Good morning. So this morning we are happy to celebrate the birth of Shakyamuni Buddha. So I will tell the story of Shakyamuni's birth with a little bit of mirth. It's a very interesting story, and usually, you know, in most Asian countries, Buddhist countries, Shakyamuni's birth, enlightenment, and parinirvana are all celebrated at the same time, called weisak. In Japan, they separate these events.

[01:01]

And Hanamatsuri, which is Spring Festival in Japan, when all the buds start coming out in the trees, and it's a celebration of spring, it's a celebration of renewal, and it's a celebration of waking up. The earth has become dormant over the winter, And then in the spring, it's reverse. So the earth goes through these four cycles. I think in Japan, there may be 25 cycles. We celebrate four, spring, fall, spring, summer, winter, and spring, summer, fall, winter. celebrate all the subtle changes. And this also brings forth the understanding of birth, death, and renewal, which is cyclical.

[02:18]

So when we talk about Shakyamuni's birth, actually He had many births, but we can count three. One is his birth 2,500 years ago, with a margin of error of three or four hundred years. And then his rebirth as an enlightened person, as a Buddha. And then his death, his parinirvana, is the end of the cycle of birth and death. So I'm going to talk about the first one.

[03:21]

Our usual understanding of birth and death, of birth. So, somewhere around 2,500 years ago, there was a king, Suddhodana. And he had a wife called Maya, Queen Maya. And they were very wealthy, very rich people. And King Suddhodana was in his county house, counting all his money one day. And his wife, Maya, was visiting her mom, and they were eating chapatis and honey. So his mom said, you know, like, something's happening here, so I'm going to go visit my husband, Suddhodana. So she's traveling with her retinue, and she feels a big He leans up against the tree and out pops a little boy from her side.

[04:33]

Actually, I think it was a white elephant. But I don't know. Sometimes it's a white elephant. Sometimes it's a little boy. Oh, yes. I will tell you. All these characters are either factual or not factual. This and the facts are either facts or fiction. And I reserve the right to mix them all up and tell the story in my own way. So this little boy was called Siddhartha. But after he popped out and they returned home, I think it was seven days later, The little baby took seven steps. That's pretty unusual. But the whole story is very unusual.

[05:38]

And he pointed one finger to the sky and one finger to the earth. And he made a proclamation. Beneath the heavens and above the earth, I alone am the world-honored one." So he kind of made a prediction of his Buddhahood. So this is a very interesting little part of the story, because he says, I alone am the world-honored one. The word honored one means a Buddha. The whole world honors someone who has found total enlightenment and freedom as a human being, a perfected human being, so to speak.

[06:42]

So, what does this mean? I alone? What about everybody else? How does he single himself out? He's a perfected one. How does he know this? Someone, one Zen master said, if I was there, I would have given him a good spanking. But if you look at the word alone, I've told you this before, if you look at the word alone, it has two meanings. Two opposite meanings. We usually think of the word alone as meaning separate. When I am alone, I am separate. I am separated from everything else. So radical aloneness, in that sense, means isolation. The other more fundamental meaning is alone is at one with.

[07:52]

At one, meant. At one, alone, means at one with. So, this is of course the non-dualistic meaning. The non-dual meaning is I at one with all things. In other words, everything, the whole universe, as myself. We say, the true human body is the whole universe. Karnagiri once said, the Buddha's halo is the whole universe. So this, if we think of this statement, it can be very controversial. This statement meaning, egotistically, I am the world owner one, is not the meaning.

[08:56]

meaning, all inclusively, as that I disappear and the universe exists. When I disappear, the whole universe, I am the whole universe. So we have to understand in that way that Buddha Buddha's enlightenment means I realized that my true human body is the whole universe. There is no separation. So, later Siddhartha left home. You know, we follow the same patterns as Shakyamuni in his quest for enlightenment. The story, as the story goes, Shakyamuni, or Siddhartha, was brought up in the palace as a young boy, as a young man, given all of the delights that we all kind of are addicted to.

