Michael writes...
For the last few years I've been working with Ed, a fellow traveller on the Zen path. For the last few weeks Vera's been sewing his rakusu, the beige thing you see hanging round my neck:
It's a badge of office in the Zen community which means, "Officially enlightened!"
(Unfortunately the Zen community also believes that everything is impermanent, so whatever my spiritual state when I received my rakusu, it's been a while, so...)
Ed picked me up form Heathrow on Friday afternoon and dropped me back there 24 hours later. (Heathrow's not as grim as it used to be. Terminal 3 was really rather spacious and friendly!)
In between I'd had the privilege of attending his meditation group's zazenkai (brief, intense meditation retreat) and of conducting his dharma transmission (ordination) ceremony.
Here I am saying something terribly profound:
And here's a view which gives a better impression of what was really going on. The orange bucket was, when it arrived, full of cars. The four year-old standing next to it ensured that this was the noisiest transmission ceremony in 2,500 years of Buddhism!
And here's Ed receiving his rakusu and me demonstrating the profundity of my eyebrows.
(Photos come thanks to Nick, a previous recipient of Vera's sewing skills.)
