// What is Shukke Tokudo? Part 2: Purpose//

So when I commit to taking Shukke Tokudo, what exactly am I signing up for? If you’re REALLY curious, you can read the entire Treeleaf Sangha Guidelines for Training Soto Zen Buddhist Clergy and learn more about it than you’d probably ever want to know. But I’ll give the Cliffs Notes version here.

The purpose of priest training is to prepare individuals for a life dedicated to exemplifying the Dharma with integrity via empowering them to extend Buddhist teachings and Soto Zen practice out in the world, all in keeping with the traditional teachings of Soto Zen Buddhism and the philosophy of our Lineage. 

Priest training encourages the continuing unfolding of the Bodhisattva ideal characterized by the Six Paramitas of giving, ethical conduct, patience, energy, meditation, and wisdom. Yet the heart and flowering of our way is always Shikantaza, sitting and moving in stillness without grasping or rejecting any of the constantly arising and changing phenomena of life as-they-are, the life practice of the Buddhas and Ancestors manifesting and realizing the Genjô-kôan, the fundamental point actualized through this life-practice.

The purpose, for me, is to continue to develop as a Zen student. Shukke Tokudo isn’t a means to an end - I am not trying to become a teacher, though if people ask, I certainly won’t withhold sharing the Dharma with them. 

Though it may be hard to understand, Shukke Tokudo does not have a “purpose” in the traditional Western sense of goal, action, achievement. A common sentiment in the feedback I received was “What are you going to do with this once you have it?” The thing is, I’ll never “have it.” I’ll never get anywhere - that is the point. And I don’t have a goal associated with this “achievement” (though I don’t think of it as an achievement). 

I’m pursuing ordination because I’m pursuing truth. That’s it.