Ceremonies and ritual play a major role in Zen, as in most religions. Many of our ceremonies were created by a Japanese ancestor in our lineage named Keizan, who was influential in popularizing Soto Zen amongst the “common” – usually illiterate and uneducated – people in Japan, where it had previously been a religious practice for educated monastics. Ceremonies can convey complex and deep teachings to those who could not understand (or would not listen to) a verbal explanation of those teachings. They can also make our experience of teaching personal and real as we move physically through the ritual.
Ceremonies are ideal for children, who seem to take readily and easily to the sacred and ritual space. A regular sequence of ceremonies also marks times of the year and brings all of the age groups together into a community. The youngest kids are literally brimming over with excitement as they bathe the baby buddha in sweet tea or walk over a zendo floor strewn with tissue paper lotus petals. They may look around or squirm or hide their faces behind their parent’s legs, but usually betray great curiosity. As kids get familiar with the ceremonies they seem to take a certain pride and comfort in knowing what comes next and how to participate. Ceremonial positions (chant leader, candle bearer, teacher’s assistant, procession leader) are usually filled by older students.
Our ceremonies happen on Sundays in place of the usual age-group classes. However, age groups meet briefly so the teachers can explain a little bit about the upcoming ceremony and answer any questions. Where relevant, a brief summary of the adult version of each ceremony is given in the descriptions below to provide some context for the kids’ ceremony. There are full Soto Zen liturgies for the adult ceremonies most involve a series of chants, special verses ] recited by the chant leader, incense offerings by the teacher and other participants, and a long serpentine procession around the hall. The children join the adults for Wesak, but the kid ceremonies for Sejiki, Rohatsu, Nehan and Jukai are separate affairs (though a child interested in the adult ceremonies is always welcome to attend them). In the cases where we have created something new, we attempted to draw a few of the most important and accessible messages out of the adult ceremony and devise a ritual that even the youngest kids can understand and in which they can fully participate. Ideally, they also feel a sense of ownership of the ceremony itself – it is for them.
Sejiki – Feeding the Hungry Ghosts
The first ceremony of the dharma school year is the Sejiki festival, when we feed the “hungry ghosts”. The adult festival happens just before the kid’s ceremony and is an important part of an annual retreat. It held around the time of Halloween to coincide with the abundance of ghosts and snacks. In buddhist mythology, hungry ghosts are creatures who, because of their past actions, can never satisfy their hunger or thirst. Their mouths are so tiny they can’t fit any food in them, and when they try to drink, water turns to fire before they swallow it. The hungry ghost symbolizes our own unresolved karma and the tenacious quality of karma. The Sejiki ceremonies done by the adults in the sangha represent both our willingness to bring this karma to resolution and the gentle accepting approach we need to take to achieve any resolution.
An important aspect of the hungry ghost is that it is so fixated on desire that it cannot accept the things that would truly nourish and cure. The Buddhist expression of those things that nourish and cure are called Dharma. Anything that is true may be called dharma, but the forms and expressions of religious life that remind us of things that are true are also called Dharma (often capitalized to make the distinction).
Because the hungry ghosts are fixated on the things they think they want, they tend to be fearful of things that look like something other than what they want. To make it easier for the hungry ghosts to accept the Dharma, all the Buddha statues are covered up and the altar for them is at the far end of the room near the door. It is covered with sweet and salty snacks, fruit and soda pop, nuts and donuts. During the adult ceremony, the teacher calls to the ghosts and all unresolved karma, inviting them to come and stay for the day. S/he chants dharanis of protection so the practitioners may safely entertain these “ghosts.” There is chanting done by all during a winding procession while names of those who have died during the year are read aloud. Later in the evening, there is a second ceremony in which the ghosts are sent back home again and all are given the opportunity to let go of some unresolved issues.
For adults, Sejiki is a time of intense reflection and determination. For kids, the emphasis of Sejiki is more external, but deeply symbolic. The ghosts are vividly described, and the kids are encouraged to feel sympathy and concern for the poor, hungry ghosts. Teachers also point out that all of us, at times, can be “hungry ghosts” – impossible to satisfy, always running to the next thing we think will make us happy but unwilling or unable to accept what would truly bring us peace. All of this becomes concretely illustrated when the kids fill the ceremony hall and start the same solemn chanting the adults do – until they are rudely interrupted by two marauding hungry ghosts! Older students dressed up as hungry ghosts come loudly in (with their shoes on!) and start poking around the junk food on the altar. With coaxing from the teachers and older kids, the youngest dharma schoolers come forward to teach the hungry ghosts some manners like taking off their shoes and sharing with each other. They carefully break food into bits to fit in the ghosts’ tiny mouths. Gradually the hungry ghosts seem a little less agitated and a little more happy, so they are finally sent on their way. The kids join the rest of the sangha and everyone celebrates by finishing off the rest of the junk food.
