So they do it at the beginning? Yes. The Shuso is entered on May 2nd before the practice period starts. And it starts on May 15th. And the first day is their Shuso ceremony. Interesting. Is there a script of questions? You say May 15th? 16th. The ceremony is at the beginning of the practice week. Yeah. But they've been entered for two weeks. Maybe we thought that would be too much. But I don't think they do it that way. Did you do a computer search? I'm going to print out. Is she still bathing the sacred monk?

[01:17]

Does that come before or after the ceremony? So it's not missed up here on the measure key. Yeah. Yes, she sells cases of tea. Oh, okay, so there's a root case tea, which is kind of like... And then the 17th is the actual sale. Oh, okay. That's right. Root case tea. We talked about that before. Yeah, like they... Food is like a character... This is like a special one where they give a Bodhidharma case. So it says, uh... Let's see, look. There's the... So the day before she said... Uh...

[02:19]

It's on the 16th. It says, Arhat Liturgy. I took out. It's not related. Our ritual procedures are detailed in a separate ritual manual. I've got Great Assembly's formal congratulations to Head Seat. And then there's the Head Seat's root case T on the 16th. And... And the preparations for this event the day before are that incense burning attendant on the day before gets instructions from the abbot. On this day, May 16, takes root case. So that's like the root case, like the Bodhidharma case. That will be raised.

[03:33]

and recited so it doesn't sound like necessarily necessarily it could be a different case so he brings the roof case to the head seat ordinarily one case from Sung Rung Hermitage Records that's the show you wrote uh is raised and recited, but other koans may be used. Places it on an offering stand, sambo, and a sambo is the thing that has the three holes, holes on the base, the sambo. Does that mean hole at bow? Sambo... Sambo, Sambo... It actually means three directions.

[04:43]

It goes three directions. It's got holes in three directions. Is that the offering tray? It's the offering tray that has the holes, the three holes on the stand. So it means three directions. So you put the... places an offering on there that has been draped with a covering cloth and sets that in the abbot's quarters in preparation for the rite. The next day, when the evening bell has been rung, the tea chief, the chaju, all right, chi, chi, head, has postulant, anja, prepare the tea hall, sado, for tea service, gyocha, practicing tea.

[05:51]

First, place the chair for the abbot in front of, in front of, Occasional retreat. Make a place for the west hall with sedo and rear hall, roshi, godo, on either side of the abyss chair. Set up incense stand and place the incense razor on it. Other preparations are as for evening convocation tea service on the 14th of the month in the monthly observances. When the bell stops ringing, the postulant beats one sequence on the tea drum. The monks of the Great Assembly, upon hearing it, gather in the tea hall, wearing cases, and stand at tea service places.

[06:58]

Announcement. When the abbot enters, the incense jisha follows him or her with offering stands on both. bearing the root case raised respectfully in both hands. The abbot, monks, and great assembly make mutual bows with hands cleft. I don't know if that means what the clasping position is. It doesn't say shashe or gassho. It says ai-itsu. Take their seats.

[07:59]

Incense-burning attendant sets the root case down at the abbot's left side. The abbot informs the assembly that tomorrow I shall yield the Dharma seat to the head seat, named so-and-so, and have him or her raise and recite such and such words." And then the invitation prostration. Acolyte Jisha stands, picks up the offering stand, bearing the root case in both hands, sets it down in front of the head seat, returns to place. The head seat stands. holds up the root case, goes before the incense stand in front of the hall, senses it with incense smoke, sets it down in front of the stand, withdraws and spreads cloth and makes three prostrations.

[09:17]

This is called prostration. In conclusion, Abbott makes the prostration in reply makes one prostration in reply. When prostrations are finished, the head seat gathers up a sitting cloth, folds up the root case, advances before the abbot, receives commentary, It is permissible simply to bow or gusho. Commentary on root case. Abbott opens the root case, comments on it, up to the verse commentary. Commentary on the root case may be done by the West Hall Roshi, Sato Roshi.

[10:27]

And then the tea service. Next, as in ordinary tea service, Incense Burning Acolyte, Incense Jisha Jiko, offers tea to the abbot. Tea chiefs, foster assistant. Sir tea monks of the great assembly. After repeat service, collect seconds. Yeah, probably seconds. We say seconds here.

[11:32]

I don't have a script, so I don't know what the correction would be. Should it be seconds? Repeat service. I think after seconds are served. The teacups are collected. After a drum sounds, Sangha Hall postulant Doan rings a handbell. Twice. All together, stand up. Abbot and monks of the Great Assembly together make vows with hands clasped and dispersed from the hall. Send that email.

[12:33]

A little additional ceremony that could be done. The part where it says that the abbot said, tomorrow the head seat will certainly be such and such. Did it say such and such words or was there some words? It says such and such. What does it mean? What is he referring to? But that's not the, I don't think that's the, maybe he would say, maybe just say the name of the case at that point, or something. Let's see. Let's see, recite, you know, the first case. Does it say that it's the first case that's usually used? It doesn't say which one is usually used, actually.

[13:36]

It just says it's from the Book of Serenity, but it can also be from... But usually from the Book of Serenity. And later they have the Book of Serenity commentary on Bodhidharma's case that we use. But anyway, it says they can use other cases. Um, does it have seat? Yes. Do we like that translation? Uh, do we like that translation? Head seat? Or first seat? It's that, it means first or head? Do we usually say seat? Do we usually say seat? Yes. I mean, is this the equivalent of our saying chuseo or head student? Or is it something else? It's a literal translation of chuseo. Chuseo means first seat or head seat. It's like that, it's that seat next to the added seat. I think it's actually kind of a nice term because we don't get it.

[14:41]

If they're priest or not, and we say student or monk, head seat just covers it all. So head seat, head seat or first seat? You can even say chief seat. They sometimes translate the toe. They sometimes translate it as chief, in a cha toe, as chief, key chief, instead of head tee or first tee. But actually, that's a different word. Yeah, that's me. She's a tea head. That would include our cultural mystery. That's a possibility anyways, to say first seat or head seat. On the offering tray, that is the whole book put on the offering tray or just a copy of the case?

