Today is the celebration of Buddha's birthday. And I think many of you... perhaps for this celebration and this particular Sunday with the ceremony and the pageant. And I imagine there's some people who are here for the first time had no idea that it was Buddha's birthday. How many of you are here for the first time? And this is a big surprise to you. Well, welcome. There's just really... three major ceremonies that we do in the, I would say, the liturgical year for Shakyamuni Buddha, the founder of this practice, not actually the founder, I'd say the discoverer, the discoverer once again of this practice, and that's Buddha's birth, Buddha's death, and

[01:28]

Between those two events, Buddha's waking up his enlightenment or awakening. So those three major ceremonies are celebrated on particular days. April 8th is the usual day it's celebrated, but here at Green Gulch we choose a day in our calendar that works for the rest of Green Gulch's yearly calendar. So... It's April 28th and we'll be celebrating. And this ceremony has been celebrated with this pageant for over 25 years. I wanted to say a little bit about it and then tell the story of Buddha's birth, which you'll see enacted this morning in the play. And then talk about what it means for us in our own lives, in our own practice, this birth of the Buddha.

[02:32]

What does that mean exactly? So just I wanted to thank the people involved in putting on this wonderful pageant. First of all, the play or the pageant is an enactment of a poem that was written by the former abbot of Zen Center, Norman Fisher, and each verse describes one aspect of this story. And every year it is woven in with current events and it's always new. It grows and changes every year. We're very lucky to have Corey Fisher of the Traveling Jewish Theater who will be reading the poem for us. He has a marvelous voice. And just to thank a few other people, Annie Hallett, who is a mask maker and a costume designer and artist and actor.

[03:36]

And she did the large masks of the Buddha and the different characters and animals. And she adds creative wonderfulness every year. So I want to thank Annie Hallett. And this year, Jeremy Levy was the director And then many, many people helped and volunteered their time and participated in various ways, musicians and prop managers. And just, as you know, it takes enormous effort to put on a spectacle, put on a play. So I want to thank the staff of Green Gulch as well for all their help. And all of you, thank you for coming. And I really hope you do enjoy it. never been rained out. We always have a contingency plan of doing it in the Zendo, but it's all these years, over 25 years, it's been a sunny day at Green College for Buddha's birthday. So the story of Buddha's birth is a teaching story.

[04:42]

It's a legendary story. It's an inner story for each one of us. I think it has an archetypal as all good myths or legends do, meaning. And so at different times in our life, the story may reverberate in different ways for us. So once upon a time in India, there lived the head of the Shakya clan, this... man was like a king, you could say, of the Shakya clan, and his name was Sudodhana. And he had a wife whose name was Maya. And Queen Maya had wanted to have children very, very much, and one night, in a dream, a six-tusked

[05:45]

came to her in the dream and entered her body from the right side of her body in a kind of numinous experience of a dream. And when she woke up, she told King Suddhodana all about this dream and this wonderful elephant. And soon thereafter, she found out that she was with child. And they were very, very happy about this baby that was on the way. So getting close to the time for her to give birth, as was the custom, Queen Maya wanted to return to her clan to give birth. She came from the Kaya clan. So she left where she was on foot or with her retinue, actually, with carts and so forth to travel there with many ladies-in-waiting and attendants.

[06:53]

But on the way home, she went into labor. And so they all stopped. She had to stop. And they stopped at a garden or a grove. called Lumbini, Lumbini Garden. And this is in present-day Nepal. You can actually visit the place of Buddha's birth in Nepal, Lumbini. And so she stopped there in this grove, and she held on to a tree. She was standing up, holding on to this tree when she gave birth to the baby. Siddhartha, they named him Siddhartha, or Gautama, both of these names are used. And it was said in the story that the baby came out of her right side. And there's some beautiful Nepalese sculptures and bas-relief and paintings of this particular image of her holding this tree and the baby emerging.

[08:01]

So the Buddha came into this life under a tree, and this theme of tree goes all the way through the Buddha's life. The Buddha was enlightened, this second kind of major event of the Buddha's life, he was enlightened under the Bodhi tree, the ficus religiosa, the tree of awakening, and when he died, He was lying in a lion's pose between two solid trees. So trees were with the Buddha at these major moments of his life. So people were very happy that this baby had come into the world. And the description in the sutras is of this extraordinary... extraordinary child.

