Good evening. Good to see you all beginning to roll in. We'll start at 7 or a minute or so after so people have plenty of time to make their way in, but just thought I would say hello and get you all out of the waiting room and starting to roll into the classroom. Good to see you all. Good evening, folks.

[02:17]

We're still going to give it another minute or two to let people roll in. Don't want to start before the stated start time, but good to see you and just have a moment to arrive in this space together. Yeah, go for it.

[03:21]

I've been on Zoom too much today. Yes. I want to be here, and I wonder would people be offended if I turn the video off while we're in class? Please do. Please do. Take care of yourself. I don't have any... Strong feelings or preference about video on or off. Different things are... I do. Ah, uh-huh. Yeah, yeah, some do. Yep, some do. Good evening, everyone. Good to see you. Welcome to this first of three classes on the Sajiki Ceremony and Spirit Offerings in the Zen Tradition.

[04:31]

My name's Dan Gudgel. I'll be leading the class over the next three weeks. And hello. Good to see you. We... Of course, may have some folks rolling in over the next few minutes. So please feel free to do whatever you need to. If you realize you aren't quite settled in, that's just fine. We will just to, since Jean has just put it in my mind for me, I will just say that I have no strong requests about your Zoom etiquette. Of course, it is lovely to see folks, and it's, from the teaching perspective, reassuring to see at least a few folks so I can know whether I am still broadcasting. But please feel free to come and go video on, video off, whatever works for you.

[05:36]

And when we get to questions and things like that, you are welcome to ask questions, even if you would like to keep your video off. I'll try to remember to say that again later, but please do whatever supports you. It's a big, complex world out there, and we all have different needs from moment to moment. And these... Classes are also being recorded, so you should be able to dip into recorded versions of any of these if you want to revisit anything or if you have to miss a course or if something comes up. Recordings will be available. I'll endeavor to get those out the day after the class happens. I think that should work just fine. uh, from my schedule. All right.

[06:37]

Uh, I'm going to get into a few more logistics, uh, here in a moment, but first I just want to say hello. Uh, I'm Dan Gudgel. I'm a resident and a priest here at San Francisco Zen Center. Uh, I have been practicing, uh, Soto Zen Buddhism in the tradition, in the lineage of, uh, Shinryu Suzuki Roshi. Uh, much to my amazement, for almost 20 years now. I've been a resident at San Francisco Zen Center at one temple or another for about the last six years. And I have a... just a sort of ongoing interest in ceremonial forms, in some of the esoteric elements of practice, and particularly just in how these things are useful and effective on human beings. So I'm not going to talk all that much about sort of...

[07:38]

personal opinions on the existence of ghosts or spirits. I'm really coming at this from more of a kind of functional direction. I have experienced the Sajiki ceremony. My experience of the Sajiki ceremony is that it has been effective for me. It has connected with me on an emotional and spiritual level. It has moved around some things in a sort of emotional, mental way. And I'm just curious about what it's doing, how it works, how we do it, and why we do it. So those are some of the things that we'll be exploring. On a sort of practical level, since I am hosting this class and trying mostly to focus on the teaching, please do let me know if my video freezes, if the sound drops, if I forget to start the recording.

[08:47]

If we're starting into a class and someone notices, oh, he hasn't started recording yet, should he be recording? Yes, I should be. Probably I'll remember it, but those sorts of things. If anybody notices anything... any little Zoom issues, please raise a hand or raise a Zoom hand. Sometimes the Zoom hand is a little easier to see since it bumps you to the top of my block of squares. But please give me any feedback that seems appropriate during the course of things. As well with questions, my intention is to leave a good a good bit of time at the end of each session for discussion and questions. But if a question comes up in the course of the material that I'm presenting, feel free to raise a hand or raise a Zoom hand at that point. Sometimes it's a little bit easier to hang on to the question just for a moment and ask it.

[09:47]

So feel free to do that. And Heaven forbid, should anything go terribly awry with the Zoom room if we lose the internet connection here at San Francisco Zen Center or something, I get kicked off in some way, please do stay in the Zoom room or come back to the Zoom room. I will continue my efforts to get back in myself if I happen to disappear. And at worst, I could... go to another nearby location and at least get back into the Zoom room. So please do bear with it if anything technical happens, though I don't expect that to be the case. So looking just at the general structure, of this course. We have three sessions, three Thursdays, this week, next week, and the week after, meeting from 7 to 8.30 Pacific Time each of those Thursdays.

[10:52]

My general intention is this week and next week to start with a little bit of a kind of lecture-style presentation on some of this material. and then to leave some time for discussion and questions as we go along. Today we'll mostly be looking at sort of what I think of as the basics of Sujiki, a little bit of history, and a fair bit of how it is functionally done at San Francisco Zen Center and how I have seen it done at a few other places. As time permits, I'll add in some context and deeper history there as well. Next week, we'll be focused a little more on the deeper history of the Tzajiki ceremony and connections to other kinds of ceremonies and rituals and parallels and differences with spirit-related practices in other faith traditions.

[11:58]

And the third week, the main feature of our third session will be an online sujiki ceremony that we will be creating together. I expect we'll have some time for kind of reaction and discussion and unpacking that after the ceremony as well. But on that day, we'll essentially meet, we'll check in a little bit to make sure we're all feeling ready, and we'll do the ceremony at the start of that third session. and then have some discussion time afterwards. And I am going to talk a little bit about the logistics of that online ceremony towards the end of tonight's session so we can start doing a little bit of thinking and pre-planning about that session. There is an online portal for this class. Hopefully you all have received a links to that in the sort of welcome and orientation materials.

[13:02]

The online portal is totally optional. There's a wealth of great material in there, a bunch of stuff that probably we won't actually have time to discuss unless someone has looked into it, has a question, and brings a question. That's one of the things I think of, that portal material being, therefore, if someone feels feels the urge to dive a little bit deeper, there is deeper material to explore, and if there's anything particular out of that that you really want to kind of bring to the class, please feel free to do that, and we can take a look at some of that stuff. But again, the portal is optional. You can just... Come to the Zoom room on Thursday nights or just watch the recordings, and that will get you the core of the class. So please do what your time and your capacity allow.

