Jukai at Mugendoji

Yesterday there was an all day sit at Mugendoji, the Boundless Way temple in Worcester, MA. Because of sermon writing obligations, Jan and I only arrived in time for a couple of hours of sitting (nonetheless, a great relief after spending so many hours in front of the computer composing that sermon…) before the ceremony itself.

There were about fifty people for the sit. The picture has the teachers and senior Dharma teachers sitting in front and the new initiates standing. (Except for one visiting priest whose son was one of our initiates, who is also standing…)

For me each of these jukai ceremonies which include all of us renewing our vows for lives of harmony and balance and quest, but which feature the first formal vows for some, who are also invited to speak to each of those vows: it is a moment in which the whole cosmos awakens.

Something lovely.

Something astonishing…