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| Photo by Sandra Raponi |
Living Vow Zen priests, as recognized clergy in Massachusetts, officiate ceremonies marking life's most significant transitions, visit sick sangha members in hospitals and their homes, and support sangha members in time of grief. Priests also perform liturgical rituals at weekly services and sesshin (multi-day intensive practice periods). We attend climate demonstrations, correspond with prisoners, and advocate for peace and justice. And in daily life, priests do our best to avoid causing harm, practice good, and alleviate suffering in our communities. When we screw up (and we do), we atone and vow to do better. (Indeed, one of our prerequisites for becoming a priest in LiVZ is acknowledging a mistake, atoning, and beginning again.) We vow to support all life -- our children, spouses, pets, colleagues, co-workers, friends, acquaintances, and all beings.
Living Vow Zen's priest lineage has its roots in the Japanese Soto tradition through Peggy Houn Jiyu-Kennett, Roshi, the first woman to be authorized to teach by the Soto school in Japan. Living Vow Zen's priest and teacher formation is inspired by Boundless Way Zen's, where I was ordained and received transmission (permission to teach).
There are two levels of ordination, unsui (clouds and water) and osho (senior). In Living Vow Zen, to be ordained, unsui candidates must have regularly attended weekly services (Living Vow offers three per week) plus 100 full days of sesshin, all primarily in person with their shoken teacher. (LiVZ currently offers 19 full sesshin days plus 6 all-day practices called zazenkai annually; zazenkai are distinguished but count toward the candidates total.)
Candidates must also demonstrate a series of competencies:
a demonstrated commitment to living according to the bodhisattva precepts;
pastoral skills, particularly officiating ceremonies such as memorials and weddings as informed by the Zen tradition;
knowledge of spiritual counseling, including transference, projection, power imbalances, trauma, and life transitions (to be deepened through dokusan supervision if training to be a senior priest);
an ability to perform and teach Zen forms (and as a senior priest, Jukai, ordinations, and transmissions);
an understanding of Soto Zen informed by practice and sutra study;
a capacity to meet diverse people as they are (and to offer culturally sensitive practice guidance, if a senior priest);
self-awareness and stability, including recognizing and working with unskillful behaviors, boundary setting, and balancing sangha and self-care;
organizational and community leadership;
public speaking (including dharma talks if a senior priest);
a compassionate, priestly presence (hard to articulate but easy to recognize);
and a means to support themselves with right livelihood.
No koan training is required for one to ordain as an unsui priest as the role's emphases are service (for the sangha and beyond) and embodying our Soto forms rather than teaching. (Unsui priests are not teachers.) Koan training is required for those who aspire to teach as senior priests.
LiVZ's model where priests are generally expected to earn their own living allows for an admirable path that also honors the life of vow. We have no expectation that our sangha will support our priests financially. This means that we expect our priests to work in the world according to right livelihood in ways that contribute to the well-being of the larger society, perhaps as educators, social workers, carpenters, therapists, ministers, health care workers, researchers, and more. This model appears to be the most common way the dharma has transmitted to the West, encouraging lay folks to practice with priests rather than creating and supporting a separate monastic class.
Many of the initial priest competencies are gradually cultivated as sangha members play important roles in facilitating sangha practice, such as being an officer for sesshin (an intensive Zen retreat). For example, the tanto (or provisional "shuso," the practice leader for a sesshin) serves an important role for the sangha while developing the skills to potentially serve as a LiVZ practice leader or priest. And practice leaders have their own support group facilitated by a Guiding Teacher(s). In this way, through practice, service, and mentoring, aspiring priests mature in the dharma. Before unsui ordination, an ordination committee reviews the candidates performance and offers support and feedback. The final determination of preparedness is up to the ordaining teacher.
