Today is December 4th, and this Thursday coming up, this Thursday coming up is December 8th, which is the day we celebrate as Buddha's Enlightenment Day. So I thought it would be a good idea to talk a little bit about Buddha's enlightenment. I don't think Buddha was a supernatural person or a super-extraordinary human or a god-like figure. I think he was just like you and me.

[01:06]

But he had one really great characteristic, and that is he had a tremendous resolve, or determination, or commitment to living his life based on the deepest sort of bottom line, truth, about what human existence is all about. And in a way he must have been sort of innocent or naive or something, because we all might think that's a great idea, but we talk to a lot of people and we read books and see the TV and we know that, well, that's okay to base your life on that when you're a kid or something, but really you can't do that. You have to be practical, you know. So we know better than to foolishly stake our lives on that. But the Buddha apparently didn't

[02:11]

have those conversations and didn't think it over in that way, so he just had this kind of enthusiasm and commitment and he just went ahead with it. He didn't know any better in a way, so he just went for it and decided to stake his whole life on the proposition that it was really possible to know personally what was the basis of existence and that a human could do that and that he could do it. They say in the sutra that he embraced his resolution like someone would embrace a long-lost relative, like that. So he had no idea, you know, what he was looking for exactly

[03:12]

and he had no idea how exactly to go about finding it, but off he went, as the story goes, to find somehow to find this. So he left his father's palace and the first thing he did was look for a good teacher. So he found a really good teacher by the name of Ara Ala Kalama. And Ala Kalama taught a deep trance state known as the trance of nothingness. And the Buddha, because of his resolution, I think, because of his commitment

[04:22]

and enthusiasm and naivete, right away mastered this trance without much trouble. He was a pretty good meditator, I guess. So Ala Kalama was very impressed and said, what I know, you know, and what you know, I know. Why don't you share this teaching of this community with me? And the Buddha said, well, this is a very wonderful trance, but I'm not satisfied. It doesn't get me to the root of the problems of existence. And so thank you very much, but I'm going to have to seek elsewhere. So he looked for another teacher and he found an even better teacher who taught an even deeper trance, a man by the name of Udaka Ramaputra.

[05:24]

And Udaka taught a very deep trance called the trance beyond perception and non-perception. So the Buddha applied himself to this trance and mastered it fairly quickly. And when he mastered it, Udaka Ramaputra said, you know, Buddha, to tell you the truth, I myself have never mastered this trance. I took the course, but my teacher died before I finished. And I have never mastered this trance, but I had it down more than anybody else so far until you. So would you please be my teacher and I'll be your student and you can lead this community in this marvelous trance, study of this marvelous trance. I always thought that was a

[06:33]

really big of him, don't you? He must have been really enlightened, I think, to be that honest and humble. Anyway, the Buddha said, well, I'm really honored by your offer, but actually, although this is a wonderful trance state, it doesn't get me to where I want to be, to the root of the problem of existence. It's not touching that at all, and I'm afraid I have to move on. So he realized then that somehow he was going to have to make his own way. So he thought, well, then I always go to the forest at a time like this, so I'll go to the forest. But as soon as he thought of going to the forest, he began imagining, you know, the things that might happen to him in the forest. And he had a lot of fear and dread, because he thought,

[07:36]

well, I could be sitting meditating under a tree and a big snake could come and bite me, and that really made him afraid. And he thought, I could be attacked by wild animals. And he became full of dread. And he thought, not only that, but there are marauding bands of robbers who might beat me up just for fun. So he was really afraid. So he didn't go in the forest for a while, and he thought about this, and he said, this is getting me nowhere. Clearly, I have to dispel my fear and dread. And he figured out that if when fear and dread arose, he never left the posture that he was in until the fear and dread was dispelled, that way he could do it. So when he felt fear and dread while standing,

