Good morning. Can you hear me in the back? Yes? Well, it's the day before Halloween and there are a lot of strange creatures in this room. And there are also people in costumes. So, since we have a ceremony, which I will tell you a little about. So my talk will be rather short today, and I'm going to also teach you a song. So, Halloween is an ancient observation. The root of it comes from a Celtic ceremony which comes around this time of year as the light is changing and the season is changing and the harvest is in, and it marks this, a word I like, liminal, this space, this moment or place where

[01:20]

the light and dark season are just switching over of course it's not any one point but in those days what people saw in the changing of the light and the changing of the seasons in this moment what they observed is a place where the line between this world that we think we know and other realms that we sense, but we're not so sure about, can be easily crossed back and forth. And so this fits with a Buddhist observance. In the Chinese and Japanese tradition, it usually takes place in the summer. But since we're adapting things to the West, I think the feeling was that this is an appropriate time to feed the hungry ghosts.

[02:36]

And where this comes about, very briefly, the Buddha had a disciple whose name was Moggayana, and he was the Every disciple had kind of a special superpower. The disciples were like the X-men of their time. Mohyana was the foremost in having clairvoyance and special powers. But what he saw with these powers is that his mother who had died not long before who he loved very much was in some other world where she could not eat or drink. When she ate, the food would turn to fire. And when she drank, the water would turn to blood.

[03:44]

Whenever these things touched her mouth, they would just transform and it was very painful. So the Movyana went to the Buddha and told him his dream. And what the Buddha said was that, oh, you are seeing your mother in the world of what the Japanese call Gakis, or hungry ghosts. Here's a picture. You can pass these around. This is a picture of a hungry ghost. You can give one to the other side so you can see. So hungry ghosts are often depicted as having long skinny necks and their throats are too small for swallowing but they're hungry all the time and they have big kind of bloated bulging stomachs which are common with severe malnutrition. So

[04:49]

This is a condition of hungry ghosts and that's a depiction of what they purportedly look like. Of course, we have many hungry ghosts walking among us and they don't look necessarily so grotesque. Some of them are wearing our own skin and faces. It turns out that Momoyana's mother had been greedy. He left her some money when he became a monk. And he had asked her to host any monks or nuns that came her way. But instead, she kind of hid the money and used it for her own purposes. And that's why she was reborn in the realm of the humble ghosts. So the Buddha told him, why don't you go down there to this Gakki realm and feed her and release her. So, Mobayana figures out how to get down there to this gaki realm.

[05:53]

But in the course of finding his mother, which he did, he kind of left the gate unlatched. And there was a jailbreak. And all of the hungry ghosts kind of ended up wandering up in this world. It's kind of like Did anyone watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer? It's kind of like, yeah, I actually have been watching that. It's a confession. But it's like all the ghosts were emerging from this hell mouth and coming up into the world and mixing around and you couldn't always tell who they were but they were really troubling people. When he did that he saw that this had been done and they chanted the Lotus Sutra and other sutras and monks from the beginning of time now, from the beginning of Buddhism have been doing this ceremony and feeding the hungry goats so that they can actually be fed and be at peace.

[07:08]

So there's something that One of our teachers, Kobin Chino Roshi, wrote that I will read you and then I'm going to teach you a song. Chino Roshi said that the sagaki, or the tzatziki ceremony, makes a statement about how to deal with negative things. How to deal with the hard things in our life. Negative happenings. For the ceremony is a kind of reminding ceremony expanding your awakening to the darkness so not everything is going to go right in this life but there is energy and life within what we might otherwise think of as undesirable or as bad or as uncomfortable So, expanding your awakening to the darkness.

[08:13]

Awareness is expanded to the existence which is unseen and unknown. Shinra Roshi says, negative is another positive side. Awareness is round and pure. We can expand our practice of compassion in space as well as time, perhaps with this ceremony. So there are many things to talk about, but we're not going to do that. We're going to sing a song, which is another way of expanding your awareness. So you may have to share these. There's a lot of people, so I don't know. You may have to share. Forget how many I made. So, this is a song that was composed by wonderful singer Krishna Das.

[09:17]

You know, people know of him. And I hadn't heard it, but when Sojourn Roshi and I were up at Great Dow Monastery a couple of weeks ago, they used this as their meal chant in lunch, is that correct? and they sing this song together. Krishna Das wrote this at the request of Roshi Bernie Glassman, who has always been very attracted to this particular ceremony, the ceremony of Sajiki, or the ceremony of opening the gate of sweet dew. So I'll teach you the song. Do you want to keep the lecture or not? Yeah. And we'll sing it through maybe three times.

[10:21]

I'll play the melody through first. And I hope that My voice is a little raggedy today, so please forgive me. But if you sing loudly, you won't hear it. Calling out to hungry hearts Everywhere through endless time You who wander, you who thirst I offer you this bode mine

[11:34]

Calling out to hungry spirits everywhere in this time. Calling out to hungry hearts. All the lost and left behind Gather round and share this meal Your joy and sorrow I'll make mine Calling out to hungry hearts Everywhere in the endless sky You walk with me through the darkness I offer you this world behind you Calling out your hungry spirits Everywhere you're at this time.

[12:47]

Calling out to hungry hearts. All the lost and left behind. Gather round and share this meal. Your joy and sorrow, I'll take it mine. 24. Calling out to hungry hearts, everywhere you endless sigh. You who wander, you who curse, I offer you this holy high. Calling out, you hungry spirits Everywhere and through endless time Calling out, you hungry hearts All the lost and left behind Gather round and share this meal

[14:02]

Your joy and sorrow, I make it mine. Gather round and share this meal. Your joy and sorrow, I make it mine.

[14:23]

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