Words of Wisdom from Koka

"Those who train wholeheartedly in awakening unconditional and relative bodhichitta are called bodhisattvas or warriors—not warriors who kill and harm but warriors of nonaggression who hear the cries of the world. These are men and women who are willing to train in the middle of the fire. Training in the middle of the fire can mean that warrior-bodhisattvas enter challenging situations in order to alleviate suffering. It also refers to their willingness to cut through personal reactivity and self-deception, to their dedication to uncovering the basic undistorted energy of bodhichitta. We have many examples of master warriors—people like Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King—who recognized that the greatest harm comes from our own aggressive minds. They devoted their lives to helping others understand this truth. There are also many ordinary people who spend their lives training in opening their hearts and minds in order to help others do the same. Like them, we could learn to relate to ourselves and our world as warriors. We could train in awakening our courage and love." This excerpt, from Pema Chodron's book 'The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times', makes me think of so many of you -my friends. You each 'fight' in your own way, I am grateful for what you do -and grateful to have met you.

'Sometimes what I see, hear and feel makes me scream...'

To Speak. To be Quiet.

"One needs two years to learn to speak, but a whole life to learn to be quiet...." --- A Chinese proverb

A Message from Koka

Saturday,  December 8, 2007

A great silence covered the blog this last month.

It just happened to be like that because I was traveling.

In rural India there was no easy access to computers, books, etc... I rested with the book of nature, and through warm smiles and friendly faces heard another kind of Dharma talk.

I wish I could share it all with you.

We all know it... there is no need to go to India for this... it is all here. 

But in our busy lives do we really take the time to listen, and look? 

Let's be honest.

To receive, our cup must be empty. 

To hear and see, 'silence' must be practised, ... again and again, ...again and again...

I wish you all a renewed enthusiasm for zazen.

Koka

About Dokusan

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

*

About 

Dokusan 

*

"Work in the Room"

"Zen meetings have the simplest of forms: two people sitting on the floor, face inches from face, in a candlelit room. And yet that small room is a large field, containing the stars and the earthworms and poems and cities. In the vastness, the Chinese teacher Linji said, the true person has no rank; everyone and everything is perfectly equal, and completely themselves. Here we don't even have stories about what meetings are for. The world of how you think it ought to be and whether you're making a good impression is a ghost world; work in the room is sitting together in the real, where anything might be possible. Authority lies in the timeless moment itself: What is most real, most true, right here and right now?

"The teacher invites the meditator into this field, and the meditator's response is where the encounter begins. Every meetings is different--laughter, tears, sitting together in silence, banging about the room, songs sung and koans explored. Most often there is the deepest kind of conversation. I notice in myself that the feeling which arises naturally from this field is love."

Joan Sutherland, Roshi.

This is an excerpt from an essay on 'Dokusan' published in the 2004 winter edition of the Buddhadharma magazine. To read the whole essay in The Open Source's website, click here.

Joan Sutherland, Roshi, is the founder of The Open Source which is a collaborative network of NewZen communities and practitioners in the western United States.

The short summary below explains the focus of their practice and can be found on her website:

"Our practice has the power to reveal a Zen that is not bound to another time and a different place, a Zen that is native to us; we begin to recognize the ineffable in the images and metaphors of this time and place, arising out of our landscapes, our ancestral spirits, our poetries, our psyches, and our songs."

In Prayer . . .

In prayer we can show we are listening
 
--- Everyday Zen (Jeffrey Duval)
 

 

The Legend of Silence

Soon silence will have passed into legend.  Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation. Tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego. His anxiety subsides. His inhuman void spreads monstrously like a gray vegetation

---Jean Arp

To Perceive The Way

To see nothing is to perceive the Way, and to understand nothing is to know the Dharma, because seeing is neither seeing nor not seeing and because understanding is neither understanding nor not understanding

---Bodhidharma

Everyday Zen

The Spirit is so near that you can't see it!
But reach for it . . . Don't be a jar
Full of water, whose rim is always dry.
Don't be the rider who gallops all nighy
And never sees the horse that is beneath him

--- Everyday Zen

 

Everyday Zen

Someone asked Rumi, "Is there any way nearer to God than prayer?"

Rumi answered, "Yes, but it is also prayer. It is prayer without the outward form. This outer form of prayer is the body of prayer, since it has a beginning and an ending. Everything that has a beginning and an ending is a body. All words and sounds have a beginning and an end, and therefore, they are form and body. But the inner soul of prayer is unconditional and infinite, and has neither beginning nor end." --- Everyday Zen

Privacy

There is a privacy about Winter which no other season gives you. In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself---Ruth Stout

Everyday Zen

The words "oak tree" do not convey the oak tree's essence. No words ever can 

--- Everyday Zen

"We must consider future generations . . . "

As people alive today, we must consider future generations: a clean environment is a human right like any other. It is therefore part of our responsibility towards others to ensure that the world we pass on is as healthy, if not healthier, than we found it---The Dalai Lama

Everyday Zen

We are here, not there. And no one can say where we go when we are not here --- Everyday Zen

On Dynamic Creation

The pure impulse of dynamic creation is formless; and being formless, the creation it gives rise to can assume any and every form

---Kabbalah

Everyday Zen

Your capacity to be present depends on your capacity to be absent

 --- Everyday Zen

The Teacher

In criticizing, the teacher is hoping to teach. That's all --- Bankei Zenji

 

Listen to Kermie . . .

Thoughts on The Big Three

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Monday, August 2, 2010

THOUGHTS ON THE BIG THREE

 by 

Konrei

 

All harmful karma ever committed by me since of old

On account of my beginningless greed, anger and ignorance,

Born of my body, mouth and thought,

Now I atone for it all.