[08:38]

he remained standing until the fear and dread was gone. And when he felt fear and dread while lying down, he didn't get up until the fear and dread was gone. And when he was sitting and felt fear and dread, he kept sitting until the fear and dread was gone. And if he happened to be walking and fear and dread arose, he kept walking round and round until fear and dread was dispelled, until finally, entirely, fear and dread was dispelled, and he went into the forest. And on his way, he ran into five wandering mendicants who themselves were on a similar kind of quest, and they were really impressed with his fearless bearing. So they resolved that they would follow him into the forest and take

[09:42]

care of him and help him in his quest and seek teaching from him. So he had five companions when he went into the forest. So there he was in the forest, and he had to figure out all on his own how to do it. How was he going to meet and pass through the root of the problem of existence? So he said, maybe the problem of existence rises because thought rises. So he made a fist out of his mind, and he hunched up his body and clenched his teeth, and fought his mind with his mind. But that only made him tense and tired, and maybe one of the mendicants was a body worker or something, and straightened him out. And he decided that was not it at all, that was not going to work, it was not getting him anywhere.

[10:45]

So he thought, maybe the problem of existence arises because breath arises. So he started meditating and holding his breath for a long time. And when he held his breath, he got a great headache. And winds were screaming through the hallways of his mind like tornadoes, and it was really bad. And plus, it didn't get him any closer to his goal, so he gave up that one. And then he thought, maybe the problem of existence arises because of taking food. If I don't eat anything, maybe my problem of existence will dissipate. So he stopped eating. But all this time, the spirits of the forest were pulling for him because they thought,

[11:54]

they themselves wanted to receive teaching from the Buddha after he achieved his goal, so they were protective of him. And when they saw that he stopped taking food, they began injecting sustenance into him through his pores. And he knew that, so he decided he would better take at least a little food. So he started having a sesame seed for breakfast. And he had a grain of rice for lunch. And for dinner, he had jujube fruit. And that was his diet. And it worked pretty well. He began to accrue great spiritual powers, and his eyes were burning and powerful, and he had an aura about him that was really pleasing to the five mendicants who thought that he was really growing in spiritual power

[12:57]

with each passing moment. Of course, he was also getting very skinny at the same time, and sort of wasting away and getting weaker and weaker, but meantime his spiritual power burned even more. So he went on that way for a while, and one day he was down by the riverbank of the river Naranjara, sort of reflecting on his practice. And he thought to himself, well, this is pretty good. I seem to be doing kind of well here, but let me see. Am I actually getting any closer at all to the real root, to the problem that I'm trying to solve? And he answered himself, no, I'm really not. This really isn't working. All this effort, and I really haven't even begun. This is really discouraging. How am I going to do it? Because certainly I can do this. How am I going to do it?

[14:01]

So all of a sudden he remembered an incident from his childhood. He was a little boy, and maybe it was a festival of spring plowing opening up the ground, and his father, who was the chieftain of the tribe, maybe was standing behind the plow to open up the first fellows, and the Buddha was sitting over in a corner underneath a rose apple tree watching the ceremony. And it was a beautiful day, and he was feeling really happy in the shade of a tree. His parents were there, and the whole clan was there. He really felt secure and great sense of well-being, and he just sort of entered into a very pleasant trance state, characterized by joy and zest and enjoyment of thought.

[15:08]

So there he was sitting on the banks of the Narayana river, emaciated and really at the end of his rope, and he said, that's what I'm going to try. That is going to work. And he realized, you know, there's nothing wrong with being happy. I've been going along here as if I have to do battle with myself somehow, but actually I can see now that there's nothing at all wrong with being happy and having a sense of well-being. In fact, if I'm happy and have a sense of well-being and I have a little bit of strength, this is only going to help me in finding what I'm looking for. So he decided to completely change his approach, and in fact he thought to himself, what I need now is a decent meal. Meanwhile, this is a great story, huh? Meanwhile, about two weeks ago

[16:17]

in the village there's a young woman who wants to become pregnant but can't conceive. So she does the obvious thing. She decides to make a very special offering to the god of the river. So she feeds 50 cows, absolutely the top-notch best grass that there is, and she milks the 50 cows and takes the milk of the 50 cows and feeds it to 25 cows. And takes the milk from 25 cows and feeds it to 15 cows, and the milk is getting better and richer all the time. And she takes the 15 cows milk and gives it to eight cows, and she takes that milk and she gets the finest rice and makes a beautiful kind of rice pudding, really nice delicate rice pudding, and takes it down to the river to offer to the river god.

