I vow to tell you the truth and that it's not just words. Good morning. This side of the Zen Dojo seems to be filled with strange creatures. Especially the black one with the red eyes. Well, today we're having a ceremony. Today we're having a ceremony. Can you hear? A little more.

[01:01]

A little more. Uh-huh. That's good, I can hear that. Segaki, but actually we call it now a sejiki. But whether it's segaki or sejiki, it's the same. And segaki means something like ceremony for feeding the hungry ghosts. And in Japan it's called Obon, which is a very essential ceremony for the Japanese, and usually in the end of July or maybe August, of course, but it can be any time. And Obon comes from the Sanskrit ulambara,

[02:06]

which means hanging upside down, and which means kind of being in a tortuous situation. So this is a ceremony that we're going to do this afternoon, I mean this morning, excuse me. I'm just gonna give a short talk to explain this, to give us some idea of the ceremony. And then immediately after that, we'll do a little kin-hin, and then we'll have the ceremony. Many of you have experienced the ceremony, and some of you haven't, but you won't have to do much. Except at the right time, we invite all the disembodied hungry ghost spirits to be fed.

[03:08]

So we set up an altar in the back, which has fruit and various cakes and things in order to feed the hungry ghosts. So hungry ghosts are called Gaki, but this ceremony changed its name to Sejiki. I think in Japan, Seigaki has a kind of connotation that has to do with undesirables. So Seijiki is more universal. I remember when I was in Japan one time, Professor Nara, who was the president of president of Komazawa University talked to us and he said that in Japan, Sagaki ceremony is more or less for Japanese people and he said it should be more wide

[04:15]

for everybody. So this is one of the reforms, of course, that he would like to see. And I think Sajiki has something to do with that. Changing the name Sajiki has a more universal, wide, universal meaning. That Hungry Ghost, you know, there's a story about Ananda, who was Shakyamuni's cousin, And Ananda one day was sitting zazen, according to the story, and he was visited by this skinny man, very thin, skinny man. And he said, who are you? And the skinny man said, I belong to the hungry ghost community. And he said, in three days, you too will belong to the hungry ghost community.

[05:21]

And Ananda said, really? And then he said, why? And he said, because in three days, your good karma will be all used up. So Ananda said, well, I'm going to go see Shakyamuni and see what he has to say about this. So what came to Shakyamuni, Shakyamuni said, yes, this is true. There is a community of sagaki, of disembodied hungry ghosts. And the reason why is because of their karma. because of their actions, our actions, our karmic actions create our karmic results. And so we're in the position we are because of our actions.

[06:21]

And Ananda said, well, what can we do about that? And Shakyamuni said, well, there is a ceremony called sagaki or sajiki. And this ceremony helps us to be free from our karma for a little while, until we do something else. So that's one story. There are several stories about how this all came about, but Moggallana was one of Shakyamuni's students, Arhat, and Moggallana had some dreams. One night, he said, every night I dream the same dream, and it's because my deceased mother is in some realm where she's being tortured.

[07:29]

She can't, every time she wants to eat something, it turns to blood and pus, and when she wants to drink, it scorches her throat, and she can't ever be satisfied. And this is the definition of agaki. Agaki is, well, agaki is a person who has a distended belly and a very narrow throat. The throat is so narrow that when they eat, they can't get anything down, so they're always starving. And no matter how much they eat, they can't get it done, but they're continually, it's kind of a symbol of greed, or greed nature. No matter how much we eat, we can't be satisfied. So it's the suffering of dissatisfaction, our embodiment of dissatisfaction.

[08:36]

And This is one of the six worlds, you know, in the world of the hungry ghosts. So we call the gaki the hungry ghosts. A ghost is a disembodied, a symbol of disembodiment. You can't quite fit in, you can't land someplace. There's no place for you to be. because there's no satisfaction in wherever you are, so you're called a ghost. So, so Moggallana asked Shakyamuni, well, what can I do about this? Well, my mother, my poor mother, how can I relieve her of her suffering in her, wherever state she's in? And Shakyamuni said, well, there's a ceremony called Sagaki, Sajiki.

