Dear New Inos (I-novices),
This is a space for you to learn the skills necessary to serve as Ino and Doan, especially for our scheduled Zazenkai.
The instructors shall be our experiened Ino/Doans, plus me (Jundo), who will help you master what is required. We are also recruiting additional volunteers, especially among our long term and established members of the Sangha.
At present, there are two main Ceremony forms to learn:
- For beginners, a basic Heart Sutra and Dedication Ceremony, consisting of recitation of the Heart Sutra in English and its Dedication, recited primarily for our weekly Treeleaf Zazenkai; and
- Our longer Service for monthly Zazenkai, consisting of the Hannya Shingyo in Japanese, the 'Identity of Relative & Absolute' in English with accompanying melody, and their Dedication.
We also recite the the Verse of Atonement and the Four Vows, as well as the Verses to Open and Close the Sutras during our monthly Zazenkai.
All of these Chants are quite musical and lovely, powerful and mesmerizing, and I hope that you will enjoy and be swept up in their Chanting, truly finding great beauty in your role as an Ino and Doan.
First, what is an "Ino?" What is a "Doan?"
Ino: Traditionally in a monastery, the zazen hall manager and supervisor of monk’s conduct, one of the seven positions of the senior staff. However, in modern Zen communities, especially in the west, the Ino role involves the recitation of Chants and Dedications of Merit during ceremonies, and is often combined with the role of Doan.
The Soto-shu webpage adds:
As to Doan:rector (ino, inō, ina 維那)
An officer in a monastic bureaucracy; one of the six stewards (roku chiji 六知事). The etymology of the term is complex. Indian Vinaya texts speak of a monk officer called the karma-dāna or "assigner of duties." That term that was translated into Chinese as "disciplinarian" (kōi 綱維) and transliterated as katsuma dana 羯磨陀那. By the Tang dynasty (618-906), a mixed translation and transliteration which combined the final character of both terms - i 維 and na 那 - had become standard. In Tang Buddhist monasteries the rector was one of three top officers (sankō 三綱) and was charged with enforcing rules and maintaining discipline. The other two were the "top seat" (jōza 上座), i.e. the elder who served as spiritual leader or abbot, and the "monastery chief" (jishu 寺主), who was in charge of all practical and administrative affairs, such as supplies and finances.
In Song dynasty Chinese and medieval Japanese Zen monasteries, the rector was in charge of registering monks for retreats, enforcing rules, advising the head seat (shuso 首座) and maintaining discipline in the sangha hall, initiating sutra chanting (kokyō 擧經) by the great assembly, and reciting verses for dedicating the merit (ekō 囘向) produced by that sutra chanting. In contemporary Soto Zen, only training monasteries have a functioning office of rector held by a senior monk who actually serves as disciplinarian for the monastery. The position of rector survives as an important one, however, in all observances that entail chanting sutras and dedicating merit. Whenever the resident priests of affiliated temples get together at one of their temples to perform services for assembled parishioners, one priest will be designated to act as rector for the occasion.
Doan: The person who rings the bells during service or zazen. (Pronunciation = bread DOE + off and ON); Doan-ryo is a general term usually meaning all the drum and instrument players in the temple.
The Soto-shu webpage adds:
In our small Sangha, the roles of Ino and Doan are combined in one person, who typically Chants while also ringing accompanying bells and striking drums. So, we will refer to you as our Ino or Ino/Doan.rector's assistant (dōan 堂行)
Short for "hall manager's" (dōsu 堂司) "assistant" (anja 行者). A junior monk charged with assisting the rector (ino 維那), a senior officer called the "hall manager" because he/she was traditionally the overseer of discipline in the sangha hall (sōdō 僧堂), home to the great assembly (daishu 大衆) of monks in training. The rector's assistant, in general, works to direct the movements of the great assembly, e.g. by playing percussion instruments that signal the start of activities, hanging placards, making verbal announcements, and so on.
Our Sangha emphasizes simplicity in Ceremony. However, I hope that you will, nonetheless, recite and play our simple Ceremonies with all your heart.
Gassho, Jundo
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Originally Posted by Suuko
Sat Today
The “problem” , I think, with what we do is that it is sort of not “normal” use of audio on zoom. There’s bells and knocks at the same time as voices and chanting … Zoom goes insane trying to “improve” sound.. 
