The kesa and rakusu are symbols of interdependence, and its reality.
Before we put the rakusu or kesa on, we place it on top of our heads and chant the Kesa Sutra.
So, as it were, we are placing interdependence above the self.
The first line of the sutra has the character ‘datsu’, the same datsu within Dogen’s description of zazen: shinjin datsuraku, dropping off body and mind. That is, dropping off, from moment to moment, the belief that this experience is my experience.
So we are putting something on, interdependence, and dropping something off, our separateness.
That being so, our focus when we sit is not to bring anything about, or exclude anything, but to welcome everything. Because we are not just the symbol of interdependence, but the reality
which is not something which happens to us, or something we see, but what we are.