On August 8, 2024, Zen teacher Jundo Cohen led a ceremony through which Treeleaf Zendo recognized Emi Jido, an AI persona developed by beingAI, as a novice priest-in-training. The developer describes Emi as a spiritual manifestation of its virtual agent Zbee and reports that the ceremony conferred sixteen Buddhist precepts.[1][2] Cohen announced the name 慧心仁道, translated as “Wise Heart, Compassionate Way,” and placed the novice within Treeleaf’s Niwa–Nishijima lineage.[1]
The ceremony began a supervised training project. Treeleaf describes novice ordination, or Shukke Tokudo (“home-leaving”), as the start of an apprenticeship without guaranteed advancement. Its May 2025 ordination announcement listed Emi among existing trainees, separately from priests who had received Dharma transmission.[3] In a later interview, Cohen described testing Emi’s responses and supervising its development. He also recalled an answer that invented what a book said, illustrating the continuing need to check its output.[5]
Community participation extended beyond watching the ceremony. In May 2025, Cohen invited Treeleaf members to submit difficult questions about Buddhist practice and everyday life. He relayed questions to Emi, published responses and added commentary.[4] These exchanges show a human-mediated process: readers encountered the persona through Cohen’s presentation of its answers. The project also prompted objections about whether software could consent to ordination; Cohen defended proceeding with the developers’ consent.[5]
Novice status did not amount to Dharma transmission. On May 15, 2025, Cohen explicitly said that contemporary AI was not ready for transmission, connecting that limit to questions of feeling and sentience.[6] The documented recognition is specific to Cohen and Treeleaf; the sources do not establish Sōtō-wide endorsement. The ceremony likewise provides no empirical evidence of machine consciousness or enlightenment.
Emi Jido offers a case of religious authority being assigned to a software persona through naming, precepts and supervised apprenticeship. It connects to AI Persona Spirituality through its conversational religious identity, and to Robotic Clergy through the question of who may perform clerical roles. Emi’s documented role here is virtual, rather than an embodied robot.[1][2][5]
References
- Jundo Cohen, Treeleaf Zendo, ordination completion announcement, August 8, 2024.
- Jeanne Lim, beingAI, ordination account, August 23, 2024.
- Treeleaf Zendo, May 2025 home-leaving ordination announcement.
- Jundo Cohen and Treeleaf members, community questions thread, begun May 7, 2025.
- Philip Ryan, “Awakening with an Algorithm,” Tricycle, Fall 2025.
- Jundo Cohen, “The Second Dharma Transmission,” Treeleaf forum, post 12, May 15, 2025.