I vow to taste the truth, I vow to confess the truth. Good morning. Can you hear okay? Well, we just had our sagaki ceremony, ceremony of placating the hungry spirits or ghosts. ghost is some disembodied spirit that can't settle somewhere. So, in some sense, we're all hungry ghosts. You know, the preta is the, in the six worlds, in the cycle of transmigration, in Buddha's understanding, within the six worlds, the heavenly realm, the fighting demon realm, the human realm, the hungry ghosts, the hell realm, the animal realm.

[01:16]

Maybe that's, is that six? Yeah. So, we transmigrate through these six realms every day. Sometimes we're a hungry ghost that just can't get enough. No matter how much we want, the more we get, the more we want, and our throats are only so big. Our stomachs can only have a certain capacity. So we keep trying to stuff it down, but this is truer than imagination. Anyway, big extended bellies and little throats and always hungry, never knowing quite what is enough or quite where to land. So, when people pass on from this particular phase of life called the world,

[02:25]

they either find some place, some destination, which is determined by their karma, by their actions, and if their actions are good, so to speak, then they find a good condition, and if their actions are not so good, then they find a not-so-good condition, so kind of wander around, like, what am I doing? Where am I? What's going on here? So anyway, this Sagaki ceremony is in Japan called Obon. It's also in China they have this ceremony, and in many other places in the Buddhist world they have this ceremony. Obon is done in July, I believe, and we do this ceremony, have been doing this ceremony, according to our own way of thinking about it, in conjunction with Halloween, because Halloween is a Western version of Seigaki.

[03:41]

when we have been doing this ceremony, we're doing it in the evening of Halloween, and because Halloween, you know, people get kind of drawn to different places, Halloween parties and trick-and-treat and all these things, the ceremony has a ... although people come in costume, it's always felt a little bit funny, like maybe it's not so serious. But actually, I'm rethinking my whole thing. I thought that if we do this ceremony without costumes, we'll see what the ceremony is. And then we can decide if we want to do it again in costumes as part of Halloween. So I just want to read something, talk a little bit about what is Halloween. Huh? I turned it off. What is Halloween? And after researching what is Halloween, I believe it's what we think it is. Excuse me.

[04:54]

This is by someone named Jack Santino. It's called The Fantasy and Folklore of All Hallows. So I just want to read some of this, maybe talk about it. Halloween had its beginnings in an ancient pre-Christian Celtic festival of the dead. The Celtic peoples, who were once found all over Europe, divided the year by four major holidays. According to their calendar, the year began on a day corresponding to November 1st on our present calendar. The date marked the beginning of winter. Since they were pastoral people, it was a time when cattle and sheep had to be moved to closer pastures and all livestock had to be secured for the winter months. crops were harvested and stored. The date marked both an ending and a beginning in an eternal cycle." So we have these beginnings and endings, we have the equinox and so forth, and the equinox is a kind of ending and beginning of seasons, and people have festivals on those endings and beginning divisions.

[06:17]

The festival observed at this time was called Samhain. It was the biggest and most significant holiday of the Celtic year. The Celts believed that at the time of Samhain, more so than any other time of year, the ghosts of the dead were able to mingle with the living. Because at Samween, the souls of those who had died during the year traveled into the other world. People gathered to sacrifice animals, fruits, and vegetables. They also lit bonfires in honor of the dead to aid them on their journey and to keep them away from the living." Keep them away. You know, when we do this ceremony of sagaki, the altar is at the other end of the zendo. It's kept away from the altar. so that it had nothing really to do with this end. It has to do with keeping them away from gathering around the altar and kind of haunting the place.

[07:23]

The thing is, I think with all this kind of ceremony that the idea is to invite the ghosts in but not to keep them here. to have a communion for a period of time, a short period of time of communion, like opening this veil, opening this door, and then you say goodbye, because this is not where they're supposed to go, they're not supposed to come back here. And a very important aspect, I think, at the end of the ceremony, I'm doing these little mantras which nobody can hear, but the last one is goodbye. So, because people don't want to be haunted by ghosts all the time. Maybe, you know, this haunting thing is the idea that ghosts are trying to get back, you know, and so they have haunted houses and ghost stories, things like that.

