Rakusu
Encyclopedia
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
who have taken the precepts
Bodhisattva Precepts
The Bodhisattva Precepts are a set of moral codes used in Mahayana Buddhism to advance a practitioner along the path to becoming a Bodhisattva. Traditionally, monastics observed the basic moral code in Buddhism, the Pratimoksha, but in the Mahayana tradition, monks would additionally observe the...
. It can also signify Lay Ordination. It is made of 16 or more strips of cloth, sewn
Sewing
Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era...
together into a brick-like pattern by the student during their period of preparation for their jukai
Jukai
The Lay Buddhist ordination refers to the public ordination ceremony wherein a lay student of Zen Buddhism receives certain Buddhist precepts, "a rite in which they publicly avow allegiance to 'The Three Refuges' of Buddhist practice: The Buddha, the dharma and the sangha."-Soto School:In the Sōtō...
or ordination ceremony.
There is no set standard, but the most common application of rakusu color is for the front of the rakusu to be black for priests and brown for teachers. The back of the rakusu is left white. The teacher will traditionally write the student's new Dharma name
Dharma name
A Dharma name is a new name acquired during a Buddhist initiation ritual in Mahayana Buddhism and monk ordination in Theravada Buddhism. The name is traditionally given by a Buddhist monastic, but is also given to newly ordained monks, nuns and laity....
and occasionally their lineage
Lineage (Buddhism)
An authentic lineage in Buddhism is the uninterrupted transmission of the Buddha's Dharma from teacher to disciple.The transmission itself can be for example oral, scriptural, through signs, or directly from one mind to another....
.
History
The rakusu is a miniature version of a standard kasayaKesa (clothing)
Kāṣāya are the robes of Buddhist monks and nuns, named after a brown or saffron dye. In Sanskrit and Pali, these robes are also given the more general term cīvara, which references the robes without regard to color....
worn around the neck like a bib. The rakusu is a garment of Chinese
Culture of China
Chinese culture is one of the world's oldest and most complex. The area in which the culture is dominant covers a large geographical region in eastern Asia with customs and traditions varying greatly between towns, cities and provinces...
origins dating back to the periods of the Buddhist persecutions from which the Ch'an Buddhist tradition emerged as the strongest sect.
The Buddha's original outer robe was a rectangular robe in the ratio of 6 by 9. The Buddha is said to have renounced the wearing of new cloth and created his robe from pieces of cast-off white burial cloth found at burial sites and dyed with saffron, for its disinfecting value. It is said in legend to resemble the rice fields seen by the Buddha
Gautama Buddha
Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...
himself while walking on pilgrimage.
When Buddhists came to China the outer robe was modified to include a type of circular fastening clasp to assist with wearing it as the outer garment worn wrapped around the body and hanging over the left shoulder. In distinction with their Indian counterparts, the conditions of living in China led the Chinese Buddhist monks to engage in physical labor to grow their food and maintain their temples and monasteries, and on occasion to do public works like road maintenance, so the outer robe was worn only on ceremonial occasions.
Legend holds that when the Chinese emperors forbid the wearing of robes, defrocked all the Buddhist monks, and bestowed imperial favor on the Confucian and Taoist priests, then Buddhist monks created a miniature version of their robe to be worn secretly around the neck underneath their regular lay clothing.
After the persecutions were over, the wearing of the rakusu was continued but now as a symbolic outer robe and only on informal occasions, such as traveling, when the ceremonial outer robe was protected by not being worn.
Ch'an Buddhism was studied by Dogen
Dogen
Dōgen Zenji was a Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher born in Kyōto, and the founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan after travelling to China and training under the Chinese Caodong lineage there...
, who traveled from Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
to China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
in 1224. Dogen returned to Japan in 1227 or 1228 with his knowledge of Ch'an Buddhism, as well as the rakusu. The rakusu fell into general disuse in China, but due to the tradition continuing in Japan, it is now commonly associated with Zen Buddhist
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
lineages stemming from Japan.
The rakusu today is still usually made with an ornamental circular clasp on the left side to emulate the circular clasp used on full-sized robes.
Symbolism
The rakusu represents the garmentsKesa (clothing)
Kāṣāya are the robes of Buddhist monks and nuns, named after a brown or saffron dye. In Sanskrit and Pali, these robes are also given the more general term cīvara, which references the robes without regard to color....
that the Buddha
Gautama Buddha
Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...
put together to wear after he left his palace to seek enlightenment
Bodhi
Bodhi is both a Pāli and Sanskrit word traditionally translated into English with the word "enlightenment", but which means awakened. In Buddhism it is the knowledge possessed by a Buddha into the nature of things...
. According to Buddhist scripture, Siddhārtha left the palace where he was a prince, and collected rag
Rag
Rag or rags may refer to:*A torn, threadbare or otherwise inferior piece of textile.*A piece of ragtime music.*Raga, the musical scale of a composition in Indian classical music.*Rag...
s from trash heaps, funeral pyre
Funeral Pyre
"Funeral Pyre" is The Jam's thirteenth single released on 6 June 1981. Backed by the B-side "Disguises", a cover of a Who track, it reached #4 in the UK Singles chart....
s, and various other places. He then cleaned the rags by rubbing them in saffron
Saffron
Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus sativus, commonly known as the saffron crocus. Crocus is a genus in the family Iridaceae. Each saffron crocus grows to and bears up to four flowers, each with three vivid crimson stigmas, which are each the distal end of a carpel...
, which gave his robes an orange-golden appearance.
In the Sōtō
Soto
Sōtō Zen , or is, with Rinzai and Ōbaku, one of the three most populous sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism.The Sōtō sect was first established as the Caodong sect during the Tang Dynasty in China by Dongshan Liangjie in the 9th century, which Dōgen Zenji then brought to Japan in the 13th century...
school, the rakusu's color is usually determined by the wearer's status. For example, lay practitioners frequently receive a blue rakusu and black ones are given upon ordination as a priest. A brown rakusu indicates that the wearer has received dharma transmission and is authorized to teach.
On the back of the collar of the rakusu there is an identifying embroidered stitch that represents each of the existing schools of Zen. The Soto school uses a broken pine needle design, the Rinzai school a mountain-shaped triangle, and the Obaku
Obaku
Ōbaku is the Amur Corktree. It may refer to:*Mount Huangbo , a mountain in China's Fujian province, noted for its Buddhist temples*Mount Ōbaku , a mountain in the city of Uji in Japan...
school a six-pointed star.
Sources
- http://www.hsuyun.org/Dharma/zbohy/Special/rakusu/Rakusu.html
- http://www.buddhanet.net/masters/deshimaru.htm
- http://www.buddhistview.com/site/epage/15497_225.htm
- http://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/jjrs/pdf/697.pdf
- http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma10/robe.html