Some Buddha’s Birthday Gifts
by Susan Jion Postal, founder Empty Hand Zen Center
Buddha’s Birthday, Apr 15, 2012
This morning I would like to let the great master Dogen set the stage for our celebration of Buddha’s Birthday. In going through the Eihei Koroku, the record of Dogen’s teachings to his disciples, we find at least nine different discourses
delivered on different years on this auspicious day. In each one, Dogen makes clear that this ceremony, as he did about Nirvana Day commemorations, is not just about Shakyamuni, but is always also about us.
Right now I see three gifts, three teachings, which emerge and can deeply nourish us this morning: First, the gift of entering non-dual devotional practice, second, the gift of realizing that it is always body practice, and third, the gift of
enjoyment, of play, of holding things lightly.
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For those who are new to all this, in Japanese Buddhism, April 8 th is the traditional day for celebration. It is customary to bathe a statue of the baby Buddha by ladling water or sweet tea over it. This custom goes back to at least
462 CE in China. In 1988, Maurine Stuart was describing how she was going to celebrate Buddha’s Birthday in Cambridge soon. I must have indicated that I would love to do this also at the Meeting House in Rye. Next thing I knew, she
insisted on lending me her Baby Buddha and her wooden ladle.
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We had a beautiful ceremony in Rye and the next day I drove back to Cambridge with the baby, the ladle, and baskets of spring flowers from our altar to hers. Speaking of grandmotherly kindness. By the next year we had purchased our
first baby Buddha statue and I was given the Japanese wooden ladle you see here. That first baby Buddha disappeared in the huge flood we had – three feet of water inside – maybe he floated away in his box into Blind Brook Marsh. Like Moses. This one is a replacement, a finer one for sure, which I have since kept in my living space, just to be sure. Elements set up here reflect the traditional story of Shakyamuni’s birth - the trees which burst into bloom, the baby bathed by rain, and the seven steps he took are represented by seven blossoms circling his feet.
So let us begin
A Dharma Hall Discourse by Master Dogen for Buddha;s Birthday 1241. “Today my original teacher Sakyamuni Tathagata descended to be born at Lumbini Park. Every year on this day we always have Lumbini Park. Tell me
whether the great sage is born or not. If you say he has descended to be born I grant you one portion of practice. If you say he has not descended to be born, I grant you one portion of practice. If you already are like this, (able to say both) you are not obstructed by mountains or oceans …..If we are not obstructed by mountains of oceans and are not obstructed by birth, all people in the entire earth and the entire universe are born together with Shakyamuni Tathagata and say ‘Above the heavens and below the heavens, I alone am the World honored One.’
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After a pause Dogen said: “In the entire universe and pervading the heavens, good fortune arrives. The grandmotherly intimate heart is expressed by the sage’s descent to birth. How can we make offerings, serve, make prostrations
and bathe (the baby) to celebrate the sage’s descent to birth? Together with our great ocean assembly, let us enter the Buddha Hall and perform the ceremony.”
How wonderful to hear how he invited his disciples. How wonderful to hear how Dogen invites us, right now, to also enter this ceremony directly, to bathe the newborn one, to bathe ourselves symbolically in celebration of our own new
beginning. In the discourse just read Dogen makes clear that there is birth and also no-birth. To affirm only one side is not the whole picture. That which is unborn (and undying) is simultaneously present with endless birth and death. The beat of the Heart Sutra drums this into us, and gradually it seems our body begins to absorb this truth. Our head, our thinking, just cannot fathom this kind of non-dual position. We also may have difficulty when we hear that the first exclamation of the baby Buddha was “Above the heavens and below the heavens, I alone am the World Honored One.” How easily this could be misunderstood as the mumblings of an ego-maniac! Actually, this is an expression of quite the opposite; this is not ego speaking here. It is a declaration of essence, of essential nature - there is no separation between “I” and heaven and earth. Dogen points out in his writing “Ten Directions” One hand pointing up is heaven, the other pointing down is
earth. There is no “Buddha” outside, no idea of Buddha or of seeking Buddhahood. Can we say “I am” to the vast spaciousness of endless dimension universal life – to use Soen Roshi’s words? Can we sense that all the worlds of
the ten directions are our own entire body? This legend that has come to us about Shakyamuni’s birth makes clear that direct manifestation of no-separation is possible. This is what makes non-dual devotional practice possible. We bow to
Buddha and are simultaneously bowing both to our Original Teacher and to our own awakening. When we do our full prostrations and raise up our palms we are taught we are “lifting the Buddha above your head”. Chozen Bays, now Roshi at Great Vow Monastery, notes that this was initially difficult for her to understand.
