Good morning. And welcome to Buddha's birthday party. And we have a very astute and well-educated group of kids from Kidzendo sitting in front with their parents. And I have a question for you guys. This is the Buddha's birthday. Can you tell me how old the Buddha is? 2,560 years old. Wow. Now, how many of you knew that? Even I had to look it up on Wikipedia to check that they were correct. Thank you. So we're going to have a ceremony that Sogen Roshi is going to lead bathing the baby Buddha after this short lecture.

[01:04]

And I'm going to give you, I'm going to make a long story short, I hope. uh, and you can hope to, uh, about the Buddha's birth and, uh, you know, his, his first days. But before that, we actually have a treat. We have a song from kids sendo that they're going to offer to all of you. And it's a, it's a Buddhist song, right? So take it away, kids. And those who were kids. So when we go through the five senses, there are going to be these little pauses.

[02:23]

And in that pause, be noticing what you notice with that sense. So we'll see what's happening. So we're just going to solicit three things that you We're here together to wake up and to sing Let's look around us and see what's happening We're here together to wake up and to sing Let's look around us and see what's happening to wake up and to sing.

[03:28]

Let's look around us and see what's happening. Colorful kids. Flowers. Kids, flowers, sky, smiles. OK. Kids are right here. Flowers are right here. Smiles are right here when it's happening. We're here together. to wake up and to sing. Let's get around us and hear what's happening. Singing. Singing. Ukulele. Ukulele. Birds. Birds. Singing is right here. Ukulele's right here. Birds right here. When it's happening, we're here together to wake up and Okay.

[04:36]

Toothpaste is right here. Birthday cake is right here. Chocolate is right here. It's happening. We're here together. To wake up and to sing. Let's look around us and smell what's left. Absence of incense. [...] Absence of incense I'm going to throw my blue chocolate. Cushion. Cushion. Warm. Warm. Okay. We're out of milk chocolate. The station's right here.

[05:37]

The whole world is right here, where it's happening, we're here together. Don't wake up and just sing, let's look around us, and see what's happening. Buddha's right here, Dharma's right here, Sangha's right here, where it's happening, we're here together. Don't wake up and just sing, and be what's happening. Well, thank you guys. Now I'm going to tell you a little story. A story. This is a story about a king, a queen, a white elephant, a very unusual baby.

[07:01]

All of those things are coming together. So, 2,560 years ago, There was a king, Suddhodana, who was the ruler of a tribe in northern India. And he married a beautiful princess, who was the queen of a neighboring tribe or community. And because she was so beautiful, her name was Maya, which meant a vision. But she was also really smart. And so this couple, King Suddhodana and Queen Maya, were admired by all the nobles and all the householders from both tribes. And this was the Buddha's family. So one night, Queen Maya had a dream.

[08:04]

Did you ever have a dream that you remembered when you woke up? Yeah? So she remembered this dream when she woke up. She felt herself when she was asleep. She felt herself. She was carried away by kind of by angels to a lake that was high in the mountains. And she bathed in the lake. And after she bathed, she put on beautiful, beautiful clothing and perfume and adorned her hair with flowers. And when she was dressed, she saw a white elephant. Now, white elephants are very unusual. It's really kind of a good, it's a good omen. And this white elephant had a white lotus flower that it was holding in its trunk. And it walked around her three times

[09:07]

It walked all around Queen Maya, and it tapped her with its trunk and the lotus flower. It tapped her in the right side. And she awoke. She knew she had gotten an important message. And she told the king about her dream. And he sent for his wise men who understood the language of dreams. And they said, your majesty, the dream means that our queen will be the mother of a child who will be a very great being. And the king and queen were very happy when they heard this. And then nine months later, there was a baby that was about to be born by the queen. So she went to the king and said, my baby is almost due.