[14:06]

So I'm just going to pause for a moment and see if there are any questions about the kind of logistics, the overall structure, the plan, anything else. before we start to get into a little bit of the material. I have a question. Yeah, Jackie, go ahead. Thank you. I looked at the email, but could not find anything related to a portal, unless it's of a different name. What portal were you... It's a link to a website that's part of the San Francisco Zen Center website. So I believe the first link in the email was to the Zoom room, and then there's an additional link a little bit further down. I think the address starts with online.sfcc.org. So that's a kind of, it's a little bit like a, oh, it's a little bit like a,

[15:13]

Facebook or not quite like Facebook, sort of like, yeah, a sort of organizing location, a library sort of location. What I found is sfcc.org slash files and then the Sutra Gate of Suite do. And the second one is Daily Sutras. Sure, yeah, that, let me... The third one is the drive. Yes, yes, so the portal link I don't think will be in that email. I sent an email yesterday to everyone who has signed up for the course. So let me drop my, I'm going to drop my email address into the chat. And if you could just send me... send me an email at that address, and I'll make sure that you get that portal link.

[16:15]

Thank you. Thank you. And, yeah, anyone, please do feel free to email me with any questions or anything that comes up. I'm happy to help get folks connected to anything that you can't quite find. All right. Any other... Technical, logistical, organizational questions. Not seeing any hands. People look pretty settled. All right, let's start talking about this Sajiki ceremony then. So I'm wondering first just how many folks here, just by a simple show of hands, are somewhat familiar with the Sajiki ceremony, maybe have attended one somewhere along the way. All right, I see a fair few. Half or maybe a little more than half are passingly familiar with the Sajiki ceremony. And how many folks here?

[17:19]

I know there are a few. happened to take either of my previous classes. I did one on Buddhist magic and one on the Daihi Shindirani. I see a few folks who did those. So there is a little bit of resonance between those courses and this one. Some of the materials that are shared in the portal have been drawn from those courses, and the content of those courses has really helped inform my view of the place of the Sajiki ceremony. So those of you who... have some familiarity with the Sujiki ceremony, please do feel free to add in your own perspectives and experiences with this ceremony. If anybody happens to have scripts or pictures or materials related to ceremonies that you have attended or been part of, feel free to share those on the portal or email them to me, and I'm happy to share them on the portal as well.

[18:30]

think it would be really interesting to get an even broader view of some of the variety of ways that this Sajiki ceremony has been done. And for those who happen to attend either of those other classes, if... things that I'm saying about Sajiki, Spark, connections with those classes. Also feel free to bring those up. I am aware of some, but I think there may be some connections I might not necessarily be automatically making. All right, so the deep background of the Sajiki ceremony. The main place that is most often pointed to as kind of the genesis of this ceremony which interacts with troubled spirits, interacts with hungry yoasts. Most often, the Yulan Pen Sutra, also known as the Ulaanbana Sutra, is pointed to as kind of the original genesis of this.

[19:39]

And the story... Just briefly, the story in that sutra is of Mogiliana, one of the disciples of the Buddha in the lifetime of the historical Buddha, who was well-known and respected as a sincere and powerful practitioner, and was also known to... to have and be able to use some of the sort of esoteric spiritual gifts of deep practice, such as being able to see things from a great distance or see hidden things, to travel at unusual speeds. These sorts of hints of magic, which are sometimes put forward as some of the fruits of deep practice. So in the course of practicing one day and using his ability to see things which are not immediately visible in the everyday world, Mogliana was wondering what had become of his parents after their death.

[20:50]

And in looking around for his mother, found his mother in one of the hell realms, suffering due to her past karma. And his mother was hungry and thirsty, but did not have any food. And so, again, using his esoteric powers, he brought some rice to his mother in this hell realm. But when his mother tried to eat this rice, it turned into burning coals as she brought it towards her mouth. And so even with his great powers, he was not able to help his mother. And he, unsurprisingly, found this quite distressing. So he brought this problem to the Buddha and asked the Buddha's advice. And the advice that the Buddha gave was for Mogliana to make offerings of

[21:53]

special and particularly delicious, desirable foods to the monks on the last day of the rain retreat. The monks in the Buddha's day during the rainy season would all gather together and practice together. And then at the end of the rains retreat, there would be a sort of ceremonial ending of that time together. And the monks would disperse again out into the wider world. So the Buddha suggested a special offering of food to the monks on that particular day, the 15th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, and that the monks, in gratitude for receiving this offering, would then chant sutras and dedicate the merit to Mogliana's mother and to other suffering people who did not have people caring for them.

[22:56]

So Mogliana did this and saw quite directly that the merit was transferred to his mother, and his mother was freed from this suffering in the hell realms. So this became the kind of source... of this idea of making offerings for the benefit of suffering spirits, whether they are spirits who we know or spirits who we don't know. Now, there are a few variations on this story. I have seen an almost identical story also shows up, but with Shariputra as the protagonist rather than as Mogliana. And there is also a story of Ananda, the Buddha's faithful attendant, being visited by a hungry ghost and told that he himself was in danger of falling into a hell realm in just a few days.

[24:03]

And in that story, Ananda approaches the Buddha, asks for the Buddha's advice and receives this same advice that we hear being given to Mogliana. But this version of Mogliana and his mother's suffering is the most widely referred to and referred to by the greatest variety of schools of Buddhism, at least as far as I have seen. But all of these variations show up in one in one place or another. So generally, and I will say there is a little bit of generalization coming up, but generally in the Theravadan traditions in Southeast Asia, in Myanmar, in Sri Lanka, in Thailand, in places that practice forms of Buddhism that are a little more similar to the Buddhism of the Buddha's day, this ceremony is still done in a very similar way to how it is described in this sutra.

[25:20]

The ceremony itself is not described in much detail in the sutra, but this practice of on the last day of the rainy season retreat, there being special offerings and gifts given to the monks, and the monks then chanting and dedicating the merit for the benefit of beings. That is still essentially how it is done in many schools of Buddhism. And in the Mahayana Buddhist world, which generally has had a little more influence from Chinese culture, where Taoist and Confucian ideas of filial piety, caring for ancestors, where the Mahayana tradition has taken Buddhism, for the most part, we see a different sort of ceremony.

