Roshi Kennedy’s “If Not, What Is It?”

At our recent lunch, Bob shared a memory from one of Bernie’s Year-Beginning Zen gatherings, a sesshin at Litchfield. I was there, I think, but missed this moment. Bernie had asked Bob to offer a Mass. In Bob’s telling, as he raised the host, he asked, “If this is not the body of Christ, what is it?” and none of the assembled monks had any answer. It seemed to me that this story was a classic, a Zen koan.

For the next several days, I walked around with this koan rattling my mind, but whenever I stopped to look at it, I got lost in discursive thoughts. Until Saturday morning, meeting with my Dharma Holders.

Here’s a little back story. Last winter, I took the plunge, for the first time, of making two of my long-time students Dharma Holders, formally acknowledging that I expect them to receive transmission, to become independent, Zen teachers; and we began to work together with that end in mind. Neither had done Jukai – it’s not a routine part of our Zendo culture – but both wanted to. So, we began on the precept study which is at the heart of preparation for Jukai. We have been looking at the ceremony I received and seeing what changes, if any we wanted to make.

When the student is given the precepts by the teacher, he is traditionally asked, “Do you accept them?” When the student agrees, the teacher asks again and then again. When I took the precepts with Bernie, I said, “I do,” three times. We came up with a twist. When I ask the third time, the students will affirm the specific ways they will manifest each precept in the following month. We will go through the precepts one at a time. I like this better than vague general promises.

Each month, we’ve looked at the ways one of the Ten Grave Precepts arise in our lives, using the precept, for instance Non-Stealing, to look from multiple points of view at the ways in which stealing arises in our lives. In the following month, each student takes up a specific non-stealing challenge in their lives. So each month, we’re working with two precepts, one is being taken up a mirror for self-examination and one is serving as a guide to action. In the second month, efforts at non-stealing, successes and especially failures, themselves become mirrors for further reflection.  

And as we go, we've wrestled with the wording. There are wonderful glosses on the precepts by great Zen eminences, Bodhidharma and Dogen Zenji, and a beautiful Zen Peacemaker gloss which is mostly Bernie. Which gloss do we include in the ceremony? Which will make it most meaningful for those receiving Jukai and for the witnesses who may be friends and family members without Zen savvy?

We were wrestling again with precept wording this Saturday. I have always loved  Bernie’s gloss on the Non-Stealing Precept. “Peacemakers throughout all space and time have freely given, asked for, and accepted what is needed.” That’s when Bob’s koan struck.  “If Non-Stealing is not freely giving, asking for, and accepting what is needed, what is it?”

Can you feel the shift? This is not a rhetorical question.