Glossary - individual

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primary master (honshi 本師)

1. Ordaining master (jugōshi 受業師). The monk who initiates someone into the Buddhist monastic order by shaving their head and giving them the precepts. 2. The master who gave one dharma transmission in the Zen lineage. Also called "primary master from whom one has inherited the dharma" (shihō no honshi 嗣法の本師). In contemporary Soto Zen, this is most often a monk's own father, who was also his ordaining master.