On rituals

[murasaki]

Unlike my fellow priests in Europe, I don t care about copying Japanese style and procedures and keep things to the strict minimum. Hannya Shingyo, a couple of short chants, daishin dharani and Bob s your uncle.
Unlike old blokes like Keizan or Dogen, I am not living in a world where the fabric of reality is permanently woven with dreams, visions, and the likes. Nevertheless, I have experienced so many times stuff that has a magical edge to it, I am convinced of the power of sounds. Being a bad poet, a failed writer and musician, I cannot deny this reality too. But I am not attached to it. I don t practice to massage my heart and make myself feel good. I practice for others not gor my own f.... Up head.I would appreciate some people here to sometimes step out of their comfort zone and squarrish world and listen, listen, listen. Very much like Jundo, I can see all the esoteric and magical stuff as a clever device to control people s minds. Institutionalised rituals sometimes turn into empty ballet and money making opportunities. That does not disqualify the truth expressed in the robe, the mandala and the chant. Greedy and corrupted clergy has its way, we have ours. Faithful to Sawaki Kodo s teachings, I revere, protect and spread teaching of the robe, shave my head and sit. These three realities are one and cannot be devided. In shorts or kolomo, in front if a statue or a bin, same reality manifested at once. It is not just a wrapping and a trapping. It is the way of patch robed human beings.

Gassho

Taigu

I very much agree with Taigu's statements here, and I can't really phrase it better than that.
I do feel an affinity with traditions and keep them as much as one can *within reason* (and as much as one can without yet having a rakusu or a robe )

Why not see life as ordinary cotton fabric with some tiny threads of something beyond rational understanding -- "magic" is a weak word for it but I don't know what else to say. Yes, if you wove the whole fabric with that stuff, it would be pretty damn gaudy and useless.

I chant the Japanese (and sometimes dharani but I don't cling to it), and it resonates with me. And then life sort of goes on.

Gassho
Julia

[Geika]

The rest of the rituals are mine, done in private, but the meal gatha is for all to see.

I don't see why this has to be so. I usually say the meal gatha quietly to myself. Making those close to me uncomfortable by my actions when there are alternatives doesn't seem good to me.

[Nengyo]

I don't see why this has to be so. I usually say the meal gatha quietly to myself. Making those close to me uncomfortable by my actions when there are alternatives doesn't seem good to me.

If my gatha was going to make other people uncomfortable, then for sure I would just say a quick, unobtrusive gatha to myself. However, when the only person who is uncomfortable is me, then I normally try to figure out why and push through. My wife doesn't care if I say a gatha, and no one in my town takes a second look at someone praying before eating. I'm pretty sure the source of my awkwardness (and the reason my wife poked fun at me) was my own previous harsh condemnation of Christians as I passed through my highly cynical, militant atheist phase of life.

I now try to take my awkwardness in all things religious as a lesson in not judging others.

[Emmet]

A heartfelt expression of gratitude and thanksgiving is always a beautiful thing to me; particularly (in my opinion) when it's ex tempore.
Someone I know always makes a great show of formally reciting an interminably verbose meal gatha; straining to remember all the words by rote; he doesn't appear to attend at all to their meaning. Somehow, it never improves the taste of the meal.

[Jundo]

Here is something to lighten things up, posted a couple of places today ... Zen and the Zen of Zen ... (some mildly adult content )

[BobSpour]

Nice one jundo
its becoming something of a ritual checking this thread every day. V. Interesting

_/\_
bob

[Mp]

Here is something to lighten things up, posted a couple of places today ... Zen and the Zen of Zen ... (some mildly adult content )

Thank you Jundo ... this was great!

Gassho
Michael

[Emmet]

An interesting discourse on tradition v. convention, which explains my thoughts on ritual more eloquently than I:

“In actual fact, conventions are the death of real tradition as they are of all real life. They are parasites which attach themselves to the living organism of tradition and devour all its reality, turning it into a hollow formality.

