"We're Bowing to Awakening."

That’s me as a second-grader after my First Holy Communion: a major ritual in the Roman Catholic Church.

In this episode, Rev. Charlie Korin Pokorny and I discuss the transformative power of ritual in Soto Zen Buddhism. We speak both of our personal experiences of Zen rituals and the socio-historical context. Below are some issues that we focus on:

• Ritual as a practice of engaging the non-dual in the midst of affirming duality

• How rituals center “awakening” and transform individual and collective karma

• Performing and participating in ritual creates a sacred world

• Ritual as a way to express, embody, and acknowledge our Buddha Nature

Charlie Korin Pokorny

Charlie began Sōtō Zen practice in 1991 at the San Francisco Zen Center and trained as a resident at Tassajara and Green Dragon Temple (Green Gulch Farm) from 1994 to 2006. He received a master’s degree in religious studies at Stanford University in 1994. He was ordained as a Sōtō Zen priest in 1999 by Tenshin Reb Anderson. Together with his wife, Sarah Dojin Emerson, and the founding teacher, Jisho Warner, he served as one of the head priests at Stone Creek Zen Center in Graton, California for many years. Charlie is on the faculty of the Institute of Buddhist Studies and Union Theological Seminary.

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I’m still dressed in white, accompanied by Ryushin Paul Haller, but this time for my Dharma inquiry (head monk) ceremony in March 2018 at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center.