Back in Holland, Preparing for Ordination

I've been back in Europe for almost 6 weeks now. A few days after coming back from the US I went to Paris and spent a week at Dana Zen Center. Last october I was there for the first time to do a 7 day sesshin (retreat). This time I did a shorter sesshin, and stayed a few days afterwards. It was very nice to start getting to know the people there and to make warm connections. I did feel very welcome and at home there. It's a wonderful place.

For the last month or so, I have been in Holland, temporarily [NL: tijdelijk] staying at my parents' place. They live in a beautiful renovated farm house in the country side of the east of the Netherlands, close to the river IJssel. I have been using the upstairs part of their house [NL: bovenverdieping], and I've been creating a sewing room [NL: naaikamer] there. For the last four weeks I've spent a lot of time in there.

I'm preparing for my shukke tokudo ceremony. This is my ordination [NL: inwijding] as a zen monk [NL: monnik], or formally as a novice zen priest [NL: priester]. It will take place on march 13th, at the of a zen weekend led by my teacher Irène Bakker Sensei. I am thrilled and honored she agreed to ordain me.

My preparation mainly consists of sewing [NL: naaien] my okesa, my monk's robe [NL: gewaad]. This is really a lot of work, sewing many pieces of cloth together manually, with needle and thread [NL: met naald en draad]. I started working on it last august, and I've been spending spare time on it since. This last month, I've really had to increase my sewing time substantially in order to get it all finished in time for the ceremony. In Dutch, we have an expression 'monnikenwerk' that would translate as 'monk's work' for a task or job (usually manual work) that is very time consuming and tedious [NL: langdradig] and requires lots of patience [NL: geduld] to complete. This sewing process has truly been a monk's labor.

It's been a beautiful process, though. It's nice to see it all take shape and to become beautiful. Also, it was so interesting to see how my state of mind was really reflected in my stitching [NL: mijn steken]: a calm and clear mind produces nice and even [NL: gelijkmatig] stitching, and a distracted or agitated [NL: afgeleid of geagiteerd] mind produces something else, which would often lead to redoing [NL: overdoen] a portion. Moreover, the robe I am sewing was worn [NL: gedragen] by my teacher, my teacher's teacher, and so many before them. And ultimately the pattern of the robe is based on the robe of the Buddha. I do feel that this robe connects me more intimately with all of them. And at the same time, what we're looking for is not about a piece of cloth and a robe is just a robe. Still, I sew my robe with care.

(Click on the pictures to enlarge them.)

#Ordination #IrèneBakker #fotos #Holland