[15:44]

It's not clear. They might have separate bindings of the case. So it's not clear whether it's the case in a larger book. The case has been written out by itself and presented in handwritten form separately from the rest of the book. That would actually be kind of nice, I think, to have just the case written out right in the whole book. So I think that would be... Something we could do. Maybe the Shuso would crank it up. Yeah, right. Kind of nice. It was a commentary from somebody from Sinistro. Yeah, Abbott. It would be me as calling to finally get to a commentary. Yeah. Actually, you've got to... All we've got to say. Except it has to be the moonwalk on.

[16:45]

Okay, so now that on the 17th, it says before it says the congratulatory key. Present refreshments. Tenshin or dim sum to the head. excuse me, from the head seat to the Great Assembly. Same as on May 15th, before mid-morning. So the she-so offers the Great Assembly tea. Yeah. Head seat takes Dharma seat. Preparation, usually called Head Seat's Dharma Compact Ceremony. She-so ho-sen-shiki, we used to say, have them use that term at times, ho-sen-shiki,

[17:53]

It means Dharma combat or Dharma war. So there was a spirit in the early days of Zen. Kill the Shuso. Which is the war character? It's the second to the last one. The second to the last one means war or combat. Sin? Sin, yeah. The jisya, the attendant, in advance writes the root case comment on a placard. Hmm. It makes sense. It's very interesting. OK. white letters on red glossy board, and gives it to the Chidan to hang on a bare pillar.

[19:04]

And the West Hall of the Diamond Hall comes out and holds it up. At the time when the attendant, Benji, also known as the interlocutor, It's the other person you speak to. We find a lot of them in Huey James. Like an imaginary? You and I right now, I'm your interlocutor. You're my interlocutor. Yeah. The minstrel shows used to have an interlocutor in my band. See, Mr. Doctor was called Mr. The interlocutor in minstrel shows. Yes, I don't know if you want to use that term. So, Benji, also known as the interlocutor, enters the hall. The attendant, Jisha, also places the root case, bamboo staff, she paid, ceremonial fan of incense stand in Abbott's quarters.

[20:24]

The fan is tied with a bow knot with red and white ceremonial string, which I think I think usually they come that way in the box these days. And sometimes they have the... Oh, I know what they do. It's the... It's a paper. It's on the printer. It's printed, yeah. In the box. It strikes me that... And maybe at Agorana Center there's another commentary that's posted. And if there's so many commentaries produced for various people throughout the ceremony, it looks like, I wonder if that's just their statement coming from an intuitive place, or if they actually analyze that.

[21:31]

If the intersection analyzes of that case, it happens. I just want the procedural one. It's a case. Wasn't it just the case that's posted? No, the commentary. It says case comment, but I don't... They write the root case on the part where that's just the commentary from the serenity. It says it writes the case comment... And I don't know if that could be the comment that was made by the abbot the night before. I don't know if that comment would be the comment that printed in the Shoyoroku. It looks like that might be later on in the Shoyoroku as the commentary. Maybe. You know, you're wondering about where the comments come from?

[22:33]

Well, yeah, I want to approach to that case. So it all kind of goes around this case, and so... And it's not only the head seats that are the case, too, in the ceremony. It's the sexist person from the vestal, and the apple, and the commentary in the book itself. And that's probably the head seat, so the questions come forth as commentary. So there's all these commentaries to the case, to sort of what kind of an inquiry that actually is. Is it analytical and intuitive? And it is more about the case than the... People don't ask questions about the case here. Well, they're given... It doesn't include that. And they haven't heard it before, whereas here they hear it the day before, maybe for that reason. It gives a talk about the story.

[23:35]

And what instructions are your... Well, my recollection is that people are asked to have a question that is concerning their own practice, that is in some way personal to them, and that's a Dharma question and that can be asked and answered briefly. Those are the instructions I'm used to. There might be some other form of instruction. You should say having to do with your own practice. That's what I said at first. But I also heard you say once that there is some tradition of reasoning about court cases, right? Yes. So I wonder if that actually is happening there. Does that make sense? I haven't finished reading this yet, but they actually ask, at a heiji anyway, they ask set questions.

[24:50]

And there's set answers. So that the is ceremonial questioning. And the head monk memorizes the answers. in Chinese, and that the questions are in Chinese. So I don't know, and I don't think that the will not know what the Chinese answers mean when they're memorizing it. They will not know. They will not know. Actual Chinese words or the... The Chinese characters. So they're Japanese pronunciation. That monk who is here from Zuyoji, I can't remember his name, some of us were asking him about, he did this Yuso ceremony at Zuyoji and asked what happened.

[25:52]

And he said there too, it's set, memorized questions and answers. Some people, some senior teachers can come and ask spontaneous questions. They have that also in there. But he says, it's all about the presentation. He says, something really does happen. And I think he said, you have to, your instructions for the Shuso are to be Bodhidharma. So you answer as if you're Bodhidharma. And he said, very like loud and dramatic kind of answering. He said, it's kind of transformative for the Shuso to enact Bodhidharma. Yeah, I heard that too. When practicing for the ceremony, it seems you're just memorizing. You don't know what the lines are. The lines don't really mean much. Because again, it's not even regular Japanese. So unless you're a scholar, the answer is they wouldn't mean much to you.

[26:54]

If you're a scholar, they would have all these associations. Somehow it comes alive and means something. the enactment of the ritual opens onto some other kind of like thing. So the way we're doing it, some people would say, well, this is real. The people are actually asking either real questions about Bodhidharma's case from their own thinking about it, And the questions that people are doing when they're doing them from memory, we're asked in that way once, and she so is not giving a stock answer. So that seems like to us that's... But there's this other way, which in some ways...

[27:58]

Well, anyway, I think the other way is definitely complementary to the way we're doing it, which is the way of what you're saying is not what we're talking about here, but we manifest what we're talking about here. We manifest what the case is about by our interaction, but the literal content of our interactions do not reach this topic. It's a ceremony. It's a ceremony about bodhidharma and the emperor or whatever. It's a ceremony about that. But a lot of people, when they're asking questions about it, they don't think that necessarily they're enacting bodhidharma by their question. They're just sort of like more wondering what's going on here. By the way, what is bodhidharma? What is the highest meaning of the noble truths?

