Good morning, welcome. This week is traditionally in East Asia celebrated as the Parinirvana Day, the anniversary of the passing away into nirvana of Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha, 2,500 some years ago in what's now northeastern India. So this Parinirvana is commemorated The statue you probably saw on the altar, the Buddha reclining. You can see it when you come around, Danny, afterwards. But the Buddha reclining on his right side is the traditional story. And actually, in monasteries in East Asia, monks who sleep sleeping in the monks halls sleep on their right side in honor of that. And so the story is that he passed away lying like that and entering the fourth jhana, worldly meditation, highest worldly meditation, between two twin solid trees.

[01:12]

I don't know if there's any in the West or what they're called in the West, but anyway, these are trees. Each one has two. major trunks, he would lay down between them and passed away into nirvana. So this word nirvana is understood in different ways. In early Buddhism, nirvana literally means cessation, and nirvana was the escape from samsara. The escape from the worldly realm of fame and gain, gain and loss, the human rat race, nirvana was the escape from conditioning. And that was the goal in early Buddhism, to escape from samsara. Later in the Bodhisattva tradition that we follow, it was understood that nirvana can happen right in the midst of the world, as we sit in our storefront temple in the midst of Chicago, that right in the midst of being in the world of samsara and responding

[02:20]

to it from awakened heart and trying to help others awaken and relieve suffering, that nirvana is not separate from samsara. But nirvana, I asked my first teacher a little while after I started practicing, how do I get to nirvana? And he said, die. The Parinirvana is the final Nirvana of the Buddha. So he would not be reborn again into this world. And the story is, I think he was about 85 and he received on his begging rounds, which he continued to do throughout his life as he continued to do Zazen meditation every day and to reawaken every day, but the practice was for monks to do begging for their food and to eat whatever they received.

[03:25]

And the story is that he ate, it's not clear, it's a matter of different translations, he ate either some bad mushrooms or some bad pork. Anyway, which led to his passing away in Tiruvannamalai. So this statue, there's a huge one in Bangkok, maybe some of you have seen that. This statue is the traditional commemoration for this Parinirvana, this Buddha's passing away into Nirvana. And so there's a number of ways to see that. I mean, the historical Buddha died 2,500 years ago. And yet, how do we understand that? So I want to talk about that today in honor of Parinirvana Day. And I'm going to start. A couple of weeks ago, I read a bunch of poems by Mary Oliver, a great poet who passed away into nirvana.

[04:27]

But a couple of her poems are very relevant to this day. So, one story about the Buddha's passing away is that his last instruction to his monks was to be a light unto yourself. rather than since the Buddha was not going to be there. He also says, let the Dharma be the Buddha's body. So study of the sutras, study of the teaching. But also he said, be a light unto yourself. But I like the way Mary Oliver turns that. So this is her poem, The Buddha's Last Instruction. Make of yourself a light, said the Buddha before he died. I think of this every morning as the east begins to tear off its many clouds of darkness to send up the first signal, a white fan streaked with pink and violet, even green.

[05:32]

An old man, he lay down between two solid trees, and he might have said anything, knowing it was his final hour. The light burns upward. It thickens and settles over the fields around him. The villagers gathered and stretched forward to listen. Even before the sun itself hangs disattached in the blue air, I am touched everywhere by its ocean of yellow waves. No doubt he thought of everything that had happened in his difficult life. And then I feel the sun itself as it blazes over the hills like a million flowers on fire. Clearly, I'm not needed. Yet I feel myself turning into something of unexplicable value. Slowly, beneath the branches, he raised his head. He looked into the faces of that frightened crowd. So that's the poem. She intersperses her vision of the Buddha in his last hour and her own seeing of sunrise.

[06:43]

But then she says, make of yourself a light, said the Buddha before he died. So rather than be a light unto yourself, make of yourself a light. I like that. That we must carry on the light. Each of you, please, make of yourself a light. So that's a somewhat untraditional version of the Buddha's last instruction. Another poem by Mary Oliver feels relevant. It's called When Death Comes. When death comes like the hungry bear in autumn, when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse to buy me and snaps the purse shut, when death comes like the measles box, when death comes like an iceberg between the shoulder blades. I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering, what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

[07:46]

And therefore, I look upon everything as a brotherhood and a sisterhood. And I look upon time as no more than an idea. And I consider eternity as another possibility. And I think of each life as a flower, as common, as a field daisy and a singular. And each name a comfortable music in the mouth, tending, as all music does, towards silence. And each body a lion of courage and something precious to the earth. When it's over, I want to say, all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom. taking the world into my arms. When it's over, I don't want to wonder if I have made of my life something particular and real. I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened or full of argument. I don't want to end up simply having visited this world."