[10:16]

And his father never let him out of the palace, because he didn't want him to get upset when he saw life around him. But one day he happened to leave the palace, and he saw a monk, a dead person, a sick person, and an old person. And he said, what is this all about? I mean, can you imagine being that old and not seeing anything? But still, this is a story. So he said, how come this happens? He couldn't understand it. So he set off on a quest. One day he left the palace, left his family, left his wife, left his little boy, because he felt that having enlightenment about the facts of life was the most important thing. he went through austerities that were incredible.

[11:22]

And he became an ascetic. And sometimes he would eat one grain of rice a day, things like that. So he became so skinny, you could see through his, you could see his backbone through his stomach. But then one day, he, sat down and he said, is this really the way to go? I'm wondering if this is really the way to go. And he thought, maybe there's another way to go. So he sat under this tree for seven days and didn't move for seven whole days. He sat under a tree, didn't move, crossed his legs, He said, I'm not going to leave this spot until I get enlightened. So all the demons came to him in all that time and they tried to seduce him away from what he was doing.

[12:26]

And when he saw the morning star on the seventh day, he had a big realization. one big family. I had all sorts of things. The whole universe is my true self. That's what he realized. So then some nice lady came along and gave him a glass of milk. He said, you know, I think it's pretty good. I think that in order to really practice, instead of starving myself, it's better to have something to eat, to have some shelter, to have food, shelter, protection from the

[13:37]

and to practice in a reasonable way. So this is from the beginning of the Middle Way, a practice instead of practicing in extreme ways. His family had to practice in an extreme way of wealth, having everything they wanted, and when he was an ascetic, he practiced the way of deprivation. So he came to understand the Middle Way, so that people could practice with him, if they had a good understanding of the Middle Way. Nevertheless, Not everybody practices as Shakyamuni practiced. So, as we look at the patterns, Shakyamuni had everything that people usually want, but there was something wrong with that.

[15:00]

And then he practiced with total deprivation, and there was something wrong with that. So, this is our pattern, you know. Leaving home doesn't mean to leave your family, necessarily. It means to leave your false dependencies. To leave our false dependencies has nothing to do with whether you are living with your family or not living or living anywhere else has to do with seeing through the falsehood of dependencies. We depend on ways that are called vanity. Vanity has to do with

[16:05]

depending on something that is insubstantial. It has no true basis. The Bible says vanity, all is vanity, which is very close to Shakyamuni. All those things that we depend on are not dependable. So what do you depend on? That's dependable. That's a great koan. What do we depend on that's really dependable in the long run? So Shakyamuni, Siddhartha became Shakyamuni. became the Muni or the sage of the Shakyas.

[17:10]

We call him the Buddha. That was his second birth, sitting under the tree, the bow tree, and realizing enlightenment was his second birth. So it makes sense to have which is Buddha's birthday, Buddha's enlightenment day, and Buddha's nirvana day, because he had more than one birth. So when we celebrate Shakyamuni's enlightenment day, it's also his birthday. Often monks, when they become ordained, they start counting their birthday from that day. So, what's shocking when you realize all beings have Buddha nature.

[18:13]

All beings have the nature of Buddha. But it's not always realized. It's only realized when we set the cycle of practice in motion. When we set the wheel of practice into motion, then our Buddha nature is realized. So we're all Buddha, and when we celebrate Buddha's birthday, since we all have the nature of Buddha and the potentiality of Buddha's understanding, it's also our birthday. So, when we celebrate today, we pour sweet tea over the baby Buddha, who's going like this. After the seven steps, under this beautiful canopy of flowers, is the baby Buddha going, I alone am the Buddha.

[19:21]

Okay, we pour, and we bathe the Buddha. Because in India, they used to bathe babies. Maybe they'll do it with sweet tea. It's not just water. It's very sweet tea. I remember when we used to go to Chinatown in the old days, in the old Chinese restaurant, they'd take the tea that you didn't drink and pour it on the table. And that's the way they would clean the table. So, let's enjoy our ceremony of bathing the baby Buddha.

[20:07]

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