So I just set up the altar in the other room. And this has a table there. Imagine that to be the coffin. And then behind the coffin is... Actually, I guess I... What I'd like to do is maybe just turn around and look. So this picture's a little large.

[01:06]

I was going to put a picture of me, but I didn't want to make you think I was kidding around. But behind here is the memorial plaque with nobody's name on it. There's also a memorial plaque on the main altar. You see it's gold. So it can be vertical, like this, and it would have the name of the deceased person written in Chinese characters, or it could have the name of the deceased person written in Western language. And we put the picture in front. portrait, as you say, and then the body would be here. Now, if you didn't have the body, then you would have the ashes, and the ashes would go here.

[02:11]

We have the body has the Buddhist robe on, the picture, and the plaque with the name that the person had or was given for the ceremony. So some people had not been ordained before, had not received a name before, and then they would receive the name and it would be written on this vertical or horizontal plaque with the picture in front. They'd be lying here with their robe. Now, if the ashes are here and not the body, then actually the ashes are in the urn, and then the urn is usually wrapped with a white cloth, wrapping it around, and then actually when we set it up, we put the We put the robe on the ashes.

[03:19]

And so this was the body. It can be done either way. What's the bowl on the bed? That is an incense bowl. In front of here, we would have another table. So this is altar. And then we have a sort of offering table here. So this could be understood as the altar. And in front of the altar, we have offering table. We could have various kinds of offerings for incense, flowers, and candle on this altar. So

[04:30]

For this phase of putting the body in front of the altar, we would have moved the body from their bed into the casket and brought the casket in front of the altar. And I can tell you a little bit more about the offerings. People sometimes ask what kind of flowers we have for funerals, and the answer is usually white flowers.

[05:53]

But in this picture, I also see that there's So there's white flowers and colored flowers. Usually the altar is, can you see the altar? Can you see it down here? Usually the altar is draped with white cloths. Is that clear? And here you can see, here's the plaque. the name plaque, and then the picture. And then here's the casket of the coffin. And in front are the offering tables. And also incense burners. So there's flowers, candles, and food, and... The food that's offered is usually... But you could adapt that.

[07:04]

Something other than rice would be okay. And then we offer two liquids, usually, sweet water and tea. The usual... ceremony is using instruments that we don't usually use. So there's our regular mokugyo, wooden fish, that we use to lead the chanting, like the chanting of the Dai Shindirani. And we have our regular bells. But in addition, there is a liturgical pattern of using and symbols and bells, which some of you may have heard already when we do our, what we call, feeding the spirit ceremony, which we often do in the fall.

[08:18]

There's a pattern A small handbell goes, ding. There's one behind me. Oh, not a handbell. Actually, maybe, could you get one up there? So we do a small bell, drum, and cymbals. Various patterns are done during the next phases of the ceremony. Which, again, that would also be something that you'd probably invite people who are trying to do that to do. It's not necessary to have these sound things, but they are often done at this time. I think the feeling is to... We don't have a handbell here? I know. I see it. If there is one up there.

[09:18]

So, there's a repetition of this sound pattern of bells, drums and cymbals. Let's see if she could find it. It's got a handle, it's got a cushion and a bell all in one unit. Yeah. That's it, you got it. So the next phase, as I started to say before, is we move. This is the hand bell. Goat. Goat. So it's a pattern as various interesting rhythms in it.

[10:34]

Accelerating. So that's coming up now. The next phase is, after the precept ceremony is over, we hit the clappers twice, we chant the Daya Shindirani, and we dedicate the merit to the person who has returned to nirvana, and we say their precept name, and we humbly pray that on this occasion the placing of the body in the coffin will be rewarded and will purify this place. and then we place the body in the coffin, and then we chant our familiar, all Buddhas, ten directions, three times, all honored ones, bodhisattvas, mahasattvas, wisdom beyond wisdom, prajnaparamita.

[11:42]

Then we do a ceremony which is called tayah, which means the great night. So this will be the last ceremony on this day. And the chat leader says, This may reflect life and death alternatively change endlessly as cold and heat reciprocally alternate. When it comes, it comes as lightning runs through the sky. When it leaves, it is as if waves remain on the surface of the ocean. Today there is the newly returned to the source precept name whose karmic relationships have come to completion and whose life has come to an end. We understand that all things are impermanent and that attaining nirvana we reach a blissful state.

[12:48]

We humbly invite the Sangha to respectfully chant the ten names of Buddha Their virtue will reward the path of enlightenment. We recite the Sangha, ten names. So then we recite our usual ten names of Buddha. Question there. The precept name, you mentioned that if someone is not priest ordained, is he given a new precept name? No. If Oh, yeah. So, yeah. If you had not been ordained, you would get a precept name. If you have been ordained, you would get a name. And that would be your priest name, if you hadn't become a priest in a sense. And who would give it to you?

