This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. This coming Friday, can you hear me okay? There'll be a ceremony here as well as... many, many temples, Tassajara and Greengalt and other temples, Hartford Street, I think. It's an annual ceremony called Sajiki, Sajiki ceremony. And the word Sajiki translates as the se part, S-E, is an offering, nurturing, a kind of giving, offering, feeling. And jiki is food. So it's a nourishing offering of food.

[01:01]

And this ceremony is rather esoteric. It comes to us through the Shingon branch of Buddhism, which is akin to Tantric Buddhism. It's a wonderful ceremony that we can relate to on many, many different levels, psychologically, spiritually, communally, for the well-being of the world, for our people who have departed, who have died. Many, many ways that this ceremony addresses our life. And I wanted to talk about the... the history of the ceremony, the meaning of the ceremony, ceremony itself, and how it might function in our practice life. And why I think it's important, actually.

[02:07]

The ceremony was introduced to us after Suzuki Roshi died. So Suzuki Roshi, the founder of Zen Center, died in 1971, December 4th. And Chino Roshi, I think he was Chino's sensei at the time, Chino Otagawa, who had been asked to come and help, sensei and her help Suzuki Roshi as an assistant priest, taught us this ceremony. So this was transmitted to us or handed down from Chino Roshi. Now, Chino Roshi, who died a very, very tragic death a number of years ago, He drowned, trying to save his young daughter from drowning, and they both drowned. He was very well versed in ritual and ceremony and the esoteric side of Buddhism. And it was very, it was quite an unusual person.

[03:15]

Really a wonderful, wonderful person. Just a little story about Chino Roshi. He... fell asleep in his own lecture. So picture me kind of just nodding off. He was really kind of free, but also very particular about ritual and ceremony. So those two things actually go together, I feel. He transmitted this, or taught it to us. After Suzuki Roshi died, and... The ceremony is done in conjunction, and I'll say why in a moment, with memorial service. So it's feeding, making this offering of food, and I'll say to Hu in a moment as well, combined with, linked to, remembering those who have died. And the first one we did, there was a memorial service for Suzuki Roshi,

[04:18]

right afterwards, so the two came together and linked. And Chino Roshi thought this was a very important ceremony for people in the West. It's a ceremony that addresses, calls up, speaks to directly those parts of ourselves and parts of others that we don't want to think about. that we want to avoid, that we want to suppress, repress, get behind us, not deal with. I don't want to think about it. Those parts of our life, those parts of our mind and body that we have a hard time with accepting, the negative parts, and we become, and we're of course supported to do this in the culture, Forget about that. Go and have a good time, and I'll sell you this product to help you have a good time and forget more.

[05:20]

So this ceremony puts those kinds of things that are obscured, that are avoided, that are difficult, that are negative, that are painful, right in the center and relates to them, honors them. So as I say, it has a power to it that affects us in ways that we maybe don't even understand or can't even say. He felt from his years living here that people in the West were not, and this may be a generalization of course, but needed this kind of ceremony to address this part of our life. And to be aware of the negative sides, which is just another part of awareness itself. Awareness is not just awareness of the positive and joyful, but both together need to be combined for wholeness.

[06:27]

And at our own peril, at our own risk, do we... and not examine those difficult parts of our life because they're there and they will come forward in ways that are unexpected, that are not so beneficial. So that gives you a little bit of a taste of what the ceremony is about. So I want to give you the history, how it is that it came to be. And the ceremony has two strands of teaching stories that lead to this ceremony. The first is the story of Ananda, who was the Buddha's very close disciple, also his cousin, was his personal attendant for over 25 years, knew him very, very well, and also remembered everything he said and could repeat it. So the sutras, as you know, start out with, thus have I heard.

[07:31]

and that's Ananda speaking. Thus have I heard the Buddha did this and that. So Ananda, one day Ananda, who was living close to the Buddha in community, had this terrible, it's not sure whether it was a vision or a dream or a kind of visitation of some sort. He had this strong experience of a being coming to him maybe in a dream. with a burning face, a very scary person with a burning face. He was called a burning face demon, burning face demon. And this burning face demon said to Ananda, in three days you will die. And you will go into one of the six realms. This is Buddha's cosmology. And that realm, which I'll say more about, is the realm of the hungry ghosts. Now, let me just stop there for a moment.

