And it's a charity and birthday and it's one of them all. And it's a gift and [...] it's a gift. Well, good morning, everyone. Welcome to Beginner's Mind Temple, whether you're here in the room or online or watching this later. What an amazingly beautiful day, right? Another gorgeous spring day in San Francisco. For those of you who might not know me, my name is Tenzin David Zimmerman, and I'm a resident here at City Center, and I also currently serve as the Central Abbot of San Francisco Zen Center.

[16:05]

So it's a joy to be with you all and see all of you. I thought I would start by sharing a brief Dharma discourse. This is by Ehi Dogen, who's the founder of Soto Zen in Japan. And this is discourse number 98. And this is from a collection of his talks titled A.A. Kuroku. And this particular talk was given on the occasion of Shakyamuni Buddha's birthday in 1242. So just a little while ago. Dogen writes, Our Buddha Tathakara was born today. and at once took seven steps in all ten directions. Who knows that with each step he gave birth to many Buddhas. These Buddhas are simply transmitting today's voice with the same life, same place, and the same name in the past, future, and present.

[17:06]

Homage to Shakyamuni Buddha. We pour fragrant water over the head of the statue of the baby Buddha to bathe our elder brother. This is the principle of bathing the newborn one. How do we conduct the ceremony of bathing? For a long time, our Buddha has bathed the assembly of monks. Today, the assembly of monks pours water on our Buddha. After a pause, Dogen said, Great assembly, let's go together to the Buddha Hall and bathe our Buddha. Does this sound okay? Okay. So just as Dogen and his monks celebrated Shakyamuni's birthday together 783 years ago at Koshoji, which was the first temple that Dogen had founded, this morning here at City Center, Beginner's Mind Temple, we are going to do the same. In the Sotisam tradition, there are three important occasions in Buddha's life that we recognize.

[18:13]

His birth, his death, and then in between the two of these, Buddha's enlightenment or his awakening. And so at Zen Center, we celebrate Buddha's birthday on the Saturday that's closest to April 8th, which is the date that his birth is observed in Japan. And there's a festival in Japan known as Hanamatsuri, our flower festival. So it's a beautiful festival. And so what's going to happen is part of the celebration, of course, is this talk. And then after the talk, we are going to gather out here in the front steps and process over to Coslin Park up the street where we have an altar set up as well as a pagoda covered in flowers with a little statue of baby Buddha sitting in a pool of sweet tea. And so while we, during the ceremony, what we're going to do is chant the Heart Sutra. And as we process around, we'll take turns bathing the baby Buddha with this tea.

[19:17]

And then afterwards, we'll come back here and enjoy some warm tea ourselves, along with some Buddha's birthday cake. He is graciously sharing his cake. I think I understand it's carrot cake this time. Is that true, kitchen folks? No? No. Lemon cake. Okay, there you go. Oh, there's a Tenzo Sama. Lemon cake. So how many of you, is this the first time that you've been to a Buddha's birthday celebration? Anyone new here? Great. Wonderful. Well, welcome all of you. A treat. So, okay. So, you know, various people know different aspects around the basic narrative of Shakyamuni Buddha's birth. And a lot of the accounts are pulled from the Pali Canon, as well as some later Mahayana texts. And while the Buddhist sources kind of disagree on the date, it's generally thought that the historical Buddha was born between 578 and 457 BCE.

[20:22]

And he was born to a prominent family of the Gautama clan in the Republic of Shakyat. And his given name was Siddhartha. And Siddhartha in Sanskrit means he who achieves his aim, which I guess was a wonderful foreshadowing of his accomplishments. The name Shakyamuni was given to Siddhartha later, after his enlightenment, and it means sage of the Shakyas. And the word Buddha... which is how he kind of referred to himself when originally people asked who was he after his awakening. Buddha is comprised of two syllables, bud, which means to awaken, and actually the root of it is like a flower bud opening, bud, budding, and da, one who. So the word Buddha means awaken one.