[26:24]

where, again, it is tied to suffering spirits, but rather than making offerings to the monks for the monks to dedicate merit, these ceremonies actually make offerings directly to the suffering spirits to directly benefit the spirits. So there is a bit of a sort of... difference in how this is handled. One of the other differences seems to be in some cases there is some distinction made between ceremonies for kind of unknown or orphaned spirits and ceremonies for one's own ancestors. So in some places and in some times, those ceremonies are separated from each other, and in other times they are put together, and the ceremony is both for the benefit of our own known ancestors and for those who may not have descendants to be generating merit on their behalf.

[27:43]

But in one form or another, this idea of offering some form of compassion and care, in some way taking care of spirits who otherwise would have a longer period of suffering, that is nearly universal in Buddhism. There's a little generalization going on there. Certainly there are exceptions, but by and large, this is a widely practiced part of Buddhism. It's not an unusual thing, and it's not purely coming just from one culture. It has come along with Buddhism throughout the journey of Buddhism around the world. So here at San Francisco Zen Center, this ceremony is now done every year.

[28:56]

It's done at all three temples each year. And we have connected it in our calendar with this sort of autumnal period with All Souls Day and All Saints Day in the Catholic tradition, the Dia de los Muertos celebration and ceremony that happens at this time of year. And of course, quite obviously with Halloween and the sort of roots of Halloween, Samhain and other non-Christian holidays that Take note of this, what in the Northern Hemisphere is a period of darkness and a transition into darkness, and this time of harvest and preparation for perhaps scarcer times to come.

[30:03]

So I have been using the name... for the most part, for this ceremony, as I have been talking about it. But that name itself actually does bear a little bit of attention as we unpack its place in Soto Zen Buddhism and in the Suzuki Roshi lineage. This ceremony, the name Sagaki, is our original name for it coming to us from the Japanese. And that name, Sagaki, was the name that was used for this ceremony up until, I don't have an exact date for this, but sometime in the early 2000s or thereabouts, when we very intentionally began to use the name Sejiki for this ceremony. And what has happened with that is that in Japanese culture, this gaki, hungry ghost, that word has taken on additional and more powerful meanings in everyday Japanese culture.

[31:32]

Now the story that I was told as a San Francisco Zen Center priest, is that this name, this word, gaki, for the hungry ghosts, has come to be used as a somewhat pejorative term for unhoused people. And that that was the root of making this change. Seigaki is offerings for hungry ghosts. Sejiki is offerings of food. So it's getting at the same thing, but not using that gaki, which is, for some, now a somewhat troubled word. So that's the story I was told as a San Francisco Zen Center priest. In my own research for this course, the internet, whether it can be believed or not, tells me that the word gaki, at least in contemporary Japanese culture, now means something more like brat or annoying child or punk, something along those lines.

[32:43]

Still sort of an impolite word. And so this idea of it having become a little bit impolite and that is the reason we have changed it, that still seems to be the case. But I now am not entirely sure... Was it one, and then the definition has continued to evolve, or was the story that I was originally told perhaps just a story? Over the next few weeks, perhaps myself or someone else will come to some definitive answer about this. If anyone happens to chance across a definitive answer, please do feel free to bring it back to this group. But the core piece here is really just to be aware that this ceremony, until really just a few years ago, was known as sagaki and had been known as sagaki for a long, long time. And so our word sagiki that we use for it is more of a modern change just to the name of this ceremony.

[33:53]

So in older materials, in some of the older Dharma talks and things like that that I linked to on the portal or other historical materials that you might come across on your own. If you see that word segaki, we're talking about the same ceremony. So here at San Francisco Zen Center, as I understand it, it was actually Kobincino Roshi, who was one of the real drivers of bringing the Sajiki ceremony to the place and to the sort of meaning that it has for us in our current calendar. Certainly, Shinryu Suzuki would have been familiar and would have done some form of a sujiki ceremony, which he would have known as a sagaki ceremony.

[34:58]

This ceremony is done as part of the oban festival. And so as the temple priest at Sukoji, he would certainly have done this ceremony every year with the congregation there. And... He would have been doing it in August, July or August, when Obon actually happens, and not at this time of the year where it has kind of migrated in our current calendar. So I want to take a little look at this project. ceremony, the script of the ceremony, as we do it here at San Francisco Zen Center. I am going to be referring to a Sajiki script that I posted in the portal. This is the 2018 City Center Sajiki script, though any of these scripts will do.

[36:02]

And in... The chant book, the Gate of Sweet Dew, and the Khan Ramon, these are the two kind of core texts of the Sajiki ceremony. So for texts, that is what I will be referring to. So I'm just going to kind of generally describe the Sajiki ceremony and take us through sort of the flow of events of the Sajiki ceremony and highlight a few just a few portions of the text as we come to them. If you want to refer to any of the materials, feel free, but don't feel obligated to do so. I'll sort of talk us through it all. So this ceremony is a little different than any other ceremony that I have ever done in a in a Buddhist context.

[37:05]

The preparation for this ceremony begins by setting up the ceremonial space in a different way than it is set up at any other time. The idea behind the differences in setup that I'll describe in a moment are that the hungry ghosts, troubled spirits, those who are in a hell realm or are experiencing this great suffering of their karma, those beings are sometimes frightened by the Buddha and by the trappings of Buddhism because from the perspective of the hungry ghost, they feel less than or in some way less than. unclean. And so seeing the Buddha or being presented with a very Buddhist sort of ceremony would actually potentially scare away some of these hungry ghosts.

[38:17]

So in our effort to open the door as wide as possible, to bring in as many troubled spirits as we may be able to benefit, We actually cover the Buddha. We usually put a nice, clean piece of cloth over the Buddha, often over any of the other sort of traditional Buddhist figures in the space. At City Center, we do this ceremony in the Buddha Hall. At Tassahara, they do it in the Zendo. At Green Gulch, they do it in the Zendo as well. And so in all of these spaces, the kind of most obvious trappings of Buddhism are temporarily covered. And then we actually orient the space in a different direction. Generally, the altar for the Sajiki ceremony is set up on the opposite end of the room from where the altar for the Buddha is.

[39:24]

We kind of pretend as if the altar for the Buddha isn't there, and we just... create a new space. And then the space is decorated. There are some traditional colored flags. There are some banners with various esoteric Dharanis written on them, banners with the names of, this is a little confusing to me, but banners with the names of a few of the Buddhas. We cover the Buddhas, but then we do hang his name around. I guess we are thinking the Hungry ghosts are not going to read too closely as they're coming in the door. The altar itself is set up generally in sort of a kind of usually with some symmetry to it. The altar that we use for the Buddha usually has a little bit of asymmetry.