[08:33]

The six realms in Buddhist teaching include the human realm, which can experience both suffering and joy, and not so much suffering that we can't practice or we can't have compassion for others. So that kind of characterizes the human realm. Another realm is called the deva realm. Deva is heavenly, the heavenly realm. And these are beings, and you can think of this as actual realms, psychological states, realms of people that you know who have a very comfortable life, extremely comfortable, are not confronted with too much difficulty or or even people who are suffering. It's kind of Marie Antoinette, let them eat cake. Just not in connection with the suffering of people. And the characteristic of the Deva realm is they don't have compassion, actually.

[09:40]

They're very self-absorbed, very comfortable. Why don't those people just go get jobs? I mean, why are they bothering me? So that's the Deva realm. And it's very, very comfortable, but when one leaves the Deva realm, One goes, like in Monopoly, directly to jail, directly to hell, and you do not pass go. You go directly from the heavenly to hell realms, meaning big suffering. Your positive karma runs out. I have to omit lots of things in this lecture. I don't want to spend all my time in the six realms. Anyway... into the hell realms where there's terrible suffering, much more than the human realms. There's nonstop suffering. And I think we know people who are in great suffering, who have terrible diseases, who are in a lot of pain, psychological, physical pain.

[10:41]

And we've been there too. We've gone through that realm. We can hear the Dharma in all the realms, but it's very hard to practice in the hell realm. You have to just... Stay very still, but you can hear. So those are human, deva, hell realm. Then there's what's called the animal realm, which is characterized by a lot of anxiety and fear, kind of like the deer that we see at Gringouch. They startle easily, and they're constantly on the look at what might hurt me. This is... called the animal realm. It's not a put-down of animals and their beauty and our connection with animals. It's a quality of fear, mostly. That's called the animal realm. And then there's a realm called, in Sanskrit, ajuras, which are kind of competitive, fighting, big, strong beings who have a lot of aggression and

[11:52]

and a lot of entitlement, and a lot of anger, and competitive spirit, and that's another realm. And we know people like that who are... The last realm is the realm of the hungry ghost, which is what this burning-faced demon said to Ananda, you're going to go to this realm. And the hungry ghost realm is characterized by intense hunger, thirst, longing, And the inability to be satisfied, the inability to have contentment, the inability to eat or drink. Iconographically, the hungry ghost has a teeny tiny neck and a very enlarged belly, which is very similar to pictures we've seen of starving people all over the world, the enlarged belly. And this hungry ghost... the dissatisfaction.

[12:55]

They are surrounded by food and love and care, and they are unable to receive it. This is the characteristic of the hungry ghost. And there's intense suffering there. Everything they try to eat turns to fire or inedible substances. Anything they try from the external to take in. And I think, you know, we... might liken this to people who are addicted to substances, whether it's however much you have, it's never enough. You're never quieted, you're never satisfied. And also inability, people who have the inability to receive the help that's surrounding them, that's there, that's being offered. So that's this hungry ghost realm. Very, very... Kind of an intense, even thinking about it is kind of intense. So Ananda has this dream and goes to the Buddha to say this.

[13:57]

What can I do? He was very frightened. What can I do? And the Buddha says, I have a ceremony that was passed on to me and transmitted to me in past lives or years before by the Bodhisattva of infinite compassion, Avalokiteshvara. And the bodhisattva said that you must make offerings. And the Buddha also said, you can't do this by yourself. You need the whole sangha, the power of the whole sangha to help with this. So that's how this ceremony came to be. This is one historical or... teaching story account. The other is through another disciple of the Buddha named Mogadhyana.

[14:58]

Mogadhyana was an arhat, close disciple, lived at the Buddha's time, and was foremost in psychic powers, so probably extremely strong meditator and ability to really have concentration at a level that maybe is unusual. And a similar kind of story, but he had a dream that his mother, who had died recently, was in this realm that was terrible, and she was suffering terribly. This was a strong dream, and he couldn't bear it. And he went to the Buddha to say, what can I do to relieve my mother, who's in this realm that I had a glimpse of? And the Buddha said, there's a ceremony that we can do. So the ceremony, when it said you need the whole sangha to do this, what the Buddha said is the ceremony should take place the last day of the practice period.

