celebrating this Sajiki ceremony and I want to talk a little bit about Sajiki ceremony. As you know about the pretas, the hungry ghosts, has talked about six realms of samsara, or six realms where people experience various kinds of discomfort, sometimes called suffering. And there's the heavenly realm, which is actually a realm of suffering, the fighting demon, realm, and the human realm, and the hungry ghost realm, the hell realm, and the animal realm.

[01:15]

So I didn't want to talk about all those, but the hungry ghost realm is The animals are also part of the Syngaki realm. I'm the first one to say that. So the hungry ghost realm is called the realm of the pretas. of those who have very narrow throats and big stomachs.

[02:17]

So they live in a world of constant frustration, just like us, where we want so much because of the size of our capacity, except that there's a bottleneck. There's a bottle in our neck, which is very narrow, and doesn't allow for anything to go down. So we're always hungry because we can never be satisfied because whatever it is that we're desiring or chewing on never gets down there to be satisfying. So we're always looking for something to satisfy us. So this is the realm of the hungry Ghosts, you know, in the olden days where they didn't have streetlights and electric lights and fire, various forms of fire where the fuel was expensive and so forth, people went to bed at dusk.

[03:34]

They got up early in the morning with the sun and went to bed. candles and torches and so forth. And in those days, there were a lot of shadows. Light and shadow was really important. People lived in the realm of light and shadow. And today, you know, we don't so much live in the shadows. So we turn on the lights. So it's easy to conjure up ghost stories. Spirits, spirit stories and ghosts and so forth. In China and Japan, there were spirits and ghosts everywhere.

[04:43]

So it's not unusual to think about ghosts and living in a world of ghosts and spirits and other worlds. We've lost that kind of magic because of our ability to light up everything. We say when demons, when you have demons, the way to deal with a demon is to shine the light in the shadows, in the crevices, in the dark places. So, you know, we don't believe in ghosts anymore. But ghosts were very prevalent in those days. Not too long ago. Of course, a lot of people still do, like Umart. What we say a ghost... Suzuki Roshi talked about it.

[05:49]

He talked about his wife, turned on the TV and was always turning it on to these ghost stories. Anyway, so whether we believe in ghosts or not, ghosts are like disembodied spirits. They can't land anyplace because they have no place to go. That's a ghost. they sometimes inhabit people. Sometimes they inhabit foxes. The fox in the East is really a change, a shape-changer. And sometimes foxes, people, or the goats,

[06:51]

various spirits inhabit people, and fox spirits often inhabit people, especially in Japan. There's a whole cult of the fox in Japan. So this is just kind of preparation for what are the ghosts and what are the prejudice, because since they have no place to go, We are all hungry ghosts. Until we reach final enlightenment, we're all hungry ghosts. And there's so few people who have reached our great enlightenment that we can count on everybody to be a hungry ghost in some way or another. We've all experienced this. And whenever we think about our craving and our needs,

[07:56]

So these stories and this kind of communion with the disembodied spirits after dying, that roam around in this strange atmosphere, are called to appear for a period in order to be fed. because we sympathize with these spirits. We have a ceremony in which we call them to, we invite them to a kind of communion. And this kind of ceremony is universal around the world, or it has been in England, the Celts and the Druids. Halloween.

[09:13]

The word is a little difficult. Sa-ween. Yes, thank you. Sa-ween is the root of Halloween. So Halloween is very similar. The ghosts and the disembodied spirits are invited to spend the night go back to where they belong. In Buddhism, the Siddhagati ceremony, well, the root seems to have been when Moggallana, who was one of Shakyamuni's arhat disciples, had a dream about his mother and dreamt that his mother was In this world, of course she had died, but she was in this world where whatever she ate turned to fire, and whatever she drank turned to pus and blood.

[10:24]

There's a great problem. And so the Moggallana asked the Buddha about it, and he said, She's in the realm of the pretas, the hungry ghosts. And so I don't know if he said we'll have a ceremony to slash the hungry ghosts or not. But of course, this is all folktales, right? We know this is folktale. But folktales is what makes up part of religion. It's full of folktales, which have some kind of meaning. But the meaning here seems to come from a long time ago in China. They also have this ceremony. And the ceremony in China seems to have been, or be, that somehow the realm of the hungry ghosts was unlocked.

[11:36]

out of the confinement and ran over the world. And so they devised a ceremony to invite them all in, gather them all together, and feed them, and then put them back in the box. Anyway. He says, the name Sagaki means feeding the hungry ghosts. And the festival contains a great deal of teaching about training in Buddhism. On one hand, it is a time of remembering the dead and resolving our karmic connections with those who have died. But it is also a time of resolving our own internal karmic difficulties and for letting go of the obstacles and blockages we carry around with us.