[40:27]

Candle on one side, flowers on the other. The Sajiki altar more often tends to be symmetric. Candles on both sides, flowers on both sides. I think of it as one of the other things that kind of differentiates that altar from the sort of main Buddhist altar. That altar is usually covered in various layers and colors of cloth. And then food offerings are placed on that altar. Often, you know, sort of sweet things, things that we associate with this kind of harvest Halloween time. There may be abundant fruits and vegetables, usually some clean water, sometimes tea or sweet water. And in the center of that space, There is a large green leaf and next to that a bowl with some rice and some cooked vegetables.

[41:32]

And during the course of the ceremony, the presiding priest actually puts that together into an extra special offering for the hungry ghosts. And we'll come back to that when we get to that point in the ceremony. But all of that stuff is laid out at the beginning of the ceremony. Sometimes there are tree branches and other kind of autumnal sorts of things placed in the space as well. It tends to, to my eye, bear a real visual similarity to a Dia de los Muertos altar. It's not uncommon for there to be, at least in... kind of smaller versions of this ceremony. It's not uncommon for there to be pictures of some of the deceased on the altar, for there to be other things that remind the participants of some of these spirits who were calling forth.

[42:37]

At San Francisco Zen Center, because it's kind of a bigger ceremony and there are a lot more people, and spirits being memorialized. I have not seen pictures and things like that put up on the altar in that way, but I think it is quite appropriate, and I think at Zen Center we probably just don't have room to do it. We need to keep it a little more contained. The one Buddhist figure who I have seen... some references to occasionally showing up on Sajiki altars. I have never seen this and have not done this myself, but having read about it, I'm now considering perhaps doing it. Jizo Bodhisattva sometimes shows up on the altar. Jizo is a particularly compassionate Bodhisattva and one who is... renowned for visiting hell for the benefit of beings who are in the hell realms.

[43:42]

So very appropriate for Jizo to appear on this altar. And since Jizo Bodhisattva is a bodhisattva who himself is willing to visit hell for the benefit of beings, I would feel comfortable putting him on the altar and that he wouldn't scare away these hungry ghosts because they probably have seen him before. This is just the next opportunity for Jizo to help them. So it may be the case that Jizo sometimes shows up on these altars. Also at San Francisco Zen Center, we hang pictures of hungry ghosts around the space. And I, on the portal, included a selection of some of those paintings of hungry ghosts that have been done over the years. Some a little bit comical, some very creepy. We are essentially making a space that these troubled spirits would feel comfortable in.

[44:48]

So we are kind of reflecting them back to themselves. reassuring them in a way. They see, oh, there are already some hungry ghosts in there, so it's okay for me to go in there. And that at the heart of it is what I see as the spirit of how we set up this ceremony. It is this recognizing what the experience might be of these troubled spirits, meeting them in that experience, and still making them welcome. So we set the space up in this very particular way, and we get a slightly larger-than-usual ceremonial crew together. The douan ryo for a sajiki ceremony is usually a little bit larger than for just a sort of everyday ceremony. In addition to the

[45:52]

the doan, who is the usual bell ringer, who does have a significant role in this ceremony. There are usually three to six other instrument players. Likely there are very elaborate versions of this ceremony that would involve many more instrument players. In this particular ceremony, these instrument players actually rehearse so that they can create... a sort of discordant chaos in a controlled kind of way. And there is a brief audio recording on the portal as well of a rehearsal from one of these ceremonies here at City Center a couple of years back. The sounds usually are a kind of high-pitched bell. a set of cymbals and a drum.

[46:53]

And what is usually done is there's sort of a single hit on the bell. The cymbals are, rather than being hit together in a sort of crash, they are usually rubbed together and then pulled apart. So they make a sort of squealing sound that then reverberates a little bit. And the drum just gets hit. with a good hard strike. So these instruments follow this sort of pattern, one after the other, gradually speeding up. They descend into a sort of chaos, and then the presiding priest stops the sound. And they do that three times. So this soundscape is another way to... put these troubled spirits at ease. Because they are troubled spirits, they might hear beautiful or melodious sounds as frightening or off-putting in some way.

[48:02]

So we create a soundscape that to the human ear is sometimes a little uncomfortable, but it is for the good of these spirits. And this soundscape actually begins just before the ceremony starts the presiding priest usually enters holding a walking staff generally a staff that also has some rings on the top of it so as they are entering the room there's the thud of the staff and the jingle of the rings along with these other sounds, the bell, the cymbals, the drum, these things all kind of come together to create this, for me, what can be a very eerie soundscape. It's the sort of soundscape that really literally and specifically sometimes makes me shake a little bit, makes me shiver a little bit, because it's just...

[49:09]

creepy in just in a very intentional sort of way. Uh, so the ceremonial participants enter the room. Those who are attending the ceremony are already in the room before it starts. Uh, the ceremonial participants enter the room. Uh, they, uh, they, they come to a, a point of rest, uh, and the, uh, invocation begins. Sometimes in this ceremony, in the more formal versions, there is a chair for the presiding priest to sit on. I also have seen this ceremony done without the chair for the priest. So sometimes there is some ceremonial process involved in the presiding priest settling into that chair. And then at the times when they get up and Up and down back out of that chair, there is some kind of ceremonial activity about arrangement of robes and temporarily passing the staff to an assistant, these sorts of things.

[50:19]

But as everyone enters with this sort of soundscape, they come to the center of the room. We orient towards the Sajiki altar. generally with our backs towards the Buddha altar. And there is this spooky soundscape that I described, these three rounds of kind of crescendoing chaos. And generally, for the last one or sometimes for the last two rounds, the congregation as a whole is invited to join in on creating that kind of... chaotic and spooky sound. Noisemakers are often handed out to the congregation. Sometimes people just sort of shout and yelp as well. So everyone together creates this kind of chaotic sound. And then the presiding priest, the doshi, signals for it to stop.

[51:25]

And there's a moment of complete silence. And then the doshi the presiding priest continues to welcome these spirits. There is an offering of incense at the altar, and then the doshi makes a statement of welcome to the spirits. There are a number of... what we would call esoteric mantras that are involved in this ceremony as well. Some that the presiding priest says themselves, some that the priest says first, and then the congregation repeats. And these are, again, just kind of drawing in these spirits. Once we have... kind of made the first offering, pointed out to the spirits that there is a place for them, made it known to them that they are welcome, then we begin chanting.