[09:04]

In many ways, and I'll tell you, not only did he have huge eyes that were like limpid pools with long eyelashes, this is how they describe him, but he, upon being born, was very peaceful, very placid, and then he got up. He stood up. Picture that. He stood up. and pointed one hand to the heavens and one hand to the earth. And he spoke, actually took seven steps, and pointed to the heaven and the earth. And then this little newborn said, I alone Under heaven and on earth, I alone am the world honored one.

[10:05]

Wow. Now, that particular phrase, that sentence, Under the heavens and on the earth, I alone am the world honored one. One might think... that this little kid had a lot of chutzpah, you know, a lot of self-confidence. But I want to come back to this phrase and the meaning of it, what it might mean to you and how you too might point to the heaven and the earth and say that same thing, if you can imagine that. So in our pageant, we will see all this. All of this will take place right before your very eyes with the six-tusked white elephant and the baby Buddha walking. And also in the sutra, this wonderful event, there was a peacefulness that spread out over the world.

[11:14]

It's very similar to other stories of babies that have come into the world, you know, tender and mild and peacefulness. So this is very... You know, it reverberates with all these stories of beings who come into this world, not as gods. The Buddha was not a god. Siddhartha was born of human parents as a human baby boy. So the other things that they've described that happened when the Buddha was born, that this peacefulness really entered everyone's heart including animals and people who were at odds with each other or were in conflict or having troubles, they could let go of that. They could work in harmonious ways. And animals that usually, where one is prey and the other is predator, they were able to meet together and play together.

[12:24]

So there are all these descriptions of peacefulness and living together in harmony and as one, which is part of the story. And this is also enacted in the pageant. There's verses that describe this feeling. And there's also, in the sutra, in the oldest texts that describe this It's said that just the way babies are washed when they first come into this world, in this story, the baby Siddhartha was washed by Nagas. Nagas are these kind of benevolent dragon, half-dragon, half-human creatures that, I think they play musical instruments. Anyway, they... water came pouring out of the heavens, both warm and cool water came pouring out of the heaven to wash the baby Buddha.

[13:29]

So all these details of the story are part of the ceremony. So one of the ritual events which you are pleased and welcome to participate in is bathing the baby Buddha. So we have this tiny figure of a baby. pointing to the heaven and the earth, standing in a kind of basin, and there's little ladles, and you're welcome to pour sweet tea over the head of the baby Buddha. And imagine, you know, just purifying and washing the awakened one, the awakened one to be. So this you can do during meditation. It'll be out on the lawn after the ceremony. You're welcome to come and do that, and it's wonderful for little children to do it too if you brought kids who are in the kids program. Please make sure that they get a chance to.

[14:31]

They always like that, pouring water over that baby's head. So there's lots of stories about the Buddha's childhood and that exhibit and illuminate his compassionate heart, his kind and compassionate heart, even when he was very small. The king and queen brought him to a kind of soothsayer, a kind of fortune teller or wise man who could tell the fortunes of newborns, might have done... a horoscope kind of thing. Anyway, he looked at this baby and he began to cry, this old man. The reason he cried, he said, is I won't be alive when this child grows up to see him and be with him.

[15:31]

And he said to the parents, this soothsayer said, either this child will become a wonderful, wheel-rolling king, a very powerful king, of India, or he will become a holy man, a religious teacher. And he couldn't quite tell but one or the other. And King Suddhodana really wanted him to take over the leading of the country and maybe conquer other countries, I don't know, or really be a formidable world leader and didn't want him to become a religious leader and lead the holy life. There are many religious people in India at the time, as there are now, and he didn't want that for his son. He wanted him to be, make something of himself, you know. So, this, right from the beginning, there was this tension, you might say, and this story, as I said before, is a story for each one of us.

[16:35]

In our own hearts, this tension between acting in the world and fame and moving in that direction, or helping beings in that way, or turning inward and leading a different kind of life, or some combination. This might be a tension or conflict that you feel in your own heart, but certainly the Buddha's father felt this way. Siddhartha's father felt this way. Now a very sad thing happened soon after the Buddha after Siddhartha was born. And that is that Queen Maya died after seven days. So this detail of the story is never really, you know, brought out very strongly. I think there's maybe one or two lines that says she was so filled with happiness that she ascended to Tushita Heaven or something.

