Refuge spelled j-u-k-a-i

So, PZI is planning a refuge ceremony in 2012.  This is a big deal.  Which begs the question, what the *$^@ is a refuge ceremony.  

I would love to tell you, but I really have no idea.  I have been sitting in a Zen practice for 6 plus years, but this has never been explained or developed.  Zennies are not big on explanations.  This fits poorly with my need-to-know personality, in which I figure people will explain anything I need to know and I rarely ask questions.  Its not my thing.  So, this refuge is going to happen, and we are all going to figure out what is going on. 

So far as I know right now, this has something to do with the bibs that Zen practitioners wear.  They are, from what I understand, symbolic representations of the robes the buddha wore.  I presume its a small portion or the robes or else Buddha was largely naked.  Which is fine with me, I am open minded, it just clashes with my previous visuals.  I believe that each person going through this ceremony stitches one of these together, but of this I am not positive.  They are almost uniformly black.  I have no idea why this is.  From what I know about India, I am highly skeptical that Buddha wore black.  My experience with Indian fashion preferences is that the more gold, color, pattern, and texture the better.  I suspect the Japanese had something to do with the palate alteration.  The Japanese seem big on black.  Its flattering.  

There is a little bit stitched into the back.  I have seen it mainly in green, though I feel like I have seen it once in brown, maybe yellow or white.  Its not that this is mysterious, I just don't care.  It looks like a little arrow thing.  Ill see if I can find a screen shot.  There is stuff written or painted on the inside.  This is top secret.  Zen practitioners are forced to kill you if you ever read it.  I think.  They don't flash that bit, so I am guessing it has things in it like the secret handshake and the decoder ring code.   

This bib is called a rakusa.  Or something like that.  David's is gold, which is great.  I feel like Buddha would have rocked that one.  It looks like something from S Palm Beach.  I wonder if David would wear it while playing shuffle board .

But the bib is not the big deal.  There are 3 grave precepts, and ten, er, other ones.  They sound a lot like the ten commandments, and the center of the refuge ceremony is each person taking up these precepts as vows.  I'll get a copy later and post them. Translations differ.  I really liked the one we read at Boundless Way.  I have never seen the PZI version.  Its kept in a vault and guarded by homicidal virgins.  That is probably not true.  Its likely in the liturgy book, but I have never seen a full copy of that either.  Its not that PZI is secretive, actually, I just have been really busy and never got around to getting the full PZI liturgy.  I have the short version, which is all we need to WiG as we are not big on Liturgy.  Though, as an aside, I love it.  It appeals to the Catholic schoolboy in me. 

I digress. 

So the idea is that one works with each of these precepts, makes a personal connection to them, then takes them as a vow to themselves and voila, you are an official buddhist.  I think they give you a secret agent name, but reports vary.  The vows are really lovely and provoke serious thought.  I will share them as the carousel gets speed.