• Search Site Here
  • Brooklyn Zen Center
    398 9th Street
    Brooklyn, NY 11215
    718-701-1083

    Between 6th & 7th Avenues
    Take the F train to 7th Avenue
    Click here for Map
  • BZC Blog Categories

  • BZC Blog Archive

  • Email Subscription

    Enter your address to have
    BZC blog posts emailed:

  • BZC RSS Feed

  • The Robe Chant

    Published July 3rd, 2008

    Several of you have asked about the words to the Robe Chant that we chant together at the end of the second period of zazen on weekday mornings. The words to the chant are not in the Brooklyn Zen Center chant book. The Robe Chant is chanted by Zen Buddhist practitioners before putting on their rakusus (symbolic robe of rectangular cloth worn around the neck) or okesas (full robe of priests). Both represent the robe of practice. Though the translation varies depending on where one practices, we are currently using the following translation, which is chanted twice in Japanese and once in English.

    Dai zai ge da bu ku
    Mu so fu ku den e 
    Hi bu Nyo rai kyo
    Ko do sho shu jo

    Dai zai ge da bu ku
    Mu so fu ku den e 
    Hi bu Nyo rai kyo
    Ko do sho shu jo

    Great robe of liberation
    Field beyond form an emptiness
    Wearing the Tathagata’s teaching
    Saving all beings

    Though the Robe Chant refers to the putting on of the lay or priest robe, at BZC all may join in the chanting of it. Enjoy. 

     

    No Comments Yet

    Be the first to comment!

    Sorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.