[13:49]

Yes. The person leading the ceremony, who you invited. So if that person has not received dharma transmission, it would still give you a new dharma name? No. Dharma transmission is part of the prerequisite to perform the samāgha. So we chant the ten names of Buddha, you know, Vairochana Buddha, Jirodharmakaya, and so on. We chant that. Then we chant, again, the verses praising the relics of the Buddha. And then we say, after having chanted, The sutra, we dedicate the merit to the newly returned, to the source, precept name.

[14:53]

We humbly seek that divine beings will go beyond the pure dark. Karma will be released from affliction, the lotus will blossom, marvelous flowers and the Buddhas will bestow upon us lifelong teaching. Once again, we ask the Sangha to recite the Ten Names of Buddha. That's the first day's ceremonies. And again, they all occur on the first day. And there could be a second day where things are quiet, We'll be going through a second night, and then the third day. And the third day is a ceremony called Raising the Coffin. And the chant leader says, We are now raising the coffin and proceeding to the site of cremation or burial.

[16:02]

I ask the Sangha to recite the names of Buddha, to turn our lament, or to transform our lament of separation, we will chant, Open the Path of Enlightenment. So then the community chants the Daishi Shindirani again. How many people are not familiar with the Daishi Shindirani? You've all heard it. It's a regular chant. And then there is this pattern that I mentioned to you, three rounds of three rounds of that, following the daishin dharani.

[17:08]

And then we do a special Dharani, which is called the Esoteric Dharani in the Jewel Pavilion. And during that time, those who are able to do so, or trained to do so, circumambulate the body, chanting. mantra, which goes, want to hear a little bit of it? This is the Jirani for residing in the Jewel Pavilion.

[18:45]

Sohara be birare, shagyara genbire, unnunjim bara, jim bara birokite, kugyachi chukara be, sohaka ummani bajire, ummani dare, ummano makusara batata, gyakta nan, umbira gyak. Do that over and over as a group, in unison, while circumambulating the body of the deceased. This is the ceremony called Raising the Coffin. Getting ready for the cremation. Yes. On the second day, if you're following from the first day right to the cremation, or on the third day, if you have a three-day event.

[20:09]

So this could be a two-day event. It's usually two days. The day of dying, through a night, and the next day is the crematorium. Through that first day, with those ceremonies that we did up until lunch, then we have the placing in the coffin, chanting in front of the coffin, raising the coffin on the next day. And then... Yes? I was wondering what... The Buddha... I don't... And also, what is that Dharani? Those were two questions. The Daishin Dharani? I know that, but you said this was the Dharani of something else. Yeah, this is... This is a special drawing, and it's... Yeah, it sounds like a doing thing. It's a chant.

[21:09]

It's like, you know, it's sort of like, I don't know what to say, it creates, it's something like creates a spell. It creates a field of energy. It could be translated into English, but it usually is done in the original Sanskrit, rather than translating it. So the sound of it is very important. Just like you can say, and that can be translated, gone, gone, gone beyond, gone entirely beyond, welcome, enlightened. But this chant doesn't translate so well, so we do it in the original Sanskrit, Sino-Japanese Sanskrit. And there's also mantras, and sometimes mantras are brought together when you put several mantras together to make a dharani.

[22:20]

So we chant the Daishin Dharani regularly for memorial ceremonies and funeral ceremonies. So in most monasteries you chant the Daishinran every evening with a kind of memorial ceremony. Not usually for someone who just died, for people who died a long time ago, but this would be for someone who just died. And the ten meanings of Buddha. Well, those are what we say. of great perfect wisdom, samantabhadra, bodhisattva, of great activity, close to ten names.

[23:28]

So during the ceremony we'll do those ten names. How many times do we chant that? How many times do any? I would say about five times, but not right in the throat. So here, Here we do it. After we place the body in the coffin and chant the Dayi Shindirani, then we do all Buddha's ten directions, and then the Eno does a recitation and then invites us to chant. Then we do the praising the relics of the Buddha again. And then after that, we do our famous dedication, All Buddha's Ten Directions.

[24:34]

Then we do the Raising the Coffin, and we have another recitation, the Sesshidharani. And then we do this... this walking around the body doing this special mantra. Then the priest gives a teaching to the deceased person. And then we chant the Ten Names of Buddha again. And then we go to the place of cremation. So we actually then, if we've been doing this, the ceremonies in the temple or in the home, we now go to actually the place where the cremation is. We do another ceremony at the place of cremation. And again, the priest makes a statement.

[25:35]

And then we chant the Ten Names of Buddha again. And then another statement. And then chanting scriptures. And then there's the cremation. And then after the cremation, there are more ceremonies. quite a bit of time elapses for the cremation and the cooling of the ashes. And then after that ceremony, which occurs shortly after the cremation, that we start into another phase of the process, which is not exactly, but it's a continuation, in a sense it's a continuation of the ceremony, of the funeral, which can go on commonly for 49 days. And I can go into that later, but it leads up to, like, in some traditions, 30 years, in other traditions, more than 30 years.