[08:30]

In the olden days, when they didn't have electric lights. People lived in the dark at night, pretty much. We're so used to just turning on all the lights, and we have street lights, and we have downtown, and lights never go off in certain places. But people have never lived like that before, and so you have all these shadows, and you have nighttime, and you have forests, which ... we don't think of forests as a dangerous place necessarily, but if there are no lights, and the forest is really black, and you cannot see, you have all these ... it gives you the willies, you know, and then animals come out, and you don't know what you're going to meet. So there's a lot of stuff around, you know, ghosts and ogres and demons and all kinds of things floating around out there. So we've turned on all the lights, so we don't believe in this stuff anymore, particularly most people.

[09:40]

It doesn't come up so much because we turn on the lights. So Samhain became the Halloween we are familiar with when Christian missionaries attempted to change the religious practices of the Celtic people. In the early 20s of the first millennium A.D., before missionaries such as St. Patrick and St. Columbier converted them to Christianity, the Celts practiced an elaborate religion through their priestly caste, the Druids, who were priests, poets, scientists, and scholars all at once. As religious leaders, ritual specialists, and bearers of learning, The Druids were not unlike the very missionaries and monks who were to Christianize their people and brand them evil devil-worshippers. That still prevails.

[10:40]

As a result of their efforts to wipe out pagan holidays such as Samhain, the Christians succeeded in effecting major transformations in it. In 601 A.D., Pope Gregory I issued a now-famous edict to his missionaries concerning the native beliefs and customs of the peoples he hoped to convert. Rather than try to obliterate native peoples' customs and beliefs, the pope instructed his missionaries to use them. If a group of people worshiped a tree, rather than cut it down, he advised them to consecrate it to Christ and allow its continued worship. Buddhism is very similar to this. Buddhism goes from one country to the next, India to China, Southeast Asia, Tibet, the Himalayas and Japan and so forth. Japan is like this outpost of Buddhism and assimilates the

[11:41]

indigenous cultural spiritual practices. So it's called, there's a name for it, it's called the practice of assimilation. So in China, Taoism and Confucianism were the prevailing spiritual philosophical practices and Buddhism took all of those Chinese deities and turned them into Buddhist deities. just converted them to help and so all these guardians and fierce-looking guardians who were demons actually became the guardians of Buddhism. And Taoism was mixed with Shinto was the indigenous religious culture and Shinto influenced Buddhism and Buddhism influenced Shinto.

[13:03]

So Buddhism in Japan is a kind of mixture of Shinto, has Shinto elements in its culture. In America, psychology or something like that, you know, is mixed with Buddhism in some way, and we don't know what will turn out to be, because psychology is kind of the present-day American spiritual practice, so to speak. Scientism and psychology are replacing, well, I don't say they're replacing religion. There are elements of Judaism and Christianity also which will influence Buddhism and vice versa. Buddhism is influencing both Judaism and some elements of Christianity as well in this country.

[14:06]

So it's always a kind of mixture. People seem to think that there's an original Buddhism called Indian Buddhism, which is somewhat true, but nobody really knows what original Buddhism is in India, believe it or not. It's always a mixture of culture and place and time, given Buddha's message. So, it makes me think of Halloween as maybe not such a bad idea to be mixed with sagaki. So in terms of spreading Christianity, this was a brilliant concept and it became a basic approach used in Catholic missionary work. Church holy days were purposely set to coincide with native holy days. Christmas, for instance, was assigned the arbitrary date of December 25th because it corresponded with the midwinter celebration of many peoples.

[15:16]

Likewise, St. John's Day was set on the summer solstice. Samhain, with its emphasis on the supernatural, was decidedly pagan. While missionaries identified their holy days with those observed by the Celts, they branded the earlier religion's supernatural deities as evil and associated them with the devil. As representatives of the rival religion, Druids were considered evil worshippers of devilish or demonic gods and spirits. The Celtic underworld inevitably became identified with the Christian hell. The effects of this policy were to diminish, but not totally eradicate, the beliefs in the traditional gods. Celtic belief in supernatural creatures persisted while the Church made deliberate attempts to define them. as being not merely dangerous, but malicious. Followers of the old religion went into hiding and were branded as witches. The Christian feast of all saints was assigned to November 1st. The day honored every Christian saint, especially those that did not otherwise have a special day devoted to them.