[16:06]

Many of you are in a practice period right now. And in the Buddha's time, they were 90 days during the rainy season where the monks and nuns came together in community instead of wandering. this is kind of pre-monasteries, and stayed together practicing. And during that time, and also during times when they weren't in practice period, they had a ceremony wherein each person avowed and acknowledged and admitted their actions of body, speech, and mind, their karmic actions. And we do this, an abbreviated version of this on the full moon, On the last day of practice period, they were to do this ceremony where they recite precepts, acknowledge or make confession of ways in which they were not in alignment with their precepts, and admit that, acknowledge that together, and make this confession of karma or acknowledgement.

[17:14]

So this is the place where this ceremony is links together with our personal and internal life of karmic actions of body, speech, and mind. So at the time of this ceremony, where each person avows, accepts, and also lets go of in the ceremony their unskillful actions and starts anew, fresh, and ready to continue their practice, At this time, the Buddha said to have this ceremony where you offer food and dedicated to these beings who have departed and to these beings who are suffering and suffering in this very particular way, the hungry ghost, instability, confusion, a restive...

[18:19]

disquietude, extremely sensitive and unable to be calm, fearful, anxiety. This kind of, to address, and not only, the most important part, I think, is not just for beings externally that we know, but for our own self, our own self. energies that are not at peace, that are not able to quiet, that constantly renew our anxieties and fears and can never trust and accept that there is help and that the teaching is trying to meet us. So the ceremony is dedicated to that kind of suffering, which is called Hungry Ghost, which is where Mogagliana's mother was suffering. And the ceremony was held, and Moggalyana also made this vow to go into these realms and help beings, to go to those places that are difficult and meet beings who are there, to not abandon those beings.

[19:41]

And he said something like, if not me, then who? Which is, even though he was an arhat, and didn't necessarily take bodhisattva vows, that to me is really the bodhisattva vow of not abandoning beings and going into places that scare us, as that wonderful book by Pema Chodron, go to the places that scare us in order to help beings. So Moggalyana did this, made this vow. So... In the ceremony itself that we do, all these elements are brought forth. And the ceremony, I think, is for us and a chance to get in touch with and put right center our own, these descriptions of what I've mentioned, of our own disquietude and difficulties and fears and to honor that.

[20:47]

as this is also there. This is also who I am. This is not necessarily weakness. This is the fullness of who I am. And I honor and want to take care of this. And it's hard to acknowledge that this is hard. So the ceremony, in the ceremony, we chant something called the Kan Ro Mon. And Kan Ro, Mon is gate, Mon. And kanro is sweet dew. And it refers to those of you who've seen Avalokiteshvara or kanon statues where one of her attributes is to carry a vase, he or she carrying a vase. You've probably seen this. And in that vase is this substance called... sweet dew, or it's the compassion, it's compassion in, and she pours this compassion, or he, out into the world.

[21:54]

And this is, so the gate of sweet dew is this filled with this dew of compassion which Avalokiteshvara carries, you know, always with him or her. And also there's in, Tibetan Buddhism, there's visualizations you can do for people who are sick, where you pour into the top of the crown. You can visualize someone in the hospital, let's say, and imagine one of the bodhisattvas of compassion with this vase. pouring sweet dew through the crown of the head, and the color in Tibetan Buddhism is this lapis lazuli, this blue, deep blue, and you pour this into the person in your mind with your own concentration and love. This is this amrita, it's called in Sanskrit, and this is the same sweet dew of compassion that we can pour out to ourselves,

[23:00]

because we need it, and to others. So in the khanromon we chant the gate of sweet dew, this long chant that's in both English and also there's mantra, and mantra are words that don't translate particularly completely into other languages. The words themselves kind of carry and if we absorb ourselves in the meaning of the mantra, which is basically to send compassion, absorbing ourselves in wanting to pour out compassion to ourselves and others, that's the feeling of these mantras when we say them. The feeling of the ceremony is offering to sentient beings who are suffering our compassion and love and kindness and acceptance. We accept you completely just the way you are, and we offer you the only food that you can really take in, which is the food of the Dharma.

[24:08]

This is how the ceremony proceeds, by chanting. First of all, I should say it starts with a soundscape that's very unusual. The ceremony is done with our back, These beings are very, as I said, and we know people like this, kind of sensitive and don't necessarily want to take precepts or they're wary of it, skittish. So the altar doesn't have any Buddhist figures on it. It has beautiful colors and beautiful altar cloths and lots of food, beautiful arrangements of fruit and vegetables. that's laid out like a spread, like a banquet. And then they're invited. This is what I mean by esoteric ceremony. They're invited through sound. And certain instruments are played in ways that we don't usually play them.

