Generous Illumination

 On the winter solstice, Saturday, December 21, 2024, Shannon O'Brien received jūkai at a ceremony at Boundless Way Zen Temple, which was held in person and on Zoom.  Many sangha members and friends and family of Shannon attended this joyous occasion.  

Jūkai is the recognition of a student's sincere commitment to the Way of Zen.  In the ceremony, the student takes on the practice of living the traditional sixteen Bodhisattva precepts.  Shannon had composed personal responses to each precept which she read during the ceremony, and had sewn her own rakusu, the abbreviated robe which Zen practitioners wear during formal meditation practice.  David Rynick, Rõshi, Dharma Holder Michael Herzog, Dharma Holder Rev. Paul Galvin and I presented the precepts to Shannon.

One of the lovely features of jūkai is that the teachers give the student a Japanese Dharma name.  Anyone who knows Shannon will know how appropriate the new name is for her:  Kanshõ, which means "generous illumination."

Congratulaitons Shannon Kanshõ!

Transmission of the Light August 2024 sesshin

photo by Michael Herzog

  Pictured here are most of the group who attended the third week of our summer residency program, which culminated in a seven-day sesshin which our tanto, Dharma Holder Rev. Paul Galvin, named "The Transmission of the Light."  

This is a particularly resonant name for Paul and for me, because on the last night, in a private (secret) ceremony witnessed by David Rynick, Rōshi, Dharma Holder Alan Richardson and Dharma Holder Michael Herzog, I gave Denkai transmission to Rev. Paul.  He is thus a transmitted teacher, and may take on shoken students and transmit the precepts.  Until he receives Denbo transmission and becomes a Sensei, he can't yet transmit the Dharma to anyone else.

The ceremony was guarded from demons wanting to interfere (a fairly ancient tradition) by Rev. Ray Demers, Senior Assistant Teacher Rev. Corwyn Miyagishima, and Senior Assistant Teacher Jenny Smith.  Since the transmission appears to have been successful, their wielding of two wooden swords (kyosakus) and my shakujo (large staff) appears to have been quite effective.  Rev. Paul is pictured above wearing his new gold/ochre rakusu which indicates his new role as Dharma Holder.  

Congratulations to Dharma Holder Rev. Paul!

The Truman Show

Last night at Boundless Way Zen Temple,  Dharma Holder Michael Herzog gave a talk about the excerpt from Taego Bou in our sutra book ("Days Like Lightning.")  

In our dharma dialogue/discussion that followed, we focussed on the line "At the end of the road, it's like an iron wall."  A number of us shared our fantasies about what that wall looks and feels like:  a rough and wild stone wall, a slippery aluminum wall, and more.  

A couple of us recalled the last scene in the Truman Show, a movie from 1998 starring Jim Carrey, where the hero tries to escape from his unreal world, and rams into what appears to be the edge of an ocean, but which is simply a stage set.   

Many of the participants hadn't seen the Truman Show, so I thought I'd share the trailer here and hope to entice you into finding it streaming online.  It's a truly Zen movie, in my openion, about waking up to the reality that we're all living in a dream.  Check it out!