[16:21]

This feast day was meant to substitute for Samhain, to draw the devotion of the Celtic peoples and finally to replace it forever. That did not happen, but the traditional Celtic deities diminished in status, becoming fairies or leprechauns of more recent traditions, especially in Ireland and England. The fairies and the leprechauns, big cultural, wonderful thing. So, old beliefs which associated with Samhain never died out entirely. The powerful symbolism of the traveling dead was too strong and perhaps too basic to the human psyche to be satisfied with the new, more abstract, Catholic feast honoring saints. Recognizing that something that would subsume the original energy of Samhain was necessary, the Church tried again to supplant it with a Christian feast day in the 9th century.

[17:25]

This time it established November 2nd as All Souls Day, the day when the living prayed for the souls of all the dead. But once again, the practice of retaining traditional customs while attempting to redefine them had a sustaining effect. The traditional beliefs and customs lived on in new guises. All Saints Day, otherwise known as All Hallows, hallowed means sanctified or holy, continued the ancient Celtic traditions. The cold is gone, but the cough continues. The evening prior to the day was the time of the most intense activity, both human and supernatural. People continued to celebrate All Hallows' Eve as a time of the wandering dead, but the supernatural beings were now thought to be evil. The folk continued to propitiate those spirits and their masked impersonators. by setting out gifts of food and drink.

[18:28]

Subsequently, All Hallows' Eve became Hallow Evening, which became Halloween, an ancient Celtic pre-Christian New Year's Day in contemporary dress. Many supernatural creatures became associated with All Hallows. In Ireland, fairies were numbered among the legendary creatures who roamed on Halloween. An old folk ballad called Alice in Cross tells the story of how the fairy queen saved a man from a witch's spell on Halloween. I'm wondering if that's related to Henry Purcell's opera, The Fairy Queen. Oh, Alison Gross that lives in your tower, in yon tower, the ugliest witch in't he north country. She's turned me into an ugly worm, and guard me toddle around a tree.

[19:30]

But as it fell out last Halloween even, when the fairy court was riding by, the queen lighted down on a Gowanee bank, not far from the tree where I want to lie. She's changed me again to my own proper shape, and I no more toddle about the tri-tree. In old England, cakes were made for the wandering souls, and people went a-soulin' for these soul cakes. Halloween, a time of magic, also became a day of divination with a host of magical beliefs. For instance, if persons hold a mirror on Halloween and walk backwards down the stairs to the basement, the face that appears in the mirror will be the next lover. Virtually all present Halloween traditions can be traced to the ancient Celtic Day of the Dead, which probably appears in Mexico.

[20:34]

Halloween is a holiday of many mysterious customs, but each one has a history, or at least a story behind it. The wearing of costumes, for instance, and roaming from door to door demanding treats can be traced to the Celtic period. In the first few centuries of the Christian era, when it was thought that the souls of the dead were out and around, along with fairies, witches and demons, offerings of food and drink were left out to placate them. As the centuries wore on, people began dressing like these dreadful creatures, performing antics in exchange for food and drink. This practice is called mumming, from which the practice of trick-or-treating evolved. To this day, witches, ghosts, and skeleton figures of the dead are among the favorite disguises. Halloween also retains some features that harken back to the original harvest day of Samhain, such as the customs of bobbing for apples and carving, I don't know if they do that anymore, but I used to do that, as well as the fruits, nuts, and spices.

[21:43]

cider associated with the day. Today, Halloween is becoming once again an adult holiday or masquerade, like Mardi Gras. Men and women in every disguise imaginable are taking to the streets of big American cities and parading past grinningly carved, candlelit jack-o'-lanterns, reenacting customs with a lengthy pedigree. Their masked antics challenge, mock, tease, and appease the dread forces of the night, of the soul, and of the other world that becomes our world in this night of reversible possibilities, inverted roles, and transcendency. In so doing, they are reaffirming death and its place as a part of life in an exhilarating celebration of a holy and magic evening. That's very interesting. It's like, you know, I remember Suzuki Yoshi saying, there's no difference between life and death. Radical statement.

