Rohatsu 2023

This is the transcription of the talk I gave to the Zenways Sangha for Rohatsu

Good evening and welcome to this year Rohatsu! The celebration of the Buddha’s enlightenment, his awakening. 

One thing that became very clear to me as I was doing some research on Rohatsu was the Buddha’s strong determination to want to reach liberation, to want to reach the end of his quest and to want to end suffering. For that reason, in the last part of his quest, he sat and decided to take his place under a fig tree that became famous as the bodhi tree (the tree of awakening). There, he took a vow and intended to not move until he would be completely free, and so he did. But, how did he get to that point and most importantly how the story of that night of practice for him is very relevant and can inspire us tonight more than 25 centuries after? 

I guess we all, more or less, know the story of Siddhartha Gautama as he was known before becoming the Buddha, the awakened one. The story that brought him under the bodhi tree. 

Siddhartha Gautama is a prince, he has pretty much all he wants but he does feel unsatisfied, he feels that there is something missing especially after having seeing what we came to know as the 4 sights of the Buddha. He saw an old man, a sick person, a corpse, and a spiritual seeker. I am sure that these sights made him think and reflect on how things really are. He could have all the luxuries and pleasures he wanted but that was not telling the whole story on how things really are. People still get sick, age and eventually die. And, the sight of the spiritual seeker must have triggered in him that genuine curiosity that put him on the road to liberation since this spiritual seeker he saw, seemed to be grounded in a different type of happiness or contentment rather. Siddhartha wanted to find out what that was.

He started his so-called spiritual journey, he practices meditation first, then he becomes an ascetic, fasting and not caring for his body. However, nothing seems to give him that sense of contentment, that end-of-the-road feeling that he saw in the spiritual seeker he met years before.  

But, perhaps during his ascetic years we have the turning point episode to his quest as he sees a person playing a 3 strings instrument. 1 string is too tight and breaks, 1 string is too loose and doesn’t give out any sound and one string, the one in the middle seems to be just right, just able to provide a proper sound. Siddhartha has a profound insight; extremes are not the solution to his search. The luxury didn’t give him the promised happiness. Neither did extreme ascetism. From then on, he starts walking the Middle Way, he abandons ascetism, he starts eating, caring for his body and as soon as he gained enough energy in him, he makes it to the Bodhi tree where, as I said already, he is determined to reach the end of his quest, to reach liberation, the end of suffering.

Of course, we could talk a lot about suffering, liberation and what Siddhartha awakened to. However, let’s move to what seemingly happened that night of meditation under the bodhi tree.

For me personally, what is really relevant for us tonight, is Siddhartha battle with Mara as he sat through the night. What is Mara? Mara is a mythological figure, he is a demon, the bad guy and here pretty much represents all those mental formations that, I believe we all experience and that pull us away from seeing things as they are, here and now. These mental formations have somehow created patterns in us that can make us feel trapped in something which seems very real. I think that the first job for us practitioners is to see and recognise that. To clearly see these inner forces in us and notice how they affect our life experience. Can we really see things as they are when we are “under the effects” of these mental formations? 

It seems that Mara battled Siddhartha in different forms which I believe are all very familiar to us; fear (we could easily add to this category, worries and anxiety). Then desires (and here we could add, wanting things different than they actually are) and sense of unworthiness. Who do you think you are to deserve liberation? Do you feel any special to deserve that? 

Siddhartha remains in his sit; he doesn’t move but he seems to struggle a bit with the sense of unworthiness that arose in him. And here, he shows the most powerful practice of all as he touches the earth. Siddhartha doesn’t try to work things out mentally, he doesn’t rely on all those thoughts, emotions, feelings, fears, doubts that most likely were crossing his space of awareness to fight somehow these powerful forces. But he grounded himself in something real, he touched the earth, this moment, this reality, what is real in front of his eyes. He touched the Earth as witness and realised he was worthy and able to be open to the truth of reality. He was one with the earth and realised that the earth was buddha, no separation, no split!