[21:25]

And legend has it that the Buddhist parents, the King Sudhana, Sudodhana, excuse me, and Queen Maya, who lived in the city of Kapalavatsu, may whoever that amulis is for be well and safe. So they lived in Kapalavatsu, which is in southern Nepal, and they very much wanted to have children. And so one night, Queen Maya dreamed that a white elephant with six tusks entered her right side. And this was later interpreted by the queen's advisors to mean that she had conceived a child who would either become a world ruler or a wise sage. And there are stories later that the king, the Buddha's father, preferred the world ruler over the wise sage.

[22:25]

So Maya's pregnancy lasted for 10 months, so it took a little longer to hatch a Buddha. And at the time, feeling that the birth was near, Queen Maya decided to return to her family home to give birth, which was the tradition at the time. And so she set out with her attendants, but on the way she went into labor. And they had to stop at a place called Lubini Grove, sometimes Lubini Garden or Park. And there it said, while leaning on the branch of a blossoming salad tree, Queen Maya gave birth to her son, who has said painlessly emerged out of her right side. Now, It's extraordinary to be told that Queen Maya's pregnancy was a result of a dream of a six-tusk elephant and that the baby Katama peaceably emerged out of his mother's right side.

[23:30]

Apparently there was no pain. But even a more curious thing then happened. So the newborn baby stood up by himself and then proceeded to take seven steps. And said that from each footprint of each of his steps, a lotus flower bloomed. And then with the seventh step, Baby Gautama stopped. He raised one hand to the heavens and pointed down to the earth with the other and said, above the heavens, below the earth, I alone and the world honored one. Okay, so here we have a talking baby, a talking walking baby. minutes after birth, quite a miracle. So in the Dartmouth Discourse 495, Dogen offers another version of the Buddha's utterance. And this one is a little bit more in line with what's in the Pali Canon.

[24:32]

So the one I shared with you is a later Mahayana version that came from a particular Chinese text. And what Dogen writes, he says, the following words naturally emerge from the baby Buddha's mouth. Within the world, I am the most excellent. Within the world, I am the most venerable. From today on, my share of births have been exhausted. This is my final body, and I will become a Buddha. So, besides proclaiming his inherent nobility, the baby Buddha also declared that this is his last birth. No rebirth here. He's stepping off the cycle of rebirth and he will finally attain complete liberation as a Buddha. Now, the story goes that upon the Buddha's declaration, flowers suddenly bloomed and rained down as heavenly beings called devas paid reverence to him.

[25:33]

And at the same time as these flowers are blooming and raining down, two pleasant streams of water, one warm and And one coal poured down from the sky to anoint and cleanse the future Buddha. And it's this aspect of the Buddha story that we are going to enact during the ceremony in the park today when we are invited to bathe the statue of the baby Buddha with a ladle of sweet tea. So regardless of how you feel about the mythification and the deification of Buddha, the presentation of Buddha's birth, it points to a reality. The moment the baby Buddha was born, he was already awake. He was already at one with his true nature. All babies are, actually. You notice that? You actually look at the newborn baby, they're already awake.

[26:34]

And so, baby Buddha came forth and expressed this already awake as above the heavens, below the earth, I alone and the world honored one. Now I understand there is a Jewish legend that says that every child in the womb already knows all truth, all wisdom. At birth, an angel touches the child's upper lip with its finger, leaving an indentation beneath the nose, and the child forgets it all. Our life's work is the work of overcoming that angelic touch and remembering what we once already fully knew. So it is the world of our making of our innate wisdom, making our innate wisdom conscious and mature. That is the path. So based on what we know of his story, it seems that Baby Katama, shortly after his miraculous proclamation,

[27:41]

forgot his own inherent wisdom and wakefulness and lapsed back into the common infantile smiles and tears and gurgles and babbling and calling of a everyday human baby. And it wasn't until almost three decades later and compelled by a deep desire to find an end to suffering that He walked out of his father's palace and into the wilderness, embarking on a momentous six-year journey of re-remembering his original nature, his Buddha nature, to in time become Shakyamuni Buddha. So in many ways, our path of practice is about remembering sati, remembering who we truly are, coming back. recalling our true nature and living from that place. So here again are the opening lines of Dogen's passage that I introduced at the start of my talk.