“The Three Defilements”---Greed, Anger and Ignorance---are the badly-lit subbasement of the mind in Buddhist psychology. They are what Shakyamuni was referring to when he posited the Four Noble Truths, which, in sum, tell us that, "Life isn't what we want it to be; because it isn't, we're unhappy; when we decide it doesn't have to be, we become happy; and to help us make that decision, we should get plenty of sleep and eat a good breakfast every day."

The Buddhist term for a Defilement is “Kilesa” in Pali or “Klesha” in Sanskrit, and can be translated also as “affliction” or “poison” or even “fire.” These Kilesas have two manifestations: In one sense, they underlie our entire ingrained dualistic view of the universe; in the other sense, they trouble us personally and cause us to act in ways not in keeping with the Precepts.

Depending on the Buddhist sect, there are three, nine, ten, or as many as 108 Kilesas. Theravadan Buddhist temples usually have 108 steps, each step representing a Kilesa and a Precept. No matter how many Kilesas a particular Sangha recognizes, Greed, Anger and Ignorance always top the list. Others, like Conceit and Torpor and Wrong Views can be characterized as expressions of Greed, Anger and Ignorance, so let’s just stick with the Big Three that cause all our sufferings and prevent us from feeling tranquil.

We all know Greed: That wonderful little voice inside us that says, “Gimme dat t’ing!” But whatever “t’ing” it is, we will lose it, it may break, it loses its attractiveness, and in the end, we find we don’t really own it, right down to our own mind and body. So we cling. We cling to the senses, we cling to ideas, we cling to habits and rituals. Anything we cling to at a given time may be outmoded or not work for us. Ultimately, everything we cling to fails to function.

And we all know Anger: “I don’t wanna!”, "I don’t want to go to work today!"; "I don’t like Joe Dokes, as a matter of fact, I HATE Joe Dokes"; "What kind of lousy lunch is this?"

Dogen Zenji points out that our koan arises naturally in daily life. If we observe our Greed and our Anger we always find our koan. The answer to our koan cuts through our Ignorance.

Both Greed and Anger come from the importance of the “I” in our lives, from the Ego’s desire to protect itself---“To protect my idea of myself”---whether by girding myself ‘round with possessions for a sense of permanence or exiling those things from my life that threaten or don’t support my idea of my own permanence.

Ignorance is not complicated to explain: It works through self-justification. Whether we act well or ill we can be deluded. Thinking that we’re justified in hating Joe Dokes, or thinking that if we can befriend Joe Dokes we can turn things around are both ignorant, deluded thoughts. Baso’s answer, “I’m sitting zazen in order to become a Buddha” earned him a whack because his thinking was deluded. The outcomes we anticipate are delusions.

Bodhidharma said “No merit” to Emperor Wu in regard to all his works. Essentially, Ignorance and its handmaiden Delusion both come down to the underlying motives for our actions.

When we realize the emptiness of all five conditions we are freed of pain.

Just sit.

The Bodhisattva Precepts: An Ongoing Inquiry

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Friday, August 6, 2010

THE BODHISATTVA PRECEPTS: AN ONGOING INQUIRY 

by 

WILBUR MUSHIN MAY, SENSEI

An Introduction

The Bodhisattva Precepts are skillful means to guide us in our engagement with the world. Our everyday life is a great, multifaceted koan that we resolve at every moment and yet never completely resolve. The Precepts transcend ordinary reality and are beyond both action and non-action. The Precepts point to our essential nature.

Living in this world, we sometimes experience a split or gap between “Me” and “Other” or “Inner” and “Outer.” Seen in that light, the Precepts act as a reminder of our Oneness with all creation, a marker of our interrelatedness with all Beings, and a signpost to our place as a jewel in the Net of Indra.

To me, the most important and overriding principle behind the Precepts is the principle of Oneness, which unites all ten Precepts into a single whole, taking as its base life itself. Seeing with the eyes of others, feeling with others’ hands, and experiencing the lack of the gap between “Me” and “Other” brings me to inquire how it is possible to lie, cheat or steal.

We are all swimming in the river of life; we are one with life; we cannot drown. This Oneness is the buoyancy that keeps us afloat.

Going down with a swirl
Coming up with a whirl

Thought For The Day:

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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Thought For The Day:

When I read the words of Schopenhauer and Goethe and the prose-poetry of Hesse, or listen to the music of Beethoven, Haydn and Brahms, it seems inconceivable that the culture that gave rise to such beauty also gave rise to the ugliness of Hitler, Himmler and Heydrich. In this lies a lesson, I think, for all humanity. We are all, individually, Guardians of civilization, and our watchwords must be kindness, compassion, empathy---and vigilance.

---Konrei

WE ARE NEVER ALONE: A YOM KIPPUR MEDITATION

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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

WE ARE NEVER ALONE: 

A YOM KIPPUR MEDITATION 

by 

James Ishmael Ford

 

He drew a circle that shut me out -
Heretic, a rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!

---Edwin Markham

Doug Marlette was among my favorite cartoonists. Mostly I knew him from his political cartoons, which were generally liberal and which appeared pretty much everywhere. Although Tammy Faye Bakker once called him a tool of Satan, I found his work was not marked with that raw and partisan hatred we too often see today on just about every side. I think he well deserved his Pulitzer Prize. Sadly, he died a couple of years ago in an automobile accident.

But, what brings him to mind for today is that Marlette also had a daily cartoon strip. Over the years I would run across reprints of it here and there. Called Kudzu, it was largely a celebration of things Southern, and featured, among other characters, a Baptist preacher Will B. Done.

Two things sparked my thought about Kudzu. For one, Peace Day, the United Nations sponsored International Day of Peace is the 21st of September. We here in Providence are mostly celebrating it on the Sunday closest to the 21st, which is today. There are many things going on, among them our service here, and later between three and five, the Peace Flag Project downtown at Burnside Park at Kennedy Plaza.