[08:53]

So, Shakyamuni Buddha visited this world and much more. So what does it mean that the Buddha has passed away 2,500 years ago? Well, as some of you know, from the chant we sometimes do about the inconceivable lifespan, that in the Lotus Sutra, very important to Dogon and to our tradition, the center of it is Buddha's revelation And that he didn't actually get born and leave the palace and wander and awaken under the Bodhi tree and teach for 45 years and pass away. That actually, the Buddha says, he's had an inconceivably long lifespan. Not eternal, but very, very long, an astronomically long lifespan.

[10:00]

And we'll have a lifespan twice that long into the future. So this is the central teaching in the Lotus Sutra. What does that mean for Parinirvana day? So the Buddha passed away into Nirvana, he says, as a skillful means. So his students then, and since then, on Parinirvana Day mourn his passing. The Buddha is no longer here. There's predicted to be a future Buddha at Maitreya, the Buddha of loving kindness, who will come again in the future, maybe in a couple thousand more years, or maybe in 200,000 more years. We don't know. But the Buddha's gone. But also, he says, he has this inconceivable lifespan. So Dogen, the founder of our tradition of Zen in Japan, it's what we call now Soto Zen, talked about this, this problem.

[11:11]

Where is Buddha now, today? How is she making a light, making herself into a light for this world? How does the Buddha's lifespan continue? So we can understand the Lotus Sutra teaching in all kinds of different ways, literally, metaphorically. But part of how the Buddha is alive today, 2019, in our way of counting, is here in this room. on each seat, each one of you in your own way, by sitting upright, calmly, settling facing your confusion and frustration and anger and grasping and so forth.

[12:19]

All our ancient twisted karma. Each one of us, sitting like Buddha, is keeping alive Buddha and his questioning and his struggle and his awakening. So in the Zen tradition, we talk about Dharma transmission, transmitting the truth, the teaching, which is done formally between individuals, but also it's a Sangha affair. How do we, as community of people sitting like Buddha, keep alive Buddha? But also, today is Parinirvana Day. Buddha passed away 2,500 years ago. So there's a tension here. Is Buddha alive or dead? It's up to each one of you to answer that. So I want to refer to some teachings about this from Dogen, who wrestled with this problem himself.

[13:32]

Dogen talks about giving up, holding back your life as the way to hold on fully to your life. So Mary Oliver talks about not wanting to pass away and feel like she just visited this world, but that she actually took on her life in this world. And she has now passed away, but she remains also in her words. So for Dogen, the enduring life of Shakyamuni Buddha is realized by those who fully give their vitality to the everyday activities of Buddha's practice. So we do the Buddha's practice by coming here and sitting like Buddha. But then, as we do this over time, it starts to penetrate our bones and our subconscious, unconscious awareness, we start to feel what it's like to be upright, to enjoy our breathing, to be present, to be able to respond to the difficulties of our life in the world calmly.

[14:57]

Dogen talks about how Buddhas do not appear only in human realms, but in other realms as well. So what is Buddha is the basic question for all of us. What does it mean to be awake? How do we carry that forth in our life? How do we respond from that place into the difficulties in our own life and in the life of those around us. So one story about Buddhas is that when they are getting ready to be born as a Buddha, they are present in the Tushita heaven, one of the meditation heavens, waiting to be born. So Maitreya supposedly is there now. But Dogen says, Shakyamuni of the human realm spread the teaching through his manifestation of Parinirvana, what we're celebrating today.

[16:15]

But Shakyamuni of the heavenly realm still abides there, teaching heavenly beings. This is Dogen's kind of original imaginative, playful interpretation of the inconceivable lifespan of Lotus Sutra, or one of his versions of that. that in our realm, in human history, Buddha passed away, but he's still around in this meditation heaven helping us. So that's one way we might imagine it. And part of these kinds of visions and metaphors is for us is to activate our imagination about how we offer and receive awakening. So He, Dogen, has quoted sometimes the teacher Xue Feng, who said, Buddhas in the past, present, and future abide in flames and turn the great Dharma wheel, allowing awakening to be present.