[52:36]

And there is some delightful and unusual chanting in this ceremony. So it begins with homages to the Buddhas. Again, We're just sort of trusting that the spirits will hang in for that. They've seen that there's food. They've heard and seen that this is a place for them. We begin to bring in just a little bit of Buddhism, just a little bit of Buddhism. After giving homage to the Buddhas in the Ten Directions and a few other sort of standard Buddhist phrases along those lines, we chant the Gate of Sweet Dew, which is... really sort of a description of what is happening in this ceremony, why we're doing it, and what we think is going to be the outcome of this ceremony. So we say that we are offering a bowl of pure food to the hungry ghosts in every land.

[53:39]

We hope that it will be of benefit to them. We invite a broad array of spirits to participate in this ceremony. This sentence in particular always really sort of stands out to me. We invite all our departed ancestors going back to ancient times, the spirits dwelling in mountains, rivers, and earth, as well as demonic spirits from the untamed wilderness to come and gather here. So we are very specifically opening the door for classes of beings who we are not accustomed to meeting in the Buddha Hall or the Zendo. And I think that's one of the lovely things about this ceremony. I think in its sort of wide open door.

[54:45]

that is implied in this ceremony, that there is a place for all beings, no matter what they might be going through, that this ceremony is intended for the benefit of even those who think they are beyond the help of Buddhism. We mean you too. And we also do it in a really intentional way so that we create this space We open it. We make this offering. And then at the end, we do encourage these spirits to leave. We are not asking them to take up residence in us or with us. We are being of benefit and then encouraging them to continue on their journey. So it is, I think, important to do this in a really intentional and correct way.

[55:53]

I would not want to invite the demonic spirits from the untamed wilderness and then forget to end the ceremony. That seems to me like inviting unnecessary trouble. Even if I don't take it literally, I think there is some... energetic effect to cleanly closing out this sort of activity. So we chant the gate of sweet dew. We say what we're going to do, what we are offering, who it is being offered to. And the last line of this gate of sweet dew is, may all sentient beings of the Dharma realm Take advantage of this teaching to quickly attain Buddhahood. So this is where there's almost a little bit of a bait and switch we pull on these hungry ghosts.

[56:56]

We create this very kind of conventionally not Buddhist looking or sounding atmosphere. We invite in these troubled spirits who might otherwise be scared off by Buddhism. And then we offer them the benefits of Buddhism. We offer them to take part in this practice and in the fruits of this practice through our own intentions and through the merit that we create in this ceremony. So we, at the end of the Gate of Sweet Dew, just go immediately into the Khan Ramon, which is the second chant that was shared out of the Zen Center chant book. And in the version that's published in the Zen Center chant book, there is some very helpful kind of explanatory text of what is going on.

[58:05]

We have the bits that are chanted in... kind of plain, bold text. But then there are these italicized headings that tell us what each of these pieces of text are intended to do. So the Khan Ramon is in a mix of mantric syllables and translated English. The first of these mantric phrases is a durrani for summoning deceased spirits to the great assembly. The second is a Durrani for breaking down the gates of hell and opening throats. So this is making it possible for the spirits to get to us and then making it possible for them to take in the benefit of this food that we're offering and for them to take in the benefit of the merit that we're offering. So this opening the throats really...

[59:09]

refers very directly back to this image of the hungry ghosts, the kind of most common visual image of hungry ghosts are of beings with very long, thin necks so that they are very hungry, but they are physically unable to take in the sustenance that would satisfy their hunger. And that is a great source of suffering. Sometimes these hungry ghosts are put in the presence of food that would sustain them, but they are physically unable to take it in. So we are breaking down the gates of hell to allow them to get here and receive this sustenance, and then we are opening their throats so that they personally can take in this sustenance. There are then a number of other a number of other esoteric duranis. And then the presiding priest does a call and response with the congregation with these two mantric phrases.

[60:21]

One is om boji shita bodha hadayami. And we'll talk a little bit about pronunciation here in a moment. The second is om samaya satoban. The first one is a Durrani for arousing Bodhi mind. And the second is a Durrani for giving the Bodhisattva Samaya precepts. So having brought the spirits into this place, having given them some sustenance to begin to ease their suffering, at that point where hopefully they are experiencing the possibility of the alleviation of some of their suffering, We then try to help them arouse the will to practice and to awaken, and we offer them the bodhisattva precepts. These are the same bodhisattva precepts that are taken in the Jukai ceremony and in ordinations. We are giving these troubled spirits as much of an opportunity as we can to

[61:29]

receive the fruits of practice and to have this experience of Buddhist practice and how it can be of benefit. After a few more esoteric Dharanis, then there is a dedication that is chanted with some in my experience, lively and unusual bell ringing, where the Doan is ringing the bell at the end of every line of this particular piece. And having sort of conducted this sort of central chanting process portion of the ceremony. This does kind of echo the earlier version of this ceremony where offerings were made to the monks and then the monks chanted and the merit of that chanting was offered on behalf of troubled spirits so that they might have their suffering reduced.

[62:51]

So the congregation as a whole kind of serves that function in this in this particular ceremony, so that then the food offerings are made directly to the spirits rather than through a sort of intermediary of the monks and Buddhist clergy. So during the course of this chanting, the... presiding priest, the doshi, goes up to the altar and actually creates this extra special food offering, putting some specially prepared food into a green leaf, sort of rolling it up into what we, around here, I hope not too dismissively call the ghost burrito, because that's pretty much how it ends up looking. We make this sort of package of food wrapped in a green leaf and held together with a wooden skewer as a special offering for any spirits who might be still hesitating about accepting the fruits of this ceremony.

[64:06]

And then having done this chanting, We then chant the Daihi Shindirani, which is a chant that we do quite frequently around San Francisco Zen Center and broadly in the Soto Zen world and broadly within the Zen world. The Daihi Shindirani is most often done as a memorial chant and is one of the central chants in the... the standard funeral ceremony. So to chant the Daihi Shinderani at this point is really quite appropriate. And then there is the reading of names. So before the ceremony, for days or weeks preceding the ceremony, a list of names is created by the community. And those names are then read at this point in the ceremony. And then the dedication is kind of further hammered home by the Kokyo, the presiding, the chant presider, who, after the specific names of individuals who are known to members of the community, we read those names.