[12:49]

The festival is said to have begun with Moggallana, a disciple of the Buddha, who was plagued by dreams of his recently departed mother suffering in a world in which she could neither eat nor drink. Food would turn to fire, and water would turn to blood or pus or whatever touched her mouth. Moggallana went to the Buddha and told him of his dreams, which plagued him every night. in the world of the Gakis, or hungry ghosts. Gakis are usually depicted as having long, skinny necks with throats too small for swallowing and a bloated, bulging stomachs common with severe malnutrition. This imagery is a fantastic description of a spiritual state which can be seen every day right here in the physical world of people. It is a condition where everyone has suffered from, which everyone has suffered from, to some degree or another, at this point in their lives. On the most spiritual level, this is the state of someone who desperately wants to know the truth, but who cannot accept the teaching.

[13:52]

That person knows the suffering, and that religious practice will help, but just cannot stop resisting and holding on to their personal opinions. He goes on to drink, but her throat will not accept. Each time he rejects this teaching, it turns to fire in her mouth. On the everyday level, this condition is that of someone who has desperate needs, but like a person with a phantom itch can find no relief. A few years ago, she used to talk about this as like a person trying to scratch an itch on the bottom of their foot with a shoe on. frantically cling to their children long after they are grown, and men who cannot get enough wealth and success are everyday examples of hungry ghosts.

[14:56]

In examples such as these, the problem lies in trying to satisfy an inner need for peace of mind, which is found in all acceptance, really, through grasping after external things. How often our attempts to obtain the things we want are like this. So Moggallana's dreams were due to his deep connection with his mother. And the Buddha's advice to him was that he make an offering to her of whatever food she can most easily accept and digest. This was to be done in a ceremony dedicated in her name. at the time when the monks conducted their regular gathering to confess their transgressions. So this is where the connection between making offerings to the dead and the cleansing of karma, personal or in connection with someone who has died, becomes apparent.

[16:01]

Today, the tradition that started with the ceremonies continued every year in Buddhist temples by making an offering on a table far away from the statue or picture of a Buddha or a Bodhisattva. For those who reject religious teaching, kindness is offered without doctrine as a truly religious act. In other words, without trying to, you know, I remember soup kitchens used to be done by churches, but you had to do some kind of confessional or something before you receive the food. But here it's just freely offered. So the table is far away from any statue or picture of the Buddha. For those who reject religious teaching, kindness is offered. Without doctrine, it's a truly religious act.

[17:03]

For the Dharma is to be really Dharma, it can only be offered in forms. that can be accepted and truly made use of. So offerings of any type made in such a manner will naturally benefit both the recipient and the donor. This principle applies to so many situations we encounter in everyday life. Such action naturally expresses all acceptance in a way that touches and deeply affects all concerned. So hungry ghosts are not the only ones to be remembered at Tsunagaki. However, it is a time to remember all those who have died. to be thankful for their having lived, and to give thanks for the teaching their lives give to us. It is a time to let go of those who have died, to realize that their training goes on in whatever form it now takes, and that they do not need us pulling them back into this world through our attachments. By letting go of those who are now gone, we can also resolve any painful memories that can linger on to become the nucleus of a multitude of other problems,

[18:07]

All acceptance is still the key, for if we completely accept those who have gone as they were, we can understand them better and offer them what they need to go on, which is most often our forgiveness and blessing. So if you apply this process to yourself, looking at your own past actions as that which must be let go of, it is easy to see the connection between sagaki and personal karmic cleansing It becomes a time of deep personal spiritual renewal in the way we are adapting Buddhist traditions to our culture. Sagaki is celebrated on or near Halloween day. In Western culture, Halloween, or All Souls Day, which is the day after, is when all the ghosts or goblins from the past come out of hiding. What better time to offer them their merit and to put them back to rest. The themes of death, change, and spiritual transition have for centuries in the West been remembered in the autumn, at the time of change, from light to dark, from heat to cold.

[19:17]

Although in the Far East, Sagaki is celebrated in mid-summer, within that culture it is a time similar to Halloween in ours. So the summer solstice is a time of transmission, just as the autumn equinox is, and they both represent a time of change. where the past can be left behind and a new beginning is possible. Sagaki then is a celebration of this on every level. So we celebrate Halloween and Sagaki at the same time. And it's a kind of sacred ceremony and festival at the same time. So I remember we used to sing, I always thought, You know, this is sacred, so why are we doing this interesting epic costumes and doing a Halloween? But actually, the two really go inside. And it's a really interesting mix of juxtaposition of the sacred and the festive.

[20:29]

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