And, second, I find it particularly meaningful that in the Jewish tradition Yom Kippur was just observed, with that hard look into the heart of judgment, and the sincere seeking of reconciliation. I think these things are intimately connected.

I really like the Kudzu cartoon, and have alluded to it on occasion. I looked around the web and couldn’t find a copy. Still, I think I can describe it pretty accurately, certainly the punch line. Three panels, as I recall. Throughout the preacher Will B. Done is watching. In that first panel a batter has just swung and the umpire is calling out strike three. The second, however, is a strike five. In the third panel, against still another swing has the preacher commenting, “I hate playing against the Unitarians.”

Actually that’s a Universalist theme we’ve inherited, but no doubt it runs a wild and wondrous current through our liberal faith, a spring, a life-giving well. And I appreciated the thumbs up, even if it came from the back of his hand. In the justice/mercy dichotomy, while I think justice important, bottom line I’m a mercy guy. I’m all for second chances, and third, and one hundredth.

I know my own life is marked by second chances, both personal and societal. I’m a pretty self-aware person, and over the course of my life my choices, my actions, have not all been, shall we say, up to my highest ideals. Justice untempered by mercy would put me on a pretty hot seat. I know it. And I’m grateful for those who would cut me a little slack. And I try to return the favor.

In addition to the personal, there is also societal.

As a child of poverty, college was not supposed to be part of my future, and I left High School without a diploma. Later, I tried community college. Actually, it took a couple of tries for it to take. In many countries, such second and third chances are not part of the deal. But in California in those days with its open admission and cheap registration, I got those second and third chances that led directly to my standing in this pulpit.

I mentioned Yom Kippur. I’m quite taken with this season, which begins with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, inaugurating the days of repentance, and culminates in Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which, was observed from sundown on this past Friday through sundown yesterday.

I think part of the reason I’m so taken with Rosh Hashanah and particularly with Yom Kippur is how it touches on both justice and mercy, but, also, how in the last analysis it is about the mysteries of peace both within our individual hearts and scattered promiscuously upon this planet. So, all of these things have set my heart to bubbling, to my reflecting on the nature of forgiveness, of justice tempered, of second chances, and how these are essential ingredients to peace of any sort.

Now, some of us find our deepest inspiration in the wilderness. I appreciate that. But for me it is within our human communities that I am personally most moved, most horrified and appalled, but also most moved to joy and aspiration. Cities can be, often are, the archetype of human failure and, for me, of human aspiration, of human possibility. In this context of longing for peace, of seeking to understand justice through a path of mercy and compassion, through that willingness to start over, again and again, my mind, my heart flows to that archetype of dream where East and West meet, that city of the human heart, Jerusalem. In another Jewish celebration there is a toast, “Next Year in Jerusalem.” I would offer that a meditation on Jerusalem brings all these themes together, and points us on our way.

Its Arabic name is al-Quds Sharif, which means Holy Sanctuary. And that certainly is a powerful layer of meaning for us all, if we’re seeking to understand a complex community with its divided heart and persistent longing in the face of war and tribulation as an image of ourselves, a metaphor for who we are and how we might be. Of course its oldest name is Jerusalem, which speaks to that deepest longing of human hearts. I gather the name comes from two ancient roots, “y-r-h” which means something along the lines of direction or instruction or teaching and “s-l-m” which means wholeness or peace. So, Jerusalem is the teaching of peace or the place or abode of peace. And, also, I hope you caught, peace means wholeness. This city, so torn by strife, is often called the door of peace.

Of course everything is complicated, muddied if you will, by contending forces, and multiple claims, pretty much all of which are to one degree or another legitimate. And no one seems immune to this roil of contention. A few years ago one of Jan’s co-workers, who is of Armenian descent was celebrating Easter in the ancient Christian church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Its care is divided among different flavors of Christian. And her experience at that service was a near riot between the contending Christian factions pushing beyond their boundaries, possibly only held at bay from seriously hurting each other by Israeli soldiers, who, frankly, weren’t all that gentle in keeping order. In the not-quite riot Jan’s co-worker’s husband was pushed to the ground. Not a very happy Easter.

So, what in this mess is a pointer for us, here in Providence, Unitarian Universalists recalling Yom Kippur, a Kudzu cartoon, and observing an international Day of Peace?

As I understand the etymology, peace is essentially a treaty. It is a covenant of presence and harmlessness. For it to work there must be an inner component as well as an outer one. As I see it the treaty is a call to wholeness. When we look at Jerusalem as an image of both our selves and of our condition in the world, we see the contending forces of our own hearts, apparently irreconcilable, and possibly that is so. But, in the face of that most reasonable doubt, of uncertainty for the outcome of any project dedicated to peace, one more thing: Edwin Markham’s famous poem, a drawing of a circle large enough to include us all. For me that’s the image of Jerusalem. Or, it can be.

But how to draw that great circle, considering all the obvious and seemingly insurmountable difficulties facing the project? I have a few thoughts. There’s an old Zen saying, fall down nine times, get up ten. Or, some such number. That and that other great Zen chestnut how our path is all “one continuous mistake” certainly inform my walk toward peace, both inner and outer. And, perhaps yours? Here I think of that Kudzu cartoon, again; strike whatever. One more chance, one more chance, as long as breath allows, one more chance.

But I’m also of a practical turn of mind. And so beyond this encouragement to keep on keeping on, and to draw a circle that includes everyone within the city of peace, I would like a few more steps, as clearly stated as possible. Which brings us back to Yom Kippur.

Poking about the Yom Kippur traditions, thinking about it, looking at it through the lens of liberal religion here are four steps we might consider to allow our desire to draw that great circle of peace around our hearts and the hearts of this hurting world. First, owning up to our own part in the mess. Second, turning our hearts once more to our highest aspirations, toward our better angels. Third, reaching out to another, to do our own part in the healing of our many communities. And, fourth, to rededicate ourselves, and to rededicate ourselves again, endlessly to this way of peace.

