The Path to Jukai: A Journey of Vows, Sewing, Service, and Sangha

May 2, 2025

Two students holding up rakusu sewn by hand showing their dharma name, with teacher smiling in the background
Lay ordinand holding up their hand stitched rakusu

By Ryan Lee Wong

Nearly twenty sangha members are busy stitching rakusus, meeting with teachers, and studying upright ethics as they prepare to receive the Bodhisattva precepts in a ceremony next year called jukai. This is a personal and multi-year process between teacher and student.

We wanted to answer some frequently asked questions to show the wholehearted dedication of the current group, and to clarify this path for those interested in the future.

How do you ask to receive the precepts?

One first asks a dharma teacher during dokusan (face-to-face meeting) to create a formal teacher-student relationship. Those interested in the Bodhisattva precepts take the 12-week class (offered every other year at BZC) to study and apply them in daily life. 

Once a student feels ready to commit to a life guided by the precepts, they ask their teacher to start the jukai process. If the teacher agrees, the process begins with sewing the rakusu and further group study, then culminates roughly a year later in a ceremony. 

What is a rakusu?

The rakusu is a miniature version of the okesa, or Buddha robe many monastics across lineages wear across their shoulders. The smaller rakusu traces back to Chinese Buddhism and became codified in Japan as a portable and practical way to signal a lay life of vow. The rakusu comprises several cut panels stitched together, echoing the first robes made of scraps and discards rather than new fabric. 

Each student sews the rakusu by hand under the guidance of a sewing teacher. They sew rows of stitches only a few millimeters across while internally reciting namu kie butsu—taking refuge in Buddha with each stitch. The teacher writes the student’s dharma name on the rakusu’s white silk backing, and gives the rakusu back to the student during the jukai ceremony along with a ‘blood lineage’ chart tracing the transmission of dharma through time. 

What happens after receiving the precepts and rakusu?

The jukai ceremony is only the start of a life oriented around ethical vows, sangha, and a continuing journey in the Buddhadharma. Students are requested to support the teachers and temples through dana—financial giving, acts of service, and practice roles. The monthly Full Moon Ceremony offers a time for the jukai group and the entire sangha to renew their vows. Students are also expected to continue a steady sitting, chanting, and training life both at home and in the temples. 

Wearing a rakusu signals one’s vows, thereby inviting feedback, trust, and mirroring. Jukai is a prerequisite for facilitating most dharma groups and classes at BZC, as well as some leadership roles. Jukai is not something to be gained or achieved, but rather a public commitment to the Bodhisattva way.   

“The buddha precepts [were] authentically transmitted up to today from buddha to buddha, from ancestor to ancestor”—Eihei Dogen, “Receiving the Precepts”

There’s more to write about jukai, and even more that words cannot capture. Jukai is a beautiful ceremony that connects us across time to the Buddha ancestors and those who will walk this path in the future. A life of vow—contrary to dominant culture—is not limiting. Rather, vows allow us to care for the precious energy of our lives, so that we may work for the liberation of our loved ones, our sangha and communities, and all beings.