Nyoho clothing
Accurately preserving, embodying and transmitting Kodo Sawaki’s teachings about sewing, wearing and encountering Buddha’s robe See Hoko's continuing series on the gathas of the Avatamsaka Sutra for the Dogen Institute
A Buddhist Priest Weighs in on Beauty and Bay Area Style Akiba Sokan: “Beauty has a function in rituals and for people performing or attending rituals. That is important, but it shouldn’t be the focus of attachment.” |
Nyoho and nyoho-e
It's important to remember the difference between nyoho and nyoho-e. Nyoho is the dharma of thusness, while nyoho-e are things (often robes) made in accord with the dharma of thusness. Nyoho is said to have three faces (food, clothing and shelter), so we need to be clear that if we're talking about robes that exist in the world of form, we're talking about nyoho-e. "I'm going to wear my nyoho today," or "I'm working on sewing my nyoho" are statements that don't make sense. You're sewing and wearing nyoho-e. Teachings of nyoho can be applied to both clothing worn inside the temple (such as okesa and rakusu) and everyday clothing worn at home. The Sawaki Nyoho-e Treasury particularly focuses on robes, and over time this page will offer resources on nyoho clothing in general. Daily dressing as a dharma practice
As part of your practice, you might consider how your clothing life enhances or hinders your aspiration. The Buddhist tradition offers some dharma gates related to this question; they come from the Avatamsaka Sutra, or the Flower Ornament Sutra. This is a huge and very important sutra in East Asian Buddhism. There’s a lot in there about interconnectedness of the one and the many, and many psychedelic images of buddhas and buddha lands. There’s also a section of 140 verses that can each be taken as a statement of aspiration. Some have been turned into the verses we use everyday when doing basic things in the training temple. There’s a verse for entering the bath, shaving the head, brushing your teeth, washing your hands. The verses sometimes go in sequences, with a group about coming into the zendo and doing zazen, or about bathing and brushing your teeth, or about eating a meal. There’s a sequence for going through ordination, and one verse says: Shedding lay clothing, I vow with all beings to cultivate roots of goodness, and abandon the yoke of transgressions. Later on there’s a sequence about dressing as a “monk:” Putting on lower garments, I vow with all beings to wear the foundations of goodness, and have a sense of humility and conscience. Putting on a belt, I vow with all beings to bundle roots of goodness, and not let them be lost. Putting on an outer garment, I vow with all beings to attain supreme bases of goodness, and reach the Other Shore of the teaching. We could certainly take these on as a daily practice in our clothing lives no matter what our circumstances are and no matter what we’re wearing. One of the first things we notice is that almost all of them contain a reference to the "roots of goodness." These are the qualities or accumulated karma that allow for our spiritual development. Typically they have to do with doing acts of kindness and listening to dharma teachings. Thus we could let our daily routines of dressing and undressing serve as dharma gates or reminders to take care of all beings and to engage in dharma study with body and mind. Shedding lay clothing, I vow with all beings to cultivate roots of goodness, and abandon the yoke of transgressions. When we’re changing clothes, we can remind ourselves to be kind to others and pay attention to what Buddha taught. When we’re shedding clothing, we can resolve once again to let go of the suffering that comes with unskillful action. As we know, when we break precepts we set ourselves up for the continuing unfolding of greed, anger and ignorance. Putting on lower garments, I vow with all beings to wear the foundations of goodness, and have a sense of humility and conscience. We might consider how wearing the foundations of goodness relates to wearing Tathagata’s teaching, as we say when we’re putting on rakusu or okesa. How is our aspiration holding us up and supporting our practice throughout the day? How is our work in the world being affected by our understanding of the nature of self and how we’re usually driven by ego and clinging? How is what we’re doing affecting other beings, and do we care? Are we humble enough to stop putting ourselves forward and do we have some conscientiousness about our footprints in the world? Putting on a belt, I vow with all beings to bundle roots of goodness, and not let them be lost. In bundling the roots of goodness, we know that while we can point to individual aspects of our moral development, they aren’t really separate. We can’t really separate the elements of the eightfold path, or the individual precepts. Not only does each one reinforce our practice of the others, but they’re all elements of the same unified reality and we need to see how they’re tied together. Putting on an outer garment, I vow with all beings to attain supreme bases of goodness, and reach the Other Shore of the teaching. Now we’ve gone from the inner, underlying foundations of goodness to an outward perspective that points to nirvana or awakening. On this one body, we’re wearing inner and outer garments, and the verses are all still about the roots of goodness and remembering to practice. It’s a direct experience of there really being no inside and outside, no samsara and nirvana, just a complete manifestation of the dharma, and of course if the last step is to put on a physical nyoho-e, then there’s that additional tangible layer of reality. In the simple act of getting dressed, we have an opportunity to decide again to live in Buddha’s way and to wear and carry that aspiration with us into the world. Our clothing helps to create the container in which we’re practicing, whether in the zendo or out in the world. We can have some intention about it that provides real support in our practice of wisdom and compassion for ourselves and others. What’s more intimate than what we wear on this body? Doesn’t it make sense to take just a moment in the morning to consider whether what we’re wearing is comfortable for ourselves and not distracting for someone else? If we’re comfortable, we can be natural in the way we move and act. We can be our true selves and really focus on what’s happening here and now, and that means everyone else around can too. Koun Franz says that one of his teachers used to say that if it’s not about you, it’s probably nyoho. Our clothing is fully serving its purpose with nothing extra. |
