WESAK FESTIVAL and RETREAT

May 17-19, 2013

MBZ Sangha

Baby Buddha Altar 

Bathing the Baby Buddha

Rev. Hyonjin and Friends

DHARMA TALKS

Rev. Hyonjin Sunim

Friday, May 17, 2013

BUDDHA THE BABY: The True Essence of Buddha-Nature

It happened on this day 2539 years ago.  In the shade of a tree, standing up, holding onto the branch of a tree for support, the Queen Maya of Kapilavastu gave birth in Lumbini, India.  The baby's name was Siddhartha. 

At his inception, his mother had dreamed that she was traveling through the great Himalaya mountains, where a spiritual being in the form of a white elephant, entered her right side, a very auspicious symbol.  Based on this dream, it was predicted that a baby would be born who would be either a king of the world or an wandering ascetic that would become a great religious teacher, a Buddha.   Although his father tried with all his will to influence the young Siddhartha to follow his own example as a king, but Siddhartha chose the solitary and spiritual life.   We are all confronted with this same decision, to choose between exterior wealth of power and fame and illusory satisfactions of desires, or on the other hand, the interior wealth of a solitary life based on peace and compassion.  The latter is solitary because we have to confront the everyday world that says the opposite.  

At his birth there were extraordinary and auspicious signs. The sky was clear and radiant with a magnificent light, with blooming flowers and singing birds everywhere - four devas, or spiritual beings, appeared in the sky pouring two streams of water, one cool the other warm, over the mother and child, bathing them tenderly.  

In this moment, the baby stood up, took six steps, which represented the six directions - north, south, east, west, abovve, below, and right here, and in step appeared lotus flowers under his feet.  He pointed with one hand toward the sky, and with the other pointed at the earth, expressing that he would unite heaven and earth. The he declared, "I am the World Honored One."  In the Mahayana tradition, this is interpreted as meaning that the true self of all beings in space and time is the innate Buddha Nature in each one of us.  

Wesak Day is the commemoration of this event.  It is the most practiced Buddhist celebration in all of Asia. One celebrates this day with great color and joy. As in many festivals, it is an opportunity to clean and decorate the home.  Then Buddhists visit their local temples to participate in the ceremonies and to present offerings of food, candles, flowers, and monetary donations to the monks.  The devout Buddhists use the celebration as a way to strengthen their intention to be honorable and to constantly maintain their practice of meditation, ethics, and to help others.  

The main activity of Wesak Day is the ritual bathing of the Buddha baby.  One puts an image of the little Buddha baby on the altar inside a basin of water, with his one hand pointing towards the heavens and the other pointing downward.  People approach the altar, bow, then fill a ladle with fragrant water, and pour it over the image of the Buddha baby to bathe him.  

This ritual emphasizes the universal message that we should clean our heats and our minds of the stains of greed, anger, and ignorance. The light of the candles on the altar represents the light of wisdom, the darkness represents ignorance.  It is believed that upon lighting the candle, our lives will be enlightened, diminishing the negative tendencies of our minds and our actions.  

When we bathe the Buddha statue, we should pray with sincerity for the purification of our minds, eliminating the poisons of greed, hate, and anger.  We should pray for peace and harmony everywhere, so that there will be no more violence, deception, and suffering in the world. We should wish that the world becomes a Pure Land, and that all minds be guided by the way of the Buddhas. This is the true meaning of the bathing of the Buddha.  

The benefits of bathing the Buddha

When you bathe the Buddha, you will receive the following: 

1.You will receive prosperity, happiness, good health,, and longevity.    

2.All your aspirations will be realized. 

3.You will experience peace and harmony with your parents, family, and friends. 

4.All of your obstacles for learning the Dharma will be removed and you will no longer suffer.    

5.You will quickly reach enlightenment.  

What mental attitude should we have when we bathe the Buddha? 

1.Faith:    We should trust and feel happiness for the merit generated by bathing the Buddha. Pouring the water over the Buddha, we are cleaning our own minds.  

2.Sincerity: When we bathe the Buddha statue, it is as if the Buddha were right here with us, in the present, helping us to cultivate merit of blessings and support.  We offer this merit to all sentient beings of the universe so they can increase their wisdom and connect to their Buddha Nature.  

3.Morality: We wish to eliminate negative karma and purify our minds.  We pray for peace and happiness for all of humanity.  

The ritual and the giving of Dana

One makes a bow of respect in front of the altar, then puts a donation in the container.  Then you carefully fill the ladle with the scented flower water, and pour it over the image of the baby Buddha while you recite the following:   

First bath: May my impure thoughts be eliminated.  

Second bath: May my good actions be increased.   

Third bath: May all sentient beings be free.  

During the rest of the evening of the festival, you can approach the altar when you are ready, one by one, or with your children, and bath the Buddha.   