[29:05]

People actually wonder about that, which that was the question the emperor asked, and this person's asking, but they don't necessarily think, well, I'm enacting the emperor here. A lot of people wouldn't think that, but if you stop version of the emperor's question, you still might not realize this isn't just rote, this is enactment. So this is, and the Japanese don't necessarily get this, but sometimes they do. Sometimes they realize, oh my, the emperor could come. You know, the emperor was there. I mean, I don't know how I know that, but I just, I feel that, and that was the first time I ever felt the emperor come. And even if you go see the emperor or something, you still might not actually feel the emperor come unless you do a ritual. See the emperor go by in a car.

[30:08]

That was the emperor for a while. Unless you were driving a car or unless you were doing some kind of like, you know. So I think that that's the spirit of the ceremony, the way the Japanese do it, then. they think that what they're saying, you know, their comment and so on, that that's the point, rather than by making the comment, they're enacting the tradition, which is about this case. The entering ceremony gives us a gift. The entering ceremony, because it's scripted, but it's different every time, because each person is different. Okay, so I've got the white string on this fan, okay, either printed or in 3D. Has anybody ever gone to, what's it called, what's it called, IMAX?

[31:19]

Is it fun? Is it fun? It's 3D, right? And he's not 3D. It's just all around and it's a lot of 60-some foot. They also have wraparound with and without 3D. And you wear glasses? Big glasses. Real 3D. Dave wants to take us. I've never met his baby. We're going to go. Okay. All right. What are they showing? Beowulf. I saw, you know, I didn't see it, but I saw it in the newspaper. Actually, I saw it in the New York Times. Beowulf. In IMAX. The sound is amazing. They have, like, hundreds of speakers all around you. Actually kind of feel the vibrations of things coming from behind you and stuff like that.

[32:26]

It's very dynamic. Here come the Vikings. Okay, so mid-morning. The Sangha Hall postulant. So we're still saying Doan, right? We don't have an English word for that. So here's Sangha Hall postulants. What? Sangha Hall postulants. It's really complicated. Well, nobody's going to... Postulants are preparing for ordination. Nobody's going to say that, but we don't have an alternative for him. Good word. He's got Doan in there, but that's his English translation. We don't have another English for him. Well, some words like that, you know, make it into English, right?

[33:31]

They were originally, like canon was. That's how English works. It absorbs all these other terms. One might make it actually into an English word because it's, We can say it in English. It's simple and people can learn. That means somebody who takes care of the hall. And it's hard to think of another word that works to that. It's that short. Like Zen. You're not going to translate Zen into, I don't know what, a type of meditation which is practiced in China. Related to Indian Buddhism? I can't really describe it. Hard to put that on the side of a bus. Or a massage partner. Illuminating meditation. Serene reflection. Serene reflection meditation. So anyway, this Sangha Hall posture that makes rounds of various

[34:39]

to sound boards in sequence. So it's a circumambulation of the Hans. That's more like the king in our views. So they're going around with clacks? No, it says it goes around to the different sound boards. Oh, going from Han to Han? Is that a different kind of thing? Jun means circumambulation. And pon is hon. Oh, pon is hon. So the um pon is another kind of... Cloud? Cloud. Cloud? Yeah. It has a shape. It's in the shape of a cloud, yeah. I didn't know that pon and hon were... Yeah, well, it's because of the sound. It's easier to say um pon than um hon. So this is jun pon. That would be fun. I have a sound gate for the hon. So the Buddha hall postulant, which means the den on, rings the Buddha hall bell, densho.

[35:50]

Densho again means hall. Buddha's a den, right? So it's the Buddha hall. So it's the den hall bell, the hall bell. And at first ringing, Staffs of various quarters, the various, you know, like Tenzo-ryo and Juso-ryo and Dojo-ryo and Shika-ryo, all those different staffs from the various quarters of the monastery enter the Buddha Hall and stand at the chanting places at the second ring. Second ring, we say second round. The sign does the same. Going up to the abbot's quarters, at this the head seat, secretary, guest prefect, hall prefect, carrying wooden clappers.

[36:58]

Is that the prefect? Guest prefect? Hall prefect? Yeah. Yeah? What is prefect? Seniors. Well, like, it's like, yeah, it's like officer of the, you know, like, officer of the... of office. This is like the office person, probably. So it's like the crew heads? Yeah, like the crew heads. And the sheik, the guest prefect is the sheikah. The hall prefect is the qidan. Is that a Christian monastic term? Yes, it is. That's why I... It's a religious term. I don't know about monasticism. But it seems like it's not a word in English. It's not what we say. On Harry Potter Day, a prefect said... Oh, yeah, in schools. Those are originally church schools, right? Yeah. With prefects. Hall prefect, isn't it?

[38:02]

Yeah, the hall prefect. It sounds Latin, right? It's not a term that we normally use. I just wondered if it was a sovereign alternative. Okay, well, we don't have... For the head of the office, we say head of the office, you know, and then we'd say... We use manager and... I think their terms are as good as ours. Guest manager is even worse than guest prefect. Or guest student manager. But we say it, don't we? Yeah, point out a thousand different kinds of words. Do you think it's not there because the word manager would... Yeah, I think manager's not better than prefect. Coordinator. Yeah, coordinator. So we haven't really... We don't really have a word we like that much. Prefect hasn't quite made it.

[39:04]

So I don't think our words are that much better. I don't think our words are going to stand... Chican is not one of our words. Chican has made it into the... Yeah, Chican has made it into news. It's a burger. It's Chica, but not here. Chica's used at the city center in Tassajara. We could call the guest student manager the Chica. Well, but the work leader is what they call the equivalent of the guest student manager in the city. In Tassajara. The guest student manager is kind of a combination of sheikah and work leader and head of maintenance. I mean, they're not the maintenance person, but the definition of whatever their... Yes. Yeah. Anyway, I don't particularly make any suggestion why don't we... a well-established, better alternative. I think attendant is going to make it into...