Tradition is living and active, but convention is passive and dead. Tradition does not form us automatically: we have to work to understand it. Convention is accepted passively, as a matter of routine. Therefore, convention easily becomes an evasion of reality. It offers us only pretended ways of solving the problems of living - a system of gestures and formalities. Tradition really teaches us to live and shows us how to take full responsibility for our own lives. Thus tradition is often flatly opposed to what is ordinary, to what is mere routine. But convention, which is a mere repetition of familiar routines, follows the line of least resistance. One goes through an act, without trying to understand the meaning of it all, merely because everyone else does the same. Tradition, which is always old, is at the same time ever new because it is always reviving - born again in each new generation, to be lived and applied in a new and particular way. Convention is simply the ossification of social customs. The activities of conventional people are merely excuses for NOT acting in a more integrally human way. Tradition nourishes the life of the spirit; convention merely disguises its interior decay.”
Thomas Merton; No Man Is an Island

[Kaishin]

A good, balanced bit on this topic at Kuzan Peter Schireson's blog: http://kuzanzen.org/2012/08/working-with-zen-forms/

[Mp]

A good, balanced bit on this topic at Kuzan Peter Schireson's blog: http://kuzanzen.org/2012/08/working-with-zen-forms/

Thanks for the share Kaishin.

Gassho
Michael

[Jundo]

A good, balanced bit on this topic at Kuzan Peter Schireson's blog: http://kuzanzen.org/2012/08/working-with-zen-forms/

A wonderful essay. Thank you, Kaishin. Pretty much speaks my heart ...

In Japan, there’s one right way to do any given thing. You don’t make it up as you go along. You wait for the light to change before you cross the street, even if there’s no traffic. You take your assigned seat even if the train car’s empty. When serving a customer, you say “I’m sorry to have kept you waiting,” even if you haven’t. The wrapping of a gift is at least as important as the gift itself.

In America, you improvise. You try a new way. You challenge and test how it’s been done. There’s no one right way to do anything. And if the gift wrapping doesn’t get done, no big deal. It’s the thought that counts.

These are a broad generalizations and there are plenty of exceptions, but it’s an illuminating perspective. For me personally, the most important implication is that we need to find ways to feel and be as natural as we can – to be ourselves – when we’re practicing. Many of us have been practicing Zen for decades, working with the Japanese forms we were taught. At this point, we can begin to trust our instincts, our understanding, and our bodies to shape the forms to our own physical and cultural idioms. This shaping shows up in different ways.

Some sanghas have reduced or eliminated chanting in Japanese and chant only in English. The feeling is that understanding the meaning of what’s being chanted adds to the power and value of the chanting. Some sanghas have modified traditional wording to bring chants into alignment with evolving values. For example, in the sangha where I practice, we’ve changed or eliminated elements in some chants that essentially say our way is the only true way. Some zendos have replaced traditional incense with offerings of dried flowers or water to accommodate practitioners allergic to the smoke. Some priests do not shave their heads, in part because of work or relationship situations. Some sanghas have ceremonies that give all members the opportunity to serve the altar – not just priests – and some have replaced or accompanied traditional Buddha statues on the altar with stones or driftwood. These are only a few examples.

I’m not suggesting we move quickly or radically away from the traditions we’ve inherited. Hewing to traditional forms is one expression of gratitude and respect for our Zen progenitors, and taking up whatever we do with reverence and discipline is a wholesome practice. But we should also remember that at some point each form was simply made up by someone. A bow in and of itself is no more holy than a handshake or a salute; it’s just what we’ve been taught. So after we’ve learned and understood and practiced the traditional forms, we should allow ourselves to experiment with change when and where it fits our distinctive American culture and circumstances.

[Shokai]

Thank you to Hans for this thread and Jundo and Kaishin for the previous post.

[Myozan Kodo]

"The practice of rituals is the practice of selflessness".
Shunryu Suzuki, a lecture in July 1970

[Mp]

"The practice of rituals is the practice of selflessness".
Shunryu Suzuki, a lecture in July 1970

Nicely put Myozan and so true.

Gassho
Michael