Saturday, May 18, 2013

BUDDHA THE BOY: The first meditation experience - Shikantaza 

Our practice of shikantaza, sitting, neither thinking nor not thinking, focusing on our breathing, is based on a key spiritual event in the early life of  the Buddha as a boy, which guided him latter in his life toward the attainment of Enlightenment.   It was during a plowing festival to promote agriculture given by his father the king.  It was a very celebrated event for both the nobles and the farmers.  Everyone wore their best cloths to participate in the ceremony.  On the indicated day, the king, accompanied by his attendants, went into the countryside, accompanied also by his son Sidhartha and his nurse maids. They put the boy on a blanket at the side of a field being plowed, in the shade of a solitary rose apple tree.  While the nurses watched the boy, the king left to join the festival. When the festival was at its peak, the nurses left, leaving Sidhartha alone. 

Under the tree, all was quiet and calm, optimum conditions to quiet the mind.  The boy watched in the distance a farmer working in the field, going from one side to the other plowing the earth.  The boy continued watching the movements of the farmer, seeing how the earth opened, revealing nests of ants and at times earthworms cut in two, serving as food for the waiting birds at the scene.  He saw the suffering of these beings, losing their homes and their lives, wondering why life was so fragile and transient.  While he concentrated intently on this scene in front of him, aware of his breathing in and out, his mind entered into a state of profound peace, that which is called samadhi.                

When the nurses returned from the festival, they were amazed to see the child seated there, his legs crossed naturally in a lotus pose, and meditating deeply.  They informed the king, who immediately returned, to see the child seated in meditation.  Recognizing this as a fortuitous event, he deeply bowed in reverence to the child.  

This event of samadhi in peace and tranquility would become the key experience in the life of Siddhartha as a man in his spiritual search for meaning and understanding.  Worn out by six years of spiritual practices and austerities that gave no ultimate fruit, Siddhartha remembered that moment in his childhood meditating at the side of a field, seated in perfect peace, and so he began meditating in the same fashion, which would reveal the supreme Truth, the realization of how to free himself from suffering, leading to complete and full Enlightenment and realization.  

When we practice shikantaza, which means to sit only to sit, we are using the original and natural form of the Buddha as a child, sitting without moving, without thinking nor not thinking, calming the mind in concentrated focus on the breathing, looking at the floor in front of us, without attachment to anything, without rejecting anything.  We observe our rhythmic breathing, and we ask ourselves as the Buddha did, "Why must we suffer?" or  "What is this?" or "Who am I?"  From there, we let go of the little mind, waiting attentively, but without expectation for an answer, waiting without a goal, the goal-less goal, the gateless gate of Zen, the "Don't know..."  And with infinite patience, one opens completely one's heart and mind to the Infinite, here and now, to experience the true self, beyond thoughts, our Buddha Nature.  

(http://www.bps.lk/olib/bp/bp102s-files/OEBPS/Text/10Main03.html)

Sunday, May 19, 2013

BUDDHA THE MAN: The true self fully awakened, enlightened and realized   

            We celebrate Buddha's Enlightenment that resulted from his search to understand himself.  In the Buddhist tradition, this event is the most important of all.  In zen monasteries around the world, the week before the celebration, everyone participates in the most difficult meditation retreats of the whole year, some lasting seven days without sleep.  

            The meaning of Wesak is found in the Buddha and his message of universal peace for all of humanity. We commemorate the Buddha and his Enlightenment, and we remember his deepest realization on the night before his awakening, and which came about in three important watches.  

            During the first watch of the night, when his mind was tranquil, calm, and pure, a light arose in Him, while at the same time, understanding and recognition became manifest.  He saw his previous lives, first one, then two then 3, 5, and then in groups of 10, 20, 30, 50, then 100, then 1,000...and thus it continued through the night.     

            On the second watch of the night, He saw beings as they died and were reborn, depending on their karma, as the disappeared and reappeared in one form or another, on one plane of existence or another.  

           During the third watch of the night, He saw the arising and disappearing of all phenomena, both mental and physical.  He saw how things arose depending on causes and conditions, which is called Interdependent Origination.  Then he perceived suffering, understanding how suffering arises, then disappears, and how to free oneself from the dissatisfaction and suffering, the path of liberation from greed, desire, and delusion. At last, his mind was completely free. He has achieved full Enlightenment.   

            This wisdom and light that shown and radiated under the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya in the district of Bihar in the north of India, more than 2,500 years ago, is of great importance for humanity. This revealed the path for all of humanity on how to free itself from superstition, hate, and fear, revealing to all the world the light, love, happiness, which is known as Nirvana. 

            After His Illumination, the Buddha promised to remain here in this plane of suffering, called samsara, in order to teach everyone this path to liberation.  We are profoundly thankful to Him for His compassion to not abandon us, and we follow His example, dedicating each step of our own spiritual development to the liberation of all beings in the universe, as a vow of the Bodhisattva.  In this aspiration, we all become children of Buddhas, like the image of the Buddha baby.  It is a symbol of our pure aspiration,  our unbreakable trust,  our potential to be Buddhas, existing here and now, in each one of us. There is no better way to thank the Buddha for His supreme sacrifice than to follow His example, meditating daily, and applying the teachings in our lives for the alleviation of suffering of all others, and in so doing, we are truly able to show our gratitude.