Ordination is conferred by a LiVZ senior priest through the authority of her or his own ordination and precepts transmission, in consultation with the ordination committee and the Living Vow Zen Guiding Teacher(s). After ordination, unsui are supervised by, and serve under the authority of, their ordaining teachers and therefore must remain in shoken relationship with their ordaining teachers or another LiVZ senior priest in order to continue to serve as priests. Priests are expected to attend LiVZ sesshin to continue their training and service.
Unsui ordination represents a public vow to practice intensively, to offer pastoral and liturgical services, and to support the well-being of the sangha and all beings. It reflects a commitment and stability of heart and practice. Ordination publicly affirms the significance and prominence of the role of the dharma in one’s life, in the same way that a marriage ceremony might be said to publicly affirm a commitment and relationship to one’s long-time partner; as James Ford says, "nothing changes, and everything changes."
It is entirely possible and even likely that most priests would choose to remain unsuis for their entire lives. Not all priests are called to teach. To be an unsui is a noble calling to serve the dharma, sangha, and community with one's deepest heartfelt commitment and no gaining idea. It is a pure and complete expression of the bodhisattva vow. Still, in Living Vow Zen (LiVZ), being a priest is not a necessary step along the way to becoming a fully authorized Zen teacher. For those Zen students -- either ordained or lay -- for whom teaching might be a good fit, we offer extended, supervised internships as practice leaders. Our training guidelines for practice leaders follow. Practice leader permissions are granted incrementally by one's shoken teacher and may be rescinded at any time.
After perhaps 5 years of practice (substantially with Living Vow), some sesshin experience, and after making progress in the Gateless Barrier koan collection, a practitioner who demonstrates the relevant capacities for leadership may be named a practice leader and facilitate a practice group in Living Vow Zen. Practice leaders are supervised by, and serve under the authority of, the LiVZ Guiding Teacher(s). Each practice leader needs to be in a shoken relationship with a Living Vow Zen teacher and to meet regularly with their teacher to reflect on their experience and receive guidance. An extended, supervised internship is a fundamental part of priest and teacher formation in Living Vow.
After a few more years, after attending at least 75 sesshin days, and if they have progressed at least halfway through the Gateless Gate koan collection, a practice leader who demonstrates the capacity might provisionally be granted permission to offer brief (5 minute), supervised encouragement talks. Practice leaders are encouraged to speak from their own practice, and they receive feedback on their talks from their shoken teacher.
Practice leaders may subsequently be given permission to offer full dharma talks after 150 sesshin days and if they have made substantial progress in the Blue Cliff Record koan collection. Many of these talks will be supervised, but in some instances, they may be offered independently.
Next, after about 225 sesshin days and if they have made substantial progress in The Book of Equanimity koan collection, a practice leader may be also granted permission to offer supervised dokusan (private meetings with students) during weekly practices (though not yet at sesshin or zazenkai).
After a practice leader has interned for perhaps 10 years and been supervised in offering talks and dokusan, their teacher may consider offering the first stage of dharma transmission. For one to receive this first stage of transmission, generally one will have attended at least 300 sesshin days, demonstrated insight (in appraisals by one's teacher and substantial progress in The Record of Transmitting the Light koan collection), and shown commitment and skill in teaching. Dharma transmissions are granted by fully transmitted teachers through the authority of their own transmission in recognition of experience, insight, commitment, ethics, and teaching competencies. For a priest, the first stage of transmission is called denkai and confers the title "osho," or "senior priest." Priests approaching this stage serve as shuso for a weeklong sesshin, culminating in a Shuso Hossen ceremony. For a lay teacher, this stage of transmission is called "dharma entrustment" and confers the title "dharma holder." Once transmitted, an osho may receive shoken students, offer the precepts, and ordain unsui, though they may not offer dharma transmission to dharma heirs until they have received the second stage of transmission. A dharma holder has the same authorities as an osho, minus ordaining priests.