[10:09]

The custom that we have where I grew up was for me to return to my parents' home to have this baby. So with her husband's permission, she left the capital with a long procession of soldiers and people to take care of her attendance. And she headed for the capital of her father's kingdom. That country was called the Koliya country. And as they were on their way there, they passed a beautiful garden that was called the Lumbini Garden. really nice name, Lumbini. You can still go there, actually. So this park had tall trees and flowers and birds and very gentle animals. And the queen said to her, the people who were with her, they said, let's stop here for a while. I just want to rest.

[11:13]

It's so beautiful. And she rested for a time underneath one of the trees, and then she got up, and she reached up to the branch, and she grabbed onto the branch. And in that moment, this baby boy was born. from right out of her right side, which is a very unusual kind of birth. We won't go into the details here, but it was very unusual and not so messy. And the queen and her son were bathed with perfume blossoms and two streams of sparkling water, like Calistoga water, that poured from the sky to bathe them.

[12:15]

And it washed them clean. And then something very unusual happened. This baby, who Remember, this baby was just born, right? This baby then stood up, which in itself is an unusual thing. And then he took seven steps in each of the four directions, took four steps. And with each step he took, a lotus flower bloomed under his steps. These are powerful steps. And so walking, standing was pretty good, walking is pretty good, but when he had taken the seven steps, you know what he did then? Can you guess? He talked.

[13:17]

He spoke. Have you ever seen a newborn baby that was able to speak? That would actually scare me. But it really got everybody's attention. But what he said even got more of their attention. Because what he said is, you'll see, he put one hand down, he pointed to the earth, and he put another hand up, and he pointed to the heavens. And you'll see this when we bathe the baby Buddha out there. And he said, in the heavens above and the earth below, I alone am the world-honored one. I was born to take away all the suffering that fills the world." And that was the vision that he had. So then the queen returned to the world, the capital and the king was overjoyed as soon as he heard the news of the birth of this boy and amazed by the stories of what he had done immediately after he was born.

[14:30]

So King Suddhodana had an old teacher and this teacher's name was Ashta and he lived in the jungle and the king called Ashta But Ashta already knew that the baby was born because he had heard the devas and the spirits and the angels singing to rejoice in the baby's birth. So Ashta was already on his way to see his old student, the king. And the king said, Ashta, my son was only born yesterday. Can you look at him and see if his future will be good? And Ashta looked at the child and said, this prince will become a very great teacher in the world. The sage was very pleased, and he paid his respects to the little baby boy.

[15:35]

The king was not so sure. So he called five wise men. to also read his future and to suggest a good name for the boy. And the wise men examined the baby and they said, this prince will be a king of kings if he wants to be a ruler of men. But if he takes up the religious life, he will become the wisest of the wise, a Buddha, and he will help all beings, not just this kingdom. So the wise men gave this baby the name Siddhartha, which means wish fulfilled, or one who has accomplished his goal. So the sad thing is that a week after the baby was born, his mother died.

[16:49]

But his mother had a sister. Her name was Prajapati Gautami. And the sister had also had a baby the same day as the Buddha. And she said to her brother-in-law, the king, I will take care of this boy and raise him with my son as if they were both my sons. And that's how the Buddha grew up. He grew up in the palace. He grew up with Prajapati as his mother. And he grew up to be strong, and tall and smart and good. And said in the text, it says, he was the cleverest in his class and the best at games.

[17:57]

And he was even cleverer and wiser than his teachers, which one wonders how his teachers felt. But he was the strongest and most handsome boy in the class. He was never, ever lazy. And he never misbehaved. He loved everybody. And everybody loved him. And he was a friend to all. And he grew up to be the Buddha. So that's the long story short. And I just wanted to share that with you today so we can go outside and everybody will have a chance to bathe the baby Buddha and to pay your respects and then to eat cake. Because a birthday party without cake is not a birthday party, even in the Buddha's time.

[19:01]

So I think that's where I'm going to end today. And Sue will explain to you what's going to happen next. But I look forward to being outside. And the sun is out now. Yes. So thank you very much.

[19:19]

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