Well, I'm sure most of you know that today is a special day at Green Gulch. Some of you may have wandered in not knowing that and wonder why we do have balloons every week. No? So, if there's anyone here who doesn't know that today is our celebration of the birth of the Buddha, I will talk about that a little bit this morning. And because of that our activity today is different from our usual schedule, so my talk today will be brief and mainly what I want to do is explain what we're going to do this morning.

[01:01]

So, in far Eastern and American Buddhism there are three days, in the life of the Buddha, that we celebrate and remember. The Buddha's birthday, which is celebrated on April the 8th, but here at Green Gulch we always do it on the Sunday closest to April the 8th so everybody can come. And the Buddha's enlightenment day, which is December the 8th, and the Buddha's parinirvana day, which is February the 15th. So, you know, each of these days we do something special to remember these events in the Buddha's life. On enlightenment day most of what we do is we sit down and don't move for seven days,

[02:21]

imitating the Buddha, who sat down under the Bodhi tree for seven days. And then when we get up we go out at dawn and look at the morning star, the way the Buddha looked at the morning star many thousands of years ago. And then we come back into meditation hall and we have a big ceremony. So this year we had a wonderful enlightenment day, because when we went out to look at the morning star, the sky was choked with fog, so you couldn't see any stars or anything in the sky. So we thought, ah, the perfect Soto Zen enlightenment day. Nothing to be seen. So we walked around out there after seven days. You can imagine how we stumbled.

[03:24]

Seven days of sitting we kind of stumbled around out there. And, you know, I was just walking around. I wasn't even looking at the sky. I had given up. And somebody elbowed me and said, look. And the fog was clearing. And little by little the star, the morning star, became faintly visible and then more and more visible and it was bright as could be. It was amazing, you know, just when we were standing there. And then little by little the fog came back and it was gone. The whole thing lasted about two seconds. And when it disappeared we all burst out laughing. All 50 or 60 of us who were sitting burst out laughing. And then we came back into the meditation hall and we had a wonderful ceremony which ended with us dancing around the Buddha as the drum was beating.

[04:26]

We became quite silly, actually. And it went on for quite a while. So that's what we do for Buddha's enlightenment day. Then the Buddha's parinirvana day, which is in February, we also have a ceremony. All these days there's a very solemn and quite beautiful Japanese ceremony that we perform. But this year I went down to Tassajara for parinirvana day and we created a parinirvana pageant, which I wanted to do for several years. It was very beautiful in a zendo, very quiet, because parinirvana is when Buddha passes away. So we had, in a zendo, in a very darkened zendo, we had three monks dressed in their robes acting the part of the Buddha in unison. It was very beautiful, especially at the end where they all, at the same time, they all laid down in the parinirvana pose.

[05:29]

It was very nice. And for Buddha's birthday today, the feeling is one of joy and renewal. And we also will have a traditional Japanese ceremony, which these ceremonies are actually pretty much all the same. Basically we make lots of offerings to the Buddha. We offer our whole body in bowing. We offer light and incense and flowers and fruit and tea and all kinds of stuff. And we chant a sutra and we offer the merit of the chanting and we dedicate all of that to our appreciation for Buddha or whoever we happen to be. Commemorating. So we'll do that today and I'll explain a little bit more about how that works in a moment. But this day is particularly wonderful because of its joyous feeling.

[06:39]

And also it's been a tradition and custom over some centuries in Japan to identify the birth of the Buddha with children, naturally, and with the springtime and especially with flowers. So in Japan they call this festival Hanamatsuri, flower festival. And it is the celebration of spring, of birth of all kinds, of the stirring of the earth and of flowers, and maybe more subtly of the renewal that's possible for all of us on every moment of our lives. Sometimes people think it's too late for me. But it's never too late. Each moment of our lives is a possibility of renewal and complete transformation.