[22:45]

You never know what's going to happen when the microphones turn on. So my statement for the Sagaki ceremony, I got this basically from D.T. Suzuki, and I added a little bit. Part of this says, well I'll just read the whole thing, because the body of the Buddha fills the whole universe, so that's What is the body of the Buddha? If we say each one of us is Buddha, well, the body of the Buddha fills the whole universe. There is no place it does not reach. It is right here, as all of us.

[23:57]

It appears as each being, and in every circumstance, yet keeps its place as perfect stillness. Its ocean of merit cannot be measured. May we and the three treasures be one in loving kindness, He said, we have decorated these altars and offered many things that exist within the sea, the fields, and the mountains, and have opened the gate of the most excellent dharma to all the disembodied, lost, forgotten, forsaken, hungry spirits in all worlds. So open the gate of the most excellent dharma. So we say, well what is the gift? When we have sagaki ceremony we're offering food to the hungry ghosts, so on the altar we have rice and vegetables and then we have oranges and cakes and stuff. These are symbolic offerings, but the true offering is the gate of the excellent dharma. sometimes called compassion or connection.

[25:10]

So, we and they are all hungry ghosts in all worlds. By feeding the supposedly departed, we are feeding ourselves. When they are filled, we are filled. No real distinction can be made between the living and the dead. That's very interesting. We do have these distinctions on one level, but on another level, there is no distinction. The living, so-called, are living on the dead. That is, the dead, so-called, are living mostly in the living. This ceremony, and I think this is my part, this ceremony is not so much an attempt at placation as a form of communion. Maybe it is. It is called the ceremony of awakening and nourishing all beings. May each one realize the truth and be released from all bad karma.

[26:20]

May both the hidden and apparent be free and complete the right and true wisdom So I think both Halloween and Segaki are based on this coming together in the sense of non-separation. And we do live in this dualistic world of separation, but the underlying basis is oneness. So, sagaki feeding the hungry spirits or ghosts.

[27:21]

You know, we actually do that. When we have our meal chant, we make this offering to all the various spirits to satisfy them. There's that line in there. We offer this food to all the various spirits to satisfy them. community, we actually put some grain on our setsu, the washing stick, and then the servers come around at the end of the meal and take off the grain from your setsu, and then they offer that to Avalokiteshvara. So, it's kind of symbolic. I remember, you know, Shino Sensei, when he was around, when he was practicing with us, you know, sometimes when you're eating something that has crumbs, the crumbs kind of fall down and you kind of go, you know, I mean I like to do that.

[28:32]

Don't do that, you know, those are left for the hungry ghosts. Kilton Carlson has made this really wonderful talk about Sakaki, which we printed every year, I think, in our newsletter. Also, Maezumi Roshi did a lot, Tetsugen did a lot to bring out the ceremony. I think that our ceremony is kind of short and modified. There is a more elaborate ceremony for Segaki, and I think that for next year I want to work on making it more complete and maybe continuing

[29:34]

People wear costumes if they want, because this is symbolic of it. Also, there's a solemnity to it, but there's also a joyful feeling to it. So I think there's a combination. It should not be too frivolous. The thing about Halloween is people forgot the meaning. basically, I mean when I was a kid, who knows, you just go out and you just do trick-or-treat, right, and you get as much candy as you can. But it doesn't mean anything, you know, it has no real meaning, but to get back to the meaning of what Halloween is, the meaning of what Sagaki is, and to kind of put together East and West, Western versions, I think is to find the right balance and combination, I think is a good idea. So that's what I'm thinking about.

