Precepts

Receiving the precepts

discernment: receiving the precepts at Sanshin

An aspiration to formally receive the bodhisattva precepts arises from a steady and well-established practice with a sangha. It's good to have been practicing regularly and consistently 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 wish to continue to maintain a steady practice after receiving the precepts. You should also have begun to get a sense of the basic teachings of Buddhism and Soto Zen, and started to attend sesshin, even if for only a day at a time.

The jukai-e ceremony 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 - to the practice itself.

When you receive the precepts as a lay practitioner, you will receive one dharma name. At Sanshin, lay people 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. As long as you receive the precepts from a qualified, transmitted teacher, the lineage doesn't matter and one is not better than another. As mentioned above, as a layperson you're not committing to any particular dharma family or style of Zen practice. You're simply making a public commitment to live in Buddha's way.

Due to the amount of work and preparation required, a maximum of six lay practitioners may receive precepts at Sanshin each year. Full in-person attendance at that year's July precepts retreat as well as the rakusu sewing retreat(s) (held before the precepts retreat, usually in the Spring) is required for recipients; neither partial attendance nor virtual participation is an option.

the sixteen-fold bodhisattva precepts

Three Refuges

Taking refuge in Buddha
Taking refuge in dharma
Taking refuge in sangha

Three Collective Pure Precepts

Shōritsugikai 摂津儀戒: The precept of avoiding all evil acts or embracing moral codes
Shōzenbōkai 摂善法戒: The precept of doing all good acts or embracing all good dharmas
Shōshujōkai 摂衆生戒: The precept of embracing and benefiting beings

Ten Major Precepts (essays by Hoko linked to each below)
1) Not killing
2) Not stealing
3) Not indulging in sexual greed
4) Not speaking falsehood
5) Not selling intoxicating liquor
6) Not talking of the faults of others
7) Not praising oneself or slandering others
8) Not begrudging the Dharma or material things
9) Not giving rise to anger
10) Not ignorantly slandering the Three Treasures

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

For further basic context and teachings related to the precepts in our tradition and at Sanshin, please explore our precepts study page on Sanshin Source.

Precepts retreat

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Receiving the precepts

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