Our founder Shinran Shonin wrote about the sage Nagarjuna: “He would expound the highest Dharma of Mahayana; Attaining the Stage of Joy, he would be born in the Land of Peace and Bliss. He disclosed that the difficult practices are toilsome, like walking on land, and urged us to believe that the easy practice is pleasant, like sailing on water.”
It is hard to believe that we are soon going to be in the month of December. I have often been asked if we as Buddhists celebrate Christmas. It might seem to be a silly question, after all we are not Christian, we are Buddhists. However, my response is “Yes we do.” I have always enjoyed Christmas, all the music the gifts and people generally are in a good mood.
In the month of December there are numerous holidays including: Kwanza, Hanukah, Winter Solstice, Christmas and Bodhi Day the day Siddartha Gautama became the Buddha. All of these holidays celebrate life, love, kindness, community and compassion.
There are differences, but I think the wonderful thoughts of love and kindness far outweigh the differences. And in this day and age we need to find commonalities not differences.
The celebration of Bodhi Day is to commemorate the day Siddhartha became the Buddha, the Enlightened One, the Awakened One. The title of Buddha is important and should be mentioned. When asked, who or what are you? The Buddha responded, “I am awakened.” In saying this he was saying since my birth I have been sleepwalking through life.
All of us are not Buddhas but unenlightened beings. As the Buddha said we are sleepwalking through life. This means that we are not seeing things as they truly are. We are seeing only what we want to see. We may argue with our parent, our co-workers, our spouse, or our children because we want them to see things as we do. We argue about the silliest things, what to watch on TV, what to eat, how to drive, where to park, because we know what is best. We see the world through the lens of self.
The story of the Buddha talks of his encounter with the 4 gates. Old age, sickness, death and the life of a seeker. After that encounter he leaves his home. There is much to this difficult decision to leave his home and family. He saw in himself the same things we can see in ourselves. That is a self-centered view of the world as the source of all our suffering.
The celebration of Bodhi Day is an opportunity for us all to express gratitude to all the difficult practices the Buddha endured so he could share the teachings of Nembutsu with us. Shinran often said the reason for the Buddha’s appearance in this world was to save sentient being burdened with selfishness and suffering with the Nembutsu teaching.
As we celebrate December, we will enjoy the lights on the trees that light up our life eliminating the doubt of ignorance. We can feel the joy of the holidays by entrusting in Shakyamuni Buddha’s teaching of Namoamidabutsu.
Gassho,
Rev. Shinseki
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