What external marks can accomplish?
I trained with Shodo Harada Roshi in his temple, Sogenji, in Japan. Harada Roshi has been the abbott of that temple for over 40 years and during this time has trained countless people from many countries of the world for longer or shorter periods. Harada Roshi is also the head of One Drop Zen-organization that has monasteries in US, India and Germany and many local groups in other countries. In short, Harada Roshi's teachings – dharma – is and has been touching countless people throughout his teaching career.
Harada Roshi is the dharma heir of Yamada Mumon Roshi, who was a renown Japanese zen master. I'd like to tell the story of the young Harada seeing Mumon Roshi the first time. I think this story is told in one of Harada's books, if you wish to read it in his own words.
Harada was a teenager, one day taking a bus after school, when the bus was boarded by a monk, glad in robes, who had a stunning energy to his presence. Harada noticed that this monk had special energy and presence to him, and secretly followed him to see where he went, perhaps to find out in which temple he lived.
These are the very first events that would develop into teacher-student relationship and Harada's monastic training that lasted 20 years under Mumon Roshi, which lead to Harada becoming a zen master himself, having impact on countless people, myself included.
I have often thought about this story, Harada Roshi seeing Mumon the first time and I come up with this burning question: Would the young Harada had even noticed Mumon, if Mumon had not been wearing monk's robes? Would the young Harada had noticed the pure energy radiating from Mumon had he not been wearing an attire that was different to what everyone else around was wearing? I am sure that the young Harada would have not noticed anything special in Mumon without his robes. It was the robes that initially caught Harada's attention which then lead to him noticing that this monk had special feel to him.
For
years I have planned and contemplated ordination in our Pemako
sangha. I have tested different attires that would be practical in
the Western lifestyle, and yet be traditional, creative and not too
stiff. Why?
It might very well be that myself or my ordained
students are seen by someone like the young Harada in a shopping
mall, in a bus or somewhere else that will then spark something
inside that person, which will lead to her or him taking up spiritual
practice and so on. I feel deeply that Westerners would benefit
seeing practitioners and it is unfortunate that most Western
practitioners and teachers keep their practice hidden from the public
by not wearing the marks of a practitioner.
The dharma needs to reach Western people to take hold in the West, and one way to make that happen is to show people that you're a practitioner why looking like one because like the story exemplifies, being on display has the power to change the lives of thousands.
-Dudjom Vajra Rinpoche, 23.5.2022
