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The Sino-Japanese Buddhist term that comes closest in semantic range to the English \u201critual\u201d is gy\u014dji (\u884c\u6301 or \u884c\u4e8b), translated herein as \u201cobservances.\u201d As is clear from the contents of the Standard Observances (Gy\u014dji kihan \u884c\u6301\u8ecc\u7bc4), however, that term encompasses a very broad range of activities that Zen clergy engage in. Many observances, such as offerings of food and drink made before icons enshrined on an altar, might be labeled as \u201crituals\u201d by Western standards, but many others are more likely to be called \u201cpractices\u201d (e.g. undertaking moral vows, sitting in meditation), \u201cwork\u201d (e.g. serving food, cleaning), \u201cstudy\u201d (e.g. attending a class on a Zen text), or simply \u201ceveryday activities\u201d (e.g. eating, sleeping, and bathing) that are regulated by a particular set of procedures and manners. It is fallacious to imagine that anyone who represented the Zen tradition in the past, before it came into contact with Western culture, could have selectively rejected Buddhist observances that modern Europeans and Americans regard as \u201critual\u201d while embracing those that we deem \u201cpractice.\u201d<\/div>\n
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