Jukai

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For the Japanese forest, see Aokigahara.

In the Jukai ceremony the students receive an empowerment called "Shassui" (or Shasui). Dennis Genpo Merzel is holding a pine twig. The water he sprinkles bestows a transmission of wisdom, or we can say, an awakening of innate wisdom. It purifies body and mind.

Jukai (受戒, shou jie in Chinese; 소게 (sugae) in Korean) is a public ordination ceremony wherein a lay student of Zen Buddhism receives certain Buddhist precepts, "a rite in which they publicly avow allegiance to 'The Three Refuges' of Buddhist practice: The Buddha, the dharma and the sangha."^[1]

1 Practice
2 Japan
- 2.1 Soto School
3 USA
- 3.1 Diamond Sangha
- 3.2 Rochester Zen Center
4 South Korea
5 See also
6 Notes
7 References
8 Further reading

[edit] Practice

The particulars of the ceremony differ widely by country and by school.

[edit] Japan

[edit] Soto School

In the Soto school, as well as the White Plum Asanga founded by Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi, students take refuge in the Three Jewels (or, Three Refuges), the Three Pure Precepts ("to do no evil, to do good, and to do good for others") and the Ten Grave Precepts.^[2] Students must undergo a period of study for their jukai ceremony.

[edit] USA

In the United States, "jukai is a formal rite of passage that marks entrance into the Buddhist community. At that time, a student is given a dharma name, such as Chozen in Jan Chozen Bays. He or she also makes a commitment to the precepts, which are interpreted a bit differently in various communities."^[2]

[edit] Diamond Sangha

It is interesting to note that in the Diamond Sangha, established by Robert Baker Aitken, jukai is "commonly practiced" though some members never undergo the ceremony because they are members of another religion which prohibits such initiations. Therefore, some would say, they are not Buddhist by definition.^[3]

[edit] Rochester Zen Center

At the Rochester Zen Center and its affiliated centers, the jukai ceremony involves taking the same precepts as in the Soto and White Plum traditions; however, from school to school or lineage to lineage, interpretation and translation of precepts can vary.^[4] During their ordination, "The Zen teacher individually [anoints] each participant with sanctified water (shasui). In this ritual a special wand tipped with pine needles is dipped in sanctified water and then touched to the head of the initiate, thereby establishing a physical bond between the initiate, the Zen teacher, and the teacher's spiritual lineage."^[5] Following their ceremony a student receives a rakusu, which is, "[a] rectangular piece of fabric worn around the neck."^[6] According to the late Houn Jiyu-Kennett, "This is the most important set of ceremonies in the life of a [Zen Buddhist] layman, and no person may become a [monastic] trainee unless he has undergone the week of training that these ceremonies occupy, either before his ordination or within a year of entering a training temple."^[7]

[edit] South Korea

In South Korea, the sugae ceremony involves burning the arm with a lit incense stick, leaving marks which serve to remind the practitioner of the Five Precepts he or she has vowed to obey. Korean monks also undergo the ceremony, but with thick, temple incense sticks which leave much larger scars.