Shopping for Fabric and Supplies
A JOURNAL ABOUT SEWING MY FIRST RAKUSU
As I mentioned in this post, I am undertaking an important type of practice in my ZENish journey within Zen Buddhism - the sewing of my first rakusu, the bib-like garment that symbolizes taking on the Buddha’s journey by sewing the garment as he did after his awakening.
The Buddha collected fabric scraps from waste piles, funeral pyres, and wherever possible. You can imagine the stench and dirt embedded in such scraps, right?
It’s said that he rubbed them all in saffron to both clean and dye the rags to a yellowish-orange color that many Buddhist orders will mimic in their monastic robes.
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