Our Teachers Receive Lay Denkai

Sensei Janet and Sensei Gregory were empowered as Lay Preceptors (Denkai) in a ceremony on February 10th, 2012. While not groundbreaking, it is rare for lay Zen teachers to be granted the authority to give the Sixteen Bodhisattva Precepts, and can be seen as part of a wave of the future for Zen in North America. It means that our teachers are now able to be Preceptors to their students, giving them the Precepts in a Jukai ceremony, and they can give Denkai to their lay dharma successors, as well. (Previously, Zen priest Shinryu Thomson of Village Zendo had been giving Jukai to Still Mind students.) This has been long hoped for at Still Mind Zendo and we are grateful to our colleagues at Village Zendo, Sensei Joshin,  Roshi Enkyo and Sensei Shinryu, for being the means through which it could happen.