May 17th is the anniversary of my monastic ordination. That date also marks the anniversary of a lay ordination ceremony held in Edmonton two years ago. I’m shown signing the register of ceremonies. Congratulations to Mike, who can be seen to the right side of the photograph. Also very many thanks to the Edmonton Meditation Group members for their kindness and generosity.
Be it lay or monastic ordination the Sixteen Buddhist Precepts are taken to heart at that time and then again each morning by reciting The Kesa Verse while holding the hands palm to palm. I see this as holding up the flower.
How great and wondrous are the clothes of Enlightenment,
Formless and embracing every treasure.
I wish to unfold the Buddha’s Teaching,
That I may help all living things.
It is hard to believe that it has been 2 years. Change creeps along like the tide so that it is almost imperceptible. Bumping into an old friend the other day really brought that home, with their comments about going for a beer and so on, something once so commonplace and seen at that time to be enjoyable and yet now so incomprehensible as to how it could ever have been so. To be in the moment, not clouded by delusion, to live now, the wind, the rain and the dog snoring…