On Sunday, August 24, the Zen Center will conduct a Water Baby Ceremony, the remembrance ceremony for lost children.
The Water Baby Ceremony is a Buddhist service for adults who have lost an infant or young child through still birth or early death, have lost a fetus through miscarriage or abortion, or have lost a child of any age, in any way. It is also appropriate for people who wish to remember a child who has passed to attend this ceremony.
Jizo Bodhisattva presides over the Water Baby Ceremony. He is considered to be the protector of women, children, travelers, the helpless, and the needy. In Japan, there are thousands of Jizo shrines. Often many figures are placed together in a garden or on a mountainside.
For this ceremony we will gather in the dining room after the sitting. Everyone is asked to bring some scraps of fabric (red, with or without pattern, is the traditional color, but you may bring other bright colors instead) as well as scissors, needle, and thread. (The Center will provide these items for those who don’t have them.) In silence, working together, each of us will sew a small, simple garment such as an apron, cape, bib, or hat which will be placed on one of the many Jizo figures at the Center. The garment represents the being we are remembering, and thus commemorates a death and rebirth, a passing from one form of life to another. Those who wish may also write the name of the child or a verse on a piece of paper which will be placed between the rocks.
While we work in silence, anyone may speak about his or her experience of loss. When we have finished sewing we will process with the bodhisattvas to the Jizo garden, where we chant the Prajna Paramita, the Kannon Sutra, and the Sutra of Jizo Bodhisattva, followed by a special eko to return the merit of the ceremony to the children. Each person or couple will then offer incense and put their garments on a figure.
Participants are welcome to stay after the ceremony to talk or just sit quietly. This ceremony is not limited to members of our Center.
While many people who attend do so to mourn for a personal loss, it is also appropriate to come if you wish to mourn for children not individually known to you—for example, children who have died from starvation or through violence. Such disasters touch us all, even if we have never met those who died.
This is the only ceremony at the Center that we ask you not to bring young children.
