We had our Buddha's power nirvana sermon a little later than we mentioned. But there are a lot of people who are gone today, and so I thought we would wait until everyone was here. And also I wanted to talk about nirvana, birth and death. So it made sense for us to be here for the ceremony. There are several... We commemorate Buddha's birthday and Buddha's enlightenment and Buddha's deceased. And all three of these ceremonies are important ceremonies.

[01:11]

They're not just ceremonies. They're ceremonies, but there's some meaning to them besides just going through the form. Buddha's parinirvana, the so-called parinirvana ceremony, commemorates what we call the Great Decease. Parinirvana is just another word for nirvana. We tend to use the word parinirvana when we talk about Buddha's decease, but it just means the culmination of nirvana, or perfect nirvana. And it's used as a way to talk about Buddha's decease.

[02:15]

It's nothing special. But it does mean complete, perfect enlightenment. Samyak Sambodhi. So what is nirvana? There are many explanations about what is nirvana. But basically, the absence of greed, hate, and delusion. Sounds simple, three little words. But it covers a rather wide territory and includes all of our thoughts and actions and beliefs and delusions, greed, hate, or anger, ill will, basically, ill will, which manifests itself as anger and hate and delusion.

[03:39]

which is not seeing things as they are and operating, living our life under false, with a false understanding of what it's about. So the purpose of our practice is maybe not reaching nirvana, but dealing with greed, ill will and delusion. I won't promise you that if you get rid of greed, hate and delusion that you will find yourself in nirvana, but if you can do it, that's probably where you will find yourself. we identify with Buddha.

[04:44]

We say, well, this is just Buddha's passing away, you know. But it's also, you know, this passing away of Buddha has two aspects. One side is passing away out of the world, disappearing from the world. And the other side is Where does it go? In the last word that Buddha uttered, supposedly, on his deathbed, between two solid trees, was, all compounded things are destined for dissolution. intellectual sounding approach, whatever comes into being ceases to be.

[05:50]

Please work out your salvation with that understanding. He said, just as I have done. I did it and you can do it. Basically what he said. And that's what our practice is about. If we're listening, trying to understand, then that's what our practice is about. So, this is not just... this ceremony commemorates Buddha's passing away, but it also reminds us of our own life, birth and death. What is our birth and death about? We're celebrating, in a way, our... not celebrating, but commemorating Our own birth and death. Our own nirvana. Our own no birth, no death.

[06:55]

What we have to figure out, what we have to understand, is what is this? Is this, are we alive or dead? when Buddha was passing away, it actually took place over a period of time. He said, he talked to Ananda. Ananda was always with him. And they were moving about from one place to another. And he asked Ananda, he said, what do you think, Ananda?

[08:09]

You know, it's possible He was about 80 years old at this time, he said. And Ananda was his nephew, actually. But Buddha was about 80 years old. He said, what do you think, Ananda? He said, I'll tell you that an enlightened person like myself has the ability to prolong their life for a long time, if there's a need to do it. What do you think of that? And Ananda didn't say anything. And he said it again in a little different way. He was hinting to Ananda, you know, saying, well, if you want me to do this, ask me. But Ananda, he didn't get it.

[09:11]

So, after the third time, Buddha said, OK, either way is OK with him, OK, I'm going to pass away in three months. And Alamanda said, well, don't do that, you know, but it's too late. I've already decided. I can't fool around here. So that's the way it's going to be. So Ananda knew that and they traveled around and when they came to a certain place, every place they traveled they had a lot of bhikkhus following them and people would come and they'd set up a kind of vihara, a place where people would come and he'd deliver sermons and they'd practice together.

[10:21]

And people were always inviting them to, for meals. A wealthy person or some kind of donor would invite all the monks to a meal. And this one man invited them to a meal, and he served some... it was supposed to be pork, but some people say it's truffles. Nobody knows if it's pork or truffles. The wording is something like either pigs or what pigs eat are alive, one of the two. So, but generally it's believed to be pork. And because the monks at that time didn't really discriminate about what they ate.

[11:25]

They would eat meat. But not, you know, if someone went to kill a chicken, they'd say, oh, when you come to dinner I'll kill you with my chicken. They'd say, no, no, don't do that. You know. They're not allowed to eat something like that. that you would kill for me. Leave the chicken alone and I'll eat something else. That was the rule. Don't kill this cow, just to feed me. But if there was, as an offering, some meat that was already, some animal that had already been killed, then they were allowed to accept the meat. And they ate it. One of the dishes was pork, and this particular dish. And Buddha said, serve me that, but don't serve it to anybody else.

[12:29]

So I said, OK. So we served that to Buddha, and then they buried the rest of it in the pit. And this was just about the time when ready to go. So he got sick and they were, you know, kind of, he was looking for a place to lay down. So they fixed up this place for him. And there was people asking questions. He ordained one person. The last person to be ordained was noted in that. So when he was on his deathbed, Ananda asked him about what they should do after he died.

