Although our focus is almost entirely on zazen, we do hold a brief service on the first Saturday of each month, as well as during traditional retreats, special ceremonies, or if requested by visiting teachers. The following are the chants we typically use for these services in the order in which they are typically recited.
Verse of the Robe (repeat 3 times)
All: How great the robe of liberation
A field far beyond form and emptiness
Wrapping ourselves in Buddha’s teaching
Freeing all beings.
Acknowledgment of Karma
Doan: All my ancient twisted karma
All: From beginningless greed, hate and delusion,
Born of body, speech and mind,
I now fully avow.
The Three Refuges
Doan: I take refuge in Buddha
All: May all living beings embody the great way, resolving to awaken.
Doan: I take refuge in Dharma
All: May all living beings deeply enter the teachings, wisdom like the sea.
Doan: I take refuge in Sangha
All: May all living beings support harmony in the community, completely without hindrance.
The Four Bodhisattva Vows
All: Beings are numberless; vowing to free them.
Delusions are inexhaustible; vowing to extinguish them.
Dharma gates are boundless; vowing to enter them.
Buddha’s way is unsurpassable; vowing to become it.
Heart of Great Perfect Wisdom Sutra
Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, when deeply practicing prajna paramita, clearly saw that all five aggregates are empty and thus relieved all suffering. Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness, emptiness does not differ from form. Form itself is emptiness, emptiness itself form. Sensations, perceptions, formations, and consciousness are also like this.
Shariputra, all dharmas are marked by emptiness; they neither arise nor cease, are neither defiled nor pure, neither increase nor decrease. Therefore, given emptiness, there is no form, no sensation, no perception, no formation, no consciousness; no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind; no sight, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object of mind; no realm of sight… no realm of mind consciousness. There is neither ignorance nor extinction of ignorance… neither old age and death, nor extinction of old age and death; no suffering, no cause, no cessation, no path; no knowledge and no attainment. With nothing to attain, a bodhisattva relies on prajna paramita, and thus the mind is without hindrance. Without hindrance, there is no fear. Far beyond all inverted views, one realizes nirvana. All buddhas of past, present, and future rely on prajna paramita and thereby attain unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment. Therefore, know the prajna paramita as the great miraculous mantra, the great bright mantra, the supreme mantra, the incomparable mantra, which removes all suffering and is true, not false.
Therefore we proclaim the prajna paramita mantra, the mantra that says: “Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha.”
Closing Dedication
All: All Buddhas, ten directions, three times
All beings, Bodhisattva Mahasattvas
Wisdom beyond wisdom, Mahaprajna Paramita
Verse for Opening the Sutra (Chanted before Dharma Talks)
All: So rare to touch a deep and subtle dharma
Having it to see and hear, remember and become
We vow to taste the truth
That is right here and yet so far beyond words
The Four Bodhisattva Vows (Chanted after Dharma Talks)
All: Beings are numberless; vowing to free them.
Delusions are inexhaustible; vowing to extinguish them.
Dharma gates are boundless; vowing to enter them.
Buddha’s way is unsurpassable; vowing to become it.