[17:31]

So Mary Oliver talks about the flames of sunrise. And we all know the flames of the difficulties of our own life. So in the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha says, after I pass away, to listen to and to accept the sutra and to inquire into its meaning will be quite difficult. Dogen turns that to say that just to listen to the Dharma is Buddha's activity. So it's not that Buddha is sitting on my seat expressing the Dharma. It's that Buddha is sitting on your seat hearing the Dharma, awakening to the teaching. This is one way in which the Buddha's lifespan continues.

[18:35]

Dogen says, all Buddhas of the three times remain and listen to Dharma, as the fruit of Buddhahood is already present. They do not listen to Dharma to achieve Buddhahood, but are already Buddhas. So Buddhas who are listening to the Dharma also do not wait for awakening, as Dogen says elsewhere. It's not that we will, if we sit enough, if we practice enough, if we understand enough, if we hear enough Dharma talks, we will later on become Buddha. It's that Buddha is something that's already all around each of us. underneath and above each of us on your seat right now. And it's not a matter of talking about it, but also of listening to it. So just to stay present as Buddha, to remain still and calm and sit like Buddha. Buddha is there. Dogen also says, although this moment is distant from the sages, although our time right now is very distant from Shakyamuni Buddha, you have encountered the transforming guidance of the spreading sky that can still be heard.

[20:03]

So all of you have heard the Dharma. All of you have somehow, even if it's your first time here, all of you have heard something that brings you to consider how to express deepest awakening, deepest kindness, deepest awareness in your life and how to develop that and let that unfold in your body mind. So the persisting of the dharma in time is integrated with the pervading of the spreading sky, as Tolkien says. So on this day, this Parinirvana day that we're celebrating today, Dogen gave various talks back in the 13th century.

[21:10]

And he talked about the tension between the Buddha's gone, he passed away, and the Buddha's here somehow. Because he knew the Lotus Sutra and he'd heard that teaching. So in his last talk in 1252, the last year of his teaching, on Parinirvana Day, Dogen said, this night, Buddha entered nirvana under the twin Sala trees. And yet it is said that he always abides on Vulture Peak. Where can we meet our compassionate father? Alone and poor, we vainly remain in the world amid love and yearning. What can this confused child of Buddha do? I wish to stop these red tears and join in wholesome action." So this is a day of mourning. The Buddha is passing away today, has passed away today, will pass away today, and yet

[22:21]

I wish to stop these red tears, Dogen says, and join in wholesome action. How do we find wholesome action, wholesome awareness, wholesome body mind? This wholesome action for Dogen is itself one form of the continuing life of Shakyamuni Buddha, but still he's sad. So this is a tension in our life. We know the sadness of our life and our world. We can face that. This is the first noble truth. It's a noble truth because we can face it. We face the wall. We face ourselves. We face all beings. And yet, in the middle of that, there's Mary Oliver's sunrise. There's something. There's this ability to join in wholesome action, to help relieve suffering, to help each other and all of us, including all the beings on your seat right now, to awaken, to find the joy of awakening.

[23:31]

So in another Parinirvana day talk from 1250, Dogen said, all beings are sad with longing and their tears overflow. Although we trust his words that he always abides on Vulture Peak, as he said in the Lotus Sutra, how can we not be sorry about the coldness of the twin solid trees? In another one of these talks on Parinirvana day from 1246, Dogen proclaims the identity of all Buddhas and ancestors in and with Shakyamuni's passage away into parinirvana. He said, now our original teacher, great master Shakyamuni, is passing away, entering nirvana. Why is this only about Shakyamuni Buddha? All Buddhas in the 10 directions, in the past, future, and present, enter nirvana tonight at midnight.

[24:36]

Those who do not enter nirvana tonight at midnight are not Buddha ancestors and are not capable of maintaining the teaching. We all pass away into nirvana today. Those who have already entered nirvana tonight at midnight are capable of maintaining the teaching. So Dōgen plays with the story of Buddha's inconceivable lifespan, indicating that Buddha persists with and as all Buddhas, precisely in his passing away into nirvana. The willingness to pass away for the sake of those who would benefit, or simply to face human mortality, is exactly Buddha's enduring life. So we have a number of people in our sangha who are working as or working towards being chaplains or hospice chaplains and working with people facing death. And today is a reminder that that's true for all of us.

