Zazen - Service - Dharma talk • TEA
• At Jikoji Zen Center & Online (Zoom) •
Pamela Chobun Nenzen Brown was introduced to meditation practice in 1976. Forty years later, as her father was declining with a neurodegenerative disease, she decided to stay seated. Pamela met Sensei Gary Koan Janka, and practiced with and served Koan Sensei's Santa Barbara Zen Center. Koan lay ordained Nenzen and later introduced her to Jikoji Zen Center where she was ordained in Kobun Chino Otogawa Roshi's lineage by Shoho Michael Newhall. She received dharma transmission from Jakko Eso Vanja Palmers at Felsentor, Switzerland in 2022.
Jukai is the formal Zen Buddhist ceremony of lay ordination, in which Zen practitioners commit to the Buddhist path. The term Jukai is made up of the Japanese characters 受 “ju”, which means “receiving/granting,” and 戒 “kai”, which means “the precepts.” In the Jukai ceremony, practitioners openly receive the Sixteen Bodhisattva Precepts as an ongoing path in their lives.
Taking the precepts at the Jukai ceremony formally commences a commitment to a lifelong practice of mindful inquiry into the motivations and consequences of one’s own actions.
To prepare for this ancient ceremony, each student has intensively studied the precepts with their teacher, as well as other central teachings of the Buddha. Each ordainee has also hand-sewn a rakusu, a miniature Buddhist robe. On the back of each rakusu, the preceptor will write the ordainee’s Dharma name, which will be presented to them during the ceremony. This new name serves both as a recognition of the qualities they are already deeply exploring, as well as being a commitment to a life-long practice of embodiment of those qualities.
Each participant will also receive their Oryoki bowls as well as their kechimyaku, or blood lineage chart, which begins with Shakyamuni Buddha’s name and continues through the lineage ancestors down to the present day preceptors and their students.
The ceremony will be followed by a luncheon in celebration. Please join us for this happy day and in support of our sangha!
MEDITATION INSTRUCTION is available at 8.45 a.m.*
*Due to the limited size of our zendo, we have only 20 seats available for meditation instruction, offered on a first-come, first-served basis. Late arrivals may be prohibited from entry once the introductory session has begun.
Schedule (estimated - subject to change)
8:45 a.m. Meditation instruction (limited space - first come first served)
9:00 a.m. zazen (sitting meditation)
9:40 kinhin (walking meditation)
9:50 zazen
10:20 service
10:40 talk
11:30 social tea