[40:05]

As opposed to acupoint. Well, yeah, and I think Jisha's not going to stand forever. Yeah. But when we, I think we do kind of our own... I used to introduce myself on the phone as your attendant. Yeah, and I tell people I say attendant, and then I say assistant. Those seem to work fine. And you can tell the difference between attendant and assistant, maybe. Maybe. And then here's assistant comptroller. We use treasurer, I think, right? Yeah. Treasurer. And then the chef. You don't say chef. Chef. We say head cook. We say head cook. But Tenzo's really made it into English a lot, too. Tenzo's made it in. Uh, rector. That's a tough one.

[41:08]

What is rector? Director? Eno. Eno. Well, again, I told Arlene, here she is, I told Arlene that the word eno means gipper of tasks. So the Sanskrit, it refers to a Sanskrit monastic term, actually, of kama-dana. So I think the dana is ina. So the Chinese dana is wena. In English, in Japanese, wena goes to, so it's dana to wena to ina. So it really means giving. It's the giver of the tasks to take care of the, the formal spaces. So this thing about this meaning of, you know, director, disciplinarian, one of the translations, I think it doesn't have more of a feeling of the original meaning.

[42:18]

It's just somebody who does the tasks. But, yeah, we're not quite there yet. We're not going to use rector or just in there anyway. Do you want to stay with Eno? I think he can use a rector, and then Eno's in there. I don't think rector is going to work. Sangha Hall postulate, go on. Hand bell. Carrying a hand bell, the Shu Kei. And attendant, Benji. Interlocutor. I just looked up interlocutor if you want to know what it means. Person who takes part in a dialogue or conversation coming from 16th century modern Latin.

[43:19]

Interloqui, between and speak. And in Japanese, it's the opener of the mouth. It's the opener of the shuso's mouth. The interior locket dress is strange. Kaiku. Because they're the first one to speak. Okay, so, um... all these different people leave their places, exit the Buddha Hall and go to the abbot's quarters. So this is just saying all these different officers leave their various areas and go to the abbot's quarters, which we do. At that time,

[44:24]

At the end of the third ringing of the Buddha Hall bell comes slowly to an end, which is, we do that too. Well, there's an abbot's court here, but also if I was leading the ceremony, I would usually, people gather there. But oftentimes the abbots, like when you were over here, did you sometimes start here for ceremonies? People gather here and then kind of walk over to get... Yeah. Yeah. And it tells how we do it that way. Yeah. And then, so, but here, I would meet the shiso in that room over there so that people would probably gather there. It's just changing the sound like... Pardon me? Well, nothing changes in the shiso ceremony. I'm glad you could come. Okay, so now the people are gathering at the abbot's quarters.

[45:31]

And then the third round of this bell returns. Enter the abbot's quarters and stand facing the abbot. The sangha hall postulant rings the hand bell. All together spread their zagas and make three prostrations. The abbot too makes prostrations. I think it's better to say the abbot also. Do you think it's better abbot too makes prostrations or abbot also? Of course, he's not asking us to correct his English. The abbot also makes prostrations in reply. So they're bound not to the abbot. They're bound to the abbot. Yeah. Gathering up the sitting cloths, the two rows of officers facing each other on left and right, the acolyte attendant passes a ceremonial fan.

[46:44]

Is that a plural, fans? Oh yeah, it does say fans, doesn't it? To the head seat and attendant. So it looks like the Benji maybe gets a fan too. An ordinary white fan. For celebration fan of attendant, you use an that is tied with a bow knot and ceremonial string. Yeah, so the Venge has a fan too, but it's not gold. Because they are, I guess, they're playing a role in the ceremony, so they'll get that. What's the fan?

[47:44]

Sometimes in these ceremonies, if you're participating and you're not the doshi, you carry a fan. So the majority of the monks do not carry fans, but some people who are as officials but not lead a ceremony. People lead a ceremony to carry the kotsu or the wisk. But other people who are sort of recognized as participating carry these fans sometimes. Do you know the origin? Well, Chinese. Chinese? Yeah, Chinese. You look at the Chinese ceremonies, there's lots of bands. For hot summer ceremonies. And bugs and, you know. Right. You need fans. They come in handy when you don't live in these, what do you call it, modern facilities that are unecological. You have to use your arm and stuff to deal with nature.

[48:48]

Nature of winded earth? Huh? And the nature of winded earth? Yeah, it's like, except now we've made, I mean, got wind under control, so we don't have a fan anymore. The Tassajara is still not under control, so the fans are still handy at Tassajara. Even though the majority of people can't have them. My wife gave me, yeah, the majority, but the slaves can't have them. The slaves can't have them. Only the aristocrats. Did we figure out who's going to be caroling? I would suggest a show role. Okay. That means we need another inking. Inking. We do need another game team. We definitely do. All right. So then entering the hall. At this point, the Sangha Hall postulant, ,, rings a handbell.

[49:51]

Once. Whereupon the hall prefect strikes the wooden clappers. Once. Postulate. Beats the drum. Right? Ding. Oh, there's no clapper? Sorry. Oh, there was a... Yeah. Inking, inking, wooden clappers, drum. Oh, there's only one inking here. That is to say, ding, clack, dop. Ding, clack, dop. Ding, clack, dop. Ding, clack, dop. But we're going to do it again.

[50:55]

That second one does sound more Chinese, doesn't it? But we're going to have to. So we go, ding dong. Yeah, we're high church here. This is just the central kind of gravity way of doing it. We're doing the high church way of doing it. Yeah, but is the second... Is there a second inking? Keep going, Arlene. Keep going. Is it going to be in the back at the end? Like, you know... It's in the back, yeah. The first inking and... That's right. That's right. After the first inking. Okay. Yeah, they're in the back. It's the thing that's on... I thought they were in the back. I thought they were right next to each other. Angie's the last. Yeah, in your order. It does, in the order.