[25:16]

And Tina Roshi said they're kind of fantastical, weird sounds almost, unusual. And that is very powerful for us. And if you imagine people being drawn or these beings being drawn to that sound, and then the doshi, the leader of the ceremony, then speaks to them with kindness and acceptance. and welcomes them. You're welcome here. Come, come close. Be warm. Warm yourself here. We're here to help you. These kinds of words is very important for the ceremony. And for us, to speak to ourselves that way, you're accepted just the way you are. With all your difficulties, with all your failures, you're accepted and... We want you here.

[26:19]

Come. Come hear the Dharma. It's for you. So we're saying that those words are said out loud and they're said internally and externally at the same time because all those parts of ourselves that we push away and don't want to look at and are embarrassed about and ashamed of and think if anybody knew who I really was, they'd kick me out of here. That was one of my thoughts when I first came to Zen Center. All that way that we think about ourselves, we're speaking to those parts of ourselves and those beings, those people that we know and all the kind of unseen energies of the world that are not at rest and that also have died in accidents through floods and hurricanes. My daughter was in Puente Vallarta yesterday with this biggest hurricane that's ever come to the Western Hemisphere, I guess, that landed right there.

[27:33]

She was at Mardahade in a conference and they evacuated to inland and she's safe. We heard from her, but many, many people probably couldn't leave and get out. And then we have the migrants and winter is coming, all these beings who are in harm's way and in violence and all the people who are killed from gunshot wounds every year. I was listening to the radio last night, Commonwealth Club talking about from a health perspective, guns and doctors were talking about, you know, how much, how often they treat gunshot wounds and all the causes and conditions that have created situations like that in this country.

[28:36]

That's who we're speaking to, all those beings. And and our own self. So it's internal and external all the time. So they're brought here through this sound and these beautiful altars and then welcomed and spoken to. And then we chant and all these mantras. And part of the mantras, one of the mantras is to open the throat, open the throats wide so that the nourishment can come in. that we can be, the offerings are made, but that they have to, you have to be open to it to receive the nourishment. If you're resistive, caught up in one's own rigid and grasping to old ideas, you have to let go and open to receive the Dharma, to receive compassion.

[29:40]

So there's mantras for that, to opening wide all throats. That's one of the mantras. And if you come to the ceremony, it's a public ceremony, please come to just experience this kind of unusual thing. It's also the leader of the ceremony is dressed, we're supposed to dress in our finery, In the memorial services, you dress in a very quiet way, but for this ceremony, for these suffering beings, you dress like the reality body of the Buddha, Vairochana, the Dharmakaya Buddha. And I remember the first time the ceremony happened, Zentatsu Baker did it first, and he wore this brocade okesa, this robus and outer robus and okesa. He wore Suzuki Roshi's brocade okesa, Richard Baker, Zentatsu Baker, was a very tall man, and Suzuki Roshi was very short, so he had on this brocade, but it fit him more like a little cape that he was wearing, this brocaded cape, and then a hat, a peaked hat that had flaps that hung down over his ears and back.

[31:00]

That also was Suzuki Roshi's hat, so it didn't quite fit him. It kind of... perched on top of his head. He came in. I tell you, it was like a sight from, I don't know what. We weren't used to this kind of thing. But we've been doing this ceremony now since the 70s, so we're more used to it. Anyway, you dress up, and at City Center, I know it's combined with Halloween, and Tassar and Green Gulch is not combined in that way. It's its own ceremony. So these mantras are done and then there's the dedication and thanks given to our parents and teachers and so forth. So this is kind of the shape of the ceremony and the ways that you can participate.

[32:02]

At the end of the ceremony then it turns into the memorial service. This is combining, as I said, the two, this very compassionate offering to suffering beings and then thanking, acknowledging those who have died, especially those who have died in difficult and painful ways, who have died too soon, young people, accidents, suicide. climate, things that have happened, hurricanes, tsunami, you know, these kinds of situations where they were taken unawares, where they weren't ready. And the feeling, and we know people maybe who have died in this way, and we are not at rest actually ourselves in relation to those people that we know.

