I love the taste of truth and love to talk to experts. Good morning. Good morning. So today we celebrate Shakyamuni Buddha's birthday. Maybe 2,573 years ago, give or take, 50 or 60 years. Nobody knows for sure, but it's somewhere around there. You don't know, do you? So I'm going to give a little account of the story of Buddha's birth.

[01:02]

And I'm going to use Sokeyan Sasaki's nice description. Of course, no one was there that we know of. He says, there's always been doubt about the exact date of the Buddha's birth. Somehow there is about seven years difference between our chronology and the records existing in Sri Lanka. Usually the Buddha's birthday is celebrated in southern Buddhist countries on the full moon in May, but in eastern Buddhist countries we celebrate his birthday on April 8th of the lunar calendar. Actually, Vesak is the name of Buddha's birthday commemoration, and in most other countries, most countries other than Japan,

[02:16]

Vesak is Buddha's birthday, his enlightenment and his parinirvana all in one week, all at the same time, which makes perfect sense because it doesn't make much sense to talk about Buddha's birth without talking about his enlightenment and his decease. But anyway, we'll do that when his time goes first, mostly. We'll also talk about his enlightenment. In the sutras, the Buddha's mysterious and wonderful story is recorded like mythology. Of course, his first disciples added to the descriptions to honor him. And then later disciples in each generation kept adding more details to the story of his birth, so that over 2,500 years, it became a complex mythological story. But behind these elaborated records, we can see some truth.

[03:20]

His father was the Raja of Kapilavastu, a city of the Shakya tribe in northern India. His mother was a queen. Maya by name. The people called her Maha-Maya, Big Maya. According to the custom of the country, when the birth of the child was approaching, Queen Maya went back to her father's house. She was the daughter of another of the Shakya tribe. Apparently the Shakya tribe was divided into two parts and people intermarried from either side, each side, and when the bride was, the wife was pregnant, she would go to her home to have her baby. According to the custom of the country, When the birth of the child was approaching, Queen Maya went back to her father's house. The Shakyas were divided from ancestral times into two parts, one living a little distance from Kapilavastu, about two days' journey away.

[04:29]

The castle was built on the far side of the river. The procession of the Queen slowly approached her father's castle with many elephants and camels, soldiers, and also many pedestrians, musicians, historians, and court ladies bearing incense pots and musical instruments. At noon, she suddenly fell ill and took refuge from the hot sun in a garden by the roadside called Lumbini. There was a little pond there. The water was clear and cool and a seat was spread under a tree. When the time of the Buddha's birth drew near, the tree, like a willow, lowered its branches over the mother and covered her entirely with its shade. She held the branches with her hand and the Buddha came forth from under her arm. unusual.

[05:29]

But also, before she was pregnant or when she got pregnant, she had this dream of a six-tusk elephant, which is kind of symbolic of some great event or some great personage being born. So according to the description, as soon as he was born, the infant Buddha stood and walked seven steps in each of the four directions, east, west, north, and south, then stood in the center and pointed to the sky with one hand and the earth with the other hand and said, between heaven and earth, I alone and the world honored one, which is a very controversial statement, which needs some explanation.

[06:39]

But this is why we have the baby Buddha. Baby Buddha is holding one hand to the sky and one hand to the earth and saying, I alone am the world honored one. So typically in India, when a baby was born they would bathe the baby in sweet tea, kind of perfume-ish tea, which I think comes from the Magnolia family, and so this is why we have this custom of bathing the baby Buddha with sweet tea. That's right. You want a second bath? So, this statement, I alone in the world honored one.

[07:48]

You know, we say that a human being is like the connection between heaven and earth. Each one of us is a pillar between heaven and earth. So actually, when you think about it, where is heaven and where is earth? Of course, heaven and earth is just a way of speaking about form and emptiness, another way of speaking about form and emptiness. within each one of us is both the sacred and the profane, so to speak, the holy and the mundane. So we are the focal point of the holy and the mundane. So the whole universe is a true human body.

[08:52]

So when we say I alone, it means I who am at one with the true human body is the world-honored one. So, in other words, each one is the world-honored one. Alone means at one with. It has two meanings. One means isolated and the other meaning is totally inclusive. When we say alone, we usually say, well, I am alone, meaning I am separate from everything. But true meaning of alone means at one, which is all-inclusive, there's no separation. This is the meaning, the true meaning of this statement, but it can be misleading.

