Precepts

Precepts retreat with Hosshin

July 1 - 6, 2025
Jukai-e ceremony on Sunday, July 6, 10 am, followed by public potluck lunch (all are welcome to attend -- no registration necessary)

Daily schedule (Click to show)

Tuesday, July 2nd
5:00 Welcome meeting
5:30 Supper w/ oryoki practice orientation
7:10 Opening comments & zazen
8:00 Kinhin
8:10 Zazen
9:00 End of Day

Wednesday, July 3rd - Saturday, July 6th
04:40 Wakeup
05:10 Zazen
06:00 Kinhin
06:10 Zazen
07:00 Breakfast
07:30 Soji (temple cleaning)
08:00 Break
09:00 Presentation and group discussion
10:50 Break
11:10 Zazen
12 pm Lunch/break
01:00 Work period (For precepts recipients, work period will frequently be devoted to preparing for the jukai-e.)
02:50 Tea
04:00 End of work/break
05:10 Zazen
06:00 Supper/break
07:10 Zazen
08:00 Kinhin
08:10 Zazen
9:00 End of day

Sunday, July 7th
04:40 Wakeup
05:10 Zazen
06:00 Kinhin
06:10 Zazen
07:00 Breakfast
07:30 Soji (temple cleaning)
08:00 Break
09:00 Preparation for jukai-e
10:00 Jukai-e
11:00 Photo, cleanup and reset
12 pm Potluck lunch/cleanup
End of retreat

This retreat focuses on the study of the sixteen bodhisattva precepts that Buddhists receive as guidelines for living a life of practice. The daily schedule (see above) includes zazen, presentations from the preceptor and ensuing group discussions, work periods, and silent communal meals. A precepts ceremony (jukai-e) is held during the last day of the retreat, during which those receiving the precepts will make their vows and receive a dharma name and a rakusu, or small robe, which they will have sewn beforehand.

In-person participation in the whole retreat is required for precepts recipients. There will also be room for additional practitioners to register to participate in-person for all or some of the days, and others may participate virtually (no registration required). Everyone is welcome to attend the jukai-e in support of the recipients. There will be a potluck lunch following the ceremony.

Information & logistics

Food practice during the retreat: During sesshin and retreats at Sanshin, we carry out meals in the zendo using oryoki. We sit at low tables and follow the procedures used at Antaiji. This video introduces the steps of the meal (though some details have changed since it was recorded), and this one shows the use of the oryoki set for breakfast. We also use the opening dinner as an opportunity to review the meal procedures by explaining the steps as we do them. If you have your own oryoki set you're welcome to bring it, but we have plenty of (lay) sets for use by participants during the retreat.

How we source food for sesshin & retreats

During sesshin at Sanshin, we simply sit, sleep, and eat. During the precepts retreat, we incorporate the additional layers of daily discussions about the precepts and communal work periods in which we explore the precepts concretely. Living out this schedule together for three, five, or seven days at a time, we embody in a very concentrated way a central question in our practice: how do we live without causing each other suffering?

In this context, including three silent communal meals each day, we can’t help but notice that in order to live, we all need, as Rev. Tatsuzen Sato writes for Sotoshu, “to put other forms of life such as those of animals and plants into our mouth.” Less obvious is that underpinning this dynamic is the interaction of countless beings in the growth, harvest, and transport of living food. Our food practice, like zazen, teaches and embodies interconnection. Eating fresh vegetables grown in nearby soil during sesshin and retreat meals can be a simple and direct reminder for us.

Relating to the local community and environment through the basic necessity for food has been a given in sanghas across the world through most of Buddhist history. In our modern context of supermarkets, industrial-scale agriculture, and widespread environmental degradation, it takes some intention to participate in this long tradition, and to do our best to avoid some of the harms to nonhuman and human beings inherent in much of our current global food system.

With this in mind, we aim to purchase a substantial portion of food for our practice activities from nearby small farms, gardens, and people that work to produce and provide food sustainably -- and to grow what we can as a sangha ourselves. Coordination efforts in this direction are built into the job description of Sanshin’s operations manager.

Picking up sesshin produce at Stranger's Hill Organics in Bloomington. September, 2023

For travelers

For those traveling to Sanshin from out of town, note that Sanshin can provide neither guest rooms nor transportation to and from the temple each day. You may sleep in the zendo with your own bedding or camp in the yard with your own gear if you wish. There is no extra fee for this. See our zendo stay and camping guidelines here. Some may prefer to rent a nearby hotel room or other temporary housing.

Retreat participation without receiving the precepts

Practitioners who are not formally receiving precepts may register (see right) for all or a selection of full retreat days with communal meals. Alternatively, practitioners in the area may drop in for one or more zazen and/or work periods as they wish (no registration or fee).

Virtual participation via Zoom in scheduled zazen and discussion periods is also welcome, though the focus will be on what's happening in the zendo. There is no fee or registration for virtual participation, though gifts of financial support are welcome and appreciated.

If you have further questions about the logistics of retreat registration and attendance, please email us.

Receiving the precepts

We receive the precepts from a preceptor, but they really come from the Buddhas and ancestors. The preceptor is a person between the recipient and Buddha. Our traditional belief is that the precepts are transmitted from Bibashi Buddha, the first Buddha, from the very beginning. The reality to which Buddha awakened is the source of these precepts. That's our faith. I can't "give" the precepts to anybody. They aren't my possessions; they were transmitted to me from my teacher, and his teacher transmitted them to him. The recipient does not become "my" possession either. Even Buddha said that he had no disciples.
-- Shohaku Okumura

The sixteenfold
pure precepts

Taking refuge in the Buddha
Taking refuge in the Dharma
Taking refuge in the Sangha

Embracing moral codes
Embracing all good acts
Embracing and benefiting all living beings

Not killing
Not stealing
Not indulging in sexual greed
Not speaking falsehood
Not selling intoxicating liquor
Not talking of the faults of others
Not praising oneself or slandering others
Not begrudging the Dharma or material things
Not giving rise to anger
Not ignorantly slandering the Three Treasures

An aspiration to receive lay precepts arises from a steady and well-established practice of zazen, work and study with a sangha. It's good to have been practicing at Sanshin or within the Sanshin network for at least a year before considering making a commitment of this kind. You will want to know that Soto Zen practice really is meaningful for you and that you are willing to maintain a steady practice following receiving the precepts.

Jukai-e is not a reward for time served, an elevation in rank, a stamp of approval on your practice so far or any kind of end in itself; it's only the beginning of a committed lay practice. Neither is it a badge of membership in Sanshin's sangha or a commitment to any preceptor or teacher. You remain free to practice anywhere and with anyone. Your commitment is to Buddha.

When you receive lay precepts you will receive one dharma name. At Sanshin, laypeople sometimes use their dharma names as middle names. Novices and teachers have two dharma names and often use one of them as a first name while practicing with the sangha. Your lay rakusu will be blue, while novices wear black and transmitted teachers wear brown or other colors in accordance with the tradition of our denomination. Since we are direct descendants of Kodo Sawaki, one of the leaders of the 20th century nyoho-e movement, our rakusu do not have rings.

If you live outside of Bloomington and it's possible to take precepts with a teacher in or closer to your hometown, please engage with and support that group rather than traveling to Sanshin to do so. You need your local or regional sangha, and it needs you. Continuing your practice of living with the precepts is much more difficult without in-person practice with a sangha, even if it's only a few times a year.

Due to the amount of work and preparation required, a maximum of six practitioners may receive lay precepts at Sanshin each year. Full in-person attendance at the July precepts retreat is required for recipients; neither partial attendance nor virtual participation is an option.