[25:42]

And that nirvana is that we can face this right in the midst of the ordinary world. And so there's this tension, there's this question. Where is Buddha? Later in the same talk, on that part of Nirvana Day, Dogen says, with full exertion, lift up the single stone. Call it the lifespan of many ages and the atoms of 500 worlds. So how do we see Buddha's life right here and Buddha's death as Buddha's life? So there's a creative tension that we all feel in Zazen, I think. There's the aspect of Zazen as facing the greed, hate, and delusion, the grasping that

[26:50]

we all are subject to as human beings, our human karma. And there's also something in zazen that we start to recognize, or that starts to recognize us. Just being present and upright, something is happening. We don't know what it is, but sometimes we call it Buddha. So Buddha's dead, but his spiritual presence continues, right? Through dedicated practice of many people and many sanghas all around the world today. So in another one of his talks on Parinirvana Day, Dogen said, if you say Shakyamuni is extinguished, you are not his disciple. If you say he is not extinguished, your words do not hit the mark.

[27:55]

Having reached this day, how do you respond?" How do we respond to Parinirvana? Do you want to see the Tathagata's life vein, the Buddha's life vein? And then he just says, oh, for instance, make prostrations and return to the monk's hall for meditation. So this zazen is where we Dogen says, and our tradition says, where we start to realize this enduringness of the Buddha. And then our practice is, well, how do we take care of that? And we have many guidelines for that. We have the bodhisattva precepts to be helpful rather than harmful, to include all beings, to face the wall not as a way of keeping anything out, but as a window, as a mirror to see ourselves, to see the world.

[29:01]

And we also have the bodhisattva practices to help guide us into how we can see Buddha here around us, in ourselves and in others. How do we see all the beings who we interact with as Buddhas? This is a traditional Buddha practice, and especially those we have a difficult time with. The Malakirti Sutra says, only a bodhisattva can hassle another bodhisattva. So whoever gives you a hard time is helping you to reawaken. So practicing such practices, and there are practices there, lifelong practices we have to work on, things like generosity. Ethical conduct.

[30:11]

Patience. This Zazen is training in patience. Just sitting still and calm. No matter what turmoil is going on in our body or mind, just patience. The bell will ring. We can get up eventually. Unless the Doan falls asleep, but that might be something to help us too. Enthusiasm or effort, meditative settling, insight, skillful means, using our abilities and our commitments. How do we carry on Buddha's Parinirvana in this life? As the sun rises and sets, as the snow falls and settles on the ground, Where is Buddha's life today in our lives?

[31:18]

How do we take care of Buddha's life today in our lives? Together. So happy Parinirvana Day. Please enjoy your passing away into nirvana. Does anyone have any questions or comments or reflections to share with us? Do you feel sad about Buddha's passing away?

[32:21]

Do you feel happy about Buddha's life with us somehow? Yes, Paula? Even though I'm going, it's okay, I'm with you. Is that part of the Lotus Sutra? Yeah, well that's in the Lotus Sutra where he talks about the lifespan. The Lotus Sutra is supposed to be one of the last teachings he gives. So the Lotus Sutra is where he talks about how actually He only appears to pass away because, for some people, it would be helpful. If you think Buddha's always here, then you might slack off yourself. So it's a skillful means, in a way. His life and death, our life and death, maybe. But also, there's the Nirvana Sutra. There's a couple of different Parinirvana Sutras. One of them is the early Theravada one, which is fairly short and just tells the story.

[33:23]

of his passing away, that's where he says, be a light unto yourself, or as Mary Oliver has it, make yourself into a light. Then there's the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, which I talked about a while ago, and I'm hoping to read more of during my sabbatical, but this is where he talks about how, this is also set at the passing away, but he also talks there about how the real teaching is that There is self, and there is permanence, and there is joy. So he kind of turns the teachings upside down as he's passing away in that sutra. It's a very long sutra. That's one of the main sources for the teaching about Buddha nature. So that's another way to see this long life of Buddha. Buddha nature is the quality of awakeness that is part of dogs and cats and cows and trees and mountains and great lakes and is part of the nature of reality and of each of us.

[34:36]

But he's still really doing the most mundane things to help us. And I feel like it's such a large, compassionate heart to do that. And if you do longer sittings and stuff like that, it almost moves me to tears. It's so full of compassion. Exactly, yes, and all of the forms that we do that come from the monastic tradition in East Asia. preparing food for people, doing long sitting, you know, chopping carrots, whatever, taking care of the altar, taking care of the bells, just all of the things that go into making this place function as a Bodhimandala, as a place of Buddha's awakening, as a dojo, the Japanese for Bodhi Mandala, a place of awakening. So yeah, all of the nitty gritty, day-to-day cleaning of the temple, cleaning of our space, taking care of washing the dishes and taking care of everyday stuff.

