SIT-A-LONG with GUDO & JUNDO: Kashaya
Today, our most special guest 'sits-a-long' ...
The subject was the 'Kesa' (skt. kâshâya), the monk's outer robe. The 'Rakusu' is the shortened version that I wear most days. Nishijima Roshi always sits in a full Kashaya. He recently wrote this:
I think that not only monks, but all human beings should wear Kashaya when they practice Zazen. The reason why I recommend to do so to my students comes from that I actually experience that when I put on Kashaya on my body, I experience very sober and sincere consciousness without fail actually. Therefore in Shobogenzo, the 93th Chapter Doshin, Master Dogen insists that we should wear Kashaya, when we practice Zazen.
When we wear Kashaya, we usually sit on the floor stretching the waist, and putting the folded Kashaya on the head, with joining hands, and recite the Chodai Kesa no Ge, or the Poem of praising Kashaya three times. Then standing up, we wear it.
Chodai Kesa no Ge
Daisai Gedaffuku Muso Fukuden-e Hibu Nyoraikyoo Koodo Shoshujoo
(Meaning)
"Daisai" means it is so great. "Gedatsu" means to become free. "Fuku" means clothes. "Hibu" means to wear reverently. Nyoraikyoo means Gautama Buddha's teachings. Koodo means to save widely. Shoshujoo means miscellaneous living beings. Therefore the total meaning is:
How great is the clothing of liberation,
Formless, field of happiness, robe!
Devoutly wearing the Tathaagata's teaching,
Widely I will save living beings. (translated by Gudo Wafu & Chodo Cross)
When we wear Kashaya, we usually sit on the floor stretching the waist, and putting the folded Kashaya on the head, with joining hands, and recite the Chodai Kesa no Ge, or the Poem of praising Kashaya three times. Then standing up, we wear it.
Chodai Kesa no Ge
Daisai Gedaffuku Muso Fukuden-e Hibu Nyoraikyoo Koodo Shoshujoo
(Meaning)
"Daisai" means it is so great. "Gedatsu" means to become free. "Fuku" means clothes. "Hibu" means to wear reverently. Nyoraikyoo means Gautama Buddha's teachings. Koodo means to save widely. Shoshujoo means miscellaneous living beings. Therefore the total meaning is:
How great is the clothing of liberation,
Formless, field of happiness, robe!
Devoutly wearing the Tathaagata's teaching,
Widely I will save living beings. (translated by Gudo Wafu & Chodo Cross)
Master Dogen wrote:
"The Kesa is the heart of Zen, the marrow of its bones."
My friend, Pierre Turlur, wrote this (he is an expert on Kesa sewing) ...
When you choose fabric for the kesa, please, remember that you are rags holding rags. So it can be cotton, linen, hemp, silk even artificial fabric…IT doesn’t cultivate any particular view. Rags are best. What collects fabric is a broken life, a life in pieces, what is collected is just rags. Nothing special, nothing holy in this. You may buy a beautiful and light fabric in a shop and dye it or not, you may ask people to give you bits and pieces of fabric, you may look into your wardrobe and get things you don’t wear anymore to make the robe…It is up to you. In Kesa-Kudoku, Dogen lists the ten sort of rags:
1)Rags chewed by an ox, 2) rags gnawed by rats,3) rags scorched by fire,4) rags soiled by menstruation,5) rags soiled by childbirth,6) rags offered at a shrine,7)rags left at a graveyard,8) rags offered in petitional prayer9)rags disregarded by king’s officers,10) rags brought back from the funeral. These ten sorts people throw away, there are not used in human society. We pick them up and make them into the pure material of the kasaya.
1)Rags chewed by an ox, 2) rags gnawed by rats,3) rags scorched by fire,4) rags soiled by menstruation,5) rags soiled by childbirth,6) rags offered at a shrine,7)rags left at a graveyard,8) rags offered in petitional prayer9)rags disregarded by king’s officers,10) rags brought back from the funeral. These ten sorts people throw away, there are not used in human society. We pick them up and make them into the pure material of the kasaya.
Click on picture to 'play'(Sitting Time: About 25 minutes)
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8 comments:
And I thought I was the only one... I noticed that Gudo Roshi looked at his watch after he rang the bell. I do that because I don't time myself, but I check how long it's been after I sit - sometimes out of curiosity, since time tends to move at different speeds when I sit, but sometimes to see if I have managed to sit 20 or 30 minutes. Any idea why he checked?
Kirk
Hi Kirk,
Not to give a smart answer ... but he probably checked his watch to see what time it is. Nothing more or less.
Gassho, Jundo
jundo - master dogen wrote that the kesa is the heart of zen. can zen be practiced without a heart/kesa? also, I have been sitting without a shirt this summer. Is there anything disrespectful about doing that? thanks..
Hi Anonymous,
Yes, Zazen can be practiced without "heart", although like baseball played without "heart" ... I think it would not baseball.
If you feel you are being disrespectful, you are. If not, not. If in a room with other people, think about their sensibilities.
Did I ever mention the time I was invited to teach at the nudist Zendo in Florida?
Skyclad Zendo
Follow teachings of Toni Packer and Springwater Center. The Skyclad Zendo is a naturist Zen meditation group which follows a non-traditional approach of open inquiry through awareness, mindfulness and attention. We meet every Sunday morning for two hours of zazen au naturel, from 10 A.M. to noon in the yoga room at Paradise Lakes Resort, 2001 Brinson Rd., Lutz, FL 33558-8367. We also offer seven-day silent meditation retreats with various teachers.
Gassho in the Buff, Jundo
Hey! Careful where you aim that webcam, buddy!
The patched robe monk aye?
Is the brown/yellow color of the Soto robes meant to resemble the color of the patched robes worn by the Buddha's original followers?
If not, it's quite the coincidence.
I have no robes so will continue to sit Zazen in whatever I happen to be wearing or not wearing at the time. I'm not sure if I'll be trying out nude Zazen anytime soon, lol -- Right now I'm working on the lotus postion. I don't want to try to change too many things at once.
gassho,
Greg
Hi Greg,
I should have made clearer that, traditionally, one sits in a Rakusu (or Kesa/Kashaya) only after taking the Precepts. For example, we will sew a Rakusu in preparation for the Jukai ceremony.
For more information on the Kesa, this article by a priest in a Vietnamese Zen lineage is very detailed (more information that you probably need), but interesting. Here is what she says about color:
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.
http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma10/robe.html
Gassho, Jundo
Interesting, I thought there was some connection.
I hope to take the precepts under your tutelage, and am very grateful for the opportunity to do so.
Gassho, Greg
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