Okay, owning our own part in the mess. I think we got it right within liberal religion when we walked away from the idea of shame. No free floating guilt about being good enough. But, we also have too often also cut ourselves off from guilt. Guilt is like pain; it is a reminder when something is going wrong. In the case of guilt it is often enough our deeper self, telling us we have done something harmful. We need to assess our own actions and thoughts relentlessly. Look hard. Take inventories. If you feel a pang of guilt, look at it. It may be pointing to something you need to attend to.

Second, what to do with that information? Well, let us recall the moral compass that rests in our hearts, that part of us which knows we are precious as individuals but only exist because we are all part of the great family of things. Let us remember the family, and that we are part of it, and we will have a pretty good idea of what to do next.

Which is the third point. Reach out. Don’t keep it private. Do something for someone else. We’re talking about the family, after all. Small or large, your call, but, for goodness’ sake, do something.

And fourth, do it again. Strike three, strike ten, strike one hundred. Know our hearts are Jerusalem, contending and yet one. Draw the circle wide. Include everyone. Leave no one behind. There are so many souls, thirsting for justice, for mercy, for love, for peace. Come and drink freely from the well at the center of that city of peace.

Drink deep. And refreshed take up the task again. Come, dear ones; make the world a holy sanctuary. Come, my friends; draw the circle wide and join with all to make this world a holy shrine.

Amen.

Hiding In This Cage

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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

HIDING IN THIS CAGE 

By Kabir (15th Century)

hiding in this cage
of visible matter

is the invisible
lifebird

pay attention
to her

she is singing
your song

The Reality of Being

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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

"The Reality of Being" 

by Jeanne De Salzman

 

I exist in this moment. I cannot hold myself apart observing from the outside, nor fix or stop the the movement, appropriating it for myself. I can only feel that I am part of it. I am nothing without it, and it can do nothing without me. I let go, and in losing myself I find myself. I submit to this movement, in which form is created and immediately swept away as soon as it appears. I live in my breathing.

The Reader

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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Every reader, as he reads, is actually the reader of himself. The writer's work is only a kind of optical instrument he provides the reader so he can discern what he might never have seen in himself without this book. The reader's recognition in himself of what the book says is the proof of the book's truth.


---Marcel Proust

Jasmine

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Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Dear Friends:

Jasmine, my eleven year old calico cat, passed away early on Monday morning, September 27, 2010, due to sudden, unexpected kidney failure. She died at home, comforted by me, and in the presence of her feline friends Sunshine and Squeaky.

This has been a season of loss. My father passed away on March 15th of this year. When I returned from his funeral on March 18th, I found my cat Reba, Jasmine’s lifelong companion, dead on the bedroom floor. And now, Jasmine has joined her.


There is not much to say of Jasmine. She was a cat. Yet, it was her very cat-ness that made her so extraordinary. Nothing troubled Jasmine. She took what came in life, accepting even her own death with a grace I have rarely seen anywhere. She behaved with an excellence I have never seen in any creature. She was not a cat that cried, yowled, scratched, jumped dramatically, or got into “cat capers.” Her favorite place was on my desk, watching me work. When she walked, it was with an ease I envied.

I had often said that if Jasmine could be human she would have worn white gloves and carried a parasol. And spoken softly, which she always did (unless she was at the vet’s, where she routinely let the doctors know that she would prefer that they not live through the day---yet, that too, was “behaving with excellence.”)
Somehow, some years ago, she got locked in the garage for several days when I was away. When I came home, I didn’t even notice her absence. By chance, I went into the garage. When I opened the door, she simply walked out of the garage and went to her water bowl. There were no cries, and no dramatics. She did not dart for the bowl. She walked as if nothing had happened at all, as if this was just the norm. Yet, she had been in there at least three days in the heat and humidity. When I checked the garage, I discovered that she had been using the padded seat of my exercise bike as a place to sleep, and that she had used an empty spare litterbox for her needs. She made do, trusting that what was to be was to be.

She was almost forgettable simply because she was so undemanding, and yet is immeasurably memorable because there lived in her little body a sentient spirit that was always in the moment. It took me too long to realize that Jasmine’s spirit was one that could be a template for my own life. I was in the presence of an accomplished Zen Master who loved, lived, and did only what was needful, whether it was eating or grooming or comforting her companions. Just to be in her presence was soothing. She always was just where she was, and she always acted kindly; it did not matter if she was in the presence of humans, other cats, or dogs. She treated everyone well, and was liked by all. Even my Dad, who was not a cat person, called Jasmine, “My little girlfriend."

Did I say that there was not much to say? I should say rather that so much of who Jasmine was has to be left unsaid to be appreciated. There was not a wasted moment, extra motion, or unnecessary action in her life. Truly, she was a Bodhisattva in the shape of a seven pound cat.


It was an honor to be her “owner.” A greater honor to her will be if I can live just as she lived.

Thank you for your kind thoughts and good wishes.

Jeff/Konrei

The Tradition of The Buddha's Robe

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Monday, December 13, 2010

The Tradition of Buddha’s Robe: A Dharma talk given by Sr. Candana Karuna at IBMC September 24, 2006

During the past year, I’ve noticed a lot of people wondering about Buddhist robes: why are there so many different colors and styles, why are they worn, what do they mean, what’s the big deal? It can be confusing. Doubly so here at IBMC, where there are not only many Buddhist traditions represented, but there are also differences in robes among those ordained within the American Vietnamese Zen tradition of our founder, Dr. Thich Thien-An.