After a few more years, at least 350 sesshin days, and after having completed the entire koan curriculum, an osho or dharma holder might receive the second stage of transmission called denbo, or full transmission, if one's shoken teacher determines it fitting. This number of sesshin days is not determined in isolation; the American Zen Teachers Association, while not a credentialing body per se but a support group for Zen teachers, also has a working guideline that teacher formation requires about a year's worth of sesshin days, in addition to transmission from one's teacher. In a sense the most significant stage of transmission, denbo confers the title of "Sensei" and may offer transmission to dharma heirs and function as an entirely independent Zen teacher. While titles, roles, and permissions in LiVZ as practice leaders and unsuis can be revoked by their teacher at any time, dharma transmissions and ordination as an osho cannot be rescinded (though all spiritual leaders in Living Vow Zen serve at the pleasure of the Guiding Teachers). Of course, joining Living Vow does not nullify permissions, ordinations, or transmissions in other traditions, but to function as a spiritual leader in Living Vow Zen requires an appointment by a LiVZ guiding teacher and, in the case of Guiding Teachers, the Board of Trustees.
The third stage or "final transmission" is called inka shōmei and confers the title "Roshi," meaning "old teacher" or "master teacher." Inka shōmei, which means the "legitimate seal of clearly furnished proof," commemorates a Soto teacher who has given years of service and is also the traditional acknowledgment of mastery in the Rinzai tradition. My transmission in the Seon lineage traces its roots to Linji, the founder of both the Korean Seon and the Japanese Rinzai traditions. Inka shōmei for me therefore commemorated my lineage roots in both the Soto and Linji traditions. To receive this final transmission, we expect more than 400 days of sesshin experience. By the time I was given inka shōmei on May 28, 2022 by David Rynick, Roshi, I had attended 413 days of sesshin plus 80 days of zazenkai and had practiced regularly in person with sanghas and daily at home over two decades. I completed the koan curriculum with my teachers, was evaluated and supported by an ordination committee, and was mentored as a teaching intern for ten years. And my training did not finish with inka shōmei; I continue to attend about 24 days of sesshin and zazenkai annually and regularly consult with my co-teacher and other Zen teachers. Training is never finished; it is a way of life.
James Ford, Roshi was central in developing Boundless Way Zen's priest and teacher training programs and which serve as a model for Living Vow Zen's programs. He writes that some trainees are fortunate enough to experience monastic living and a formal ango (extended retreat) as part of their priest training; however, practitioners in the West, particularly those with family, more commonly experience the cloister by repeatedly attending sesshin -- briefer but more intensive meditation retreats -- over many years. Most sesshin days include about nine hours of zazen, plus formal meal and work practice. Additionally, in LiVZ we offer extensive koan training through the Harada-Yasutani koan curriculum to foster and integrate awakening as "householders." Koans also allow for a more objective evaluation of spiritual growth. Based on this vision of training, we offer paths to senior priesthood and/or teaching that cultivate spiritual maturation while honoring other life responsibilities. The Soto Zen Buddhist Association now acknowledges that monastic residence (or "temple-centered living") and ango are not irreplaceable prerequisites for senior priest formation; as an alternative, it recommends an extended (8+ year) training period with a transmitted teacher after unsui ordination (with no more than 60 percent online), including a minimum of 15 sesshin days annually. Additionally, if an extended ango is not possible, the SZBA recommends an extra 2+ years of training, totaling 10+ years after unsui ordination before transmission as a senior priest. Living Vow Zen's expectations include completion of our koan curriculum before denbo but otherwise largely align with with the SZBA's and the AZTA's membership standards.
Becoming a Zen priest and/or teacher takes patience, commitment, and humility. It's a long winding road, and we face many inner demons and outer obstacles. Still, befriending these demons, navigating obstacles, developing compassion for ourselves and all beings, and sharing dharma practice with our sangha -- is there anything more meaningful? I'd walk every step of this road over and over again for eternity were that an option. But since we are not even guaranteed our next breath, I'll pour all that love into just this.