So, our opportunity tonight is to practice with Mara, our Mara. We all have our mental formations, our resistances and possibly we will have our moments of difficulties same as Siddhartha did. Siddhartha managed to get through it, he found his way, he touched the earth which became his witness. Somehow, he “fought” these mental formations that can pull us in many different directions. We want to do the same, simply see through them. See that they don’t have any fundamental truth in them, they simply arise and pass. We can open up to the reality of things in the same way Siddhartha did, we all have that potential in us, we all are Buddhas regardless of what we think or believe.

So, tonight, every time we go through one of those difficult moments, when Mara is really showing his fiercest face, we just go back to our practice. Same as Siddhartha did, we touch the earth, we touch the reality of this moment, we anchor our attention into what is real, here and now…. Letting go of what is just arising and passing, what is simply transient and do our very best to develop a grounding into what is rather than in what it is speculative. And, of course, we don’t need to touch the earth as Siddartha did, we can go back to our breath, simply resting our attention there, allowing anything else to arise and pass and simply resting in the feeling of our breath, perhaps as deep down as in our belly. Things, little by little starts to let go, start to dissolve, starts being less strong. Every time we are able to remain with things as they are, to remain observant of things as they arise in us without being pulled in, they start becoming weaker, they start dissolving in us quicker. As these things dissolve, reality as it is, becomes more and more clear. Less filters, aka mental formations means a more direct experience of things as they are. 

Siddharta just kept sitting, unshaken, undistracted, having earth as a witness of his worthiness. The more we do that, the stronger we get in our practice and the deeper we go, the more grounded. 

If Mara will bring something very difficult to let go, even it feels impossible, let’s do our best, just keep practising in the same way. Things will not remain the same, things will constantly change. Or, our Mara tonight could simply be the noises and sounds coming from the dojo through our computers whilst meditating. How about using those sounds to just sit through them. Unmoved, simply embrace them, simply see them for what they are rather than giving in to all kind of ideas, likes and dislikes which might arise in us. 

So, how do we want to spend this night of practice together? Or, how do we want to spend our life in general? Shall we try our best to simply ground ourselves in the reality of the right here and right now and letting go of the speculative mind, the enticing mind, the fearful thoughts, the unjustified sense of unworthiness….. We live this mysterious experience, we call it life, we can’t really pin down an answer to what really this is but we can definitely experience this very moment as it is. 

A very important character in the story of the Buddha reaching his enlightenment is a girl called Sujata. Sujata kindly gave Siddharta some rice pudding with honey before he started his sitting. Tonight, we are going to do exactly the same, symbolically and as a good auspicious omen, we are going to thread the same path of the Buddha, starting from eating some rice pudding with honey. I guess that in the dojo it is ready to be distributed, for us, at home, we can take some time to do the same. Have a great night of practice! 

When we come back, I will briefly talk about what to expect in practice this evening; sit, walk, sanzen, keisaku and tea breaks

In a moment, we are going to start our practice together. There will be some sitting meditation alternated to some walking meditation. Later on, I will be offering Sanzen, a private chat about the practice. I will put my Skype address in the chat. For the people in the dojo, we have a device in the Sanzen room to be used, always connected. For people online, just send a message on skype or a missed call and I will call people back according to the order I received calls or messages. Mattias, our Jikijitsu this evening, will guide us through all the different periods which will include 2 tea breaks too

In the dojo, we will be offering the Keisaku too. What is the keisaku? I guess you should be able to see it on the table in front of the Enso. It is the “awakening stick”. Again, Mattias will show how to be offered the keisaku. One thing I want to say about the keisaku. It is just a method to help us practitioners, perhaps to relieve built up physical or energetic tensions in the body. Also, of course, helping with sleepiness. The person administering the keisaku will do that from a place of total compassion, just in order to assist and help the practitioner with their practice tonight. It is an act of love, absolutely nothing to do with punishment or, even less injury people. A total act of love to help people to see beyond the world of duality. The coming together of the person administering it and the person receiving it, one thing. Very very important, this is totally voluntary and Mattias will explain how to ask to receive the stick of awakening now, if that is ok. 

Once again, wishing you all a great night of practice!