Answering questions about Buddhist robes is easy on the surface, but each answer seems to lead to more questions. For some Buddhists, these answers are important; for others, even the question of robes is extraneous. Sometimes one explanation contradicts another or even seems to go against the spirit of Buddhism.

I like questions. I don’t have all or even most of the answers, and I still have questions, because in researching this subject I’ve discovered that for almost every statement I’m about to make, you can find a completely different answer. Sometimes, it’s simply that the different schools of Buddhism have different explanations or ways of doing things; at other times, language issues arise and translations are not reliable.

At any rate, this morning let me present you with what I have learned, my best guess, in trying to demystify the Tradition of Buddha’s Robe.

Siddhartha Gautama, the man who would become Buddha, was born a son of the Shakya clan and grew to manhood in an entitled and sheltered life during the 6th century BCE in India. Encounters with sickness, old age and death shattered his complacency and made him question the privileged experiences and assumptions of his life. He renounced home and family in order to devote himself to answering the questions of suffering and, as was the custom, traded his fine clothing away for that of a mendicant seeker.

So, what did beggar’s clothing look like? In most representations of the Buddha, such as the figure on our altar, his clothing looks pretty good: classic simplicity – clean lines and not a hole or stain in sight. Presumably, that’s because he’s usually shown after his enlightenment, when his robes were cared for by attendants and replenished by donations.

But even if you find a statue of the ascetic Siddhartha – hollowed cheeks, sunken eye sockets and ribs like desiccated bones – although he looks terrible, the loincloth looks neat and tidy. Take it with a grain of salt, because there are no contemporary portraits extant. In fact, it was hundreds of years after he passed into parinirvana before anyone thought to make an image of the Buddha. And art, by its nature, idealizes. So, don’t look to statues or artwork as a primary source – they simply tell you about the culture in which they were created.

But here’s what we are told in the sutras about mendicant robes during that time. They were made from discarded scraps of cloth, or what is called in Sanskrit pāmsūda or pāmsūla. There are various lists identifying what constitutes pāmsūda. For example, cloth that has been 1) burned by fire, 2) munched by oxen, 3) gnawed by mice, or 4) worn by the dead. The Japanese equivalent of pāmsūda is funzoe, a polite translation of which is “excrement sweeping cloth” and indicates another potential source.

These scraps were scavenged from the trash, out in the fields, by roadsides or even from the cremation grounds. Any truly unsalvageable parts were trimmed off and the resulting bits were washed and sewn, piecemeal and without pattern, into a rectangle large enough to wrap around and cover the mendicant. Then the rectangle was dyed, using gleaned roots and tubers, plants, bark, leaves, flowers or fruits, especially heartwood and leaves of the jackfruit tree, which resulted in a variable and generic color known in Sanskrit as kashaya, denoting mixed/variegated, neutral or earth tones. It’s also defined as "color that is not pure" or "bad color." I have also been told that it refers to colors considered ugly, colors chosen to renounce that culture’s values. This also ties in with another connotation of the word kashaya, which is impurity or uncleanliness, reflecting back to the source of the cloth used.

We’ll return to color and style later, but this is the clothing Siddhartha Gautama wore as he studied with and surpassed several prominent teachers of that time, and undertook to master the most severe ascetic practices. Even then, he found them as ultimately empty of answers as was his early life. Finally, he turned away from those paths, sat down under the Bodhi tree with his questions and found the solution to suffering.

After his enlightenment, he began to teach and many of those who heard his teachings – mendicants, former teachers, householders, even his own family and royalty – left their pursuits and followed him forming the Sangha of monks and, later, nuns. Their clothing was not codified, and various sutras refer to a variety in dress, some of it fairly fantastic. Tradition has it that those who ordained with the Buddha, as well as the Buddha himself, primarily wore the mendicant clothing of that time, essentially the same worn in India today; they all wore some version of a simple, serviceable, Kashaya robe.

This caused a problem for a Buddhist king named Bimbasara, who wanted to pay homage to Buddhist monks but was having trouble picking them out of the crowd. One day, he complained and asked the Buddha to make a distinctive robe for his monks. They were walking by a rice field in Magadha at the time, and Buddha asked Ananda, his personal attendant, to design a robe based on the orderly, staggered pattern of rows of the rice padi fields.

This original Buddhist robe comprised three parts, layered depending on activity and weather, and was therefore known as the “triple robe” (tricivara in Sanskrit):

1. Uttarasanga is the normal clerical robe. It is a large rectangle, about 6 feet by 9 feet, worn wrapped around the torso and covering one or both shoulders. Although all three parts were made of kashaya fabric, this piece was the robe that came to represent Buddhism as it traveled to other countries, and it came to be called the Kashaya Robe. With its five-fold or five-column rice field pattern surrounded by a border, it is regarded as symbolic of a Buddhist’s relationship with the Buddha and his teachings

2. Antarasavaka is a lower robe, wrapped around the waist to knee like a sarong and tied at the waist with a flat cotton belt. According to the monastic rules or Vinaya, a monk could wear it by itself if he was on his own, sick, crossing a river or looking for a new Uttarasanga.

3. Sanghati is an extra robe, often made of two layers, which is used for extra warmth or may be used, spread out as a seat or bedding. It is sometimes folded and placed on one shoulder.

This “triple robe” traveled from India throughout the world as Buddhism spread and was adapted, as Buddhism has adapted, by each country and culture it encountered.

I’d like to go on a brief tangent and mention robe relics, those purported to be of an actual, worn-by-the-Buddha variety. A tradition of hand-me-down robes was extant during the Buddha’s lifetime; the sutras tell us when Ananda agreed to become the Buddha’s attendant, he stipulated that he would not take any of the Buddha’s robes because he didn’t want to create the appearance of favoritism. Since the Buddha taught for 45 years after his enlightenment, he undoubtedly went through quite a few robes, and there are quite a few stories of such robes or pieces thereof.