[17:39]

But to actually take a moment to imagine what that must have been like for this family and how the joy of this new baby was laced and laminated to the sorrow of the loss of Queen Maya and how that must have affected this baby as well. Right from the start, this truth of impermanence, there's nothing to hold on to And so we don't know, you know, that's not really spoken about, but you can imagine what it was like in those early weeks and months after the baby was born. King Suddhodana had another wife, which was the practice at the time, and she was Queen Maya's sister, Pajapati, who became...

[18:41]

Later, a great teacher, Maha Pajapati, and the founder of the Buddha's Order of Nuns, the practitioners who followed the Buddha's way, the women's order. So that was later in the story. But Maha Pajapati became the Buddha's foster mother, and she was also his aunt, and she had just given birth to her own baby, his cousin, Maha Pajapati. whose name I can't remember, is a girl cousin, it'll come to me in a moment, anyway, and Pajapati nursed the baby Siddhartha. So these are some of the points of the story. I think the king not wanting him to become a religious person created a situation, created conditions for the young growing up Siddhartha that he would not have... unhappy experiences, that everything would be wonderful for him, that he was educated beautifully with all the arts of the time and languages and archery and music, and he was cared for and treated very, very well.

[20:00]

And they didn't want him to see anything disagreeable, including whisking away the wilted flowers in a vase so he wouldn't see dying things or sick things. So this was the kind of life that Siddhartha grew up in. One story from Siddhartha's childhood is that he was out, they had lands that they owned and he was out with his father, I think, who was overseeing the lands and he watched the farmers with their plows making furrows to plant. And he was sitting under a rose apple tree and really experienced in a very strong way the suffering that was happening with all the plants and animals as this plow cut through and made these furrows in the earth and the insects and the worms and disturbing of homes.

[21:08]

And as this planting, this furrow was made and he could practically hear the sounds of this kind of suffering of the animal realm and the plant realm. It was very, very painful for him as a young boy. Really... affected him very strongly. And what he did was, sitting under the rose apple tree, he kind of took a meditation posture, sitting upright and calmed down by probably paying attention to his breath and posture and settling himself and allowing whatever was happening to arise and vanish. And he entered a kind of strong and deep state of peace while sitting under that rose apple tree in the face of this suffering that he was experiencing on behalf of these other beings.

[22:12]

So this is an illustration of the Buddha's Siddhartha. Even as a young boy, this compassion he had for all beings and kindness. There's other stories, too, where he saves animals. expresses this kind of kindness. And there's, you know, in the story of the Buddha's enlightenment, which is later on, which I don't want to tell that story today. I wanted to stay with the Buddha's birth and the meaning of the Buddha's coming into this world and the meaning for us. So it's said that the only reason, the only reason, no other reason, that the Buddha came into this world was out of his vow to live for the benefit of beings, out of compassion for the many, out of compassion for beings.

[23:27]

And not just Siddhartha, but when we talk about the Buddha, we can also talk about the Buddhas with plural. So the word Buddha comes from the root bud, which means to awaken, to awaken. So the Buddha is the awakened one. And it doesn't mean just this Siddhartha only, who came into the world and woke up. But you could say that all beings... without exception, partake of the Buddha body. The Buddha body means the awakened body, this one body of awakeness. This is one of the most fundamental teachings of Buddhism. And another way of saying Buddhism, if you were to translate Buddhism into English, you could call this practice awakism.

[24:36]

This is the practice or the religion, if you want to say, of waking up or awakism. So Buddhism is not just for the waking up of or the birth of this one human being who then taught, but all beings, without exception, partake of the Buddha body or have awakened nature. Now, one might think as I say that, that not me, you know, I don't know what she's talking about, but certainly you're not talking about me. I don't feel awake. I don't even know what awake is. And I might say, I don't know what awake is either. I do know that when I hear this teaching that a human being came into this world and discovered or uncovered

[25:38]

a way to live where we can let go of our confusions and delusions and misunderstandings based on our separateness, based on being separate from others, and live from a vow to be of benefit to all beings, this teaching. be of benefit, and with this vow of being of benefit, we feel connected with all beings. You know, this practice is... When I say this practice, that's almost shorthand, really. I could say this practice of what? This practice of sitting in meditation, In Japanese, the word zazen, sitting zazen.

