
Doju will give Sunday's dharma talk, "Why do we chant the Daihishin Darani?" The Daihishin Darani is a ubiquitous part of the Soto Zen liturgy. Whether a service is very brief, like at Sanshinji, or very elaborate, the Daihishin Darani is almost always performed. And yet, whether we are Japanese or American, very few of us have a good sense of what the Daihishin Darani means, where it came from, or why we chant it. Some of us may also ask whether it holds any real meaning for our practice. This talk will aim to answer some of these basic questions about this strange but familiar text.