[28:55]

Our Buddha Tathakara was born today and at once took seven steps in all directions. Who knows that with each step he gave birth to many Buddhas? These Buddhas are simply transmitting today's voice with the same life, same place, and same name in the past, present, and future. So from the first moment that we engage in the Dharma, we encounter the truth that not just the Buddha, but all beings are born with the potential to realize awakening. to realize their own awake nature or their Buddha nature. In Mahayana Buddhism, there is a term, it's a Sanskrit term for Buddha nature, which is Tathakadagarbha. Tathakadagarbha. And Dogen used this term when he wrote his first line, Our Buddha Tathakadha was born today.

[29:57]

The umbrellas have fallen. So the first part of the word tathakara means one thus gone or thus come. So Buddha is one thus gone from samsara, from suffering, and into nirvana, into liberation. And thus come from nirvana into samsara in order to work the salvation of all beings. And interesting, the second part of the word garbha, means womb, or embryo, or center, or essence. And so Tathakaragarbha can be understood as the Tathakaragarbha's or the Buddha's womb. Tathakaragarbha, the Buddha's womb. Another way to say that is the womb of reality, the womb of truth. And one way to understand this is that each living human being is a womb containing the embryo

[31:03]

of a Buddha. So each of you are wombs growing Buddhas, growing Buddha's potential. Now, it's also interesting to me that the Chinese character for the word nature, as in Buddha nature, in the compound that characters make up, shows the mind giving birth. So the Chinese characters for nature shows the mind giving birth. And if you ever watch your mind closely, you're going to see that this is happening all the time. You ever notice that? Your mind's giving birth to all kinds of thoughts, ideas, perceptions, images, memories, everything, moment after moment. It's just one giant womb continually giving birth to your experience in myriad forms. And Buddhist psychology teaches that our mind is the source of all phenomena and all experience. But we're, in this case, we're talking about big mind, right?

[32:09]

The vast, boundless, luminous Buddha mind. We're not talking about the narrow egoic mind. The small mind, the contracted mind, only gives birth to suffering. although that suffering, however, is still arising within the vast womb of the Buddha mind. So we could say that the purpose of Buddhist practice is to give birth to Buddhas, to loving, compassionate ones who see the nature of reality and the nature of suffering and are willingly born into samsara, into this world, in order to support all beings to know themselves again and be free. So this is what we're celebrating when we celebrate Buddha's birthday. We are celebrating the miraculous birth of our own life, of our own awakened, compassionate heart-mind, as well as the innate capacity to realize and fully awake this

[33:18]

heart, mind, in all of our activities and all of our endeavors, to bring it forward in everything that we do. And this is our common destiny that was discovered by Shakyamuni and which has been handed down to us, or rather we have been reminded of through practice over the millennia through the teachings of the Buddha Dharma and our own wholehearted meditation practice. So let's go back to the Buddha being born and suddenly taking seven steps. What are you supposed to make of this? Actually, the common understanding, so sometimes it took seven steps in just one direction, other times it says that he took seven steps in all four directions. So there's different versions that come up and all four directions, east, west, north and south.

[34:20]

And some scholars think that maybe the seven steps has something to do with the number of stars in the constellation of the Big Dipper, to the astrological aspect to it. But in Buddha's poem, he writes something different. He makes a little tweak in this. He says, our Buddha Tathakada was born today and at once took seven steps in all ten directions. So not just four, all ten directions. So in other words, he took the four directions plus the midway points between the four directions and then went up and down. Okay, really? It's already a stretch. Imagine the baby is born and suddenly starts walking in seven steps and then seven steps in four directions, but then goes up and down. So what here is the point that Dogen's actually trying to make when he says that the baby Buddha walked in ten directions?

[35:28]

Why would he say such a thing? Zen teacher and scholar Shako Gomorrah suggests that perhaps Dogen changed that little detail because he wasn't so focused on the legend of Buddha. That wasn't so important to him. What was more important is he wanted to point to the universal body of the Buddha. So in Dogen's fascicle Shobhagenzo Juppo, which Juppo means ten directions, he writes, the entire ten direction world is the entire body of the Buddha. One hand points to the heaven as heaven, one hand points to the earth as earth. Although it is thus, the Buddha said, above the heaven and underneath the heaven, I alone am the honored one. This is the entire ten-direction world as the entire body of Shakyamuni. So in other words, what Dogen is saying is the entire universe is the body of the Buddha.

