How to Become a Rinzai Zen Monk

"How do you become a Rinzai Zen Monk?" I was asked, to which I replied, "Why would you WANT to?" Just kidding! That wasn't my answer. This week's video here on YouTube is my answer! Ordination in the Rinzai Zen tradition means something very different depending on where and how you do it, with whom, and why. It is, in other words, context dependent. American Rinzai Zen monks in my lineage, for example, have very different expectations placed upon them than Rinzai Zen monks from the Myoshin-ji lineage in Japan, where my teacher came from. In this week's video we travel back 100 years to Kyoto, as my teacher walks across Japan to arrive at the age of 14 on the monastery doorstep. 40-some years later, he arrives on American shores to teach Zen to, well, mostly Californian hippies. Soon he creates a fresh monastic system in the States that both reflects and borrows from, while also departing from, the strictly hierarchical monastic system he learned in Japan. So, what, in the end, do my priest's robes mean? What are they good for? What do they signify? These are deep and interesting questions, and like all things in Zen, the answer is, um, a little bit of this, a little bit of that -- to wit, the robes are ultimately empty. Meaningless. You can't take them too seriously, but also...you have to take them 100% seriously, but not, you know, 100%-100% seriously. Robes are serious. As a heart attack. But also . . . not. I swear it all makes sense if you just watch this week's video! I offer these videos for free, but you can support my work here: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?busine... You can find essays, blogs, and videos here: patreon.com/ShozanJackHaubner And buy my books here: https://www.amazon.com/Shozan-Jack-Ha...