Encountering Buddha's robe
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Nyoho-e has no market value
Okumura Roshi Nyoho-e is the name of this robe called the “okesa” or “kashaya” in Sanskrit. "Kashaya" actually means the color, not the fabric or the shape. “Kashaya” or “okesa” is made of abandoned rags, fabric the Buddhist monks found in the cemetery, a grave yard or the street. The monks washed those abandoned rags and then cut off only the unstained pieces. They sewed those pieces together and made their robes. Those rags found in the grave yard or on the street had no market value any more; they were just abandoned, so the monks could take them without other people objecting. A robe made this way is free from greed or desires. In India, Buddhist monks made their robes with abandoned rags, but in Japan, and probably in China, too, this sort of material was not readily available. Those monks used new fabric, which they intentionally cut up into pieces, and again caused it to lose its market value. That means the robe itself has no market value; people don't want to take it. Therefore, the Buddha said, it’s safe to wear it because it’s free from any person's desire or grasping. Another important point is that because the robe is sewn together from small pieces, it expresses the teaching of interconnectedness. Without interconnectedness, there's no robe. Each and every thing is separate, and yet somehow they become one. This is a robe that expresses the reality or truth of impermanence, no self and interconnectedness, so wearing it is wearing Buddha's teaching, as it says in the robe chant. |
Article by Kodo Sawaki More resources to explore
Here's Kenshu Sugawara's short paper for Sotoshu on kesa kudoku as a teaching term. Here's Hoko's summary of the key points of Dogen's Kesa Kudoku fascicle. key_kesa_kudoku.pdf Download File Here's a summary of Soto School regulations about kesa from Antaiji, included in a broader article about the credentialing process for clergy. |