Rohatsu – Questioning the Abbot
This is the most serious ceremony for the kids. It is a variant on Shosan, a public ritual questioning of the abbot by students. The adults hold Shosan on the last night of Rohatsu, a week-long intensive meditation retreat in December that celebrates the Buddha’s enlightenment day. The dialogue between teacher/abbot and student in this context is modeled somewhat on the regular private meetings that occur between them, called Sanzen. Shosan, however, is public, and part of the value of the ceremony is that each participant gets to hear some of the deepest thoughts and questions of others in the sangha. Any question whatsoever can be asked, as long as it is fairly respectful to others. This can be a very emotional and powerful experience for people, and often proves to people that they are “not the only one.”
The children have been primed by their teachers to think of a question, and they come in fairly quietly and sit down on the meditation cushions. Parents of small children generally attend, while middle and high school students work it out with their own parents as to whether the parents are invited. Generally the older youth are able to ask a more personal and sensitive question without their parents present.
After offering incense the abbot of the Zen Center stands in front of the altar, facing the room with the bowing mat (haishiki) turned sideways to signify an invitation to questions. One at a time (with a supporting hand if necessary), children may go up to the center of the room, face the abbot, and ask a question. It is not required, especially of the youngest kids. There may be lag times as long as a minute between questioners, but this allows some of the kids to watch, consider, and finally get up the initiative to go up and ask their question.
The abbot takes the ceremony and the questions completely seriously; she makes every bit as much of an effort to meaningfully meet and answer a five-year-old’s question about whether he will see his deceased cat again as she does to answer some adult’s question about an esoteric Buddhist teaching. Younger kids ask about things like God, death, family, love, and the way the universe works. Given a question like, “Is there life on other planets?” the abbot will reply, “I don’t know,” but try to offer something for the child’s search and encourage the questioning mind. Older kids ask about friendship, authenticity, conflicts with parental authority, and self-discovery. The abbot’s ability to meet and respond to the youth is based in a large part on her experience with children in general and on her personal and long-term relationship with many of the individuals participating in the ceremony. Questions that are asked during Shosan or kid’s Rohatsu are not brought up outside the ceremony unless the questioner does so him or herself.
Nehan – Commemorating the Buddha’s Death
Nehan is the commemoration of the Buddha’s death and happens in February. According to the legend, the Buddha taught until he was eighty years old and had countless students and admirers. They were very saddened when, at last, even a remarkable spiritual leader like Shakyamuni grew old and sick and lay dying. The animals were fond of the Buddha, too, and gathered around during the his last days. Buddha’s disciples were afraid of what would happen to them when their spiritual leader was gone, but the Buddha told them not to be sad or afraid. They already had the teaching they needed, he said, and when he was gone they could “be lamps unto themselves.” This is a deeply significant aspect of Buddhism: this religion is a collection of teachings, a method, and a community of practitioners. It does not depend on the presence or survival of any one individual. No individual can actually give the dharma to another; the truth has to be awakened within each and every one of us, and continues across gaps.
The adult Nehan ceremony focuses on a moment when someone goes up to the altar and blows out all the candles and turns off the altar lamp. A statue of the dying Buddha, reclining on his side and surrounded by animals, has been placed on the altar for this ceremony. This is called a Parinirvana statue, indicating that it depicts the Buddha entering his final or complete nirvana (cessation), which comes only with physical death. Behind the statue is a small screen, and behind the screen is a single candle that remains lit. At the end of the ceremony, another person goes up and relights the altar from that single, hidden source.
In the kids’ Nehan ceremony we focus on the natural sadness around, and the importance of gently accepting, death and loss. The kids gather where the Parinirvana statue is sitting on a low altar. The teacher explains the scene depicted by the statue, asking for help from the kids who know the story and prompting the younger ones to imagine how the Buddha’s friends felt. The kids especially appreciate naming all the animals around the Buddha – on our statue, created by Gyokuko sensei, there are herons and wolves and elephants and all sorts of creatures. From the story the teacher transitions into asking whether any of the kids have lost a person or animal or plant to death, or in some other way. Many of the kids have lost a pet or a grandparent, and many tell of friends that they lost touch with because of a move.
Everyone then spreads out and draws or writes down the thing they have lost, or perhaps – for the older kids – something they want to let go of. In the meantime, a fire is started in the nearby fireplace. When this is finished, everyone chants the Heart Sutra in Sino-Japanese along with the mokugyo (wooden drum). This is repeated until all of drawings are burned. The teacher kneels by the fireplace and two high school students with large candles kneel on either side of her. The teacher then takes the drawings one by one, starting each one slightly afire using one of the candles before placing it carefully into the main fire. The reverent mood and the fire itself keep the children fairly quiet until the ceremony is over.
