No Seniors, No Juniors - Just People of No Rank

[Jundo]

Hi Guys,

Our forum software, for reasons that nobody can remember, was labeling folks as "senior" members after a certain number of posts. We actually have no "junior" or "senior" members here, so Seimyo fixed that for us. Everybody is a "member"

We still do have the Priests marked such, but please remember that "Priests" here are in no way "senior". They are, if anything, in a role of service, and should be humble in being so. Jukai or Priest Ordination does not place someone above (perhaps a bit below in service to all Sentient Beings). So, I think perhaps all our members are "senior" and priests are "junior." I wrote this to someone else today who asked what it meant to be a Priest ...

It is primarily a position of service. We are the crew on the ship, the waiters in the Buddha restaurant, the nurses in the hospital. It should be a calling, from a sense of duty.

In our Lineage, we primarily emphasize an unbroken wholeness between work, family, Zen Practice and priesthood. We are not big on Ceremonies compared to most Lineages. Still, our priests spend several years study the history, traditions, basic (very) ceremony and Teachings of the Soto Zen Way because it is the duty of each generation to pass it on to the next.

In our Lineage, the hard borders between Priest and Lay, parent and spouse, worker and minister, drop away and we fully actuate each. We just mark the title so people know who is who, who is the honored guest and who is the kitchen staff.

(We also have the designation "Friend of Treeleaf" for our dear friends over at the Blue Mountain, who are always welcome here. )

Let us all be senior and junior to each other at once! Students teach teachers as teachers help students. Master Nanquan once said that, were he to meet a child of three years old who could teach him, he would become the child’s pupil, and if he were to meet someone over a hundred years old whom he could teach, then he would teach that person. That's the right attitude! Master Rinzai spoke of the "True Person of No Rank". We are all, always Beginners. A moment of sitting is a moment of Buddha.

In any event, we still need to be careful and avoid this from Orwell's Animal Farm ...

Gassho, J

SatToday