[09:45]

And this ceremony will, if you do this every day, this will help your mother. This is how you can help her. So that's the other story about how this came to be. But apparently, the tradition is that the story comes from Shakyamuni Buddha, and then it made its way to Japan. And it's called Obon in Japan, and it's probably the most popular ceremony. So we have adapted this ceremony to our practice. We do this once a year. Some people do this every day. Depends on how much you believe that this is efficacious. So, our adaptation is, it's an adaptation, and we chant the Con Ramon, which is the Gate of Sweet Dew, which is one of the

[11:00]

I don't want to explain what that is, because that's a whole other thing to explain. But I'll do that sometime. I think that if we're going to continue to do this ceremony, we should understand all that. But during the ceremony, we… make a lot of racket to invite, wake up and invite all the disembodied hungry ghost spirits to come and be fed. This is our compassionate act. And then I'll blow the conch shell. And then we make some offerings of food and chant the Kanron Mon, which is the Keto sweet dew. And that's pretty much the gist of the ceremony.

[12:07]

So this is also, you know, this is a ceremony for the deceased and for us to make contact with our deceased forebears. But it's also a ceremony of recognizing our karma. and relieving our karma, the effects of our karma, and also realizing that all of us are hungry ghosts. We don't have to be deceased to be a hungry ghost. Matter of fact, we all have these qualities, ghost-like qualities of creating karma through greed. and delusion and complacency and various other qualities.

[13:16]

So we recognize this in ourselves and also. So all hungry ghosts, all the hungry ghosts in the universe are invited into this space. And we create this offering. And then we send them away, goodbye. Do you have a question? Well, I have several important questions. I will start with one. Without ceremonies, how do we change our miserable karma? Well, everything is a ceremony. Everything you do is a ceremony.

[14:22]

You say, just be informal. But informality is also a ceremony. Ron? Can you mention about the part of the ceremony where you read the names of people who have died? Thank you, yeah, thank you. Right, the important part of the ceremony is that we read the names of all of the people who have had their, the deceased for the year, who have had their names on the altar. And then, when that's read, I'll ask for anyone else whose name didn't appear on the altar that is important to you, and you can just say the name. Happiness is subjective.

[15:29]

They're relieved. Yeah, I want to tell you a little story which I'm, if you've been reading the newspaper, you know that there's this man who was a judge who sued his laundry man, right? Sued his laundry man. because he gave him a suit to have it pressed, I guess, or cleaned, and he claimed that he didn't get the suit back, $1,200 suit. He didn't get the pants or something like that. And so he sued them for $25 million or $50 million. Totally frivolous suit, right? when he came back again at a different time, he only sued them for maybe two million or something. But they said, well, how come you changed? His suit was thrown out of court, right?

[16:48]

But he said, The reason I'm suing again is because of the sign that you had that said, satisfaction guaranteed. Now that's great, because satisfaction is not guaranteed. You may have a sign that says, satisfaction guaranteed, but that does not mean that you will be satisfied. Does that answer your question? There's no way that somebody can guarantee satisfaction for you, even though it may happen. Yes? Are the hungry ghosts destined to always be in this condition, or is there some way to permanently save them? Well, you can't save them. They have to save themselves through their karma. So one is a hungry ghost. We are hungry ghosts because of our karma.

[17:57]

I don't know about the deceased, that's another realm. But for the living, so to speak, of course the living and the dead are maybe not that different, but for the living, those who are present with us, We can always change our karma by changing our actions. When we change our actions, we change our karma, because karma means action. And so when we change our actions, the results of our actions also change. So we can save ourselves. Oh, the altar is in the back of the room, right? That's a good question.

[18:59]

I'm trying to remember exactly why that is. They're afraid to approach. Right. It's too intimidating. This main altar is a little too intimidating. And so this is not a Buddhist ceremony. This is just simply a ceremony for everyone. Not especially Buddhist ceremony. Inviting all the hungry ghosts in the universe sounds dangerous. Yes. Do you think that some of them might eat these children? Oh, yeah. Well, we certainly hope so. Hey, you guys, are there any hungry ghosts out there? No, you forgot one person when you said there's a person over here. There's many creatures over here.

[20:01]

Yes. You forgot one person. Oh, what is that? Oh. Oops, I had that. Hey, what else have we got over there? Is that a hungry ghost? I don't know. It's a skunk. Wow, look at that! That is a Roman Catholic. Look at this fuzzy one over here with the hair white. Are you a ghost?

[21:11]

That's a shy something. A lot of shy, a couple of shy somethings. And look at that ram. My goodness. Look at those horns. Well, I think it's time for us to invite the hungry ghosts and see what happens.

[21:36]

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