[17:25]

And just at the moment that the buddha said, what I need now is a decent meal. And she said, she saw him and he was really sort of glowing and everything, and she said, well I don't know if you're the river god or not, but please accept this offering. And she was really happy about it, and he accepted it and ate it, and got a little stronger. Meantime, at the top of the riverbank, the five mendicants saw that not only was he talking to a young woman, but he was also eating food. And they got really disgusted with him and left. So I think he must have felt, well, good. Now I don't have to worry about them.

[18:33]

I don't have to do what they think I should do. Now I really see. By the way, the story doesn't say whether she did become pregnant. I don't know. So anyway, he was still pretty weak, and he couldn't, the bank was steep, and he couldn't, now that the mendicants were gone, they couldn't help him up the bank, so the tree spirits caused the branches of the trees to bend in his direction, so that he could use the branches of the trees to pull himself up from the riverbank. And then he did a little bit of walking meditation, I suppose, up and down the banks of the river, breathing the fresh air and enjoying the day, little by little exercising himself and getting his strength back. And then he said, well, when I was a boy, I was sitting under a tree, so now I'll go find a tree and sit comfortably and get to the bottom of this, finally. And ran into a passing

[19:42]

young boy who was a grass cutter, and he gave him a big, nice sack of soft grass. So the Buddha took the sack of soft grass and put it under a fig tree, ficus religiosa, they call it. That's really the botanical name of this kind of tree that he sat under. So he sat under there, and this time he really determined to gather together all of his commitment, all of his resolution, all of his powers, and stake it all on this one. And he vowed, I'm not getting up, I'm not changing my position, I'm not moving a muscle until I find out what I've been trying to find out all this time.

[20:46]

So he sat. So when he was walking over to his seat, he woke up the great serpent, Kala, the great serpent. And Kala said to him, your steps walking to the seat under the tree are like thunder, and your body is glowing like the sun. And I can tell by the way that the blue jays are circumambulating your body with their right shoulder turned toward you. And I can tell by the way that the gentle breezes are sort of playing around in the heavens, that today you are going to be successful in your quest for enlightenment. But he didn't say anything. He just kept sitting. And then, meanwhile, someone else noticed that he was sitting there, and this was Mara,

[21:56]

the evil genius, who was in charge of destructive passions and greed and hatred. And Mara was really upset by all this, because Mara thought, if the Buddha should be successful in his endeavor, that's the end of my dominion over the world. So I had better stop this from happening no matter what. So Mara had a kind of Cupid function, so he decided to try that first. So he got his flower bow and flower arrow and shot at Buddha, and then got his daughters to come out and allure the Buddha. But the Buddha was unmoved. So Mara said, hmm, this is worse than I thought. Well, if lust doesn't work, fear will work. So he brought out his armies,

[23:08]

terrible creatures, and the sutras describe them. Horrible, you know, mixed up body of an elephant, you know, head of a horse, and one eye and many eyes, and all pussy and fiery creatures coming. All around the Buddha. And some of them had weapons, and they hurled their weapons at the Buddha, but when they did that, either their weapons would just stop, or they would be flung into the air and just stay in mid-air and never reach the Buddha. Some of them were big, tough guys with big clubs, and they would rush headlong at the Buddha, but they kept rushing and they never reached him. So the battle went on, and the Buddha just sat there, not moving. And Mara finally said, look at this Buddha, called out everybody, and said, look at this, this is my retinue, this is my power. What do you have that can witness your power? And the Buddha moved just a little. He touched the earth. There's a famous, you see many famous