[36:34]

It's the body of Shakyamuni Buddha. And I would suggest that the entire ten-directional world and the universe is is also your body. So take that in for a moment. What would that mean if your body is the entire universe? How would you take care of your body? How would you perceive and regard your body? And if everyone else's body was the entire body of the universe, how would you treat them? Would you care for these precious bodies? which is the entire universe manifesting here and now in this particular location. So what I think Dogen is trying to emphasize here is our fundamental interconnectedness. That from the moment of his birth, the baby Buddha was one with all beings in ten directions.

[37:35]

In other words, the Buddha and the ten-directional world are born together. And it's the same with each of us. Buddha was born and the world came into being. The entire universe came into being. You were born and the entire universe came into being. The next question I ask myself is, what am I doing in this universe? How am I engaged in this universe? What am I doing? And this interconnectedness, this is a teaching of... I can say that. I get tongue-tied sometimes, so please excuse me. And this is a Sanskrit word. It means dependent co-arising or dependent origination. And for those of you who aren't familiar with dependent origination, this is a core Buddhist doctrine, and it states that all phenomena, everything in the entire universe, arises independent on other phenomena, meaning nothing exists separately or independently.

[38:49]

Everything is basically an interconnected web of causes and conditions. So nothing can be removed from this universe. because everything is connected. It only changes, if you will, shape in some way due to causes and conditions. So interesting, this Buddha and the world born together is actually later echoed at the moment of Buddha's enlightenment. So in the Zen tradition, at the moment of Buddha's awakening, he says, when the morning star appeared, I... together with the great earth and sentient beings, simultaneously attained enlightenment. So this saying is likewise expressing the principle of dependent origination, that the Buddha's awakening depended on the entire universe and the Buddha's awakening, with the Buddha's awakening, the entire universe simultaneously awoke.

[39:57]

Okay, so let's return to Buddha's passage once more. He writes, Now, the previous line had to do with interconnectedness. And it was interconnectedness with all beings throughout all space. Right? I think this third line points to an interconnectedness throughout all time, right? And interconnectedness with Buddhas and Bodhisattvas within time itself. Okamura notes in his commentary, he writes, From his birth until his entering Nirvana, in each of his steps, the Buddha gave birth to innumerable Buddhas. So... The image I get when I read that, rather than lotuses blossoming with each of the Buddhist footsteps, I see all these little myriad Buddhists popping up with each footstep.

[41:02]

He takes a step and then suddenly all these Buddhists spring out from the earth. Okumara continues, the Buddhist walking was the origin of all Buddhists past, present and future. His teaching activities were the source of inspiration to create the images of the seven Buddhas of the past in the Bali teachings. So there's some things when we say the seven Buddhas before Buddhas. And the innumerable Buddhas in the ten directions and the three times in the Maya tradition. So the three times is past, present, and future. In other words, as a result of the Buddhas walking his own particular Dharma path, He subsequently gave birth to myriad and enumerable Buddhas throughout all time and space. In his fascicle, Shobhagenzo Gyoji, Gyoji means continuous practice, Dogen takes this a step further when he says, because of the continuous practice of all Buddhas in the past, present, and future, all Buddhas in the past, present, and future are actualized.

[42:10]

So, Just a clarification, by continuous practice, Dogen doesn't mean learning to practice all the time. He means that practice itself is happening continuously and universally. The whole universe, all of existence, is practice. So in Goji, Dogen ends up chronical a number of great Zen teachers throughout the ages. showing how they all join and sustain one great stream of everlasting practice. And how, in his view, they are still doing so. So just because a great teacher, a great practitioner is dead, doesn't mean they aren't still practicing. And I often think of this during the memorial service for our founder, Suzuki Roshi. And sometimes I ask myself, I ask him, Suzuki Roshi, are you still practicing? And if we're still practicing, Suzuki Roshi is still practicing.