[26:45]

But it's quite common in Buddhist tradition to do 49 days of ceremonies, either once every seven days, or every day, and then a special ceremony once every seven days. So that's Those are done after the body has been cremated, so we do those ceremonies with the ashes. Yes? There's a staff that priests have that has symbols on it. Is that used at this point? There's a staff that has bells or symbols on it? It has rings on it. Yeah. Is that used along with those three sounds? Is that used at this point, or later? Sometimes the leader of the ceremony carries what's called a ringed staff. I don't know, I think it started in India. And if you look on that altar there, you'll see that there's a monk there who has a ring staff over on the left side of the altar.

[27:54]

So the Buddhist monks, when they're traveling, they would carry a staff that had rings hanging from it so people could hear them coming, and also snakes could hear them coming. So snakes would back away, and the donors would come out. So it was a kind of way for the mendicant monks to announce their coming and going in the public areas. And so sometimes during funeral ceremonies, the leader of the ceremony will carry that staff in and out of ceremonies. or carry a staff that doesn't have the rings. So part of what's given to a priest in their process of training is, at a certain point, a training staff that they can use in ceremonies.

[29:03]

So up till now, any questions? Did you get the picture? ...about that picture above the altar. Is that the Buddha dead? Because he's lying on his right. Is the Buddha dying? Or the Buddha deceased? So the Buddha... The Buddha was... Looks like he's placed on his right side. It's kind of a detail, but I was just looking at it before. I think, generally speaking, the Buddha recommended sleeping on the right side so that your body weighs not on your heart. So I think the Buddha. I read a little excerpt from one of the biographies of Thomas Merton. So Thomas Merton died in Ceylon, Sri Lanka.

[30:13]

He was there for a conference, and just a day or so before he was accidentally electrocuted by a faulty ceiling lamp that he touched, he went out into the forest to visit a a Buddhist monk named Nanapanika Thera. And he was walking around in the forest, and there's all these huge rocks that have been carved into various Buddhist statues, and one of them was carved into the sleeping or dying Buddha. And he said he had one of the most profound experiences of his life, just being there with that Buddha. That's reclining, smiling, dying Buddha. So the Buddha... I don't remember the story about how long the Buddha was reclining after passing away.

[31:23]

But for some time the Buddha did recline. after passing away, and then the Buddha's body was cremated, and then there were relics. And so then the relics were just given to the Sangha, and the Sangha then took care of those relics for 2500 years, and there are still some of the relics of the Buddha around in various parts of Asia. The summary that you just described, since it requires someone who's darker transmitted, It might be difficult depending on where you live. That's why you should, not should, but that's why I have this workshop for you to get ready.

[32:31]

So hopefully you have a little time to find something. And then, if there's a wound nearby you when you die, then you should be aware that if you are away from the person who is going to do your funeral, that you should have some understanding of what to do. Like, if that person couldn't come to you, they might be able to send someone else. But they would be in charge of the ceremonial process. So don't start looking for somebody as you're about to die. because it might take you a little while to find someone who is available to make the agreement with, and then even they might... You could be overseas. But that person could find you someone. And if they couldn't be there, as they agreed, then they could find someone.

[33:37]

And if they died before you, they could... Pass on your request to a successor. But if there wasn't someone whose dharma transcended, you could still have what we talked about before lunch with all these ceremonies. You could do those other ceremonies, but not the precept one. Right. The precept one, you would need that. But another priest could do these other parts, probably. Yes, good point. So the priesthood part would be the part that you'd need a priest who is empowered to do that. The other parts could be done by other priests. Yes. I want to thank you for the encouragement for us to actually write this up, and I was going to also encourage people to fill out an advance directive. So, like, if you do get an accident and you're not totally, you know, you're having brain damage or something, who's going to make your decisions?

[34:39]

Because they'll just pick, like, if you're married, they'll pick your spouse or they'll, you know, they'll just pick whoever's closest. So I just wanted to put that plug in. Yeah. So advanced directive also. we have a Zen Center sheet that you can put into your advanced directive, and part of it would be, who would you like to perform your funeral ceremony? And you put people's names in, and it would be good to write names. And then if you write the person's name in, go ask them if they're going to do it, so they know that you've asked them. So I've done that every day. One of the aspects of our tradition is some of the people who would do a really good job of my funeral are people that are my successors. They would do a really good job, but they're not supposed to do it. Even though I would trust them as well as anyone, they're not supposed to do it.

[35:48]

But they are in charge of the ceremony. They're with my family, right? So my spouse and daughters, together with the ceremony, organized the ceremony, but they wouldn't really perform it. They would sort of invite other experienced people to perform it, but they would be in charge of that. So that's one of the things you can't do for your teacher. You can't do your teachers. But you get to organize it. You get to attend. And you can cry if you want. Or laugh. Go ahead, laugh. Did you just say that Zen Center has a form you can attach to your DPOA? Yeah. Like we have this Five Wishes thing. Have you seen that? We have a document called Five Wishes. And there's a page in there where you specify funeral arrangements.