[24:19]

statues of the Buddha touching the earth. And when the Buddha touched the earth, Mara knew all was lost, and slunk away with all his horrible soldiers. So things quieted down quite a bit after that. And the Buddha entered trance. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine stages of trance. And then in the first watch of the night, he saw a vision. And he could see, stretching out behind him, all of his lives, all of his past lives. He could see

[25:37]

how he was born here, and traveled, and moved, and died there. How he was born of these parents, and lived such and such a life, in such and such a place, and died there. How he was born as a rabbit, or a tiger, over here and over there. And what he did, and how his life evolved up to the present moment. All of it he saw. And he kept sitting. And then, in the second watch of the night, he saw another vision. And he could see the past and future lives of all beings. He could see how, because of evil actions, beings were born into horrible hell realms,

[26:39]

and hungry ghost realms, and fighting demon realms. And how, because of good actions, humans were born into heavenly realms of various kinds. But then, once the force of those actions was over, they'd fall from those heavens into other realms. You could see that all beings were born into these realms. And this being was implicated in this wheeling, turning circle of being. Beings exchanging places, transmigrating from countless time, countless past, on, and on, and on, and on, with much pain, and suffering, and grief, and lamentation, and unfulfilled desire. And then in the third watch of the night, he could see the whole universe like a mirror

[27:47]

or like a bright pearl, so clear, so bright. And he could understand how it was that existence was the way it was. He could see that a death and a passing away of anything that exists is caused by arising or birth, agitated arising. And he could see how agitated arising was caused by a kind of grabby energy that trails behind mistaken activity. And he could see how that grabby energy that trails behind mistaken activity is caused

[28:48]

by thirst and desire and a feeling of not being complete. And he could see how a feeling of thirst and desire and not being complete was caused by sensations, wishes, impulses in the human body and mind, wishing for something more. And he could see how those impulses were caused by the separation between the six senses and objects. And he could see how the separation between the six senses and objects was caused by a

[29:58]

separation between the mind and physical matter. And he could see how a separation between mind and physical matter was caused by consciousness and a separation between consciousness and the object of consciousness. And he could see how that separation that exists within consciousness was caused by ignorance, misunderstanding of how existence really is, that all the beings on the wheel of becoming saw existent things as being somehow solid or fixed in some way, as though they could be grabbed, as though even for an instant they could be possessed, when really

[30:58]

everything was like a wave breaking without any substance, without any way to hold it, like a leaf floating, never in the same place twice. And he could see that with an understanding and embracing of this way things really were, everything was at rest, everything was at peace, everything changed and moved but was at peace, pivoting around this accurate and peaceful truth. And he was really happy and he really knew that he had achieved what he wanted to achieve. And he looked up and saw the morning star burning brightly in the sky and he thought, how wonderful, how wonderful that all being knows this, has this knowledge in it.

[32:09]

All beings are Buddhas. He was really happy. And he knew too that this enlightenment was not something that he achieved or discovered but it was, he said, like an old path through the forest that has been overgrown and not used very much and people didn't know it was there. But once you start walking and sort of making your way it becomes clearer and clearer. He saw that. Oh, the other day I heard, I was listening to a tape and Bessie Smith was singing a song and I was thinking about Buddhas enlightenment and there was a line in her song, two eyes can see a star so paradise can't be very far.

[33:20]

And I think this is our understanding as Zen practitioners, that this marvelous, legendary mythic story of the Buddha is not really far away from us in time or space, but that in fact the spirit, the essence of this understanding of life is with us and has been communicated clearly and directly and simply by our ancestors, from the Buddha, by our ancestors to the present. And that we as practitioners can and do share in this insight and understanding and that it can change our lives too. And whether or not our experience is as mythic or dramatic as the Buddha's, and it may be,

