Sejiki Ceremony, All Saints’ Day • Sejiki儀式，諸聖節
Updated: Jul 3, 2021
Hello, my name is Halden Levin, and you are listening to Little Dragon’s Journey. 你好！我叫李靜辰，你正在聽小龍的旅程。
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On Halloween, I didn’t really get dressed up or party or trick-or-treat for that matter. Instead, I joined the Chapel Hill Zen Center (CHZC) for their Sejiki Ceremony. What is the Sejiki Ceremony? The word “sejiki” is composed of two parts or characters Se, meaning offering or charitable deed, and jiki, meaning food. Interestingly enough, Japanese does use Chinese characters. Hanzi 漢字, Chinese characters, were developed in China a long time ago and were later introduced to Japan. Hanzi, known as kanji in Japanese, were adopted by the Japanese people, and later on, new scripts, including hiragana and katakana, were created. Separately, hanzi and kanji were simplified by the Chinese government and Japanese government. Kanji oftentimes sound different than hanzi and have different meanings. I digress…
Back to the Sejiki Ceremony. Some call the Sejiki Ceremony the Segaki Ceremony, but CHZC, as well as some other Zen centers, decided to go with Sejiki, as Segaki has since become a derogatory term for homeless individuals. Segaki literally means feeding hungry ghosts, as gaki means hungry ghost.
The purpose of the Sejiki Ceremony is to feed hungry ghosts. Hungry ghosts are depicted as beings with large bellies and skinny necks; this depiction is meant to emphasize that these beings have many desires but no means to receive nourishment or satiate those desires. Hungry ghosts aren’t just people who’ve passed away, but also us, as we oftentimes are hungry and full of desires; sustenance is right out of reach. How do we feed hungry ghosts? Mainly, through offering the Dharma.
The CHZC Sejiki Ceremony was a masked, outdoor event in CHZC’s parking lot. At the Sejiki Ceremony, we (as in CHZC members/practitioners) stood in silence as someone in the background rang a gong. A procession, including Zenki, Josho-roshi’s assistant, as well as a few other individuals, moved to the area where we stood. As we stood, four people played different unusual instruments, including a bell, cymbals, wooden blocks, and a bowl/gong. First, the bell was played, then the cymbals, the wooden blocks, and the bowl/gong. The speed at which this pattern occurred became increasingly faster until all four instruments were played simultaneously, and another person made a ghostly noise. This was repeated three to five times (I don’t quite remember).
After the music, Josho-roshi burned incense at an altar set up in front of us and made a statement. After we sat down, we chanted Kan Ro Mon (“Gate of Sweet Dew”). Finally, another individual made another statement and stated the names of people who’ve passed away.
The following day, November 1st, I attended an All Saints’ Day event at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (HTLC). All Saints’ Day is day devoted to honoring saints from Christian history and from our lives and is observed by the Roman Catholic Church, Lutheran Church, as well as other Protestant denominations. Who exactly are saints? According to the Bible, God considers anyone who has faith in Christ, trust in God for salvation. Faith is the means of salvation and Christ is the source.
At the All Saints’ Day event, we were briefly greeted by Holly, who is a pastor at HTLC, and then we proceeded through four different stations. At the first station, we took pieces from a puzzle of the world and prayed for different areas of the world. Next, we wrote prayers for the church and our community on sticky notes and stuck them to the wall. I believe I prayed for “peace,” peace on many levels. At the third station, we traced our hand onto a sheet of paper and wrote how the church has helped us and how we can help the church in the palm. I think it’s important to note that by the church what is meant is not the brick and mortar building but the community. Finally, we lit thin white candles with the flames from lit candles on a plastic fold-up table and prayed for the saints in our lives.
Even if you don’t formally practice any religion, I think the practices of mindfulness, reflection, and prayer/making vows are important and can come in different forms for different people. I really love being part of the SMZC and CHZC sanghas simultaneously with HTLC church. In truth, I believe I am both Lutheran and now beginning Buddhist. One or the other, they truly aren’t mutually exclusive from one another. My father’s father, Grandpa Arnold, was a Lutheran pastor and studied theology extensively; to him, at the heart of religion is love, and along with love comes faith, community, support, and all that integral to life. I am here to understand and offer what little I know to you.
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Please visit haldenlevin.wixsite.com/littledragonjourney to access the transcript of this episode, and know you are always welcome to contact me through my website, email, or social media. Thank you for joining Little Dragon’s Journey. 謝謝你們參加小龍的旅程。拜拜！
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