[65:33]

And then the merit of our activity is further... further offered to boundless wandering beings, to any that might be suffering in any of myriad forms. There is then a sort of reprise of the spooky soundscape to kind of close down this ceremonial space to make it clear to the beings that this ceremony has ended and it is time to move on. And then at the end of the ceremony, the central actors in it, the presiding priest, their attendant, the kokio, and some of the musicians will then exit

[66:38]

the ceremonial space in the same way that they entered, again, with the staff, with the rings, though usually the exit is a little bit quieter. It's usually just one bell instead of the full sort of cacophony of all of the bells. So that's the basic shape of this ceremony. The kind of... The overall structure of it is actually not radically different from other Zen services and ceremonies. The kind of sequence of entry and offerings and chanting and dedication of merit, that is all quite standard. But these other elements about how it's set up, how it looks, and sort of where the focus of the ceremony is are all a little bit different. And the chanting is also a little bit different.

[67:44]

If you happen to have the Con Ramon, you'll notice that a number of these words have a little line over some of the vowels, and that is a little pronunciation guide. And I'm just going to chant just the first three lines of the conramon to sort of give a little sense of the cadence of this particular chant. That line over those vowels means they are a sort of long vowel. So it would go something like this. No bo bohori gyaritari tata gyataya. Om boho teri gyatari tata gyataya.

[68:47]

No maku sarabhatata gyatabharokitei om sambara sambara un. So there's this kind of lilting quality that starts to come out as these mantras kind of pile up on each other. There's a sort of flow to them. And in particular, the Dharanis for summoning the five Tathagatas with precious names. In the San Francisco Zen Center version, some of those, the first and third lines of those Dharanis have been translated into English. I have seen other versions where none of that is translated, where it is all chanted in just in sort of phonetic syllables. So I think it's quite interesting to have a little bit of insight into what these particular Duranis are actually trying to do.

[69:57]

For instance, homage to the many jewels, to Tagata. removing the karma of greed fully complete with blessing and wisdom. So these kind of individual pieces are... compounding on each other, each one kind of taking us and the spirits deeper into the heart of this ceremony and into the kind of shared space where hopefully these troubled spirits can have some taste of the possibility of relief of their suffering. and hopefully once they have been shown that there is the possibility, even for them, of relief of their suffering, that they may be more open to receiving the merit that we are offering to them for the reduction of their suffering.

[71:12]

So I think the last thing that I want to add this evening before we open it up for more kind of discussion and comment, is just to talk a little bit, just briefly, about the idea of spirits, of hungry ghosts, and whether we are literally calling in spirits, or is this a metaphorical exercise. And first, I will just say that there is a There is a wide variety of opinions about these sorts of things. And generally, I would say it's not necessary to decide. It's not necessary to come down firmly on one opinion or another. Are we dealing with... literal, specific individual beings in the form of spirits?

[72:18]

Are we doing something of a more metaphorical kind of nature? I think this ceremony and I think our human experience is flexible enough to incorporate a variety of understandings of what's happening in this ceremony. What to me is... most important and most touching is how it feels and that, to me, it feels effective. I have experienced and I have heard others talk about this ceremony shifting some things, shifting their relationship with... an ancestor who has passed, whose passing or whose life did not feel settled, shifting their experience of the spirit world in general.

[73:20]

I think it is also very possible and also appropriate to look within ourselves, to look at our own experience and to look at the really wide variety of individuals that any one of us might show up as in any given day. And within the complexity of my own mind and body system, there are pieces that are more in the shadow than others. There are pieces that are still stuck on some old some old tape or some old loop. There are things that feel unsettled. And to bring compassion and awareness to those parts of my own self within this ceremony, to recognize when I myself might be feeling not good enough for Buddhism.

[74:34]

I think these are really wonderful aspects of this ceremony. You know, we can direct it outwards, but this ceremony is for the entirety of existence and we ourselves are included in that. So, you know, sometimes I think of the kind of legacy of individual ways of being. I think of the the explosive and uncontrolled anger that I witnessed from my grandfather and how that experience kind of has a life of its own. For me, that is one of the hungry ghosts that I bring to this ceremony, that I call forth in this ceremony. I notice that it is... You know, there are pieces of it that are in me. There are pieces of it that are in other members of my family.

[75:34]

I'm sure that my grandfather splashed that out onto dozens or hundreds of people who I never met. And the ripples of his choices and ways of being are still out there in the world. And to just kind of connect all of those pieces and to think of that... reverberating human experience as a kind of hungry ghost to me unlocks a lot of possibility in this ceremony. Boy, I can see there's going to be so much we're just not going to have time to get to in just three sessions. But I am going to pause there so we have time for at least a little bit of discussion and comment. So please, if anyone would like to add anything from your own experience, questions, whatever you've got, feel free to bring it forward. You can raise a hand or raise a Zoom hand.

[76:37]

And again, for those who have your cameras off, you are... Totally welcome to keep your cameras off if you wish. And you are invited to also bring your questions and voices to the conversation, even with your camera off. And Patty got her hand up first. Go ahead. Hi. Thank you. You know, I've done this ceremony a few times. It's pretty amazing. And I realize I have a question. I remember asking this question before and getting kind of... indefinite answer, which may be appropriate, but are we not inviting in peaceful beings who've passed away? And how would one know the difference? And then speaking metaphorically, it seems like this is maybe not the ceremony for all of our settled qualities. So I'm just curious about Oh, yeah, that's a great question.

[77:40]

I can think of people who have passed away who seem very peaceful people. And then I can think of some who might have been in trouble. And since we do say names, then I'm a little confused in this area. Yeah, that's a great point. That's a great point. I think there is a little tension in there built into the way that we do this ceremony. here and now. We do include names, and generally we, by default, tend to include the names of anyone who has been included in a memorial ceremony in the temple in the previous calendar year. And then people are invited to also bring the names of their own connections who have passed, usually particularly in the last calendar year, but sort of broadly. It can extend further than just a year. And you're right, some of those folks, some of those spirits might not be so troubled. My feeling and my take on how and why they're included in this ceremony is because in the recency of their passing, since they, for the most part, have passed in the last year or couple of years, even if they are not themselves troubled spirits, we're trying to help

[79:05]

the long tail of their karma kind of work itself out and come to peace and rest. So I think by bringing them into this ceremony, we are, we're kind of, if they are already peaceful spirits, we're sort of ensuring or doubling down on the continuation of their peaceful transition. You know, I would think of it as kind of a, we hope you're well along the path, but if you need any help, here's a little extra for you. And if you see any of those hungry ghosts on the way, let them know. We've got a whole bunch for them. So I think it's, yeah, I think it's... I think it works, but there is a little tension there, and that's probably why in some versions the troubled spirits and the direct ancestors are done in separate ceremonies.