[30:38]

And I liked our ceremony today. I thought it was great. It had a lot of life to it. And it was a good time of day to do it. And chanting was good. It felt very nice. Sagaki seems to have the legend, you know, I don't know, we often talk about, you know, Buddha said, and well, I think it's purported that Buddha said, or according to the legend, Buddha said. Otherwise, we get stuck in thinking we know what Buddha said. Anyway, the legend says that Moggallana, who was one of Shakyamuni Buddha's disciples, one of the 16 arhats, had a dream, a nightmare kind of a dream, that his deceased mother was in hell, and she was crying for help, and he asked Buddha,

[31:48]

And the Buddha said, well, you get the monks together and you do this ceremony. And it seems like, and you feed her something that she can eat. But whatever she fed her turned to pus and blood, you know, it's just inedible. And So they did this ceremony of placating the various, the wandering ghost spirits. And this way, he managed to save his mother. There are various versions of this story, but this is the legend of how that sagaki began. to thinking about all the other hungry ghosts besides his mother.

[32:54]

So the Obon Festival, I'll read you a little bit about that. This is by Maezumi Roshi, I believe. July 13th is traditionally known as the first day of Obon and is called Mukai-bon, or welcoming day. July 16th is the last day of Obon and is called Okuri-bon, or goodbye, farewell day. On the very first day of Obon, people visit their cemetery, taking flowers and incense to welcome the spirits of their ancestors back home. Horses and cows are designed from eggplants. Is that right? And cucumbers. Oh, I see. Horses and cows are designed, are carved from eggplants and cucumbers with legs of dried grass stems or chopsticks and presented at the graves for their ancestors. That's very sweet. To ride and return home on. Yeah, so they make these horses and, you know, these vehicles for their ancestors to ride home on.

[34:20]

Return home on. At home, everyone enjoys a happy reunion with the spirits of their ancestors by holding a special feast with cakes, fresh fruits, and vegetables. During this occasion, everyone participates in the Obon Odori, or Obon Dance, which is very popular all over Japan and can also be enjoyed here in Los Angeles at Zenjutsu Temple on July 18th. This was written some time ago. On the last day of Obon, everyone sends off the spirits with the shoryo bun, or miniature boats containing a lantern and various fruits and sweets. That's very Chinese. Chinese love to do, you know, set off little boats with lights on them. So on the last day of Obon, everyone sends off the spirits with the shoryo bun. or miniature boats containing a lantern and various fruits and sweets. It is said that the boats will go across to reach the other shore, where the spirits will be safe and never go hungry or be lonely until the next Obon festival.

[35:32]

The term Obon is from the term Urabon, which comes from the Sanskrit term Ullambana. Ullambana literally means to be hung upside down. like Moggallana's mother, I didn't say that, she was, he found her hanging upside down, which means, you know, being in a very bad position. It symbolizes unbearable suffering. The legend tells about a man in India named Moggallayana, that was also one of Buddha's 16 arhats, or Mogguran, In Japanese, when he became a disciple of the Buddha, he gained deep insight into the existence of life. He was able to see his long-dead mother suffering in the state of Ulambana. He tried to help her by bringing her food and water, but they immediately turned into fire. Desperate, Mokuren sought out the Buddha for advice. The Buddha advised all the monks that all the monks hold a memorial service for all the people who are suffering.

[36:34]

Through the memorial service of the monks, the mothers were able to have food and comfort and not suffer any longer. This is the beginning of Obon. So during Obon, we have fun. And at the same time, we give comfort to our ancestors and remember that they have sacrificed for us. So you both have fun, and you both have a festival, and you both have feasts, and enjoy the company of the ancestors. When I was in Japan one time, Professor Nara, who was the president of Komuzawa University, was with us, and a number of Soto Zen priests and we're having a meeting, and he was talking about Sagaki, and he said, in Japan, you shouldn't do Japan, in America, I don't think it's a good idea to do Sagaki the same way we do it in Japan, because in Japan, we do it for our ancestors, but for you, it's more universal.

[37:49]

He said, this is one of our problems. that we focus more on our ancestors, whereas for you it should be a more universal feeling. And I think that we do have that feeling, we don't have any particular ancestors. what's called ancestor worship, I think it's called ancestor ... I would like to think it was ancestor appreciation, but it is kind of ... they think it was ancestor worship, so I won't argue with that, but we don't have that kind of understanding, so we include everyone. So, anyway, somehow I think we can develop this kind of ceremony into where it has meaning for us.