[33:06]

So this is a chance The ceremony is about our own karmic life and also the connection with the karma of others. So it's a chance to actually submit a name of someone you'd like, whose name you would like to have read in the ceremony, not just people who have died in these ways, but especially to remember those people who may be forgotten. There may be no one from their family left. So a chance to have their name read in honoring them and with dignity, and we remember. And this is a settling thing for us when we remember as well as, you know, we don't know. There's so much we don't know, and that I leave totally open what effect... you know, it has on that, the energy of that person.

[34:12]

I, you know, I leave this completely open. However, I do know the effect it has on me and on my own remorse, regrets, unfinished business that I have with people, things I wished I had said, and now it's too late. That phone call that I said I'll do tomorrow, and the person... When I did call, I was in a coma and couldn't speak. I didn't get to say goodbye. This is part of our current consciousness. These are parts of ourselves that can't rest, perhaps, unless we bring it forth, bring it right in the center, and acknowledge and honor. So as I say, the ceremony is at so many different levels. our own very personal life, our community life, in the widest sense, the community of the world.

[35:14]

And it touches on the agitation and discomfort and inability to rest that we have in the face of climate change and knowing what's happening and the species that are dying daily and those beings who are... mostly poor, who had the littlest to do with climate change and the climate emergency. And in the interfaith power and light, interfaith group that's nationwide, those people are called those who... get the effects of it, they get it first and they get it worst, the first and the worst, and they have the least contribution to global warming in terms of not being able to plant crops and living on the edge.

[36:20]

So all those things we feel all the time, and we try not to think about it, perhaps. And that, as I said, at our peril, because we are affected strongly. And this is hard. Speaking of interfaith power and light, this past Wednesday there was a celebration of 15 years of interfaith power and light. It was founded in the Bay Area 15 years ago. We had an event at Green's to celebrate that. And... There was a wonderful, we had a wonderful singer, we had live music, a woman named Carrie Newcomer. Maybe some of you are a fan of Carrie Newcomer. And she's a donor to Interfaith Power and Light and cares enormously about the environment. And she sang many, many songs that I don't hear live music that much.

[37:25]

And as you know, the strength of live music, any music, particularly live music, to go in deep. I had a number of full-body thrills. I don't know what to call them, but experiences of deep connection with her and what she was saying. And one of the songs that she sang that a number of us really connected with was called... you can do this hard thing. And she spoke a little bit about the song when her daughter went to Montessori school. Some of you probably went to Montessori school. My kids did. When you're developmentally ready to do the next thing, then you get to do it. But it's a stretch. You're on your frontier. Like when you get to bake for the first time and you have to read the recipe and you get to do the stove and...

[38:27]

And she said, the teacher for her child in Montessori said to her daughter, you can do this hard thing. You can do this hard thing. And then she began to sing this song. And over and over, I can't sing it, but you can do this hard thing. You can. And it's not going to be easy, but we'll help you. And I believe you can do this hard thing. It's not easy, I know, but you can do this hard thing. And for each of us, we all have hard things, whether it's facing the loss of a loved one or our own illness. And we can do it together. We need help. Just like, you know, Ananda and Moggalyana, they needed the whole sangha. As it said in the sutra, the awesome... power of the Sangha is what they needed to combine to make these offerings.

[39:32]

So many people are facing hard things in their work, in their own personal health, health of loved ones, friends and family, addiction. And all of us are facing climate change and these And the message was, yes, it's hard. I know it's hard. And we'll see it through together. We can do this together. And our practice doesn't take away the disease or take away our past karmic life, but the practice helps us to meet it. and to practice with it, to understand, to have compassion for ourselves and others. It's not about getting rid of or taking away. It's meeting this with compassion and kindness.

[40:37]

And it's a hard thing. And you can do this hard thing. And we are not alone. We're not alone. And to me, I feel the inner meaning of this ceremony is really that. You're not alone, open to what's here. Can you trust? And let go of fixed views. And we'll see it through together with the awesome power of Sangha. the awesome power of our relationships, and in the widest sangha, practicing sangha, and the non-practice, everybody's practicing in just different paths. But we can do this hard thing together. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center.

[41:44]

Our Dharma Talks are offered free of charge, and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, please visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we all fully enjoy the Dharma.

[42:04]

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