[07:42]

Even at the last moment of our life we can be born. And in the last few years I've been thinking of this day in connection with our world, with all the difficulties of our world which sometimes seem so drastic and so dramatic and so threatening. I remember on Buddha's birthday that renewal for our world is also possible on each moment. And that that renewal begins with our spirit, with our powerful intention to make a better world. When we can call forth such an intention and such a determination,

[08:49]

when all of us can do that, when many, many, many of us can do that, even though we don't know how, and we don't have a plan maybe for how to end so many of the problems we have, I think when we develop such an intention we can turn our world around, we can be helpful causes in turning our world around, and we will definitely do it if we have that spirit. So I remember that also on Buddha's birthday, this possibility for renewal in us and all around us. So I want to take a few moments here to appreciate and get enthusiastic, and get you enthusiastic about what a great person Buddha was, so that we know why we're so excited about his birthday. So I'm really impressed with Buddha myself. I think Buddha is really great,

[09:52]

and the more that I learn about him and think about his life, the more impressed I am. Buddha was a person who, with the help of lots of good luck, if you want to say it that way, or some other people say, with the help of lots of good karma and past life effort, he was able to do something really unbelievable. He was able to rediscover, not discover actually, but rediscover an ancient path into the human heart, an ancient way for people to live together in peace and harmony and honesty, a way that had been forgotten. And he was able to rediscover it. And as if that weren't enough, not only did he do that, but he also, having done that, decided that he would dedicate every moment of the rest of his life

[10:56]

to teaching others how to live this way, how to work and practice this way. And as if that weren't enough, he also, during those 45 years or so that he dedicated his life to this, he also thought about the future and thought about ways to teach and practice, so that when he was gone, for thousands of years afterward, people could continue to rediscover for themselves this path. And he managed to do that, so that almost 2,500 years ago we still have, all over the world, the possibility of continuing to live the Buddha's life and practice the Buddha's practice. So this is an impressive achievement, don't you think? It's quite wonderful that he was able to accomplish all this. A way that's so clear and wide

[12:03]

that it doesn't matter if we are a monk or a layperson, man or woman, young person, old person, rich person, poor person, smart person, dumb person, healthy person, unhealthy person, white or black or yellow or tan, every one of us, in our own way, our own particular individual way, can, if we really want to and we really open up the intention, live the life of the Buddha, practice the practice that the Buddha practiced. What an amazing way, you know, that it could be so clear and yet so broad. So the Buddha, for me, was a great person to have managed to accomplish all this. But, of course, the Buddha is not just a person. The Buddha is also a myth, a myth that lives in each one of our lives,

[13:08]

in our thoughts, in our imaginations, in our dreams. Maybe some of you don't know the myth of the birth of the Buddha. He was conceived, and in his conception, that night his mother dreamed of a six-tusked white elephant who appeared to her. And when she was about to give birth, she journeyed to the forest at Lumbini, and there in the forest, while holding on to a tree limb, she gave birth to Buddha, not from her womb, but from her side. Buddha came from out of her side. It's interesting, you know, I've often thought that when the Buddha was enlightened, he sat under a tree, and the tree really helped him. It gave him support. When he was born, his mother leaned on a tree,

[14:11]

and when he passed into nirvana, there were two trees, twin trees, it said, on either end of him. And in the pictures of his passing, you see these two trees. Anyway, she gave birth from out of her side standing. Now, when the Buddha was born, in the myth, unlike the people from Minnesota that... What's his name, that guy, that storyteller? No, Garrison Keillor, Garrison Keillor. He says the people in our town were above average. Well, when Buddha was born, he was even above that, because he could already walk and talk, you know. Amazing. So he took seven steps immediately when he came out of his mother. He took seven steps, and he pointed to the heavens,

[15:13]

and he pointed to the earth, and he said, in all the heavens and all the earth, I alone am the world-honored one, born for the real of all beings, born for the enlightenment of all beings. He said that. That's impressive in itself, you know. So Buddha is a great person, a great historical person, and Buddha is a wonderful myth, a myth that is in each one of our hearts. But then Buddha is more than this also. Buddha is something both much more esoteric and much more ordinary than any of this. Because what we mean by Buddha is the deepest aspect of our life,

[16:14]

the deepest, almost beyond what we can explain, aspect of our living. Of reality itself. Buddha is the accurate and alive nature of what is. So when we celebrate the birth of the Buddha, we're celebrating the birth of everything on each moment. My birth, your birth, moment after moment, the birth of plants and animals, of sky, of all of space and time. So on each moment the Buddha is born, moment after moment, and on each moment enlightenment occurs, moment after moment. That's why it's never too late. Enlightenment is there, in the very nature of being, in the very nature of time, Buddha sits. And at any moment we can find access to that.