[34:37]

you know, entirely possible it may be, but even if it's not, definitely we share in this inspiration, not as a goal, but as the daily inspiration with which we practice. This is our understanding and our feeling, so every day, you know, we try to sit in this spirit, out from this spirit and live the rest of our lives based on it. So, this is, you know, one of my favorite holidays, Buddha's Enlightenment Day. And we usually have a ceremony here. We have a lot of ceremonies, I guess, don't we? So how could we not have one on Buddha's Enlightenment Day? And so we do, but we have it pretty early in the morning, about six o'clock in the morning or so, and we will march around and chant sutras and acclaim homage to the Buddha and

[35:45]

march around the Buddha, put the statue of the Buddha on the altar there and march around with our right shoulder toward the Buddha like the Blue Jays, you know, did. And then we'll make lots of noise or something to be joyful about it. And we'll get up really early in the morning, maybe two o'clock in the morning, we'll get up and start sitting and try to recreate in our own sitting that spirit of the Buddha on his Enlightenment Day. So, instead of going to bed, you could just come on over. Zazen will start probably about two-thirty. We'll have a cup of tea or something in the meantime during, you know, in between periods of Zazen and hot chocolate, and then if it's cool, we'll look at the morning star. So you can imagine that since this experience of the Buddha's Enlightenment is really the

[36:46]

main point in Zen practice, that really all over the world in Zen temples they make a big deal out of it. And so one of the things they do is sit for seven days, and traditionally this is the most important seven-day sitting of the year around the time of Buddha's Enlightenment. And we're not going to do that here because we're doing it at Tassajara now, and right now in the city center. The seven-day Enlightenment session is in progress. And in the year 1971, during the seven-day Enlightenment session, on this day, today, December the 4th, 1971, our founder, Suzuki Roshi, passed away, died that day during the

[37:47]

Sashin. And Jerry told me this morning, I wasn't there at the time, but he told me this morning that everyone in the Sashin, he died in the Doksan room, and everyone in Sashin went up to the Doksan room to see him, to see his body. Anyway, I'm sorry that I never met him, but I have a great respect for him and his practice. And I feel also that like Buddha, Suzuki Roshi was not an extraordinary or special supernatural like mind-reading kind of razzle-dazzle type of guy. I think he was, they say, a very ordinary person who was extraordinary in one characteristic, his commitment and resolve not to live his

[38:56]

life based on grubbiness or possessiveness, but to base his life on the transformative acceptance of things as he found them, the kind of acceptance that comes only with a real understanding of how things actually are, not how we would like them to be. And I've heard many stories from people who knew him personally, and they always say that there was an amazing healing power in his acceptance. Just simply he accepted them as they were and as the Buddha, and there was a healing power in that. And that healing power they say had a tremendous ability to encourage them in their practice. And I know there are

[39:58]

some people who maybe met him a few times 20 years ago who thought about it for 20 years. And I know one person who thought about it for 20 years and started practicing last summer. So, just this power of acceptance that he seemed to have helped all these rag-tag bunch of crazy young Americans to sit with him for 12 years at the end of his life, and even more surprisingly to keep going for 17 years without him, just on his inspiration. I think that's really remarkable. And we might even do it again tomorrow, and the next day, with any luck at all. And he taught us, all of us, that the world is its own magic.

[41:06]

We don't need anything extra or special on top of things, just as they appear, if we would only relax and stop being so grabby, and let them arise and cease. And he often used the word sincerity, a word that we didn't use so much in our daily lives, but it's a word that we used so much before he talked about it. And by sincerity he meant complete involvement and attention and engagement with no reservations, with nothing left over, nothing held back. That kind of involvement with our life, whatever it was. And he taught us that it's not the practice of religion or the practice of culture, but it is the practice of living

[42:13]

human life with complete sincerity. And I think he must have been the most sincere of people, just like Buddha must have been the most sincere of people. And I think that's what he taught us. So today, I feel that it's a great privilege to take this traditional opportunity to speak to you about the Buddhist enlightenment and Suzuki Roshi's passing. And I want to dedicate my talk today to Suzuki Roshi and his example that shows us all the real human possibility.

[43:18]

I hope all of us will help to ensure that his teaching will continue for a long time to come. Thank you.

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