Running order: Inviting the Ancestors, Takkesa Ge (Verse of the Kesa), San Ge Mon, The 3 Refuges, Chanting the names of all 130 lineage ancestors (female then male), Dharma opening and talk: Focus on those in our direct lineage; Great Teacher Zengaku Soyu Matoska: The Light-bearer; who brought Soto Zen from Japan to America and "the West", Great Teacher Fern Shin Getsu Mc Guire and
Great Teacher Hogaku Shozen Mc Guire, Great Teacher Kankin Byrd - their lives and how they enriched the lives of our Sangha's leading teachers.
The 10 Grave Precepts,
The Great Heart of Wisdom Sutra,
The Four Great Vows,
Fueko.
It was a really touching service, the 1st time I have heard and honoured our full lineage since coming to Soto Zen and our Sangha in September 2020 - deep respect to each and every one of them, they have not died the 3rd death;
"the first is when the body ceases to function. The second is when the body is consigned to the grave. The third is that moment, sometime in the future, when your name is spoken for the last time." - David Eagleman
It is important to keep their names alive through the mind (sharing memories), speech (chanting the names) and via the body (bowing).
In Sandōkai,” the author, our Great Teacher 石頭希遷 Shítóu Xīqiān (Chinese) clearly states that "the mind of the Buddha has been intimately transmitted through ancestors in the Zen tradition.
“Intimately” here means from person to person, not through written words and concepts.
When the first ancestor of Chinese Zen, Great Teacher Dharma / Bodhidharma (India), travelled from India to China, he was practising his bodhisattva vow: to transmit and share the true Dharma, the mind of the Buddha, with the Chinese people.
Great Teacher 永平道元 Eihei Dogen (Japan) commented on Bodhidharma’s practice in Shōbōgenzō “Gyōji” (Continuous Practice),
“This way of [intimately] protecting and maintaining practice 'gyōji' stemmed from his great compassion and his vow to transmit the Dharma and save deluded living beings. He was able to do it because he himself was the dharma-self of transmission and for him, the whole universe was the world of transmitting Dharma.”
In the same way, the transmission of Buddha Dharma from Asian Buddhist countries to the West is the result of many Buddhist monks and laypeople who live by vow.
Shitou was the eighth-generation ancestor from Bodhidharma. A generation is approximately about 20–30 years therefore between the two, Bodhidharma and Shitou there were 160 - 170 years!
From Buddha to us 2,500 years!
After service Dokusan between Priest and Shuso
Discussed those ancestors we both knew something of: directed by myself. In some places our discussion, after research, was incorrect, here it is recorded accurately:
Females: Buddha's Mother Queen Māyā of Shakya. Who doesn't currently sit on our lineage records (to be amended as we endeavour to expand on the newly acquired, recorded female lineage and educate ourselves on their stories.) She was the sister of Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī. In the Buddhist tradition, Maya died soon after the birth of Buddha and he was raised by ...
Great Teacher Mahapajapati Gotami:
foster mother, step-mother and maternal aunt (mother's sister) of Siddhārtha Gautama/Buddha. In the Buddhist tradition, she was the first woman to seek ordination for women, which she did from Gautama Buddha directly, and she became the first 'bhikkhuni' (Indian Buddhist nun).
Women of the Way stories "the mother Maha ̄ Ma ̄ya ̄" and "the leader Maha ̄ Paja ̄patı ̄".
Great Teacher Dhammadina [Theri?]: "Most skilled female teacher, words equivalent to Buddha's". Women of the Way by Sallie Tisdale and the story "the widow"
Great Teacher Khema: Women of the Way by Sallie Tisdale and the story "Khema." Recorded elsewhere as "Most skilled female in wisdom, words equivalent to Buddha's." She was known as “Khema of Great Wisdom,” because she grasped the Buddha’s entire teaching on first hearing it as a laywoman. She helped run the women’s monastic order and is named as the most exemplary nun in the Pali Canon.
Great Teacher Sundari-Nanda: Princess Sundarī Nandā of Shakya, also known simply as Sundarī, was the daughter of King Suddhodana (Siddhārtha Gautama's father) and Mahaprajapati. She was the half-sister of Siddhartha Gautama. Other names: Rupa Nanda, Janapada Kalyani.
She became a nun after the enlightenment of her half-brother and became an 'arhat' (one who has gained insight into the true nature of existence and has achieved nirvana).
She was the foremost among bhikkhunis in the practice of jhana (total meditative absorption). She lived during the 6th century BCE in what is now Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in India.
Appears in the story Women of the Way story "the leader".
Great Teacher Patacara: Women of the Way story "cloak walker - Patachara". "Most skilled in discipline." Patachara lost her husband, both children, her parents and her brother to violent death within a few days, and lost her mind. After wandering as a mad woman for some time, she was brought back to her senses by the Buddha. She begged for relief from her pain and he taught her the inevitability of suffering when we cling to forms. She eventually became a great leader of the women and converted many other women who had suffered the loss of a child.