[80:09]

We happen to put them all together, so we find a way to make it make sense. Thank you. Yeah. Kathleen, I see your hand. Go ahead. First off, thank you very much for all the information you sent. I never learned so much. It was beautiful. In the gate of Sweet Dew, I love that at the end we offer these very troubled beings a way out. I don't know why I never... got that before and I actually I find that very soothing the one question I had was I read the article that Katigiri Roshi did and at the very end he said something that got me he says we need to give to the hungry ghosts to those that are suffering and those that are peaceful because they're the same and I just I never

[81:17]

I thought of them as not one but two. I never thought of there's this connection. I don't know if you have a thought of something to help me understand that bridge a little more. I think the bridge is the emptiness teachings. On a conventional level, we experience people as individual beings and we may... have experiences of hungry ghosts and peaceful spirits and a whole range in between. And these are the two truths. It's not one truth and one half-truth or one truth and one falsity. So the experience of these separate beings, that experience is being experienced. They may experience themselves as separate beings.

[82:21]

We may experience them as separate beings. That experience is happening. But if we look deeply at it, there isn't anyone having that experience. And this is where the confusing emptiness of Zen comes in, because both of these things are true simultaneously. These spirits don't exist. And yet, since they're suffering, we want to help them. So we get back to not two, not one. Not two, not one. Yep. Oh, God, that's far out. Thank you very much. Because I just spread that a little before class. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. It can be a real head-scratcher. Thank you. Carolyn, go ahead. Unmute, OK. my mind with that question raised was something I was thinking about earlier, which was, well, how trouble do you have to be to be an angry ghost?

[83:31]

Because it seems quite of a gradient there in terms of very peaceful people can have certain areas of great trouble or unresolved guilt or but they're kind and they do good things and they seem very enlightened in many ways, but yet, you know, I think there's layers, sedimentary layers as you go down into the subconscious that makes this all quite relative in terms of trouble versus not. It is all really relative. And I think on any given day, I might experience myself sometimes sliding into the realm of hungry ghosts for a little while and then maybe being able to step back out of it. As far as the ceremony itself, all are welcome.

[84:44]

Peaceful spirits are welcome. Those who just have a little trouble in their little toe, those who are suffering enormously, they are all welcome. So the ceremony is offered for all and hopefully can be of benefit to all. And I think it is worth... paying attention to the way that things change. This is another of the foundational teachings. A hungry ghost is not always going to be a hungry ghost. The karma that creates that suffering, unless it is continuing to be reinforced, that karma will eventually attenuate and diminish to a certain extent. Those who are peaceful, happy beings may unexpectedly enter the hell realms and become hungry ghosts.

[85:52]

So I think to be kind of aware of how any one being can have a variety of experience and how that can continue to evolve, I think is part of... for me, is one of the benefits of examining this idea of hungry ghosts, because it does absolutely point us back towards there not being any firm categories. There are no hard boundaries here. And most likely, I would say, most of us are probably on some sort of spectrum between blissful gods and hungry ghosts somewhere. Somewhere we're in between there. It's said that the blissful gods also do not practice and so are less fortunate than human beings because things are so good and so easy for them that they don't have this desire to practice.

[86:54]

Hungry ghosts are too troubled to practice. Human beings have just the right amount of suffering to inspire us, but not so much suffering that it's impossible for us to practice. But it is a spectrum. Thank you. Sean, go ahead. I also really appreciate what you're saying about our own unsettled parts, our own ways of being so many different ways in a day, in a time period, especially now. And it seems to me so critical about coming to that realization because we are very quick to try and categorize people

[88:06]

oh, there are hundreds of ghosts or she has got some kind of extraordinary difficulty that you sort of divide people into those who have beyond trouble and those who are in some way kind of manageable. And the fact is, we all go into beyond at times. And this ceremony for me, when I've been able to sort of help with it, makes me feel a closeness to that spectrum that you're talking about. It feels very actually reassuring and also deeply aware of just how much deep pain at least that I can take.

[89:22]

So when you sit and you're shivering and felt something in your body, I feel that when I'm in this ceremony also. And I thank you so much. I agree with what's been said. So much wonderful for Rajiv Dad. Just terrific. I'm looking forward to the opportunity. Thank you. Great. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, there's a wealth of ways that a ceremony like this can help us, I think, if we're open to it. Chloe, go ahead. wondering about um you know toward the end of the ceremony when like then the door is shut and um and i was at green gulch last year when jerry was presiding and i just lost his mother it was just so profound that like um that that that shedding or shuddering and that shout that it almost seems like

[90:28]

in some of the Dharma teachings when there's like this, you know, shout that like awakens people in some way. And yet there's also this, like, it seems like such a divide that like we let them in from this other place, but we need to like then close the door, which does seem, you know, more binary. And I was wondering if you could say something about that. Hmm, yeah. I think the, that's a good, yeah, I'm, I'm wondering what I think about this now. There is a, I think there is a kind of feeling of protection of the sangha that I experience in that kind of closing out of this ceremony in a sort of really clear and obvious way. To me it's not that, this is not the only time that we offer care and compassion to the hungry ghosts, hopefully.

[91:30]

Hopefully this ceremony can inspire or be a part of maybe some ongoing practice. But I think for the sangha who is practicing in this space and who has their own complicated life and interactions, We're kind of ensuring that we also continue the conditions that allow the living human beings who are currently present to continue to practice. In some ways, it's kind of a little peace of mind so that people are not worried later on that these spirits might still be hanging out. maybe it does feel to me like there is an acknowledgement of the passage of time and of transition in this.

[92:38]

It is, you know, we do mark out this time, this is a time for this, and then the time that we have set aside for that comes to an end and we turn our attention to something else. In the sort of Buddhist... funeral cosmology, one usually does ceremonies for one's parents and one's teachers for 33 years after their death. Because the feeling is that after 33 years, most likely most of their karma has pretty well been worked out. So somehow there is a distinction, you know, before 33 years and after 33 years. And so it's, I think, just a sort of different level of that kind of distinction, acknowledging that the reverberating effects of the karma of someone who has passed recently may be, they may be bigger and have more obvious effects than the residual karma of someone who passed 20 years ago.

[93:50]

And to... kind of move them on, to me there is a hopefulness that having entered the space and had this ceremony, when they move on, they are moving in the direction of letting go of their karma, reducing their suffering and awakening. If we just let them hang out, then they might just get comfortable hanging out and they might not make the effort to continue down the path to whatever is a state of less suffering. But I'm going to think on that one a little bit. That's my off-the-cuff thoughts there. Thank you. I see we are at 8.31, so we're technically at our time. I'm not going to cut us off sharp, but I do want anyone who needs to drop off for any reason, please feel free.

[94:53]

These last few minutes will be included in the recording, so you can pick up on it later. I will take one more question from Tara and Monica, and then I have just a little bit that I want to say about the... the ceremony that we'll do in three weeks. But again, all of that will be included in recordings and in the email that I send tomorrow. So if you need to drop off, you're not missing anything. Go ahead. Hi. We were talking about the idea of the spirits leaving and how it's also maybe just considering they might want to go back to where they come from and reside. And so giving them the respect of like, you know, like who wants to stay at a party for eternity? Like sometimes you just want to like go home and be with the people who you feel comfortable with, be with this, you know, these spirits that they feel comfortable with and then the overall where they reside.

[96:04]

So maybe like having like a little, taste of what we're offering but they don't necessarily not keeping them oh and then it's so mad at grief processing actually for us the sounds the music the the vibrations caused by the staff and the drums and the cymbals it's all a way of like moving some of this grief through our bodies, acknowledging it and feeling it and, yeah, releasing it. Oh, that's great. Yeah. Yeah. I wholly, yeah, I wholly agree. I wholly agree. Yeah, we'd be, I mean, if we didn't at least give them the possibility of leaving, we would be imprisoning these spirits, and that's not going to end well. So let's not do that. But I think actually there's something nice about giving them their agency as well.

[97:11]

You've received this offer. You can do with it. You can do with it what you will. May it be of benefit if you are ready to receive that benefit. And if now isn't the time, we'll do it again next year. Come back then if you want. You can keep coming back every time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think there is also a... That closing of the ceremony in a real intentional and specific way is as much for us as it is for those spirits. It's helpful for all of us, I think. Great. Well, what a lively and fascinating discussion this has been already. Thank you all for bringing your interests and your curiosity to it. Next week. I expect we'll get a little more into some additional history and other connections between this ceremony, other ceremonies, other faith traditions, that sort of thing.

[98:16]

And then in the third week, we'll be doing the online ceremony. So I just want to invite you all to begin thinking about a couple of things. One is whether there are any names of people known to you who you'd like included in this ceremony. Most traditionally it's usually people who have passed in the last calendar year, but I don't really feel like holding to that in any arbitrary way. I would say that particularly those who have passed more recently. But if there are people from your life whose passing or the legacy of their life still feels unsettled or in some way unresolved for you, please feel free to bring those names forward. We do want it to be people who are known to someone in the group, though. So we generally don't include famous people unless...

[99:21]

that famous person happens to have been a friend of ours. And maybe let's start with a gentle limit of six names per person until we see how big our list has gotten. We may have space for more than that, but if each of us brought 20 or 30 names, it would be a very, very long ceremony. So we'll just focus a little bit and see how that goes. There is a range of... opportunities for how to participate in this ceremony. You are all welcome to just show up in the Zoom room on that third night, and the ceremony will happen one way or another. I could do a simple ceremony myself, and that would suffice. It will be a much richer and more interesting and varied ceremony if there are folks who are interested in contributing sound, contributing voices, contributing variations on the script that we use.

[100:29]

So there is great opportunity for that. Those who are interested in having a more kind of intentional role in the ceremony itself. We should get together outside of class times to talk about that a little bit. I've set aside a couple of openings in my calendar. I put those up on the portal. They are the next two Friday mornings at 11 o'clock Pacific time and the next two Tuesday evenings at 6 o'clock Pacific time. I know I am available those times. If there are other times that... Folks would like to propose, I'm willing to hear them. My calendar's a little full, so we'll see what we can do. But those will just basically be drop-in sessions where those who are interested in exploring how we're actually going to create this ceremony together, you're welcome to drop in to any one of those. And since the first one of those is tomorrow morning at 11 o'clock Pacific time, I just wanted to get you all aware of that.

[101:37]

Don't feel rushed or pressured like, oh my god, I've got to find a way to be there. There are other options. And even if you can't make it to any of these sort of outside planning sessions, if you're interested in being involved in the workings of the ceremony, just bring that forward and we will find a way to make it happen. Nanette, go for it. Annette, I see your hand up. Perhaps you have a question. Sorry. Yep. I was having a little trouble there. I was wondering, is this related only to humans or for all beings? The names, historically, what I have experienced is that the names that have been read have always been human beings. The untamed demonic spirits that we're calling in, some of those may have been human beings at some point.

[102:48]

Some of them may have not. So I think broadly, to my mind, we are including non-human beings. Mechanically, functionally, within the ceremony, at the moment, my inclination is... to limit it to human beings. But for those of us who have had animal companions, close animal companions pass, there's a good case to be made for including them in a ceremony like this. So if you have a non-human being who you're thinking you might like to include in this ceremony, yeah, let's put them on the list. And if it seems in some way awkward, we'll have the opportunity to talk about that and what it means in the context of the ceremony. Yeah, you bet. All right. Any last thoughts, questions, comments, or bits that I can offer for you?

[103:54]

All right. We look pretty settled then. Again, thank you all for engaging with this topic. It is really lovely to see the interest and to hear your thoughts on it all. Let me know in between now and the next class if you have any burning questions. Put things into the discussion in the portal. Engage with this in whatever way helps and supports you. If nothing else, enjoy the next recording. I'll see you all later. Take care. Be well out there. Be safe. Thank you. See you soon.

[104:47]

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