[26:41]

But sitting zazen or zazen itself is maybe shorthand for all the myriad practices that we could do. All the practices of waking up to who we are. The practices of being present with one another. Being present with each word you speak. each object that you handle, with each person that you meet, with all the things of your life, being awake and present with each thing, you could say, that's zazen. And I think the Buddha taught this. He taught a kind of wonderful method of waking up, which is meditation, sitting but that meditation isn't confined to just sitting cross-legged or sitting on a chair.

[27:42]

That meditation flows out into every area of our life. Every action of our life is really what we want to awaken to and what the Buddha was talking about. So this teaching that Buddhas, awakened ones, come into this world through their vow of compassion. They don't come into this world to actually have ceremonies for them and be placed on altars and incense for being famous. There's only one reason. which is to live for the benefit of beings. And that vow is available to everyone that's not like reserved for only certain special people.

[28:43]

That vow can arise in each one of us to want to live in that way. So I think celebrating the birth of the Buddha is also celebrating for us the birth of even this thought of wanting to wake up to what our life is, is worthy of celebration. And also the teachings that were left, the Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha lived 2,500 years ago, plus, and all those years that he walked, through India teaching 40 years or so that he taught and those teachings that were passed down and are passed down through this day, those teachings, you know, to feel gratitude that we have been exposed to those teachings, exposed to the teaching that we are not separate from all beings, that we are interdependent and connected

[29:58]

with all beings as one awakened nature. This is the reality of our life. Whether we actually understand completely or not, just to hear that helps to wake us up, actually. So the practice that's been passed down, you might say, is very, very simple. extremely simple. Sometimes it's so simple that we wish that we could get a hold of it. Like, what is she talking about? Can I walk out of here with something that I can hold on to? There was a Chinese Zen master in the 700s named Zhao Zhou. When Zhao Zhou was asked, you know, What is the way?

[30:59]

Meaning, what is the awakened way? What is the Buddha way? What is the way? And Zhajo said, ordinary mind is the way. Ordinary mind or everyday mind. Just ordinary mind. Now you might think, but I really don't want anybody to know what my ordinary mind is. Please. However, that ordinary mind that you may be embarrassed about or feel is confused and... filled with delusions and all sorts of problems. The way that mind arises and comes to be, the nature of how that comes to be, even our confusions and delusions, is completely connected with all beings in the 10 directions, past, present, and future. Just even the language, the fact that I'm speaking English, connects me all the way back through time and space.

[32:06]

We are completely one fabric, you know. And at the very same time, we are each uniquely different. And uniquely ourselves, and unrepeatable. So at the very same time, we're these unique... moments of reality, our own world of how we see things and experience things, and at the exact same time, exact same moment, we are connected with everybody else, and all beings, and the great Earth. It's beyond our understanding. It's kind of inconceivable, really. which is why you can't grasp it and put it in your pocket and take it home. But we can awaken to just wanting to practice, wanting to discover for ourselves, which is basically what the Buddha said, each one be a lamp unto yourself, each one, because your nature, our nature already is awakened reality.

[33:25]

not outside ourselves. So there's enormous, I think often our ceremonies are filled with these offerings of light and flowers and food. We have beautiful food on the altar and offering of water over the baby Buddha. All these offerings are really expressing gratitude. for this teaching that has come down to us that says your ordinary mind is the awakened way. However, in this same koan where he was asked, you know, what is the way? Ordinary mind is the way. He also said if you go after it, if you try to get something, you go away from it. And if you you know, don't try and practice, then it's kind of nihilistic.

[34:26]

What is a person to do? This is why we love Zen so much. So what do we do? We enter each moment with our best effort to be awake, present, feel our feelings, relate to everything that we touch, every person, every object, because those objects partake of the Buddha body. They're not really objects outside ourselves. It's just one myriad, myriad things, all part of awakened life and this reality body that we can't be separated from, and it's abundant in each of us. So filled with gratitude, we chant, we make offerings, we bow. And the only way we can requite, I think is the word, requite these blessings or these gifts that we have had from awakened beings is to practice hard, to take up our practice with sincerity each moment.

[35:45]

That's all we can do. There's nothing else that's being asked of us, really. So for each one of us, you know this, I alone am the world honored one under the heaven and the earth. I alone am the world honored one. This I, what is this I? This I alone. It's not hubris. It's an attempt to say in words what can't really be said. which is our awakened nature. So please enjoy the day, this beautiful day at Green Gulch, and celebrate together with the elephant and the Buddha and the king and queen and the children.

[36:49]

Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our programs are made possible by the donations we receive. Please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[37:24]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_98.71