharma sister. There have been other things happening too, of course, like getting back into the schedule after a week of interim, which always has a certain feeling of refreshed reconnection. Also there has been a steady stream of people coming up from the Tassajara Practice Period, which gives us an opportunity to catch up on news and see how people are doing.
Ceremonies and rituals are a central part of our practice here at Zen Center, and since my job is to organise them, I have a very particular perspective on them right now. I know, having heard it from any number of people, that they can be an obstacle for some, something that can be off-putting, or look too esoteric, particularly if you are new, or you are mainly interested in just sitting.
I remember at Tassajara, at the end of my first summer, on the first evening of the Practice Period, suddenly everyone who was there showed up for the evening service wearing their robes, as is the form for Practice Period. I was amazed at the difference in mood, and I was thinking "but it's just us". It was the same people I had been seeing working and larking around for many months, now looking very formal and serious. I sometimes think the same thing now, in the middle of a ceremony, for instance doing a food offering to Suzuki Roshi, or to Bodhidharma or Mahapajapati. Everything is very formal and solemn, and yet, as I pass the tray to the Abbot or the Tanto, it is also "just us", and this is just what we do. Tomorrow, Lucy will have her head shaved and put on new robes and become a home-leaving 'child of Buddha', but she will still be Lucy, and I'm sure her wonderful laugh will ring out just as often.

A Life of Vow

Yesterday a whole posse from City Center went over to Green Gulch to attend the shukke tokudo. It was a very big event, and I am glad my sister ino Connie Cummings was doing the organising and not me.
I could classify it as a four-abbot event, which makes it pretty special: Senior Dharma Teacher (which denotes a former abbot) Tenshin Reb Anderson was ordaining five of his students, while Senior Dharma Teacher Eijun Linda Cutts and Abbot Myogen Steve Stucky were the other preceptors, and Abbot Rysuhin Paul Haller was in attendance as well. Apart from these luminaries, there were more Zen Center priests than I have ever seen in one place before, as well as the Green Gulch community, the City Center visitors and the ordinands' families. Abbot Steve said that many people in the Tassajara practice period had also wished to come, but he had had to say no to them all, and had just driven up by himself that morning.
I have practised with all the new priests over the years: Deirdre Carrigan lived at City Center when I first arrived ten years ago, and we were at Tassajara together in 2003, while Bryan Clark, Steph Wenderski, Thiemo Blank and Yuki Kobayama were all at Tassajara between 2006 - 2008 when I returned there. It was wonderful to see them all putting on their new robes and glowing with their newly shaved heads. These kinds of events give you a real sense of the depth of the Zen Center community, and how we all support each other to live the Bodhisattva life, or the life of vow, as Abbot Steve referred to it.
I happened to get a chance to talk with Tenshin Roshi after the ceremony, and told him of my new position. He said he had also been the ino at City Center. What did you do, I asked him. I went to every period of zazen, he said, and then added, I didn't leave the building very much...but when I did, I discovered that it was very beautiful out there.
This has been somewhat similar to my experience this past month, which made it especially nice to be at Green Gulch on such a beautiful spring day.
Here are some pictures of the day: