Segaki Ceremony

Every year as part of our liturgical calendar we have the Segaki retreat and ceremonies. Retreat participants look at past karma appearing in the present, and pay homage to those that have died. In our Soto Zen tradition, this calling up of karma stews in people for up to a week, culminating in two cathartic ceremonies. On the morning of the last day of the retreat we invite the gakis, or hungry ghosts, into the temple. We cover the images of the Buddha, and prepare the altar with enticing goodies, especially donuts.

[Photos courtesy of Faddah Yuetsu Wolfe]

Chants include dharanis that have some shamanic influences. The gakis are with us through the day, and in the evening the ghosts are laid to rest and let go in the fire of Segaki Toro.

After the adults have invited the hungry ghosts in the morning, the children enter the hall and have their own Segaki ceremony. This year our priest told them the story of Moggallana and his mother in hell. (See above link.) Then we began singing a portion of the ceremony. It is while we sing that actual gakis enter the ceremony hall. Our gakis are high school students in costume. They do a fine job.

The gakis are pretty clueless about ways to act in the hall, and they can't seem to get the food in their mouths.

It is the job of the kids in this ceremony to help the gakis learn how to act in a Buddhist temple, and help them be able to eat.

It is our job as teachers to prepare the kids for the ceremony. We inform or remind them about what is going to happen, and we figure out ways together that we can help the gakis. At the grade school level, some of the kids are aware that the gakis are the high school students in costume. At this age, part of their role in the ceremony is to help the younger ones participate in the ceremony. This year, just what the gakis could learn was clarified so we could give more direction to the kids.

We made sure they knew to help the gakis with these four things: 1) taking their shoes off; 2) eating - slowly and delicately rather than shoving the food in or keeping the wrapper on; 3) sharing - with each other; 4) bowing

Since bowing was one of the tasks, I made bowing our meditative activity, and gave a small lesson on the form of a full bow.

Children's Jukai Ceremony

Every year the children in Dharma School have a chance to renew their commitment to this Buddhist practice they are learning about. The ceremony is simple, but with the help of their teachers and their parents, they understand the gravity of the ceremony. At it's most basic level, becoming a Buddhist means taking refuge in the Three Jewels. This is what the children do in their Jukai Ceremony. On another basic level, Buddhism provides a structure to develop compassion and wisdom, and the children do this through their Two Promises.

We get the Three Treasures and The Two Promises from the Community of Mindful Living, Thich Nhat Hahn's lineage. Like the Community of Mindful Living, we feel it very important that children be allowed to make their own choices in this, and they know they will not be asked to make a lifetime commitment. We give them information, tell them what we have learned, involve them in lessons, but we don't tell them they must believe this or that.

The Three Treasures

• I take refuge in the Buddha, the one who shows me the way in this life.
• I take refuge in the Dharma, the way of understanding and love
• I take refuge in the Sangha, the community that lives in harmony and awareness

The Two Promises

• I vow to develop my compassion in order to protect the lives of people, animals, and plants.
• I vow to develop understanding in order to live peaceably with people, animals, and plants.

Nehan Ceremony

During the month of February, we at Dharma Rain Zen Center celebrate Nehan, the anniversary of the Buddha's death. Also known as Parinirvana Day, all the children in Dharma School come together for our ceremony.

One week the children celebrate, and the full sangha celebrates Nehan on an adjoining week. Always on these days a special statue appears on the altar, created by our own co-abbot, Gyokuko Carlson. On Nirvana Day, the Buddha is traditionally depicted lying down. The story comes to us that the Buddha knew he was ill and dying, and he sent for his followers to gather. While lying on his deathbed, he gave his final teaching. Also found in the artwork are the followers, along with many grieving animals and mythical creatures, expressing their deep sorrow over losing their beloved teacher.

Before the ceremony the classes separate. In the girls group, we have just enough time for meditation and a quick check-in. I chose to use the time for a guided meditation, as I did in the past for the Children's Rohatsu Ceremony. I've noticed the girls can get very still as they listen to simple, soft instruction. Giving them some moments of stillness, I then ask them to think about loss that they've experienced, whether someone they knew died, or they lost a pet, or perhaps they lost a friend who moved away. While the children often have already experienced death in some way, it helps to introduce the notion of loss in other ways as well. During check-in, we discussed the topic some more, then it was time for the ceremony.

For the first part of the ceremony all the children gather in front of the altar. Gyokuko sits to the side, waiting expectantly for the kids to become quiet. She directs their attention to the statue, and solicits names of animals depicted on it from the kids. Through this she finds a way into the story of Buddha's death. Every year the storytelling will be a little different, but she will always highlight the grief everyone felt including the animals, and that the Buddha's lesson was for them not to grieve, but to "be a light unto themselves." His followers were so sad because they depended on his wisdom, but the Buddha wanted them to know they had their own wisdom, their own light to draw upon.

After the story of Buddha's death, the children draw pictures of losses they have experienced in the past year or so. After our separate discussion, the girls were quite ready to draw their pictures. While the drawing is going on, a few older kids build a fire. The ceremony begins: children and adults chant the Maka Hannya Haramita Shingyo, and one by one the pictures and symbols of loss are put in the fire, an act of letting go and letting those experiences move on to their next life.

Children's Rohatsu

I intended to give the girls a little talk about their Rohatsu Ceremony at the end of the previous class, but after the flurry of the bean game and making the rainsticks, their frames of mind weren't ready for another lesson. I sent their parents an email, asking them to help their children prepare for the ceremony by thinking of possible questions they could ask.

I'd like to say we planned it, but by coincidence Kim's new instruction for meditation was useful for my plan on this day. Since we only have five minutes in our separate groups before the ceremony, rather than discussing it, I chose to use the guided meditation method to talk a little bit about the ceremony of Questioning the Teacher, and to get the girls to look within and access that meditative mind for their questions. I told them we were celebrating that day when Buddha sat under the Bodhi tree and he experienced enlightenment. We were sitting just as he sat, with legs crossed and hands in our lap. I didn't have a script, but interspersed meditation instruction with teaching about the ceremony, pausing regularly to take a few breaths and to let the words sink in. Like the week before, the girls were quiet in this meditation. It seems to me instruction in the form of guided meditation works better for them than pre-meditation instruction.

We sit in meditation with our hands in our lap as if we were holding a bowl of water. We sit very still, as if the water in the bowl were very still, no ripples. I explained that sometimes when we meditate we just sit and let the thoughts go by, and sometimes we grapple with a question. So today we would sit as if with a bowl of water, keeping our body still and letting our mind go still. In that quiet space I asked them to look within and see if there is some question they had that we could ask the teacher. One girl raised her hand. I said we would not ask that question now, but we would keep still, hold it, think about it, and tell no one until we stood in front of the teacher to ask our question. After a minute or so of quiet, the bell rang and we left to participate in the ceremony.

Here is the email I sent to the parents:

During the Rohatsu ceremony, children ask a question of the priest, (Gyokuko) one by one. It is voluntary, but we encourage them to go for it. They can ask anything they want. Older children often ask something about dealing with peers. Sometimes kids ask about God. Or how did the world come to be. Or something that came up for them in Dharma School. For instance we talk about buddha nature, we sing songs about it, but do they understand what that is? We adults who've been Buddhist for awhile have the same sort of question. If you have a chance, I'm hoping you can get your child to consider if they have a question, maybe draw it out with a conversation about your own questions.

Some background: Rohatsu is the time when we celebrate the Buddha's enlightenment. Some Buddhist sects call it "Bodhi Day". Children's Rohatsu is based on a ceremony in our Zen tradition where students ask questions of the teacher in front of all. The teaching (the Dharma) is found in the form as well as the answer from the teacher. The question is a presentation, a public revealing of the deep questions the students are working on. For the children, the teaching is found in their bravery for coming forward and meeting the teacher (the Buddha), and in expressing themselves, as well as hearing the answer. Asking a question is an invitation for our own awakening. Meeting the teacher is an opportunity for the child to experience her own AHA moment.

If you know your child has a question, but is too shy to take that step forward, you are welcome to come forward with her for encouragement. If she decides not to go forward, that is alright too, that is a teaching for her too.