[17:19]

So though we pick a particular day and a particular season to celebrate this and have a party, we could really have a party every moment to celebrate this, because it's so. Every moment, moment after moment. And so on Buddha's birthday, in acknowledging this, we always say to each other, Happy Birthday. Because it's all of our birthdays today, so Happy Birthday to you. It's a special day. It's your birthday. So I want to just read you a little passage that talks about this part, you know, this esoteric and yet very ordinary part, just to give you a sense of what the sutras say about the birth of the Buddha. This is a passage from the Flower Ornament Sutra. And this is Buddha's mother talking here.

[18:21]

She's talking about the experience of giving birth to the Buddha. The idea was that Buddha was in the heaven of contentment, and he came down from that heaven to go into his mother's womb. And you'll see, as I read, that this was not an ordinary birth. She says, At that time I was in the house of King Suddhodana, and when the time of the enlightening beings, enlightening being means Buddha, when the time of the enlightening beings descent from the heaven of contentment had arrived, from every pore of his skin, the Buddha emanated as many rays of light as atoms in untold Buddha lands. So you got that from every pore in his skin he was emanating a ray of light, as many rays of light, as many rays as there are

[19:23]

as atoms in untold Buddha lands. That's a lot of rays of light. Arrayed with the qualities of the birth of all enlightening beings, known as the light originating from the qualities of birth of all Buddhas. Those rays of light illumined the whole world, then descended on my body, and entered into every pore of my body, beginning with my head. As soon as these light rays had entered me, they caused the spheres of light at the front of the enlightening beings' light rays to be manifest in my body, and the supernal manifestations of miracles attending the birth of all enlightening beings were visible. As soon as those light rays of the enlightening being had entered my body, I saw all the Buddhas whose birth miracles were shown in the spheres at the front of the enlightening beings' light rays, as they sat on the Buddha's lion throne at the site of enlightenment, surrounded by congregations of enlightening beings, honored by the leaders of the world, turning the wheel of the teaching. I also saw all the Buddhas

[20:25]

with whom those Buddhas associated as they carried out Buddha practices in the past. I also saw mystical projections of their whole lives, of their initial aspiration, their attainment of enlightenment, the turning of the wheel of the teaching, the final extinction, and the pure arrays of all Buddha lands, as well as the multitudes of emanations of those Buddhas pervading the cosmos in each moment of consciousness. When those rays of light of the enlightening being entered my body, my body outreached all wheels, and my belly became as vast as space. Think of it. And yet, did not grow beyond the human physical size. The supernal manifestations of the enlightening beings abode in the womb everywhere in the ten directions all appeared in my body. Upon the appearance in my body

[21:27]

of the furnishings of the Buddhas abode in the womb, the Buddha, together with as many Buddhas as atoms in ten Buddha lands, all with the same vow, the same practice, the same roots of goodness, the same state of liberation and the same stage of knowledge, adept at the same mystical projection, having accomplished the same endeavor, adept at the same practice, having purified the same spiritual body, able to assume an infinite variety of physical forms, expert in the projection of the endeavors of universally good enlightening beings, respectfully attended by chiefs of all worlds, descended from the heaven of contentment by the great miracle of Buddhas, appearing to pass away from all heavens of contentment, appearing to become regenerated in all worlds, from each heaven of contentment to early existence, following skill and means and developing inconceivable numbers of sentient beings to Buddhahood, alerting all intoxicated, deluded beings,

[22:28]

detaching from all attachments, emanating a great network of light beams dispelling the darkness from all worlds, stopping all evils of miseries, putting to end all hellish ways of being, making all beings aware of their past deeds, rescuing all beings, appearing in the presence of all beings, he descended from the heaven of contentment with his retinue and entered my belly. Once all of them were in my belly. This is a lot. Are you picturing this? This is untold numbers of Buddhas doing all these things at the same time that they're descending into her belly. Now, once they entered my belly, they walked around in strides as big as a billion-world universe, even as big as worlds as numerous as atoms in untold Buddha lands. Also, all the untold congregations of Buddhas

[23:33]

at the feet of all the other Buddhas in all the worlds in the ten directions also entered my belly in every moment of thought to see the miracle of the Buddhas dwelling in the womb. And it wasn't crowded either. The chief gods of all the heavens also came to the Buddha in the womb to see and honor him, to listen to the teaching. And hear his discourse. So he's teaching in the womb there. And even though I took all those multitudes, my belly was not enlarged, nor did this body of mine become any more than a human body. Why was this? Because of the development of this Buddha's liberation of the magic of knowledge, of great vows, great intention, great determination. Anyway, it goes on like that. It's pretty amazing. It probably feels like that any time anybody gives birth, I would guess. But I don't know, but that's my guess.