[13:33]

After he died, what do we do? Who's going to lead the sangha? And he said, there is no It's not necessary for one person to lead the sangha, but the dharma that should lead the sangha. If you really take seriously the dharma and practice it, that's your teacher. Even though, you know, we still say that there are various... In Zen, we have a lineage that goes back to Mahakasyapa receiving the Dharma lineage from Buddha. That's probably so. But the main

[14:38]

What's really important is that the Dharma is our teacher. Even though we have teachers, and even though we have ancestors, patriarchs, matriarchs, still, there's nothing that anyone can give you. And teachers are just guides. Guides for our practice. Helps us. Teacher helps us to stay on the track. and find dharma for ourself. But each one of us has to find the dharma for ourself. We can't depend on someone else, and there's nothing that anyone can give you. So finding our way is through our own efforts, And this has been the mainstay of the Zen school.

[15:50]

And the way that we have Dharma transmission is when a teacher recognizes the student has done that. It looks like Dharma transmission is something that the teacher gives to the student. but it merely recognizes that the student has found their own way. So, Buddha laid down between the solitary And a lot of students who were not so mature, according to the sutra, were weeping and lamenting. But the arhats, who had a realization, just took it very calmly.

[17:00]

And Buddha said, see, those people over there aren't crying, weeping or lamenting, they understand the process that's happening is just this process. Just a process of birth and death. But this process of birth and death is a process of nothing having ever really been born. and nothing having ever really died. If there was something that had really been born and was really dying, then there should be some room for lament. But if you understand the reality of no birth and no death, or the process of continual change,

[18:08]

and can completely conform to it. No problem. But very difficult. Very difficult. When Suzuki Roshi died, everybody was crying. Even though he may have said, oh don't, don't do that. Still. Everybody has that human feeling inside. But even so, when someone who is living in that realm, nirvana, dies, it really helps a lot of people. Big help to a lot of people. So most, um, many stories about Zen masters and how they die, um, sitting in Zazen, or Tozan Ryokai, the founder of the Soto school, the story about him is that he was told his students that he was going to die.

[19:40]

So I'm going to, in a few weeks, So everybody was tearing out their hair and lamenting. And he actually passed away. And they were all crying. And he woke up and he said, this is no way for you to act. So he stayed alive for another two or three weeks until everybody had some better understanding. And then they had a big feast, and he passed away. But Buddha's Parinirvana is actually called Joyous Occasion. We call it the Joyful One. So why is Buddha called the Joyful One?

[20:43]

while he's passing away. Just a good koan for us. Why is Buddha called Joyful One while he's passing away? The essence of Buddha's teaching is called non-clinging. Non-clinging. Not clinging to anything. There's a certain transparency that's basic to our life.

[21:59]

And that transparency gets filled with form and color. And we attach to that form and color. Form, sound, color, taste, smell, feeling. This is the ever-changing form of our life. which we become very attached to. So for Buddha to see through this, just to see right through He says, if you can just see right through it, then there's no longer any need to cling to it.

[23:11]

To be able to take on the forms of life without clinging to them is Buddha's practice. So whatever happens to us on each moment, we can either fall into hell on this side or heaven on this side, or nirvana in between. Hell, if you get caught by clinging, you fall into hell. If you can make your life in such a way that you enjoy it, then it's kind of heaven.

[24:17]

But nirvana is in between, middle way. Because heaven becomes hell, too, you know? And hell transforms into heaven. They kind of go back and forth that way. One moment heaven, the next moment hell. We aren't fighting demons. We transmigrate throughout these various worlds. When we lose our reasoning, we become like animals. So that's the animal realm. And when we become too greedy, we become like hungry ghosts. And when we have everything our own way, we create a kind of wonderful illusory world, we're in heaven. And when we, when our karma becomes, when the fruit of our karma returns to us, we fall into a hell.

[25:25]

And we're constantly living in one of these worlds or another. And then there's the realm of human being. In the realm of human being, there's nirvana. Nirvana exists. The state of a perfect human being is nirvana, natural state. It's not some special state. It's the natural state. Just natural state of purity, where everything is accepted completely, where you see clearly and birth and death are seen clearly. And it's not a problem. But we have all these other... we also belong to these other worlds which constantly hold us back.

[26:39]

So, for someone, for a Buddhist, what's most important is to find that norm, what's called the norm, or non-clinging state of mind. It's not a special state of mind, the norm which has nothing clean, no clean, and desire is not inflated. And one other very important point is, in knowing who we are, we realize that whatever we are is interdependent with whatever everything else is.

[28:43]

This is non-ego. or no self, no special self. My enemy exists because of me. I create what happens to me. I know it doesn't look like that. we create the other side, which is ourself. So one thing that I would like us to remember is that Buddhas and sentient beings are not different.

[29:59]

Buddhas are sentient beings, and sentient beings are Buddhas. And there's a great affinity. So I would like us to help each other to practice this mindfulness. Mindfulness practice is not just awareness. It's awareness with a special quality. Why we practice awareness and mindfulness is to get rid of attachment has a purpose to reduce attachment and self-cleaning.

[31:06]

If you can see how things really are in themselves, then you can let things go and let things come. You can receive and you can let go. without clinging to anything, even nirvana or enlightenment or practice or emptiness. Getting a little late.

[31:50]

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