[09:56]

I remember someone, I think it was Nyogin Sensaki saying, that egotistical little brat should be spanked. If you have that understanding, yes. So this comes at a time of spring. I think all of the world's religions have a spring festival commemorating renewal, growth and renewal. We have the cycles of spring, summer, fall and winter, birth, growth, maturity, degeneration and death, and then it starts all over again with birth, maturity, growth or growth, degeneration and death, and then it goes, the cycles continue over and over and over again.

[11:03]

So, if we just simply observe how nature works, we can see how our human nature also works. So, this is also a festival or ceremony of renewal and freedom actually, this is like the freedom from birth to death actually, that's Buddhist So when our life is moment by moment birth and death, on each moment a moment of birth and leaving behind, and taking up and leaving behind, taking up, leaving behind.

[12:09]

And this cycle of momentary birth and death is also repeated in larger cycles of birth and death, and larger cycles of birth and death. And with this continuous renewal, this circular renewal, we say that actually in the larger sense is no birth and no death. It's all totally life. So we celebrate life within birth and death. difficult sometimes to see or to celebrate life as birth and death, because we only want to celebrate one side. So Buddhism, a little different.

[13:14]

than most other religions, because Buddha is not a god. Buddha is not one of the gods. Buddhism is a religion of awakening, awakening to our true nature. And most Zen masters that I know of don't deny God but use the term God in a different way, as not being separate. So instead of denying the existence of God, the Buddhists will include, make God something not outside but rather realization is God.

[14:19]

Understanding is God. Enlightenment is God. When there's no separation, this is a realization. So Buddhism is a religion of no separation. So the baby Buddha can step forward and say, I alone am the world-honored one, because there's no separation. When we understand this thoroughly it's called awakening and it's called freedom.

[15:24]

So this time of year just all of these celebrations both Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, this time is all about So being born is like awakening. It's interesting that the baby steps forth and makes this claim, of course, which is totally ridiculous, but if you look at it as your own awakening, and then at some point Buddha was enlightened, much later in his life, So his original realization was when he was born and his mature realization is later in his life. And in between is called the path.

[16:35]

So when we're born we have this inborn realization, but it takes the rest of our life to understand it. And that is our work, actually, is to make the effort to awaken to what we originally knew. So let's celebrate this wonderful occasion of Buddha's birthday by welcoming the baby Buddha of our own mind into the world. we were, before it started raining, we were going to have this ceremony outside.

[18:09]

And so we had all these flower petals just threw around. So this is actually a kind of wonderful feeling of color and light and throwing flower petals. So, after we leave, we'll throw the flower petals around. It's too hard to clean up, isn't it? I want to really thank all of you kids for being such a great audience. Now... Beings are nervous. I vow to awaken with them. Diligence are inexhaustible. I allow to enter them. Dharma gates are boundless.

[19:11]

I allow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I allow to become it. Beings are numerous. I vow to awaken with him. Divisions are inaccessible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's day is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. Beings are numberless. I vow to awaken with them. Divisions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma deeds are boundless.

[20:14]

I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. Now we have some entertainment to go along with his birthday by whom? The sharp tones. Marty and Peter and I are here. It'll go under here.

[21:29]

Just turn it around. It can go under just as it is. And I'm going to sing. I'm going to sing. Turn the microphone off. Does everyone need words?

[23:17]

I think we have a few. That's not going to work. Because it's right in front of me. It's right in front of me. Over there. Me? Just hold it. You look like a sound man now. This is a song by Peter Shannon that was a hit in the 60s, I believe, called Put a Little Love in Your Heart. Three, four.

[24:46]

Think of your fellow men. Lend him a helping hand. A little love in your heart. You see it's getting late. Oh, please don't hesitate. Put a little love in your heart. In the world, will be a better place. And the world will be a better place for you and me. You just wait and see. Put a little love in your heart. Put a little love in your heart. Another day will fly And still the children cry For the little love in your heart If you want the world to know We won't let hatred grow For the little love in your heart Then the world will be a better place Then the world will be a better place For you and me

[26:12]

You just wait and see. Put a little love in your heart. Put a little love in your heart. so You've got good luck around And if you're looking around For the little love in your heart I hope when you decide And this will be your guide For the little love in your heart

[27:22]

And the world will be a better place And the world will be a better place For you and me You just wait and see A little love in your eyes A little love in your eyes Put a little love in your heart Put a little love in your heart

[28:06]

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