[24:34]

So that gives you a flavor of what we're talking about. On each moment of thought, on each moment of being, the multitudes of Buddhas in parallel world systems are re-living, re-enacting this myth. This is the myth of existence itself, when we open to it. And this is our practice, is to turn toward our life as it is in its particularity without holding back, without denying, without grasping, just opening to it and letting it unfold fully. And this is the whole point of meditation practice, of vowing, of chanting, of offering, of ceremonies like the one we're going to do today. This is what we're doing, making our life alive.

[25:40]

This is what we're celebrating today. So I'm almost finished talking. And when I'm finished, hopefully everything is arranged so that when I'm walking out the door, the bell will start outside, the big bell. And the big bell is a 15-minute signal. So what we'll do is, as I leave, everybody will go outside and we'll organize ourselves in a great big circle on the lawn. And in the middle of the circle we have two altars, one with a figure of the Buddha and many offerings and another one that has a flower pagoda in it. And inside the pagoda there's a statue of a little baby Buddha standing there like that. So when everybody is ready, we'll come in in a solemn procession with bells and cymbals and drums

[26:46]

and we'll bring incense. And I'll bring my fly whisk and chase away the flies. Fly whisk means peacefulness, non-harming. So I'll clear the space for peacefulness. And then we'll offer the incense and we'll offer the food and tea. And then maybe make a little statement. And then we'll chant the Heart Sutra. Oh, I forgot to say, before any of that happens, in the very beginning, before the procession comes in, the most important part happens. The children come in with the flower procession. They're working on this now, trying to get it right. They come in carrying elephant carts and all kinds of different things and they march around the circle and they put their elephant carts down and their umbrellas and they make the space for us. And that's really the best part, to see the children come marching in, as we all. They come into the circle and we watch them march around

[27:48]

and put their elephant carts down. Then we'll do the procession, as I said. And after the offerings, I will bow to the Buddha three times and then we'll chant the Heart Sutra, which I see that you have copies of. Maybe we should practice, you think? Have you ever chanted the Heart Sutra before? Yeah, many of you. Let's chant the Heart Sutra once, just to practice. And the way it goes is, Joey will chant it, introduce the title, and then we'll all start. So it goes, Great Wisdom, Beyond Wisdom, Heart Sutra Great Wisdom,

[29:15]

Beyond Wisdom, Great Wisdom, Beyond Wisdom, Heart Sutra

[30:16]

Great Wisdom, Great Wisdom, Beyond Wisdom, Heart Sutra Great Wisdom, Beyond Wisdom, Heart Sutra Great Wisdom, Beyond Wisdom, Beyond Wisdom, Heart Sutra

[31:46]

Great Wisdom, No suffering, no origination, no suffering, no pain, no rendition, No suffering, no origination, no pain, no rendition, No suffering, no origination, no pain, no rendition, No suffering, no origination, no pain, no rendition,

[33:02]

No suffering, no origination, no pain, no rendition, [...]

[34:30]

No suffering, no origination, no pain, no rendition, [...]

[35:34]

No suffering, no origination, no pain, no rendition, No suffering, no origination, no pain, no rendition, No suffering, no origination, no pain, no rendition,

[37:03]

No suffering, no origination, no pain, no rendition, [...] any spiritual practice, you know, you have to have strong imagination.

[38:05]

So what you have to do is you have to imagine, and it really is so when you imagine, you know, imagine that this is the baby Buddha, and that you are the baby Buddha, and that each moment is the baby Buddha, and you are now, you know, cleansing this moment with the sweet tea. So we have to have that spirit, a powerful spirit, and it'll be very special if you have that spirit. And then one after another, coming from various sides, we'll pour sweet tea over the baby Buddha and make that offering to ourself and to all creatures. And while that's going on, the rest of us are still marching on. Om Namih Shakyamuni Buddha. Pretty soon you get delirious with, Om Namih Shakyamuni Buddha. Om Namih Shakyamuni Buddha. And then we'll keep going like that, and people are offering, people are chanting, and people are circumambulating. And then when Jiri gets tired of it,

