Some Background and History

We inherited the beautiful Zen tradition from Asia and with it came remnants of the monastic model developed first in China and then later in Korea and Japan. The first Zen teachers who came to the United States and Europe were trained in traditional temples and monasteries, so they brought the Asian training forms to their students, as the only way they knew to transmit the teachings and proved the training necessary to embody the teachings.

In a monastic model the primary way that people move through the system is through an ordination process. An aspiring student would arrive at a temple and through the demonstration of their sincere commitment and devotion would begin to train with great dedication. They would receive the precepts and takes refuge with the teacher in the lineage held by that temple and then they would eventually be ordained as a novice priest.

Some of the temples and monasteries would have hundreds of young priests (and sometimes nuns), who were essentially the workforce that sustained the temples and served the community around them by offering ceremonies of transition like weddings and funerals. In turn, the community would support the temple by their donations.

Over time certain individuals would begin to stand out as natural leaders or budding teachers in these communities. The training model in these monasteries included “Practice Periods” (or Ango), usually about 100 days long, in which the intensity of practice is increased with more formal teaching, meditation, and focused training. During these times the senior teacher would choose one of these emerging leaders to be the “Head Student” (or Shuso) for the Practice Period. The Head Student would “share the seat” and responsibilities of the senior teacher for the duration of the Practice Period. There would be an Entering Ceremony in which the Head Student was invited to take on the responsibility of Head Student and was then installed into the role. There was also an even more elaborate ceremony at the end of the Practice Period in which the community would have a chance to ask questions of the Head Student in a ceremony of completion.

During the Practice Period the Head Student would give dharma talks, meet informally with all the other monks in the community, maybe teach or train others in some way that demonstrated their capacity to follow their teacher and become an example for the community. There were also certain balancing tasks built into the role. For example, the Head Student and his or her assistant (the Benji) would have the responsibility of getting up earlier than anyone else and take out the rubbish and clean all the toilets before morning zazen. This was a way to demonstrate that while being recognized as a leader, a leader must do the most menial tasks. The Shuso was not being elevated even as they were being recognized.

Once a person had been the Head Student for a Practice Period, they would then become available to the other monks as someone they could see for Practice Discussion (dokusan). The Head Student would have become a friend to the other monks and nuns through all the shared teas, talks, and side-by-side work. They would mature into a mentoring role and as a bridge between the young novices and the senior Teacher.

In many cases the former Head Student might enter into a deeper training relationship with their Teacher in order to receive Dharma Transmission. This is an elaborate and ancient tradition in which the Teacher acknowledges and recognizes the former student as a new Senior Teacher, or Dharma Heir, who can carry on the life and training of the temple or monastery. This is “full ordination” and the new Teacher would then be empowered to lead all the ceremonies, train and ordain priests, and pass on the dharma to a new generation.