Couple Ordained As Zen Priests

March 6, 2010

Author: David Yonke

Source: The Toledo Blade

http://toledoblade.com/article/20100306/NEWS10/3060382/-1/NEWS

In what may have been the first ceremony of its kind in the Toledo area, two local Zen Buddhist teachers were ordained as priests and 17 of their students professed Buddhist vows in a Jukai service Sunday at Lourdes College.

The teachers, Jay "Rinsen" Weik and his wife, Karen "Do'on" Weik, were ordained by Sensei Melissa "Myozen" Blacker of Worchester, Mass.

The Weiks are co-founders of the Toledo Zen Center where they hold weekly Wednesday night zazen services. 

The ordination was a "transmitting of the dharma" from teacher to student. It is often associated with the monastic tradition, but Mr. Weik said he and his wife are more comparable to priests than monks.

The couple shaved their heads for the ceremony, "symbolizing cutting off the root of desire, cutting off the root of delusion, of clinging, of grasping," Mr. Weik said.