Rakusu

But at what point does a student get a rakasu in your tradition? Whenever

they take refuge, they get the black, the black Rakusu and people very wildly in there.

We've had people be with us for 25 years and finally take refuge or never take refuge.

I have people who have been with us a year who somehow they just feel like that's, the right thing for them.

That's the robes.

When I decided to sew a Rakasu, I was studying with Steve Stuckey.

We had, I'd met him, he had a sitting group in his living room.

And then he and his wife bought a house that had a freestanding two-car garage in the backyard.

And I started writing down the things that are important in the sewing room.

The first thing I want to talk about is that it's not about creating a thing.

We don't come to sew a Rakasu to create a Rakasu.

It's about each stitch.

There's a number of those films that are centered around monks, and specifically Zen monks.

Like, if you look at those movies today, you could see that some of these Kung Fu monks are like, are wearing Rakusus, you know, and stuff like that.

Like, oh, that's a, it's like a Zen monk.

But yeah, on some maybe subliminal level, that was probably the case.

Just like, as soon as like, how could, how soon can I ask? How soon can that happen? And then, uh, so it's about a year and a half later that, that I, um, became a, what they call a lay disciple.

Got my Rakasu and Dharma name.

And you got your name.

Yeah.