[36:51]

And we have an insert that's more relevant than what the Five Wishes was not published by us. Where is that? Is it somewhere? I don't know if it's on the website, but I have copies, which I, again, I can give you if you want to have that. You can get the Five Wishes, which is a nice document. I think Zad Center can give you the Five Wishes. Or again, I can. And then I can give you the Zen Center insert to put in there. And fill that in with these kinds of Zen Center relevant questions and directives. And then again, talk to other people that you care about so you understand what they want. You can give them these things to fill out, so it's all clear at one point in time. Now, even if it's clear today, a year might change, so then you should also be aware. Has anything changed in the last year?

[37:54]

Do we need to update this? And things don't always go the way you direct them, but anyway, it's good to have something as a starting point for moving forward. I've never regretted these discussions. They're quite nice discussions to have. What's that called? The five what? The document's called The Five Wishes, I think. And then again, in that document, which some other organization put together, we're using it, there's one page... our style, because it's related to other religions, maybe. So we made an insert to put in there. So you can just put the insert in and fill that out, which is more Buddhist orientation. I feel confused about the order of designing.

[39:07]

Once the body's been washed, and then you do the initial chanting, and then the bodhisattva precepts, is there time in between that? Put some vigil time between those two, or those who go together? There could definitely be... Like, let's say the person died early in the morning. So then, you wash the person early in the morning, or later in the morning. Then you do that initial ceremony. At that point, people go away. and then people could adjust to the situation. And then you could specify people are welcome to come back and be with the body. Maybe it's in its original position, place. People could come back and be in the same room or nearby for a while. And then it might take a little while to get the next ceremony ready, right?

[40:10]

For such a ceremony, it takes a little while to get things ready. So it probably wouldn't... it probably wouldn't be practical, or it probably would feel to go right from that first ceremony into the second one, because it just takes time. You have to get various things together. So there probably would be a natural space for a visual. And then you go to the second ceremony in the afternoon. And then after that ceremony, there's one more ceremony. You mean the second ceremony, the Dharani? Do you mean the second ceremony? Or the Bodhisattva precept? Precept ceremony, the Ashtaniya second ceremony. And then following the second ceremony... Following the precept ceremony, when the time's right, place the body in the coffin.

[41:22]

And then chant the Daishinjarani. And then we do some chanting before the coffin. This is all on the first day. Chanting before the coffin. For the last ceremony of the day, that can be followed by vigil. So first day, clean the body, do the initial ceremony, some quiet time. Some people are quiet and other people are kind of... for the next ceremony. and having conferences about how to do that, getting help. Then in some people might also be practicing certain liturgical formations in some place away. And then we have the next ceremony is placing the body in the coffin. The next ceremony is chanting in front of the coffin. And then, yeah.

[42:26]

That's it for the first day. And again, through that night, it could be an all-night vigil. The next day, using the coffin and giving the teaching and then going to the crematorium. Or a whole day of vigil and then do what I just said in the following. And if you were going to stretch it out, maybe the last ceremony of what would normally be on the first day would be done at the end of the second day. Can you follow? So the first day could be stretched out to two days. And then you could do the ceremony at the end of the first day, the great night ceremony. You could do that at the end of the second day. You would have all these ceremonies. The second day would have basically that ceremony at the end of it. And you're stretching out the middle. And then the next day you do all these other ceremonies.

[43:30]

Raising the coffin, giving the teaching, going to the crematorium, and doing the cremation ceremony. Which is the great night ceremony? Well, that would be the ceremony. Usually that's the great night is the night of the day that they died. And then the next day you do the remaining part. And as I said, it might, because of the time, if it's in the middle of the night, you could clean the body, but it might be hard to do that. You might feel not good about doing some parts. You might want to do the precept ceremony later in the day so that you could be there for the precept ceremony. But if the person died at 11 o'clock, we might not want to call people in at 1 in the morning. So you might want to wait until later in the day.

[44:36]

So in that case, you wouldn't be able to and have the great night ceremony on the same day. You couldn't get it all in. So you go over the night of the first day. The night before you do the main part of the funeral ceremony, which is the teaching and the raising the coffin and going to the crematorium, the night before you do that would be the great night. And that might, if the person died in the morning, in the middle of the day, you could do all those ceremonies and do the great night ceremony on the same day. But if the person died late, he wouldn't be able to do all the ceremonies on that same day, so you'd have to go over to the next day. And if you did do that, then you still might want to go one more day to have more time for people to be with the departed. In that case, you might postpone the great night ceremony

[45:39]

The end of the second day, which could even be the third day, because they die late on this day, you do all these ceremonies, then they go over another night, and they're sitting, and then you do the great night, and then you have the rest of the ceremonies, so it would be one, two, it would go over four days, in that case. Normally it would be a great picture. It would really be more like three, because It's at the end of the first day and at the beginning of the fourth day. But it could also be at the end of the second day, where most of the ceremonies are, and the third day would be the cremation. Classically, the great night ceremony would be putting the body in the coffin and the associated chants. would be done.

