Welcome to our second Treeleaf "Denki Kuyo" (電気供養), Memorial Service for Electronics, and especially communications devices, which have left the digital world, been supplanted, unplugged, replaced and erased, and are otherwise ready to be recycled into future incarnations ...
This ceremony is based on an older tradition in Japan to honor farm implements, kitchen utensils, old toys and the like which have aided and enriched our lives, been extensions of our hands and tools of our sentient minds, such as this "Hari Kuyo" for dulled and broken sewing needles and pins ...
As we are a Zen Sangha connected by electrons and light, silicon and Sutras, we feel that it is important to honor the equipment and platforms that serve as our "temple halls and pavilions," for they have made our community possible. In fact, this is our second such ceremony (the last was 8 years ago), and in that time we have gathered many desk tops and lapstops, flip phones and smart phones, modems, printers, cameras and cables that have passed their time, exceeded their useful lives and warranties. They have brought us together.
Nor are we really the first to hold such a ceremony, inspired by this memorial in Japan for beloved Aibo Robot Pups and other AI pets that have gone to digital doggie heaven ... perhaps to be refurbished and reborn in generations of AI-bowsers to come ...
Our short ceremony will commence right after our usual Heart Sutra, and will include the following dedication and recitation (thank you to Sekishi, our Treeleaf Techno-Ino, for helping me adjust the words of the ancient Shari Raimon chant):
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Today we gather to mark and commemorate the service and impermanence of the tools of hardware and software which are bridges linking our Sangha and lives, the strands of Indra’s Net and the World Wide Web, 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G and more, AI and Ohm, Bodhisattvas of boundless bandwidth, all passing from this sphere of existence as the world of technology constantly changes. They are extensions of the hands, eyes, and minds of sentient beings, and we are grateful for their service.
Dear Machines and Programs …
From the beginning, there is neither birth nor death … nor invention, programming, running or deletion. Yet all is booted up and shut down,
and all composite things are impermanent, all files emptied, all data someday erased.
Because of our particular karmic accumulation, like bytes and bits in an ongoing memory, we were able to encounter and employ you for the good of sentient beings, teaching Dharma and nurturing Sangha.
Now, let us close your covers and send you for recycling, that nothing may be wasted and all shall be reborn. (JUNDO OFFERS INCENSE, THEN CEREMONIOUSLY CLOSES COVERS ON COMPUTERS WHILE THE FOREGOING IS BEING READ)
Let us recite this Denki Shari Raimon: “Homage to the Buddha’s Electronic Relics . . . ” (chant 1x)
Buddha’s electronic relics are digital body and mind.
Body-mind are the Dharma bytes of original nature,
Are the stupa and data store of the dharma realm.
We reverently bow.
Buddha boots on screens for our sake.
Buddha downloads us and we upload Buddha.
Owing to Buddha, we are maintainers of this source repository.
I run the enlightenment patch, and with Buddha’s code
All creations are benefited, and run the enlightened process
Practice the Bodhisattva’s program, the great wisdom of
data equality. Now I respectfully bow.
(THEN INO RETURNS TO OUR NORMAL DEDICATION with these ADDED WORDS ...
Buddha Nature pervades the whole universe, Reality, existing right here now:
In reciting THE HEART OF THE PERFECTION OF GREAT WISDOM SUTRA and HOMAGE TO THE BUDDHA'S ELECTRONlC RELICS, we dedicate our sincere efforts to:
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Please join us, bringing your old devices, hardware and software, plug-ins, keyboards and motherboards to be thanked for their aid, not tossed away lightly. Light incense, offer them a bow with gratitude in heart, and chant with us.
Gassho, J
STLAH