One of these relics was entrusted to the Buddhists of Sri Lanka by the Emperor Asoka in the 4th Century BCE but, unfortunately, the Buddha’s Robe relic disappeared or was destroyed during one of the many Chola invasions between the 9th and 13th Centuries CE.

Another story of such a robe comes from Zen Buddhism, which holds that the Buddha gave his robe to Mahakasyapa in testament to his deep understanding, evidenced when the Buddha held up a flower in silence and Mahakasyapa smiled, the only one to see the Buddha’s teaching. Some believe the 28th Indian Patriarch/1st Chinese Patriarch, Bodhidharma, brought this very robe to China and go so far as to say that it was passed to succeeding patriarchs until the Fifth Chinese Patriarch passed it to Hui-neng, with the instruction that there would be no more passing of the robe. Not every Zen Buddhist believes this in a literal sense; I personally suspect the Buddha’s Robe, at least in this case, was more symbolic of Mind-seal transmission than involving any actual original garment.




Back to the “triple robe,” which arrived in China with Buddhism well ahead of Bodhidharma, although it wasn’t Chan (which became Zen), and once it left India, the form of the “triple robe” as well as the terminology began to change. The Sanskrit word kashaya was transliterated into Chinese as jiasha in Mandarin, kasa in Cantonese, and came to be applied specifically to the Uttarasanga, or normal clerical robe.

While India’s climate is temperate, and the three rectangular robes provided sufficient warmth and protection from the elements, even a double-layered Sanghati didn’t cut it in China. So the Chinese layered additional, Taoist-style robes and jackets, or what we would recognize as kimono (although that’s a Japanese term), under the kasa. These garments had sleeves of various types, from relatively close-fitting to what we Americans think of as the archetypical Asian sleeve, the pendulous dogleg that may or may not be closed at the wrist.

China did not have a mendicant tradition, wherein monastics would be supported by the populace (nor was it likely official support would be forthcoming from a government steeped in Confucianism and Taoism). In order to be as self-sufficient as possible, Chinese monastics farmed and performed manual labor in addition to religious practice. Because the wrapped “triple robe” is not designed or conducive to this type of heavy work (especially when it’s freezing), the monks developed wrapped leggings, split skirts (like culottes) or pants as alternate forms of the lower robe or Antarasavaka.

The kasa, itself, also went through some changes. The original Uttarasanga had five columns in the rice field pattern and was large enough to simply wrap around the body and shoulders. Once Buddhism had left India, four small squares inside the outside corners and two larger reinforcing squares near the top border on either side of the center column were added to the kasa, modifying the original design. Ties and straps, or fasteners were attached, often in the form of a ring and spoke.




At some point, perhaps in China, Korea or Japan, a smaller version was developed, like the one I’m wearing which we call the rakusu. It has the five columns and is worn around the neck like a bib. The origin of the rakusu is one of the confusing questions for me. Some say that it developed during the transition to manual labor in China, because a full kasa was cumbersome. Some say it was originated during a time of persecution, so that Buddhists could wear the kasa, hidden and safe, under their outer clothing. It’s also been suggested that started as simply the “cloth bag that wandering monks wore to carry alms bowl and other small items,” which was later “formalized as a monastic ‘accoutrement’.” There are even Japanese scholars who believe that it was developed in Japan during the Edo or Tokugawa Era, as the result of sumptuary regulations which limited the size and fabric type of clerical wear (I suspect a bit of nationalism, here).

The other big change to the full-sized kasa was the addition of columns as the monastic advanced in ordination and power, whether spiritual or temporal. The basic five-fold robe expanded to accommodate a system of rank modeled after the traditional nine-grade hierarchical Chinese law, so that five grew to seven, to nine, to 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23 and 25 strips of cloth, often of rich or rare fabrics, providing a physical proof of one’s status.

Buddhism spread from China to Korea, and the Koreans adopted the term Kasa. They also maintain the rakusu or small kasa tradition, but did add a shortened kimono-type robe to be worn under the kasa.

Korean Buddhists introduced Buddhism to Japan, although eventually it was Chinese influence that overwhelmed and was wholeheartedly embraced by Japanese Buddhists: Taoist-style robes with wide arms, purple kasa, multiple columns, work clothes and all. The Japanese transliterated the Korean/Chinese kasa to kesa, or okesa, which is simply a polite Japanese format. The Japanese adopted the distinctive and practical work clothes, which they called samue, as the everyday working uniform of the monastic. They also created a new form of kesa, by developing a black wide-sleeved kimono-style monk’s robe which conforms to the spirit, if not the form, of the Kashaya Robe in that it is made from the pieces of cheapest fabric, which are sewn and dyed by the monk.

Japanese Buddhist monastics created many different robes, sacred as well as ordinary clothing, and it seems like they have 20 words for each one. As an example, I will simply mention the rakusu. In addition to the one we’re familiar with at at this temple, there is the Okau, a larger rakusu worn on the left shoulder (I believe that’s the style that looks a little like you’re wearing a barrel by one suspender), the Hangesa or “half kesa” given to lay people and the Wagesa or “small kesa” also worn by lay people who have taken precepts.

Japanese rakusu have sewn designs on the straps, or on the collar covering, where they fall across the back of the neck to indicate denominational sects: Soto is a pine, Rinzai is a mountain-shaped triangle, and Obaku is a six-pointed star. In addition, Rinzai and Soto traditions sew a large flat ring on the left strap. This ring is not functional, but recalls the shoulder fasteners of the full-length kesa. As a result of a reform movement known as the fukudenkai in the mid-20th century, some Soto Zen groups have eliminated the rakusu ring.