[36:01]

Yeah, that's how Buddha expresses herself here today. And it didn't even say that. And don't blame the person who gave you the food. It wasn't their fault. That last food that he ate that led to his passing, whether it was mushrooms or pork, He makes a big deal about how this is, Chunda is the name of the person who donated that food, and Buddha praises him. It's not his fault that I'm passing away. He has allowed this to happen. So yeah, it's not about, so one of our precepts is not to speak of faults of others. A disciple of Buddha does not speak of faults of others, which doesn't mean we can't discuss situations that we're trying to practice with, but it's not a matter of blame or fault. We're all just here working this out together.

[37:04]

Eshen? So I wonder if we start saying what is true for Buddha is true for all of us in ways that we can't really conceive unless we can Well, I wanted to add that I am afraid of dying, but... You're not the only person like that.

[38:24]

Well, I have known a couple of people who said that they were not afraid of dying. And I don't know whether it makes sense or not that the people who said that they weren't afraid of dying were people who were actually dying. And I wonder if there's a way in which Knowing that that's true before it happens can help us sort of prepare ourselves and it forces us maybe to open our minds in such a way that we can maybe recognize just the truth about that between impermanence and permanence. I don't really want to solidify it any more than that. Yeah, no, that's good. Yeah. Being around people who are dying is helpful. So hospice workers benefit more than they benefit their clients in some ways. And I think I may have said, who knows what will happen when it actually is time, but I think I may have said that, that I'm not afraid of dying, partly because I've had numbers of near-death experiences, the first one 50 years ago.

[39:36]

doesn't mean that I'm, you know, looking forward to it, but it doesn't mean, you know. So, you know, there are lots of examples. Mary Oliver sort of refers to walking through a door, death as walking through a door. And William Blake also said that, and he died singing. And there are all kinds of stories about Zen masters in their last, you know, either write or speak a death verse just before they pass. And then there was the guy who was a disciple of Mazu, the great horse ancestor, who died standing on his head. What a show off. Anyway. So yeah, we don't know. We don't know. We don't know. Part of really living is to remember that it's impermanent and that it's extremely likely, I don't want to make any categorical statements, but it's extremely likely that every person in this room will at some point pass away.

[40:53]

So, yeah. So considering the Buddhas, Parinirvana maybe is a help for us in that way. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Yes, sit. Can I ask about the comment that your first teacher made when you asked him about how to enter nirvana? He said to die. Yeah. Do you think that he was referring to when your heart stops beating or something that might happen before that? He was talking about parinirvana, that you don't realize nirvana technically until you pass away, until conditioning ceases. There are some other unconditioned dharmas, some very advanced worldly meditations. But anyway, technically in Buddhism, nirvana is not something that happens that we can you know, have some dramatic experience of, it's just, you know, passing away of our greed, hate and delusion and conditioning and limited perceptions and so forth.

[42:11]

or mistakenly will become a Buddha. But rather, Buddha-ing. Oh, good. Buddha-ing. In the Buddha-ing, that's Buddha. Yeah. And everything will snow out there today. But in a little while, there'll be budding happening all around as we see the trees. Yeah, so it's all, you know, and from some point of view, one of the things that's nice about the Japanese language is that you can put the word saru to do after any noun and make it into a verb. And so, technically, in the Dharma, everything's a verb. Everything is in activity and in action. And the way Mary Oliver talks about time, and the way Dogen talks about time, going beyond our limited sense of time. And that all the Buddhas of the past and future and present are here passing away today.

[43:54]

So, any other last comments or questions? Yes, Daniel. Rice. Yes, thank you very much for that.

[45:19]

Yeah, that's a crucial point, that this inconceivable lifespan and this Buddhist parinirvana is not a matter of some timeless eternity. It happens in all times, timefulness. But also, yes, I think you're right that part of our expression of that for example, through generosity and patience and so forth, is to be aware of history, particular histories. So the history of this particular world, including 2,500 years ago, this guy called the Buddha starting this practice of awakening that spread throughout Asia and now the West, and all the other things about our history and the particulars of our history. And so I've always liked studying history. So it gives us lessons that are practical, like, for example, that I grew up during the Vietnam War and saw how horrible that was, and now I see that repeating under the name Venezuela.

[46:26]

So if we know history, we can look and see what's happening in a much more clear way. And there's much more I can say about all that, but maybe I'll save that for some other time. But thank you. Yes, we are in time and time is not just time. It includes history and it includes the presence of everything now. So, thank you.

[46:54]

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