ZMM - 12/07/25 - Shugen Roshi officiates the Novice Monastic Ordination ceremony for Rebecca Shindo Kisch; a joyful occasion - both a home-leaving and a homecoming - that Master Dogen described as "a day for turning cartwheels." Shindo is currently the Monastery's Gardener, and helps coordinate the National Buddhist Prison Sangha. She became a formal student (Tangaryo) in 2020, received the Bodhisattva Precepts (Jukai), and her dharma name Shindo, in 2022 and became a Postulant in 2023. Today she receives the robe of a monastic and provisionally takes on the five monastic vows. Those vows being simplicity, service, selflessness, stability, and "to live the Buddha's Way." In this new context she will continue her discernment and exploration and training for the role of a full monastic before choosing to ask for full ordination.