[43:17]

So don't stop practicing, okay? Or you'll bring the ant to Suzuki Roshi's practice. And so the practice of the Buddha answers throughout all time and space is happening simultaneously along with our practice here and now. It's pretty amazing to think about, right? And all the Buddhas in the future, their practice is also happening right here, right now, because of your practice, simultaneously. And furthermore, the Buddha way is itself actualized by virtue of our own practice, as well as the practice of the Buddhas and ancestors. Therefore, says Dogen, because of the Buddhas and ancestors' continuous practice, our continuous practice is actualized. And our own great way is penetrated. Because of our own continuous practice, the continuous practice of all Buddhas is actualized.

[44:20]

And the great way of Buddhas is penetrated. So this is practice realization. So the... Next to last line in Bogan's discourse, after telling us that Shakyamuni gave birth to many Buddhas, he then says that these Buddhas are simply transmitting today's voice with the same life, the same place, and the same name in the past, future, and present. So what might this mean? Well, perhaps transmitting today's voice is a continuation of the baby Buddha's proclamation, above the heavens, below the earth, I alone am the world honored one. Now, when you first hear that line, you might think, that's kind of arrogant. Who does this guy think he is, right? But the point is, it's not a statement that's made out of arrogance, but out of actually a deep insight and truth and actually humility, a humility that comes from understanding the pentacle arising.

[45:30]

So it means that each individual being is is a unique existence in this world, and therefore they are noble and respectable. Each of you, because you are uniquely you, are noble and respectable, right? You don't have to do anything other than be who you are and connect to that original nobility, right? At the same time, due to dependent origination, we are all inextricably embedded into the fabric of all space and time and being. So, being the world, all beings, each and every one, are world-honored. We are the world, we are the universe, we are world-honored. We are unique in that way. Therefore, there is only one whole complete awakening universe in this moment, and I am that. And you are that. And you are that. And you are that. Right?

[46:33]

The entire universe, each of you, in this moment, awakening. So, Dogen's phrase, simply transmitting, as in the Buddhas, these Buddhas are simply transmitting today's voice, is a translation of a Japanese word, tendon. And in the very beginning of another fascicle by Dogen Bendawa, he writes, All Buddha Tathakaras together have been simply transmitting wondrous Dharma and actualizing Anuttara Samyaksambodhi. Say that five times really fast. Anuttara Samyaksambodhi, which means unsurpass, complete, and perfect enlightenment, for which there is an unsurpassable... unfabricated, wondrous method. What is that method? Thousand! Yes! So we might interpret the line of this poem to mean that the only thing that has been transmitted as today's voice is the wondrous Dharma.

[47:40]

Or that the wondrous Dharma is transmitted from one teacher to one disciple. And the transmission of the Dharma can be as simple as holding up a flower. as Shakyamuni did when he transmitted to his first Dharma heir, if you will, Mahakashapa. The whole universe is transmitting the Dharma. Every single cell in the universe is transmitting the Dharma. Are you listening? Are you seeing that? Are you honoring that? Are you expressing that? Everything is transmitting truth, reality, liberation. Are you open to receiving that transmission? It's as simple as looking out the window and seeing the light falling on the tree leaves. Or actually looking at each of you and seeing the light radiating from each of you. You are transmitting the Dharma, moment by moment, even when you don't realize it, even when you forget

[48:48]

that you are a bright blossom of Dharma, and we often forget. Forgive us for forgetting who we are. So continue transmitting the Dharma, the wondrous Dharma, with the voice of nature, of reality. Okay, so here again are the concluding lines of Dogen's 2042 Buddha's birthday address. He writes, symbolic act of bathing the baby Buddha that we'll be doing shortly has a deeper meaning. What the Dogen refers to as the principle of bathing the newborn.

[49:53]

And in washing the baby Buddha free of dust and grime, we are washing our own minds free of greed, hate, and delusion. So that we too can be born anew in each moment. Within each of us, this nature of awakening. And by caring for the baby Buddha through this ritual, symbolically caring and bathing the baby Buddha, we're also caring for our own awake nature, our own Buddha nature, our own potential that has yet to maybe fully grow. And so the bathing isn't about pouring water over a statue of a Buddha, but it's washing our own minds clear of delusions with the pure dharma. For a long time, our Buddha has bathed the assembly of monks. Today, the assembly of monks pours water on our Buddha. So in other words, during his lifetime, the Buddha bathed his followers with the Dharma, with his teachings.