[51:56]

And I thought, that's why I kind of said, which way are we doing it? Two of them together. They're up in front? Okay. And then it has the... We're not choosing. We're just reading. I know. I hear you. But I'm just verifying. I'm just verifying. When this has been repeated three times, it begins the drum in, quote, great pounding mode. So they just do it three times here. And we try to do seven, right? Do you talk to people to do it seven times? We're doing it at noon. Right. But we haven't tried to do seven, right? Maybe we have farther to walk. Well, maybe that's true. Anyway, I just thought I'd mention here that they do it three times here in this thing.

[52:57]

But again, this is not the only way to do things. There's one ceremony book. And so we may be doing it like the way they do it at Heiji, which is a bigger place. That's maybe why we do it, because a lot of the samurais we started to do, we started to do with it. So I think, if we'd been doing seven, right, we'd do seven. At the same time, all leave abbot's quarters and enter the hall. Together with the abbot, in order, hall postulant, hall prefect, stand abreast of each other and walk in front, followed by the head seat and the benjamin.

[53:58]

dash interlocutor. So the doan is in the procession? Well, they're the clackers. Do we do it? Oh, no, the doan is the clackers. Prefects. Abbot. Jisha. Jiko. When Abbott bows with hands clasped in front of the hall, ring the hand bell once. We hear that, right? It sounds like all these hands clasped are gossips. Except it doesn't say goship. Hands clasped to be with me. No, but I mean the situations in which they're doing it seem like places where you... No, usually at that point, usually it would be Shashik. Oh, was this at the bowing? But it doesn't say Shashik.

[55:06]

It says this other word. Eats. And then, let's see if that happens. Oh, and so the hand, the hand, so the... The habit... The abbot bows with hands clasped in front of the hall, and then they ring the hand bell once, the wooden clappers once, and the drum once. Ceasing the great power. Which is, we do it that way, right? So that's the same. So these clappers are not kai shaku, they're taku. Yeah, these are not the kai shaku. Oh, they're big clubbers. And they're big. No. But we're just going to use the little black ones because they have the nicest sound, right? Yeah, we're going to use those, right.

[56:06]

Just checking. You're just checking, but keep checking because eventually you're going to get to something that's going to be different. And then I won't remember it. Yeah, and then you'll stop checking because that will be the end of you. Abbott advances, offers incense, offers hot water, decoction, sweets, and tea. So an offering is made in this ceremony. There it is. all together make three prostrations. Everybody holds the whole assembly. When this is finished, Abbott takes the chair, or it can be a chair where you can sit up on the chair with your legs crossed, or it can be the kyokuroku, the chair where the legs are hanging down. And then the monks in the Great Assembly sit down.

[57:12]

So that's kind of what we do. How do you feel these days? How do you feel these days? Do you want to have your legs crossed? Do you have a chance to have your legs done? I think the legs crossed. I think Gringotts, it's even more beautiful than Tassajara, the way there's this symmetry of the two platforms. The teacher, unless you're so symmetrical. Actually, I find it more beautiful that the teacher and the student sit opposite of each other, just like Tassajara. Tassajara? Tassajara?

[58:13]

Oh. It's good like that. Except the teachers are higher. So usually what we've been doing is we've got just two seats on the inside of the altar. And then initiation of chanting, initiating chanting the Heart Sutra. At this time, the email chanting the Heart Sutra. When the chanting reaches the place that leads, and thus the mind is without hindrance, the jisya stands, advances to the right side of the abbot's chair, receives the root case, and goes in front of the head seat, the root case to the head seat, and returns to place. It doesn't say about the root or anything. which we had this thing walking around in December.

[59:16]

And I think we also do that, you know? Yeah. Is there a cue there? Should I go get the ceremony? The head seat, holding the ceremonial fan, on the right hand, raises, offering a combo, Bearing the root case. The teacher must bring the whole stand around you to think on it. Raises the whole case above their head. Down again. Slowly opens the root case. Again holds it above the head. As soon as the heart suture is finished, shouts in a loud voice, raised.

[60:17]

In Japanese it's kosu, which means, you know, to revelantly, actually revelantly raise something. But they actually shout, raised, when the heart suture is finished. and proceeds to read the root case aloud. When finished, he or she says, there is a verse commentary. I entrust the voicing of the commentary to the interlocutor. Does she also say? She also says that. Next, he or she folds the root case. Does it say he or she, or are you adding portions? It does. He or she folds the root case in covering cloth, as it was originally, gathers up the sitting cloth, and stands.

[61:29]

At this time, the attendant, Benji, interlocutor, having heard the words, I entrust, starts to intone the verse correctly. while looking at the verse commentary placard. And that commentary is the one that's in the book. I guess so. So they're reading it off the placard which has been on the pillar that they're looking at. Like two pages. Yeah. The verse, just the verse. Okay. I think it means the verse that is the commentary. The verse is a commentary. I think you might be right. It's possible. It's possible. Because it does say Tiantun. So, I think that's right. It's probably Tiantun's verse commentary. Which, you know, works well if you got to show your Roku, right?

[62:36]

So, the verse commentary Tendo's verse commentary, verse commentary says, dot, dot, dot, dot. She repeats the last phrase of the commentary twice and appends the phrase, the lion's roar is inexhaustible. The head seed would also say, as for the author, as for the author, dot, dot, dot. But it is sufficient to say that at the start of the Dharma question, but it is sufficient to say that at the beginning of the Dharma question. While the attendant is intoning verse commentary, the head seat stands, lifts up the roof,

[63:39]

passes behind the abbot's chair, goes directly in front of it, bows to the abbot with hands clasped, and advances to the right side of the chair, hands the ribcage to the abbot. Then the head seat returns to the front, spreads the bowing cloth, and makes three prostrations. And for some reason, this is a new name, which is tengu sampad. The abbot receives this in gassho. Next, and I think I just want to point out that when it says receives in gassho, it did not say receives and bows in gassho. It just says receives in gassho. So the abbot's not bowing with the shiso. They're just going like... I think that out of humility, some people in that position are bowing to the shiso.

[64:49]

But here it says, in shiso. In other places, it says, bowing in shiso. So it looks to me like the abbot just sits like this at that time. Other places, the abbots actually and they mention it. And so it just, that's that. I'm not saying which way is better, just this seems to be the way it's done. In dokusan, I notice you bow when we prostrate. Yeah, dokusan I have not done that in manuals. Is it your issue? I used to do that, so... But if we can find the dokusan manual, then we may find out that we can change things. Okay, so anyway, we have it. Receive these in gusho. Next, he or she turns the body slightly to the left, places a sitting claw diagonally facing the east row, and makes one bow.

[65:56]

And we did that too, right? And makes one prostration to the east row, the great assembly of the great assembly. But they do the three vows to the... After your three vows, they then do the three vows to the senior Dharma teacher or other abbots here. Yeah. One vow. Yeah. And then the one vow to yourselves. Yeah. I mean, did I miss that? They don't have the bow to any other teachers. They only do it to the abbot. They do it to the abbot, and then they do it to the east side of the Great Assembly. And they do three to the abbot and one to the east side of the assembly. And then they turn the body to the right and also do the same thing to the west side. So this is the same. And make one prostration to the west. And the great assembly makes a bow and reply.

[67:04]

OK? Does anybody know if Blanche or anybody else is coming? Have you heard? I have not. Can I just... Huh? Are you coming? Yes, of course. But she's the only one that I know of. Right. I'm just going to ask Timo to call her on them. Okay? Sure. That should work out. Yeah. I mean, I don't... They both speak German well. Yeah. Finally, he or she faces the front, makes one prostration... gathers up the sitting cloth. So we do that too, right? If the head seats primary teacher, oh, this is kind of interesting, or venerable monks from other monasteries are in attendance, the head seat next goes in front of the primary teacher, heads to the cloth, and makes the prostration. So that's kind of it. But they do it afterwards. Yeah, so that may be a little tiny change we could make, but no problem.

[68:14]

Do you think that works better? Do you do it after? Interesting thing is that we probably interchanged the idea that the head monk bows to the east and west with, say, bow to the ones who haven't been chosen. Like, we interchanged that a little bit. So it would be hard to explain, maybe, what you think about that. Anyway, there it is. There's the bow to the root teacher and or other dignitaries that are attending the ceremony. Or makes an abbreviated one prostration in front of the venerable monks of other monasteries. When finished with frustrations, the head seat goes to the right side of the chair, bows with hands clasped, whereupon the abbot hands over the bamboo .

[69:18]

Yeah, so it's not clear when they say right side whether they mean the abbot's right side or who's right side. Right side. But I've been, myself, doing it to my right side. So anyway. And then the head seat receives this with both hands, raises it horizontally to a little below eye level, goes directly in front of the chair, bows to the class, passes behind the chair and returns to place. Gives the bamboo staff to the secretary to hold, spreads the sitting cloth, sits cross-legged. Pretty similar to what we're doing. Are they holding the staff horizontally when they're doing the spout?

[70:25]

I thought I heard it say they're holding the staff horizontally and then they bow with hands clasped. It doesn't make sense if that's what it says. Is that what it actually said? Yeah. I don't know. I never, we never did that. Well, but he received it with two hands. Maybe, you know, just like, it goes like this. You received it with two hands. Okay, then holding up the bamboo stick. Next, the head seat lays the ceremonial fan horizontally on the sitting cloth. in front of the seat. So they spread out their Zagu on the seat too. Raises the bamboo staff in both hands above the head.

[71:38]

Above the head, top of the staff facing front. I see right. all facing right, top of the staff facing right, intones Dharma phrase of holding up the bamboo staff. This is a three-foot-long black, black, black Iran snake. Do you know if that's turtle noise? What's the translation of this? It's got the characters. It's got a plus sign between the characters. I wonder what that's about. Maybe because they couldn't find it. Maybe it's an unusual kind. Uh-huh. They couldn't find it. Oh, I see. Yeah, black yuan. Ah, that's what it is. Yeah. Yeah, it might be a black turtleneck, turtleneck snake. This is like an esoteric movie dimension. It's referring to... A black turtleneck snake.

[72:46]

Like turtleneck snake. Turtleneck snake? That's what you said first. Well, anyway, I think we have simplified it for Western consumption to black snake. What it is, is probably black turtleneck snake. We say five feet. Five feet. We say five feet. Put the fan down so they just... Yeah, we do say five feet. And this says three feet. And it is more like three feet. Well, America's a bigger country. It does say, it does say three feet. Anyway, this is a major, major doctrinal issue here. In the olden days on Vulture Peak, it became the golden lotus flower. When it was transmitted through Shaolin, It produced by pedals.

[73:48]

At times it transforms into a dragon and swallows up heaven and earth. At times it becomes a jewel sword. This life freely. At this very moment it rests in my hands bestowing the authority to teach. This is just like a mosquito. biting an iron cow. When duty calls, it is difficult to pass it off to someone else. I invite the dragons and elephants of this full hall to test me once in Dharma combat. Interlocutor, I should see if you can confound me. That's one of the great statements of our school.

[74:53]

Maybe I told you that Rissa, Rissa loves about Zen is that statement, and she just mentioned it to... her advisor, and he said, wow. I think I'll start practicing Zen. Can I do that? Huh? Yeah, he said, I want to do that. He practices at Spirit Rock. But they do not have... The statement was most as dragons and elephants? No, the statement is, this is the Dharma style. Five feet long. She loves that. It's a wonderful statement. which Meg has a chance to say today. Somehow an iron cow is a little bit not quite an iron bull. Yeah. What is it? In the Japanese, is it like a distinction between a cow and bull?

[75:57]

We don't have Japanese here. Oh, you don't? You don't have... Just certain terms are in Japanese. Oh, I see. I'm not giving you that text yet. Do you have it right there? Sure. It probably is the character for... There's a character which means cow and bull, but there's also probably characters that just mean cow. Mm-hmm. Does anybody know who gave me the dog veterinarian book? I have a dog written in a book and it says... It's got a couple of deep-in little tits. It says when you take tits off, be careful. You can really poison them. So she's got three there? She's got two or even three. She's got three little ones. Do you take them out? I do, but I've never seen any quite so tiny. They are. But I usually get some Kleenex or paper towels.

[76:59]

It just said, it just said that, you know, that when you, when you have engorged kicks, they go up when you're moving. And you can't flush them down the toilet. Well, you can put them outside. She must have flushed them down the toilet. They're not going to survive. Okay, having intoned this, the head seat rests the bamboo staff in right hand position. places it just below, at the place just below the tassel, which is attached, lightly on the tongue. So this is that, you know, standard sort of cow character. It's like a radical. Yeah, I think that's more... We could suggest that possibly that could be made up.

[78:09]

But down below it says, down below it says, yeah, yeah. Yeah, texts are supposed to go like that, aren't they? In Texas. I learned it here. In California, we're more beneficent towards children. We release them into the wild. We have to have a heart to remove it. Dharma questioning. The attendant, Benji, is first to pose a dharma question. I think it's interesting, excuse me, that Benji does verse, but it's ten times verse commentary, rather than... Right? Right. I told you, Glenn, I said, she was asking me about the verses, and I said, we're just, we're looking at the ceremony, and traditionally it is the thing from the, from the case, so, and now we just say, right, something about your time, what this you sow is usually what it is.

[79:19]

But it may be nice if they work in the case somehow, which they usually don't. They might not even know the case. Yeah. Well, they could just get it out of the book. Oh, I see. They could just say, what case are you going to use? And then go to that book and get that and say it and say that. You told her that already, right? I told her that I noticed reading the thing that it's traditionally done with the verse from the case, but I don't know what she's going to do. I told her to do that. When they're that deep in, you're supposed to put a little heat so the head... Heat, you mean like lighter on fire? As for the author... Yeah, so they do the quote. The head seat makes a critical examination... gives a verbal response to the question.

[80:24]

Monks of the Great Assembly pose Dharma questions in succession, beginning with, As for the author. Instead of shuso, you say, As for the author. Is that one word in Japanese? I don't... Let's see. As for the author. As for the author. Yeah, there it is. I don't get the sense of it. So they say, yeah, they say sakushawa. As for the author. Does it mean for the author or for the case? I'm not sure what it means. Which referring to the book, the case, the bodhichitta. They have that part, they said that Chusot says the end, they say the lion's roar is inexhaustible. In the past, Chusot would also say, as for the author, at that time, the end of reading the case.

[81:35]

I don't get a sense of what it is. It literally says, as for the author. And so then every time they start a question, the monks repeat that, I guess. The head seat makes a critical examination of each intern. Finally, has had turn. Questions and answers are open. At the end of each round of questions and answers, the questioner says, take care. And the respondent concludes with, bonsai. Bonsai. So instead of saying thank you, you say take care. Bonsai means like bottoms up or something.

[82:44]

I think it means 10,000 generations. Oh, here it says literally myriad years. Yeah. Myriad years or occasions. Long life? It means long live the emperor. Oh. They say when they offer toast. Yeah, long live the emperor. But it can also be, I suppose it could also be used to, you know, but that's what they said when they crashed into the ships. What do you think the respondent is here? Is that the Husserl? So it means answerer, the person answering. The person questioning, the person answering.

[83:47]

Monja and Tosha. Like somebody says, take care, and they say it's like long life or good health or something. I'm getting the take care and then it says many years. Like it's more like a promise to keep working on this. But it doesn't wait. So that's the end of the question and answer session. And then there's a chart of head, seat, taking dharma seat. And that's the chart. And then the verse commentary on the root case, placard. And then there's Tintin's verse commentary. Is it? Peter here. So this is case one. Empty, nothing holy. The approach is far off.

[84:50]

Succeeding, he swings the axe without injuring the nose. Failing, he drops the pitcher without Still and silent, coolly he sat at Shaolin at Leighton. In the silence he completely brought up the true imperative. The clear moon of the autumn turns its frosty disk. The milky way thinners, the dipper hangs down its handle in the night. In succession a robe and bowl have been imparted to descendants. From this, humans and divines have been medicine and disease. That would be nice for Glenn to read, if she'd like to read that. What do you think of suggesting that to her? She may have already written it.

[85:53]

She may have already written it. If we're going to make the change, Do we give the Benji choice to either read this or their own? Or somehow that it becomes... Because I think it is this one chance in a lifetime to put out your own expression. And it's nice that they used the book of Serenity instead of the Blue Cliff Records. Maybe when we started we didn't have it. So where do we say this? This is a very familiar thing. It seems like I just heard it yesterday. What do we say as? You mean what the bimshi says? This thing here, which I just read. Doesn't it sound familiar? Brody Donna's Ceremony. We say a little part of it.

[86:53]

Anyway, it just sounds like, don't we say this all the time? No? Nothing holy. The approach is far off. Succeeding, he swings the axe without injuring the nose. Failing, he drops the pitcher without looking back. Still and silent, coolly, he sat at Shaolin. Completely brought up, true imperative. The clear moon of the autumn turns its frosty disc. The Milky Way thin, the dipper hangs down its handle in the night. In succession of robe and bowl have been imparted to descendants.

[87:59]

From this, humans and divinities have made medicine and disease. It may be the universe of serenity. Yes, it may be. It very well may be. I've heard it from there so many times, it sounds like I've heard it someplace besides the book of serenity. It's now hanging by its teeth in emptiness. ringing again and again in my little ears, even when no sound is made. I still hear it. The lion's roar is inexhaustible. Note, the verse commentary... may be selected from the text other than Tien Tung's . It must pertain to the root case.

[89:06]

OK, then words of thanks. When the questions and answers are over, the head seat sets down the bamboo staff in front of self, grasps the ceremonial fan, holds hands, lightly, lower head slightly in front, expressing reverent thanks, intones the words of thanks, for example, for example. Do you have to do this holding the staff here? We actually hadn't pulled the flap down. We had, Papa. And they'd been working the fan the whole time. They set the fan down and just let it stay. Sets the staff down and grasps the fan. During the question and answer, they set the fan down.

[90:07]

I, and I have a Spanish word here, yo, yo and not clever, and have no why I was selected to dishonor the position of head seat. I am afraid that my transgressions fill the heavens, that I am unworthy of any position. I beg this hall, full of worthies, to bathe you in the river before you and purify them. Thicker translations. Oh, I am mortified. Oh, I am mortified. Oh, I am mortified. I think this is very good. Please forgive. That's a head seat.

[91:17]

He lowers his head with sincerity, immediately gathers up the sitting cloth, and stands. Raises bamboo staff with both hands, goes in front, and bows with hands clasped. And this is the same clasp used for all those other times when the abbot was clasping. Probably means shashu, just another word for shashu probably. And then goes beside the abbot, hands over the bamboo staff, returns again in front, spreads, prostrations. to the abbot, makes one prostration to each of the two rows of officers, makes one prostration to front and prostration to primary teacher and venerable monks.

[92:17]

And then ritual choreography for all this is the same as when doing the root case. When the prostrations are finished, returns to its own place, spread sitting wash. It says, ordinarily, when returning the bamboo staff, the head seed stands it on end and says, as water flows into the sea, I return this to the source. ...comes out of the lion's cave, returns to the lion's cave. Or words to that effect. Abbott, uh, yeah, that'd be interesting to make some other variations on that. Abbott, upon receiving bamboo staff, says something like, this is wonderful. Words of congratulations.

[93:28]

Do you say that? Hmm? I'm going to today. My question is, what language should I use? After that, prefects and venerable monks, in that order, voice words of congratulation. So we kind of do that, right? We don't have not the whole assembly, The stewards, the prefects, and the venerable monks. Except, yeah, so we have lots of venerable monks. We have a whole ocean of venerable monks, and they all do it. But they're part of the eastern or western hall. So that mass, even among the venerable monks, we have a special subsection.

[94:30]

But in Japan, you do not have all the former Shusos coming to the same one, probably, the way we do. Did you start that out for a particular reason, having the former Shusos come? Do you remember? I don't remember the origins of it. But at first, the former Shusos. And like young people, they weren't venerable old masters. And there were just a few. And at first there were just a few. So say when, to the start of those early months, everybody come down from the city, and it was kind of a big, it was an open thing for a while. And then that got cut off. It got cut off, you know. And I remember Katagiri really cut it off when he was living in Black Spirits.

[95:34]

He didn't even have the feng shui souls come. That fits in with that. That fits in with what that says. Well, he didn't even have any venerable old masters come. Well, there's only going to be one venerable middle-aged master that I know of, because Lu's got some heart problems. I'm just taking him to the doctor. They think it's one of his valves. So, I'm going to just talk to the doctor. Okay. So, the congratulations are starting now. And this is a rite in which they formally give to the head seat with words such as my utmost congratulations ever after. Words of congratulations conclude with those expressions by primary teacher.

[96:37]

And finally, the abbot. We kind of do it that way. The hall posture hits and damps the handbell. The rector chants the universal dedication. May our intentions The abbot gets down from the seat, all together make three prostrations, dispersed from the hall. Three congratulatory prostrations may be made at that place, or in the study, as time goes on. So, remarkably similar. And it's a great sandwich. It's a good day. You can use your practice, though. It's new. It's new? Yeah. Wow. You know, we're going to have to practice now?

[97:39]

The inkings. The inkings we're going to practice? The inkings. And the clackers. And the clackers. And the hall preset. Yeah. With the door. Oh, the door. I have to go check with the door if she can get out of the kitchen. Can she get out of the kitchen? Here? Yeah. Who's doing the drum? Nick. Has he been rehearsing? Oh, he's... Nick is... That's the least of our problems. Well, I didn't mean to... It's part of... It's the thing we're rehearsing. Yeah. And what about the... That other... That other... Bert. Oh. So, these ticks here... I broke one of them and the other two are still in here. So, I think they might have to get felled. No, aren't you? Or I can get, unless you're... It's in a tweed tree. I think they got... Okay.

[98:41]

What was the... Huh? What was the war aspect of the old time? What was the... The wall? The wall? War. Combat? Yeah. Or war? Yeah, you said it was more warlike. Yeah, it was more warlike. There were kind of more aggressive energy, I would say. It happens a little sometimes. It happens a little bit sometimes. Yeah. Yeah, it's more, you know, usually it's almost all males. If she saw a male, he's probably in a male mind. All the... Almost all the participants are male, so it's a male-male kind of energy and young, young male energy. Somebody asked me last night if dharma combat, they have this story all the time that such and such is Rinzai and such and such is Sota. So this person had the story that was Rinzai and Sota didn't do dharma combat.

[99:44]

They weren't combative. It may be the case that that Soto in America has become a little bit more mellow, has mellowed more rapidly than Rinzai, perhaps. Yes, America... Right. But in Japan, I think the ceremony is actually a Soto ceremony. I do not think they do it in Rinzai Zen. I don't think they have the Shiso ceremony. I've never seen it. They have had monks in Rinzai. jiu-jitsu, but I don't know that she saw ceremony. I never heard of it in Rinzai. It seems like I would have, if they have it. I don't think they have it. Would there be an intention of testing? Would there be an intention of testing over now? Yeah, definitely. Definitely, that's the spirit. That's what she wants. She wants to find that. That was instructed. That was the instruction from Soto Zen priests to Soto Zen monks.

[100:45]

I heard that at Tassajara. That what? Kill the Shiso. That's what one Soto Zen teacher said to the Tassajara monks. Kill the Shiso or get the Shiso. And that was the spirit. How would you do it? And that's different from the congratulatory phase, which follows, where it's, you know, there's a congratulatory. Yeah, you survived the war. And the feeling of the, yeah. So it had that quality, and it's mellowed over the years a lot. Let us report the damage together. Yeah. So, yeah. It used to be much more aggressive. And, yeah. Yeah. That's the way Zen Center used to be, more aggressive. We used to have a stick and we used to put hard a lot. Things are more gentle and tender these days. I'm going to have a tender stick. And like a nurse.

[101:49]

No, not that. When I'm old and can barely lift my arms, I'll use a stick with all my might and it will be good.

[101:59]

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