[46:43]

Well, again, you could put the body in the coffin on the first day, but not do the raising, the chanting in front of the coffin until the end of the next day. So this is something which could be justified depending on, basically, we don't want to rush, if possible, not to rush people. So people can know what's going on and not just be like, what's going on? What ceremony is this? What am I supposed to do? I'm not ready for this. Nice to have everybody on the other for each step. And we don't know how long that's going to take. Because we want to respect where people are at. And sometimes you're just like, I'm not ready for anything more right now. Let's let everything calm down for a while. You know, usually in a few hours the person's ready for the next step. The living people.

[47:46]

I had an outfit question, because I see that seemed to suddenly stop me, is that there's a traditional guard for if you're a priest, but if you're not, is there any kind of garment, and you said possibly white, but I'm thinking like as a woman, is it robes? I don't know what would be, and the idea of then having that garment ready. No, me. What I wear to my funeral. So to have that ready. White. Like a white kimono type thing? A white kimono type thing would be fine, but it could be a white It could be a white dress. It could be a white suit. White would be traditional. And you saw this movie yesterday called... The English translation of it is called... The way they advertise it is, late is the end of summer.

[48:53]

That's the way they... It's always a film. I think it's either his last... movie, 1961, and there's a funeral at the end of the movie, and his daughters are walking to the crematorium, and they're wearing these beautiful kimonos, but when they walk, you see inside the kimono, He's white. So as they walk, you see the white inside flashing. And they had this stuff ready. The family crest, you know? But he was probably white. I didn't see him. And when you said reverse, did you mean the left on the right or inside out? Left and right.

[49:55]

Left and right. Okay. It's quiet now, so I'll just mention that then there's a ceremony after the cremation where you can set up family altars We could have what's called the spirit tablet. In Japanese, it's called Ihai, and it's the tablet where it has the person's name, and then their Buddhist title, like their devoted laywoman underneath their name. Or, if they become a Danish priest, then you know, Zen priest. So-and-so Zen priest. But Sisakirishi's wife was ordained as a nun.

[51:00]

So she got this new name and then at the bottom it says Zen nun. That's her plaque. So you set up a plaque and with the ashes. And then sometime later you could take the ashes and ...earth under a marker or scattered. But in the meantime you can have the plaque with or without the picture. Usually they don't have a picture, but it could be with the picture and the ashes until maybe some... when you put them in the ground. But also you might want to have a memorial service in forty-nine days or a hundred days. This is the funeral, right? But you could have a memorial ceremony in forty-nine days. By the way, if you have it in forty-nine days, you should have it in forty-nine days or less.

[52:06]

Don't have the forty-nine day ceremony on the fiftieth or fifty-first day. It's better too early than too late. So you could have a 49-day ceremony for a deceased person where you gather together people. That's what we did for Suzuki Okusan. We had a 49-day ceremony for her after about 46 days at Zen Center. She was in Japan with her body, and then they had a 49-day ceremony in Japan, and we did here, too. And given the Zen Center calendar, it worked out better to have it on the 51st day. And people in Japan said, don't do it before. If you want to have it not on the 49th, then do it on the 48th or 47th or whatever. But you could also do it on 100th day, and don't call it a 49 day.

[53:14]

Just do it on 100th day. And that would give people plenty of time to come from around to get some stuff like that. So nobody's rushed to get here. And then again, for 49 day, you can do weekly ceremonies where you chant... I don't think it is the Daishyan Dharani, but I'm not sure what it is you chat. And there's two styles. One is, there's a list of bodhisattvas, and there's another list, which is a list of Buddhas. Anyway, there are seven in both cases. And again, if you want that, I can send that to you.

[54:14]

So after you do the chanting, and then each week you say, this is the first week memorial ceremony for so-and-so, and we dedicate the merit to such-and-such a bodhisattva like Manjushri or Samantabhadra or Apalokiteshvara. The alternative list is a set of Buddhas. So you do that once a week for seven weeks after a person passes away. And you can also do daily ceremonies, too, if you wish. And I would say the daily ceremonies, you would do the... And those ceremonies could be done by the family at home? It could be done by the family at home, and you could also have the priest who did the ceremony, who did the funeral, they could do it at their temple.

[55:18]

I've done that for people who ask. I've done it at my place versus some other part of the universe. And the family members are not there. But they could do it. And some of them did it simultaneous with me. They did it in another part of the country. How do you help to make? Well, again, you could have one made ahead of time. Is that make them and if you already have your name you could have make it with your name so you could have it already and give it to the funeral director so they have it if you don't do it then it would it would be like it would be done so there's two it's done just for the ceremony and usually it's made of plain wood

[56:24]

and calligraphy with the name. The other, like this one, is not made at the temple. This lacquer one, see it? So that one, of course, that says, Amish. So that's the kind that usually a store makes for you. And so you could have that made ahead of time. But if you didn't have one made, then the temple would make one for you. And the person doing the ceremony would write your name. But if you want a lacquer one, then it would be good for you. will at some point decide whether it's going to have a hall for the members who want their spirit tablet to be enshrined in the temple.