[50:58]

And today, we in turn are bathing our own inner Buddha, as well as the Buddhas who have come before us and will come after us. And all these Buddhas are washed clean by our sincere and continuous practice. So every time you sit down for zazen, you are bathing the Buddha mind. So in closing, I want to say that I think it's helpful to remind ourselves as Buddha's practitioners that without Shakyamuni's birth, And also without his home leaving, his practice, his awakening, his teaching, and his final nirvana, there would be no such tradition called Buddhism. And without his own practice realization, it would not be possible for us to study and practice today. Our practice is a blossoming of the Buddhist practice.

[52:00]

The question is, what will your practice blossom into, right? By virtue of the Buddha's continuous practice from the moment of his birth to his death and beyond, we are enabled to practice today. However, had the Buddha not taught and had no one become his disciple and continued his practice and teaching, the Buddhist tradition would also not exist. Furthermore, without our practice here and now and the Buddha's and ancestors' practice and awakening would only be records in a dusty Buddhist scripture, somewhere shelved in a dark library, never to be read. Even though our practice is incomplete, our practice is the only way Buddha's life continues. So once again, if you want the Buddha to continue to live and flourish and practice, please practice too.

[53:01]

Our world right now is deeply in need of the wisdom and the compassion of the Buddha's life, his teachings, of course his birth, his practice, everything that he has offered us, and which we can cultivate and share through our own continuous practice. Right here, right now. Whether we are engaged in meditation... and ceremony, whether we're working at our job, or we're taking care of the family obligations, or maybe we're participating in a non-violent peaceful protest, such that as are happening throughout the country today. So with this in mind, I'm going to echo Dogen's instructions at the end of his discourse, where he said, Great Assembly, let's go together to the Buddha Hall. This is the Buddha Hall, so we're actually going to go to Kaushlin Park. and bathe our Buddha. And then afterwards we're going to enjoy some tea and lemon cake. Thank you all, birthing baby Buddhas.

[54:11]

May you enjoy your practice together. Thank you. ... [...] Good morning, everyone, and thank you for coming today on this beautiful day and on Buddha's birthday.

[57:08]

So what we're going to do now is we're going to congregate on the front steps. However, if you would like to carry a parasol, and you're encouraged to carry a parasol, when you go out the door here, go right, and there's a number of parasols folded up on a table. Feel free to take one of those, open it up outside. You can carry that during the procession. There's also four very tall parasols, which four people are invited to carry. They're in the hallway here. Be very careful when bringing them out because they're very tall, and they can get caught on things, and we don't want to break the paper on the parasol. So then we'll gather outside, and then what we'll do is we'll proceed down the street, cross at Page and Laguna. We don't want to jaywalk. And then we'll go up Laguna, up into Coshland Park, where we'll gather around the altar there, We'll do some boughs, and then we'll chant the Heart Sutra, and everybody will have a chance to go around the circle and bathe the baby Buddha, which is set up.

[58:13]

The altar is here. The baby Buddha altar is down the steps from the main altar. We'll be led in the procession by Lorenzo, who will play the Incan, and then Abbot David, and then Shoko, who is the Jisha, and Heiko, who is also Incan number two. So those four will lead the procession to the park and back to the Zen Center. So thank you for coming. Feel free to grab a parasol, and we'll see you outside. Thank you.

[59:26]

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[60:32]

Yes, thank you. Thank [...] you. There we go. There we go. There we go. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[62:13]

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's not good enough. It's deceptively simple, like it's a small object.

[63:14]

It's so light on fire, because a lot of people are like moving across the walls. So I kind of recognize what I'm just sitting on the floor, and I'm doing a nice new browser, it's all like a sheet and a big mob moving through, so yeah. I can get a lot of this before like this. Hey, sir. It's like what I want to say. So you need to use this song. So I'm like, how's it going? Let's keep going. [...]

[64:12]

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