[39:08]

he'll go to the drummer and tell the drummer to, you know, like kind of slow down. And when it slows down, you know, finally we'll stop. And then we'll bow some more, and the procession will leave. And even while the bowing is going on, the procession is leaving, we can continue to offer until everybody who wants to has made an offering. Even after the ceremony is over, you can keep going as long as you want. And then the procession leaves. And at the very end, they'll chant a dedication, dedicating the merit, because, you know, you build up powerful, positive energy when you do a ceremony like this. But we don't want this energy for ourself. We want to offer this energy to all other creatures for their benefit. So at the end, we'll chant and echo a dedication, dedicating the merit of our ceremony to all creatures. And in that dedication, you will hear, they will list all the things that we have offered. And among the things we have offered, they will list every wildflower that we have gathered from the hillsides and offered.

[40:11]

And they'll list a long list of wildflowers. It's very beautiful to hear. That will be part of the dedication. Then we'll leave, and you can continue to offer sweet tea to the baby Buddha. And then what will happen is, the actors and actresses and musicians who are going to perform the Buddha's Birthday Pageant will then begin setting up the stage. And you can begin finding your spot and opening up your lunch and whatnot. If you're hungry, you can eat something. But bear with us, because a lot of times, people will spread out their entire blanket and all their picnic in the middle of the stage, which is the line. So we'll kind of try to... I think you can sort of tell by the way the umbrellas are arranged in a semicircle. You have to be on the other side of the umbrellas. But if you can't tell, and don't be upset with us if we come up to you and say, would you please mind, you know, moving back, because you're right in the middle of everything. So be mindful of that. And we'll kind of make a space for the pageant, and everybody will get ready.

[41:11]

And once we're all ready, we'll announce the beginning of the pageant. And then we will, right before your very eyes, we will enact the real birth of the Buddha. Which again, if you use your power of imagination, it will be the actual birth of the Buddha that you will get to be present at. And for those of you who have seen it before, it's always the same. And for those of you who have never seen it, it's brand new and astonishing. Especially when a six-tusked elephant comes out. But I won't say anything about that. Okay, so that's the plan. And then when the pageant is over, we'll have birthday cake and something to drink that we will make and offer to all of you. And that's our day. So, is there some part I should explain more?

[42:15]

Or do you understand? Well, I'm delighted to be with you all today. It's for me, every year, a really wonderful occasion. And it's a joy to see so many of you come to share it with us. So... Oh, I forgot one thing. This is very important. Excuse me. The pageant is... It's a poem. And the narrator reads the stanza of the poem. And after he reads the stanza of the poem, that stanza is enacted by actors and actresses and masks and so on. And then when the action is over,

[43:17]

a big bell is struck. And that's when we come in. Because we're the chorus. And we all say, homage to the World Honored One. Remember I said to Buddha, I alone am the World Honored One? Well, now we... Buddha has many nicknames. And one of his nicknames is the World Honored One. So, when the bell is rung, we all say, homage to the World Honored One. Like that. So, when we're marching around, we say, Om, homage, Shakyamuni Buddha. But in the pageant, we say, homage to the World Honored One. Why don't we make it the same both times? It would be simpler. I don't know. We should. Anyway, next year. No, don't change it now. So, it's, homage to the World Honored One. So, let's practice. Ready? Bom, homage to the World Honored One. So, we do that at the end of each little vignette, see?

[44:20]

And then after we say that, the narrator will read the next stanza, blah, blah, blah. And then action will happen, and different things will happen. And then, Bom, homage to the World Honored One. Now, in the past, we had a big sign that said, homage to the World Honored One. And somebody would pop out, you know, at the right moment, and hold it up. But this year, we couldn't find the sign, and we were a little short-handed, and we couldn't find anybody to pop up. So, we're on our own. We just have to remember. And the orchestra will read us, you know, they'll say, homage to the World Honored One. But that's your part, so we all have to participate. And the louder, and the more enthusiastic our saying of, homage to the World Honored One, is, the better it is. Because it inspires the actors, and the musicians, and, you know, we all get, do it together. So, that's the part I forgot. Okay, did I forget anything else? Is that about it? Okay. Well,

[45:20]

thank you for your attention, and lots of more delightful things to experience today. So, let's chant, and get out of here. May our intention ship shesh [...]

[45:42]

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