Buddha's wife Yaśodharā: who doesn't currently sit on our lineage records (to be amended as we endeavour to expand on the recorded female lineage and educate ourselves on their stories.) She was the wife of Prince Siddhartha — until he left his home to become an ascetic monk. Daughter of King Suppabuddha and Amita.
The mother of Rāhula (Siddhārtha Gautama's son), and the sister of Devadatta.
She later became a Buddhist Nun and is considered an 'arhat'.
Great Teacher Miao Shin: Born Miao Shin, their Dharma name has many variations; in Japanese, they are "Kuan Yin" or "Qwan Yin", "Avalokiteshvara" and they are also known as "Kannon" The Bodhisattva of Compassion. 'One who hears the cries of the world.' 'The Compassionate Rebel.' Women of the Way story "wind -Miaoxin".
Great Teacher Mugai Nyodai: Chiyoro being her childhood name, at some point, she began to visit the monastery of the Chinese Rinzai Zen monk Wu-hsueh Tsu-yuan (known in Japan as Mugaku Sogen.) Once Chiyoro's husband died and her daughter was grown, she became determined to live out the rest of her life as a nun. She shaved her head, gave up all her belongings, and showed up at the doorstep of Wu-hsueh Tsu-yun's monastery, taking the name Mugai Nyodai as part of her monastic vows. She showed her knife to reveal her mind in the ceremony. When Wu-hsueh Tsu-yun died, he named Mugai his successor.
A 13th-century Japanese Buddhist nun credited with becoming the first Rinzai Dharma heir in Japan: the first Zen Buddhist Abbess. She established a system of convents Kakusan Shido and founded Tokeiji temple, the first shelter for abused women worldwide.
Hidden Lamp story "Chiyoro's No Water, No Moon".
Great Teacher Ekyu-ni: "First female Soto Dharma heir in Japan (under Keizan)" Great Teacher Nagasawa Sozen: Abbess Sozen Nagasawa, a disciple of Zen master Harada. She studied both Soto and Rinzai methods in the first half of the 20th century. She was abbot of the Tokyo Nuns' Practice Center and had many disciples of her own, both nuns and lay women. She was head nun of Kannon-ji, one of the most important Japanese convents, and during the 1930s and 1940s became a national leader for Japanese Buddhist women, leading the second Soto Sect National Meeting of Nuns in the 1930s. In her time, she was one of the only women running a Zen practice centre and leading retreats without the supervision of a male Zen master. In 1956, after her death, her students collected their experiences of her in a book called A Collection of Meditation Experiences. Great Teacher Fern Shin Getsu McGuire - The closest Zen ancestor on our lineage records. Wife of Hogaku Ken McGuire, they were of Las Cruces, New Mexico. The McGuires were disciples of the late Soyu Matsuoka Roshi, founder of the Chicago Buddhist Temple (today the Zen Buddhist Temple of Chicago) and the Long Beach Zen Center. They were both ordained as priests by him.
Males:
Great Teacher Siddhartha Gautama: Buddha. Named before him on our lineage are his previous incarnations. Born to Maya and Śuddhodana, raised by Mahapajapti. Half brother to Sundari and Nanda. Husband of Yaśodharā. Father of Rāhula. There was a prediction made at his naming ceremony by Asita that he would either become a great king or a great religious leader. Suddhodana held a naming ceremony on the fifth day and invited eight Brahmin scholars to read the future. All gave similar predictions. Kondañña, the youngest, and later to be the first arhat other than the Buddha, was reputed to be the only one who unequivocally predicted that Siddhartha would become a Buddha. Great Teacher Andana: Ānanda, the Buddha's cousin, chief personal attendant of the Buddha. Great Teacher Rahulata: Buddha's son. Great Teacher Dharma / Bodhidarma: Brought Buddhism to China. Great Teacher Shitou Xiqian: Wrote Sandokai and Grass Hut. Great Teacher Eihei Dogen: Wrote the Shobogenza. Brought original Buddhism to Japan.
Great Teacher Koun Ejo: Dogen's student, appears as someone Dogen wrote instructions to in the Shobogenza. Great Teacher Zengaku Soyu Matsuoka: Born 1912. (My paternal great-grandmother would have been 12!) The Light-bearer; who brought Soto Zen from Japan to America and "the West" in 1939. His family were all priests. His mother was unhappy that he was asked to go by the Soto Shu. Entered the internment camps of WW2. Had to find money within America to set up his first Zendo. Refused to send his patrons money back to Japan, upsetting the Soto Shu."Zen is dead in Japan." He ordained Great Teacher Hogaku Shozen Mc Guire, who ordained Great Teacher Kankin Byrd who passed in 2022. It is Great Teacher Hogaku Shozen Mc Guire who is the most direct lineage on the male list of ancestors.
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