Buddhism entered Vietnam from India and later from China, although the Chinese forms became dominant. The Vietnamese prefer a close-fitting sleeve on the kimono, again illustrating that robe style often begins with an adaptation of a culture’s normal clothing and becomes institutionalized. A similar situation applies to the Vietnamese pajama-like work clothes: a monastic uniform, but not sacred clothing.

Within the Tibetan or Vajrayana tradition, the culture once again adapted the “triple robe.” Ordained male and female clerics wear a sleeveless tunic and lower robe or skirt. The Tibetan Kashaya Robe is variously called shamtab (five strips), chogu, or namba (25 strip, for high ordination).

American robes, such as they are to date, are largely determined by a teacher’s tradition. Variations occur due to personal preference, convictions, understanding, or simply opportunity. And sometimes, speaking for myself, it’s all about comfort.




Although the essential Buddhist robe was the Kashaya Robe, there have been variations in quality of material ever since the Buddha’s time. In the Pali tradition, six kinds of cloth are allowed for making the upper and outer robes of the “triple robe”: plant fibers, cotton, silk, animal hair (not human), hemp, and a mixture of some or all of them. There are other lists of materials, but it’s clear that a variety of fabrics were used throughout. Some were sumptuous. Some were simple or easy-care. Certainly, most of Asia seems to be using man-made fabrics right now. In the ultimate sense, of course, any material could be used, provided there is no attachment.

With reference to attachment, one interesting thing that is prohibited in the Vinaya is “sewing cowries shells or owls' wings” onto robes. Evidently, some of the Buddha’s monks were adorning their robes and had to be restricted in their artistic or preening tendencies. When the Chinese embroidered scenes in gold thread in their ceremonial kesa, or the Japanese took a single elaborate weaving and simulated the pieced, rice field pattern by appliqueing brocade dividing strips, perhaps sewn to one edge only so that the loosely attached strips swayed like tatters -- do you suppose that they were truly not attached? Not that I’m not appreciative of the craft and beauty of these kesa. I’m just wondering.

This finally brings me to color, back to the concept of kashaya – broken or variegated color – which probably was in a spectrum from yellow to a reddish brown from being washed and dyed with plant materials, sometimes saffron or tumeric. Because the materials and dyestuffs vary, colors are not consistent. They also fade and become soiled. According to Seung Sahn Sunim, the Korean Zen master, during the Buddha’s time, the monks wore yellow robes, because that was the color of the dirt and didn’t show soil when the wind was blowing.

In modern times, monastics of the Theravadan tradition in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Thailand or Laos usually continue this tradition of saffron or ochre robes. One source I encountered claimed that forest monks wear ochre while city monks wear saffron, but concluded that this is not always the case.

Monastics in the Mahayana tradition wear many different colors, according to region, country, sect and ordination level. When Buddhism came to China, color changed and changed again; different temples in various regions wore different colors: yellow, light golden brown, brown, grey or blue, shades of black: pitch black, grey black. During the Tang Dynasty, the emperor awarded purple robes and honorary titles to high-level monks.

Japanese monastics usually wear grey or black. They adopted the purple kesa tradition, which was revoked in the 17th Century under the Tokugawa Shogunate. The emperor abdicated in protest and monks who resisted, no matter how high, were exiled.

Koreans wear grey, brown or blue robes.

In the Vietnamese Zen tradition the kimono robes are brown or yellow, or somewhere in between, and the kesa are yellow to orange. At IBMC, after 10 years at high ordination, the cleric may wear a red kesa.

The colorful robes of the Vajrayana tradition of Tibet range from the simple to some of the most elaborate in the world, from bright yellow to orange to maroon to a purplish-red according to School and Dharma level. Their versions of the Kashaya Robe are usually yellow. If their sleeveless tunic is trimmed with yellow brocade or they are wearing yellow silk and satin as normal attire, they are probably eminent monks or considered living Buddhas.

Americans tend to follow the color coding associated with their teacher’s tradition, although we do have a tendency toward individualism and downright contrariness when it comes to formalization. Our Rev. Kusala once suggested that American Buddhist robes might be blue denim.

As an example of how schools assign colors according to Dharma level, here’s what I think I know about IBMC’s Americanized Vietnamese Zen. Monks and priests wear some shade of brown robes with yellow/orange kesas. Fully ordained priests may additionally wear yellow collars or yellow piping around the collar. Laypeople, whether taking Refuge or atangasilas (eight-precept ordainees such as myself, Nam, Doug and Gary) wear the rakusu and, while not entitled to wear the larger kesa, we do get to wear these spiffy grey non-sacred robes.

One Soto Zen website mentions that Bodhisattvas wear black or dark brown kesas, so I guess IBMC and a large part of Japan are pretty far advanced.

With respect to bib-like rakusu, colors may reflect those of the kesa. At IBMC, ours are gold. In Korea, the half-kasa is brown. Or they may be a different, contrasting color to the kasa. In China, Chan-style rakusu are white. The Japanese wear blue, brown or black, with their rakusu first given during Refuge. No matter what color faces out, the Japanese back them with white cloth, on one side of which teacher writes the “Verse of the Kesa” while on the other, he writes his name, the student’s dharma name and the date of the Refuge ceremony. In Soto Zen, blue is for laypeople, black is for priests, and brown is the highest, for people who have received Dharma transmission from a lineage teacher.

However, not all Soto temples, even in Japan, follow the Dharma level color coding. One might receive a brown rakusu at lay ordination at one temple, but be chided at another temple for wearing a color reserved for someone at a much higher level. This actually happened to someone at two American Zendos.

Confusing? Yes, and that’s simply mundane style and color. Here’s a quick rundown of the symbolism of the Buddha’s Robe.