She comments:
“The way I think of it now is that I’m folding my little self up, folding up all my
ideas and notions about how things should be, physically folding them up and
raising true reality up above my own thoughts and ideas. Each time I bow, I try to
remember to make that affirmation “Yes, I want to see true reality. I know its right
there, and I put it above all my notions…..”
Bathing the baby Buddha we can rejoice at his appearance on earth, his actually
being born and we can simultaneously rejoice at our own fresh beginning now,
our first breath and first steps of our own awakening. If we can find that point at
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which “not-two” is manifest, ceremony comes alive. It ceases being a “symbol
for” something, but actually pierces through and kind of stitches us into not-
twoness, wholeness. This is non-dual devotional practice.
And now to seeing the gift of Body Practice -
In this ancient ceremony we will all find ourselves picking up the ladle with our
own hands. We are being asked to pick up and pour out. Honzhi’s Dharma Hall
discourse for Bathing the Buddha is quoted by Dogen in 1249. Honzhi begins
“This is the completely clear water of the emptiness of self-nature” and then
Dogen said the following:
“The oceanic vow of great compassion has no shore or limit and saves living
beings with release from the harbor of suffering. ..On this fine occasion, both old
and young cut off ignorance, greed and anger. ... All of you benevolent people,
what is it like just when the handle of the ladle is in your hands? The lowest
person has the highest wisdom.” (This phrase is from the 6 th Ancestor, Huineng
when he is questioned about having his own poem written o the wall. )
When your turn comes – remember this question from Dogen. What is it like just
when the handle of the ladle is held in your hand? Pick up the water of
emptiness, pour out everything and allow yourself to be washed clean. Our direct
engagement of picking up and pouring will teach each of us directly.
This is body practice. The sensation of wooden handle in our hands, of dipping
and pouring, of seeing the flow of liquid, all teaches us non-conceptually. Not
thinking about it – doing it. Becoming just that action of picking up and pouring.
Dogen also said,in 1247 , “holding together our own broken wooden ladle, we
pour water on his head to bathe the body of the Tathagata.” Even in our
brokenness, we hold that too and still pick up and pour.
Finally, in closing, I don’t want to forget the gift of play, of holding all this lightly.
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As we will find when we enjoy the readings, Nyogen Senzaki has the following
end to a poem: from Buddha’s Birthday in 1938
Enchantment of spring brought the stupid persons together
Such a childish play of the flower Festival!
Scattering the petals like rain over the head of a doll
What a delusion!
Writings in our Zen tradition, since ancient times, have been peppered with these
kinds of sarcastic remarks. Teachers try hard to shake us loose from any
saccharine overly sticky sentimentality here. Always demanding that we not hold
anything tightly. Of course, Nyogen Senzaki loved Buddha’s Birthday. He wrote
a poem each year. Even when imprisoned during WW II in the early 40’s, and
when they had to make paper flowers for the altar, he entered this ceremony. But
always lightly, seeing the silliness and being able to laugh.
And Dogen, this time in 1248, offer this poem as his concluding remark to his
disciples.
At the time of his birth, three thousand worlds trembled
At his awakening site, eighty thousand gates opened wide.
Pouring water of the head of his unstained body
Is an embarrassing scene of sincerity in play.
This last line says it clearly; this gift of play remains with us and is important.
So Dogen asks us -
In Dharma discourse by Master Dogen for Bathing Buddha from the year 1246:
Do you want to see the birth of the World-honored one?
Dogen held up his whisk, drew a circle, and said, ‘The world honored One has
been born. The entire world in ten directions, in mountains, rivers and lands, all
the human beings and all sentient or insentient beings, and all Buddhas in the
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three times in the ten directions, all have been born simultaneously with
Guatama…”
Pretty clear, isn’t it. We are not left out. This birth is also our own. Now