[57:43]

American Buddhism is trying to find its way whether it wants to do that. So that would mean having a building where people would then put their tablets in a place where they would be cared for by the Sangha into the future. What would be the modern reason for that? I think that's a tradition, but would there be a reason for that that would you deal with alive today now? Well, some people come and say, it's been a year since my mother died, could we have a memorial ceremony for her? And we say, mm-hmm. And we do a memorial ceremony for that person's mother, which that person might attend. So then we And not the tablet?

[58:45]

Well, if they gave us a tablet and we were keeping it from, usually you would go to where the tablet is. So at the Japanese temple, the tablets are in this hall where there's many tablets. And then you walk down the hallway up to the founder's hall where you have the founder's tablets and the tablets of the many generations of of abbots. They're up in that room. On the way there, you have the tablets of all the members maintaining this relationship. So then, if they want to, on the yearly anniversary, they go to the temple, they gather around the tablet, and they do a little ceremony there. If we didn't have a place to keep all the tablets, which we don't, then the person would put it on the altar for that ceremony, but we don't need the tablet, but the person could bring the tablet and we do the ceremony with the tablet.

[59:49]

And you can also do it at your home. You have the tablet at home, you could do it there on your own. Chant the Daishin Dorani and dedicate the merit to this loved one. But it could also be done at the temple and It's traditional in Asia to do it once a year. Is it sort of a donor kind of thing? It is kind of a donor thing. Sounds more like a donor. It is kind of a donor thing because the people who have their services for them, they also make a donation for the service. And if they have their ashes in the temple grounds, they make a donation for that. So they do make donations. the priest to do ceremonies for their family. But the people in America who ask for the ceremony, they're not necessarily donors. They're just people who think, oh, I'd like a memorial for my mother.

[60:53]

But they don't have to be donors. We don't yet say, are you a donor? We just say, okay. It would be good if they made a donation, actually, but we don't require it. To put on a big ceremony, though, we kind of require it, because it's a lot of work to put on one of these ceremonies. So, yeah. But the yearly memorial is not very difficult for us to do. Because we do it at a time we're going to do a ceremony anyway. So we just say the person's name. It only takes... a few seconds to say their name, and it only takes a few minutes to receive the request and say, okay, and remember. So it actually flows quite nicely with our daily life to do these services.

[61:54]

And the person doesn't have to be a donor. It's just that keeping a budget doesn't sound very Zen-like. Yeah, well, it's a special school of Zen called... There's a school of Zen called Not Very Zen. And they have the tablets. And then there's another school of Zen with tablets, where the people are just sitting in caves, like over there. See that guy? You see there's no tablets around him. That's like... That's the red robe zen, special cave practice. Now, you can look carefully, look back into the cave. You see them? The possibility of tapas. So, anyway, it's... this is all about for you to know about the tradition.

[63:01]

And if certain parts of it don't seem very Zen, hey, this is the not-very-Zen opportunity. If other parts seem very Zen, and you like very Zen, well, then do that part. So this is just to let you know of some possibilities. And one of the possibilities is you just call... you see medical center and say, I got a body for you. And they come and take it. And that's one of the ways that a Zen person might take care of things. And it's fine. But there's other ways. And part of the reason I want you to know about it, because just in case you come to my funeral ceremony, I don't want you to be too shocked by all the stuff that happens. Because it might be quite a bit of stuff going on. Did he want this? Not for himself, but just so you would see it.

[64:03]

Just like I saw to see these women walking across the bridge in their beautiful black kimonos with this little white part sticking out. It was just so lovely. So again, the name of the movie is, in English, The End of Summer. But the actual name is the name of the family, followed by the possessive marker, followed by autumn. So a more literal translation would be the family of the Kanagawa family. So it was about the autumn of this family because the mother had died before. In another movie. Yeah, the mother died in another movie. And so now the kind of childish died. And it was sort of the The autumn of the family.

[65:06]

And these beautiful daughters, in many ways, but this is how that family kind of like came to its conclusion. I think one of the things they said about him at the end was he was kind of just did whatever he wanted and he was really quite childish. But somehow he held the family together. And all these sisters and their living and deceased partners and children. They loved each other and they were good to each other. They really hold the family together. So this was the end of that family in a way as a total union. And it was beautiful the way they did it. And also, yeah, they didn't really show much details of the funeral other than them walking to the cremation. And they could see that they could see the smokestack of the crematorium from their porch. So when they saw the smoke going up, they processed from their house over the bridge in their beautiful funeral outfits.

[66:15]

It was lovely. But you don't have to have a special funeral outfit. It's okay. But if you do have one, then you can wear it at these occasions, and also you can give it to your children, and they can wear it. And this can go on for hundreds of years. This is my grandmother's funeral kimono, which I'm wearing today. How lovely. Anything else you want to bring up? Yes. I wonder if your wishes have been completely expressed. Do you have any decisions about all of the aspects?

[67:17]

I would say my wishes have been expressed because in order to completely express them, It involves actually training people. So part of my expression is to say, there's a section here, so when I have priest meetings, we chant that chant that I did for you. So that these people know it by heart. And week on weekly basis we chant that. So when the time comes, they'll know how. They want it to be like looking through papers to find out how to say it. And also, this thing with the drum and the cymbal, I need to train them over and over so that they can like... Not like I die and then they have a training session and then do it. They can rehearse, but they already know how to do it. Because it's not a good time to be learning new stuff. So part of my full expression is to do different parts.