Kesa or Kashaya Robes, whether small and large, today are almost entirely “Symbol.” They are the Buddhist’s connection with the Tathagata. In Buddhist numerology, five is the number of the Buddha, which is echoed by the five-folds and five points of the rectangle: east, west, north, south, and middle. The Kashaya Robe is the robe of the renunciant, wherein the discards of the world are made pure and precious, yet the rice field pattern also represents and encompasses the world, in all the fecundity of agriculture. It can also be regarded as a mandala, geometric patterns of squares and lines which represent the universe and serve as a meditation object on many levels. The little squares on each corner represent the four directions or, perhaps, each of the Buddhist Dharma protectors. The center column is sometimes said to represent the Buddha, and the two flanking squares his attendants.

"The kesa is the heart of Zen, the marrow of its bones," said Eihei Dogen, (1200-53 CE) who established the Soto branch of the Zen in Japan. It is the physical doctrinal symbol, the essence of Transmission, and essential to a sense of legitimacy. Dogen studied in China and received the kesa of a Chinese Zen patriarch who had lived a century earlier.

Dogen was somewhat fanatical on the subject of kesa, proselytizing its profound virtues, lamenting the decadent period wherein it provided the only lifeline and yet was so neglected. I recommend his Kesa Kudoku (The Merit of the Buddha Robe), Chapter 3 of his great work the Shobogenzo, which waxes poetic on the subject, while providing practical information concerning the making, care and use of the garment. I can provide copies by email if you are interested.

He wrote, “… one verse of the ‘Robe Gatha,’ [also known as the Verse of the Kesa]… will become the seed of eternal light, which will finally lead us to the supreme Bodhi-wisdom.” The Robe Gatha is a Zen chant which is said before one puts on the Kesa or Rakusu.

Here is one translation:

How great the robe of liberation
A formless field of merit.
Wrapping ourselves in Buddha’s teaching,
We save all beings.

Pretty marvelous, isn’t it? However, a cautionary story about the robes, appearances and reality comes to us from the founder of Rinzai Zen, Master Lin-chi I-hsuan, who lived in the 9th century CE, who said,

“… I put on various different robes…The student concentrates on the robe I'm wearing, noting whether it is blue, yellow, red, or white. Don't get so taken up with the robe! The robe can't move of itself; the person is the one who can put on the robe. There is a clean pure robe, there is a no birth robe, a bodhi robe, a nirvana robe, a patriarch robe, a Buddha robe. Fellow believers, these sounds, names, words, phrases are all nothing but changes of robe … Because of mental processes thoughts are formed, but all of these are just robes. If you take the robe that a person is wearing to be the person's true identity, then though endless kalpas may pass, you will become proficient in robes only and will remain forever circling round in the threefold world, transmigrating in the realm of birth and death."

Perhaps it is not a good thing to become too impressed or too attached, even to the kesa, although Master Dogen might disagree. Some American Buddhists chafe against robes as representative of the hierarchy of Asian Buddhism; they wonder if robes have any value. Some wonder if different robes encourage comparisons such as, “who is most enlightened?” or “who is the senior here?” Some believe robes intimidate newcomers or encourage pride as one advances. And some just don’t like the inherent formalism or the implied elitism. Many Americans, simply wear their robes or just a rakusu over ordinary clothes. Rev. S’unya often replaces his pajamas with Heartland Zen brown overalls. Perhaps we *are* developing American Buddhist robes. But then again, perhaps not: the Sangha at Spirit Rock in Northern California has decided not to wear robes or differentiating insignia at all.

As a final point and to thank you all for listening to me, I would like to address one additional aspect of the Tradition of Buddha’s Robe. Although I’ve run through the quick guide as to who wears what, when and why, I’d also like to leave you with a proactively positive way of approaching life with the help of the Buddha’s Robe.

In the Lotus Sutra, the great, some say the greatest, Mahayana Sutra, we encounter a specific concept of “putting on the Buddha’s Robe.” This appears in Chapter 10, “Teacher of the Law,” which addresses how to communicate with others, specifically when discussing Dharma. But I believe it is applicable to our everyday lives, whether chatting about the weather or politics or sitting, alone, with ourselves.

In this chapter, Shakyamuni Buddha explains “the three rules of teaching,” one of which is that a teacher must, “put on the Thus Come One's robe,” before trying to teach the Lotus Sutra.

In the Sutra, Buddha is speaking metaphorically; he explains that his Robe is “a mind that is gentle and forebearing.” What does this mean? Gentle seems easy enough. Forebearing, or perseverance, seems to me to be the echo of Zen’s Great Effort, this time applied to communication. If we, as a people, were able to combine kindness with willingness to stay engaged in dialogue, even when disagreement, criticism or misunderstanding arise, a great many problems might simply be talked away. Unkindness breeds; if someone does not understand or rejects our position, we are tempted to return the favor. Rejection leads to anger or disengagement, our cliché of fingers-in-ears “La,la,la, I can’t hear you,” often resulting in frustration and sorrow. We lose the opportunity to communicate.



I believe that “gentle forebearance” comes from a resolve to develop one’s center – it nurtures seeds of equanimity. This requires inner strength, but also an open mind. Such a tremendous amount of effort is involved in simply acting, rather than reacting, in not becoming too attached to what you believe, to being right – because if you personalize dogma, it becomes a fixed barrier to dialogue, any attempt at discussion swirls around it and crashes.

This is not to say that one should be passively meek and it’s not a quid pro quo kind of situation. “I’ll be nice if you’ll be nice,” is not the goal here, although it is a nice side effect of being respectful. In fact, I think we should approach communication without expectation of reaching agreement or even understanding.

I may believe that, but I rarely achieve it. However, I offer this Dharma talk to you all in that spirit! May you all be warmly wrapped in Buddha’s Robe, open to dialogue but firm in your resolve and effort, and not perturbed by the questions of Buddhist couture.

 
Posted by SPZG at 11:56 PM