Jukai – Three Refuges and Two Promises
In Zen Buddhism, an adult formally becomes a Buddhist in the ceremony of Jukai. Jukai is the “taking of the precepts,” in which someone vows to live by the moral and ethical guidelines of Buddhism. For adults in Soto Zen – both lay and ordained – there are 16 precepts. The first three “precepts” are taking refuge in the buddha, dharma and sangha. The next three precepts are cease from evil, do only good, and do good for others. The remaining ten “grave” precepts are (more or less) do not kill, do not steal, do not misuse sexuality, do not lie, do not become intoxicated, do not dwell on past mistakes, do not praise self or blame others, do not be stingy with dharma or wealth, do not indulge anger, and do not defame the three treasures (buddha, dharma and sangha). After receiving Jukai, in formal practice environments an adult usually wears a wagessa (a strip of cloth tied with a decorative knot) or, in some traditions, a rakusu (something like a cloth bib) around his or her neck. Our annual Jukai ceremony happens in March.
The kids are not asked to make such a serious commitment to Buddhism. In fact, our minimum age for Jukai is sixteen. However, Thich Nhat Hanh has come up with three refuges and two promises that the kids seem to feel very comfortable making. The vows emphasize the dual intention of a bodhisattva, or enlightening being: to benefit themselves and others, but also to cultivate the wisdom that will allow them to do this wholeheartedly and effectively. Dharma school Jukai allows the children and youth to make a gesture that indicates the value they place on their spiritual or religious life, and gives them a rite of passage when they start to feel like they really belong at the Zen Center, and that the Zen Center really belongs to them. During the ceremony, everyone present recites the refuges and promises together, repeating each line after the chant leader:
I take refuge in the buddha, the one who shows me the way in this life.
I take refuge in the dharma, the way of understanding and love.
I take refuge in the sangha, the community that lives in harmony and awareness.
I vow to develop my compassion in order to love and protect life: the lives of people, of animals and of plants.
I vow to develop understanding in order to be able to love and to live in harmony with people, animals and plants.
Just as in adult Jukai, even those who have taken Jukai before participate in the ceremony, because it never hurts to restate one’s vows. After the recitation, the teacher asks if any of the children present are taking Jukai for the first time. Any of those who qualify – if they want to do so – come forward and select a mala (a Buddhist string of prayer beads) from an assortment of colorful and durable ones laid out on a tray. The teacher then takes the new young Buddhists over to the adult zendo and briefly interrupts the dharma talk to introduce and congratulate the youth. Although this presentation is daunting to the kids, they generally come back proud and beaming.
Wesak – Festival of the Buddha’s Birth
Wesak is the festival of Shakyamuni Buddha’s birth and is celebrated in early May. This is a very precious time when the entire sangha – adults and kids, parents and those without children – celebrate together. In most forms of Buddhism, the festival of Wesak centers on the sangha’s children.
According to legend, the baby Siddhartha (destined to become Shakyamuni Buddha) was born under many auspicious signs. When his mother conceived him, she dreamt that a white, six-tusked elephant miraculously entered her side. When the Buddha was born his mother suffered no labor pains, and sweet rain and flowers fell from the sky. Immediately after birth, the baby stood up, walked seven steps, pointed to heaven above and the earth below and said, “I alone am the world-honored one.” There are many interpretations of this statement, but we view this in part as foreshadowing: the Buddha later discovered and taught a system of spiritual practice that liberates sentient beings from suffering, so he is one of the most important people ever to have taken birth. Later, when he achieved complete enlightenment, the Buddha said he “and everyone” were simultaneously awakened. By his actions he had opened the door for the rest of us to eventually follow. In a sense, we are already saved.
For the Wesak ceremony, a bower is built over a statue of the baby buddha and placed in the center of the hall, in front of the main altar. The statue depicts the baby with one hand pointing toward heaven and the other pointing toward the earth, and stands in a deep bowl of sweet tea. The children meet before the ceremony to lavishly decorate the bower with flowers. A ladle rests in the bowl of tea.
Everyone stands at their seats. We sing one of our dharma school songs, “Holy Day of Wesak,” and then one of our regular chants. When we begin chanting the Heart Sutra, the teacher begins the procession by going to the bower, bowing, and pouring a ladleful of tea over the Buddha’s head. The teacher is followed by three high school-age procession leaders: one with an asperge (a pine branch in water with which he or she sprinkles water from side to side), one with a portable incense holder (with charcoal and loose incense that s/he periodically burns), and one with a large ceremonial plate full of tissue-paper lotus petals (which s/he slowly scatters all over the room as the procession moves). Everyone else follows in a large serpentine formation until all have passed in front of the bower and poured tea over the Buddha. Two high school students stand on either side of the bower to assist little kids (the little ones almost tremble with an excitement mixed with reverence).
After the ceremony, everyone meets elsewhere for the birthday party. Naturally, Buddha has a large birthday cake, and needs the very youngest kids to blow out the candles on it. A white six-tusked elephant piñata (or zeñata, prepared well ahead of time) is then systematically dealt with, starting with the littlest kids and proceeding up to blind-folded middle and high schoolers (if the piñata survives that long). Edible treats are mixed with small prizes in the piñata to minimize sugar overload.