[68:21]

Another part of my full expression is to tell successors who I would like them to invite to do these different parts of the ceremony. And for the ceremony I'm talking about, there's more parts than the ones I read here. For example, in the ceremony for the former abbot, there's a ...section where a visiting teacher has a Dharma conversation with several people. They have a question and answer as part of the ceremony. And there's various parts there. I thought that would be overwhelming to get into all the details. And again, if you want to learn more, you can learn more. The ceremony I taught you about today is for lay people. Yes? I keep asking tangential questions, but you can talk about your death.

[69:22]

In this tradition, are you invited to write a death poem? Yes. Suzuki Roshi, to my knowledge, did not write it. And in this tradition, it is traditional to write a death poem every year. And New Year's. And is it haiku or not necessarily? It's not haiku. Haiku is three lines, 17 syllables. This one would be more like... It's four lines, and I think it's maybe like 28 characters. And again, haiku is not characters necessarily. It's syllables. So some characters are one syllable, some characters are two syllables. I don't know if there's any characters with three syllables. So it would be the number of syllables for haiku, but this would be four lines of Chinese characters. So I do write a death poem on New Year's, usually, and read it to the priests at New Year's.

[70:31]

So you can check with me next New Year's at our New Year's for my death poem. So the death poem would be available for that year and would be used if I died. Now, if I didn't die really suddenly, I could write a new death poem just before I died. But if I, for some reason, couldn't write a death poem, there's already one to use. So it's kind of like a refreshment of the inspiration each year. Yes? You have friends all over the world. You have friends all over the world. How would people find out? They found out that my femur was broken. So some people, like I just got a letter yesterday from somebody who just found out two months later. But that would kind of be included in 49 days.

[71:38]

It might take 49 days for some people, some friends to find out. So if they did, they could come to the memorial ceremony, but they wouldn't be there for the funeral. So the funerals, it's more for the people on site, pretty much. And anybody that we feel like has to be there. But some people I would like to lead my ceremony live in Japan. They probably wouldn't be able to get here in time. But they could come for a memorial. Like, I couldn't go to Suzuki Roshi's wife's... I shouldn't say I couldn't, but Suzuki Roshi's wife was very kind to me. I wanted to go to her funeral ceremony. She died on January 9th last year. And I was in the middle of a January intensive. And Linda Ruth went. And Phu was sick.

[72:42]

And I just felt like if I left the January intensive, it would it would be hard for me to leave because I was in good health and I was really, like I was there. And people were having a hard time being there. To follow that schedule in the winter. And I stayed and it was good. But I left, I just felt, I just couldn't. But I really felt bad not going because she was such a great person for me. So, but I did do her, as I just told you, and I did do her ashes ceremony at Tassara. So I kind of made up for it, but I wanted to go and be there. And I actually bought tickets. You know, I got a really good price on Japan Airline, $1,200 round trip, on short notice. But then I didn't go. And...

[73:43]

But I could have made her funeral, actually. But not everybody. And I heard about it immediately, so... I could have made it, but some people wouldn't. So I was listening to you. It looks to me that this is a path that I can exactly say this is a path that you really are designing your own destiny. You're designing your life. So that's where the thought of there's no God outside you does not exist versus the thought of You are not designing your own life, you're not designing your destiny, as there's some God outside who's doing it for you.

[74:50]

So as you're speaking, it looks to me everything is step by step by step, purely designed. Step by step, purely designed, but the design is in this conversation. between me and you, and the tradition, and people's feelings, and it doesn't allow me to do nothing. But that doesn't seem to be what I'm doing. I'm offering something, which is doing something, but if nothing that I'm offering comes to pass, it's fine with me. But I do feel like There's not too many people. I'm one of the few people who can even tell you about this. So I want you to know this before it's all over. And then you and the other people can decide about what seems appropriate.

[75:52]

And zero is fine with me because I did my part. I let you know about it. And now you can do your part. We'll see. I won't be around to see. Yes? What about... What about dying while sitting zazen and predicting your own death? Well, I might do just that. I might be sitting zazen and say, I'm now going to pass away. And I'm glad some of you are here to be here with me when I do it. And then if everybody's cold, that'll be that. Some people come up to me and say, excuse me, may we wash your body now? And I might keel over and stretch out to make it easy for you.

[76:53]

But I think it's pretty likely that people will probably wash my body and change my clothes. Even if I died in the zendo, sitting cross-legged, I'd kind of like to do it that way, actually. But it may not be that way. Even the great Suzuki Roshi was in the Zen Do, but 132 of us were in the Zen Do when he died. So he's up in his bed, reclining, and we're downstairs, sitting up there, all his dear students. And so we're sitting, and he lets go, And then he gets washed, clothes changed, put out in his room, we come in and bow to him, and then he goes to the mortuary services and gets embalmed. But I don't want to get embalmed. But if you people embalm me, what can I say?