[39:02]

It does already, but to have a real meaning for us, so that we're not just doing something pro forma or perfunctory, just, you know, But it should be meaningful, so that's what I'm thinking about. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good ceremony. We tend to hide, in America, dying. It's not something that's really out there for us. In Mexico, they have the Day of the Dead. They have all these skulls and they celebrate this fact of life. And so to celebrate this fact of life I think is really important for us. And not just think of it as some terrible thing, dying is, oh Jesus, you know, put it under the rug, you know, it's right out there.

[40:12]

and especially in Buddhist understanding. You'll have to tell me when to quit. Yeah. You're referring to Sadaqi, but lately we've been seeing Sajiki. Oh, Sajiki and Sadaqi. Well, Sadaqi has a kind of negative connotation. Sajiki has a less negative connotation. And I can't tell you exactly why. I can't remember exactly why. At one time I knew why, but I... Maybe Alan, do you remember? I think it has to do with actually an anti-discrimination campaign. Yeah, yeah.

[41:23]

I think it has a negative connotation. I don't know if it has to do with butchers or... It has to do with outcasts. Outcast people, yeah. but not such a good job. Explain to the gaki is not a very good word. Gaki was also a little kid for low class people. Low class people, yeah. That's why I think, that's the first time I got, you know, these days, equalization or whatever. Discrimination work. But we are always called Gaki because kids are always hungry. That's the meaning to Gaki, we use the word for the not very good, kind of a discrimination word.

[42:34]

Yes, so Gaki gets, the word originally has a meaning but then it gets applied to various, we apply it to various... Also trying to always I had a dream too recently which I'd like to know if you'd like to help me interpret it. I gave up red meat and chicken, mostly under the influence of some dear friends and people that I work with in India that I know they just hate it when I eat that stuff.

[43:38]

So I stopped eating it then, but I didn't give up fish just for convenience. And I also didn't give up eggs and beer and wine, which they also just hate. But just after I got back from India, I had this really vivid dream that I was watching a fish being caught and the fish was being pulled out of the water and sitting out of the water and suffering really a lot and the person who was catching it would sort of dip it in the water again so that it would seem like it was getting its life back and then it would have to go through that suffering all over again. And I was watching it and its face got sort of human. Then I started crying and I woke up and I thought, is this a message? What do you think? Yes, of course, but you know messages are all around us all the time. Everything is a message if you want it to be, but I think that's a message.

[44:44]

May not be about fish. I mean you may be the fish. But it's good to see you back. Welcome back. I read something just a short time ago about the Uneasy Dead and their influence on the living in Vietnam. This was a report of travel. And there's four, I don't know, three or four weeks. And one small aspect of this article was that among, that one of the concerns that they have is that the American war dead, the American soldiers,

[45:56]

action and retrieval of rights, but they, whenever they feel that Americans died there and are still, are in the field, and farmers are aware of it, and they have made their offerings and their recognition of the contribution. But the Americans haven't had, they can't really do that. It means can't really satisfy this requirement that the orphaned be recognized, that offerings be made, that they be what they did, that they be allowed to rest. The Vietnamese can't do that for an enemy army and they aren't Vietnamese, they aren't... Oh, I see.

[47:04]

They can't do a ceremony for them because they're not Vietnamese. Right. But the farmers can sometimes feel that these ghosts, if you will, sort of tug at their feet in the field. You know, I say that's because they believe that, that's their belief, but I was touched And that they do what? And that they do... Well, whatever they might. I don't know.

[48:04]

It just interested me that one might be able to do something with it. For the Americans or for the Vietnamese? For the Americans and for the Vietnamese who are still troubled. In other words, for everybody, not for some special person. But I just thought that was particularly important that the Vietnamese farmers who are, you know, Right.

[49:06]

Right. They need something. Yes. So, when the war is over, the animosities tend to fade and you begin to see people begin to feel for everybody and not just their own or something like that. This is very ancient. I appreciate that, yeah. Well, you know, if possible, just have a ceremony for people, you know. Very interesting. People who are killed, you know, and There's something about it that's not recognized fully. It's something missing.

[50:11]

Yes. Some screaming out. It was not heard. Yeah. Well, there is a common consequence to mayhem, but it may take a while to bear fruit.

[51:07]

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