[77:59]

Did he write out what he wanted? I mean, nobody knew then at all. As far as I'm concerned, as far as I know, he didn't write out what he wanted. But maybe he had said some things to his wife. Did he train anybody to do? He did not train us how to do the funeral ceremony, and we didn't do it because we were not supposed to. But we were there, and we invited all the priests from Japan and the United States to come and lead the ceremony. So senior priests from Japan came, his son came from Japan, and the leaders of the ceremony, people who performed the ceremony were Japanese, And the managers were his students. So we worked with the Japanese priest to arrange his ceremony. But I don't think he was having a hard time. He had the energy to explain the ceremonial details, but he knew people to invite who did a good job.

[79:07]

And I don't know if he said anything about the embalming. I don't know. In Wendell, Richard Baker is wearing this really beautiful, very ornamental hat. Yes. Do we have one of those that someone could wear? He's leaving here. We do have a hat. That we have is Suzuki Riki's hat. One of his hats. And so it actually says in the instructions for the ceremony that when the priest is leading the ceremony, does the water sprinkling? Purify the water by various mantrams and dharanis. And then you take the sprinkler and put it on your head and bring this anointment on your head into your water.

[80:17]

This is the anointment that has been passed to your head. It's then brought from your head into the water. So it says before the priest does the water sprinkling, the attendant removes the hat. You couldn't reach the top anyway. Of course the wisdom can reach the top, but the arm can't. It's a tall hat. So you take the hat off, and you go like this, and sprinkle it, and put it back, and then the jisha replaces the hat. So do you want the hat? I would, whoever is going to do that part of the ceremony, for priests, for me, you wouldn't do that part of the ceremony, actually. For a former habit, you don't do the precepts. No, but the hat part. Do I want them to wear the hat?

[81:19]

It's up to them. I'm okay if they want to wear the hat. And the ceremony that I'm suggesting for me has nine priests doing it. There's nine parts and ...to the nine different parts. So there would be nine hats. Or they would share one hat. But, yeah, there could be a lot of hats. So it's up to the successors. If they invite hat people, we might have a lot of hats. But then they might feel like, we don't need these hats. It's not necessary. Maybe later, a couple hundred years from now, people will get into hats again. A lot of ceremonies which we do at Zen Center, in Japan, they would wear hats. And we helped. Here's a hat, I believe, in the Zen Center archives that belonged to Suzuki Rishi.

[82:25]

Yes. Also, Paul Howard gave me an abbot's hat from Southeast Asia. I have that hat, too. I never dared to wear it. A couple of times I say to people, I think I should wear the hat today. Also, I have a robe here, which I think I've worn here a couple of times. It's a robe that has several hundred Buddhas on it. It's back in that room. That's available. Was it painted? Embroidered, yeah. Embroidered. Maybe not several hundred, maybe just 150. But there's a lot of Buddha's embroidered on it. If you want to see it, I'll show you later. Anything else today you want to bring up? Yes, before it's too late. Rabbi, I wanted to extend gratitude to you and also to everybody else here today. It's been so tender, and I feel the tenderness from everyone.

[83:38]

Not only am I having courage to speak every moment, but... It reminds me that of mine as well will come and also I want to extend gratitude for everyone today who's been thinking of all those we have already lost and they have really felt The ancestors of each of you that has been in this room today as well. And the word that keeps coming, I mentioned the Hanukkah in the beginning, is just this tender. And so I wanted to extend that to you and to everyone here. Thank you. You're welcome. I was on the Zen Center board for 24 years.

[84:51]

And then I stopped being on the Zen Center board. And I did many weddings. And I did many weddings. Quite a while ago. Maybe 15 or 20 years ago, I did my last wedding. And my motivations were... Just that I feel like a lot of people can do weddings, a lot of priests can do weddings, and a lot of lay people can do weddings too. I feel like I'm not needed for the wedding business. But I have not retired from funerals because I feel like I'm still needed for the funerals. The number of people who can do funerals, full-scale funerals, is more limited. So I'm still doing the funerals. And if I do it longer and longer, I'm going to do more. And I... My wife says, you know, one thing nice, you know, you don't like... She said, you don't like doing weddings for people getting divorced.

[86:02]

And I don't. But funerals, they never take it back. They always follow through. No regrets. First thing you said today, make sure they're dead. So I'm happy to do this service. And I would like to develop a culture of understanding what we're doing, and that there's a range and an openness of how to do it. But there is a range. And it's a good request to take care of the spirit on its mysterious path.

[87:11]

And if you want to do further research on these processes, I am happy to do so. And I'm not much of a shopper, but I did buy that beautiful ceremonial razor. Ceremonial which? Razor. Oh, the razor. I bought it. I ordered it from Japan and got it. There it is. Because we didn't have one. And so now we do have one. And gradually... And we have the other equipment, too. We have cymbals and drums and... We have this equipment to do these ceremonies. And we need to practice them so we can do them beautifully. So it's something we do for the practitioners.

[88:16]

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