Bodhi Day: Anniversary of Buddha's Enlightenment

Click on Discussions: Buddhist Winter Holidays? to see the string that provoked this month's topic. St. Catherine, otherwise known as Kathryn Morse, Religion Managing Editor, kicked it off by asking if Buddhists observe Christmas or other seasonal holidays.

The answer is who knows and maybe.

Buddhism has spread to so many countries and cultures that people who might call themselves Buddhists might also call themselves Japanese or American or Christian. Within a context of non-judgment and non-attachment to transient material phenomena, what's a holiday? Is it a distraction, a hindrance to practice? Should a Buddhist dourly wrap him/herself in black robes and turn his/her back to the tinsel crowd? Is the commercialism of Christmas a deterrent to spiritual growth? Or is this just another opportunity, like everything else in life when seen through the Buddhist perspective, to observe with detachment, but also with affection and concern, to sense the love and generosity and hope that underlies the material display of the season, and to contemplate the meaning of Jesus' life and message?

In the discussion, Lance Lindley tells us the Japanese "celebrate Christmas . . . have Shinto weddings and Buddhist funerals . . ."

Although I have taken vows to follow the Buddhist precepts and to take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, I go to a friend's home to eat too much, exchange presents, and play killer Scrabble on Christmas. Why not? Would one cancel out the other?

So the first principle is cultural eclecticism; cross-cultural influences are the history of every culture. A Coke bottle falls out of the sky in every land. The Ainu (reputed to be hairy) were in Japan before the modern Japanese. Even in Tibet, where the Buddhist teaching lineages continued in magnificent, long, unbroken chains for so many ages, there was assimilation of the animistic religion that predated Buddhism. There are reform movements to bring back fundamentalism to a culture such as we see in some Moslem states, but it is ultimately impossible to wall off a country or a tradition.

So certainly one who calls him or herself a Buddhist could well celebrate Christmas.

However, despite the cultural diversity of world Buddhism,there are some occasions observed by so many Buddhist groups, sects, lineages, retreats, monasteries and local sanghas that one would almost dare to make a generality.

This would be, as Marlyn tells us in the dicussion group, Bodhi Day, the day Buddha achieved enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. December 8 is widely agreed to be that date. I will restrict the rest of this article to Bodhi Day as that is a rich topic in itself, and save discussion of other days of observance, with all concurrent conflicts and confusions, such as Buddha's birthday (sometime in April--I have seen several different dates--)for another time.

Here are some references. Please jump into the discussion if you have anything to add!

Shasta Abbey, a Soto Zen Buddhist monastery in the Serene Reflection Meditation tradition, provides a yearly calendar of retreats, teachings, and festival ceremonies. There are at least four, sometimes five, events in any given month which makes the list too long to copy here. Contact them at http://www.obcon.org/. They observe Buddha's Enlightenment Day on December 8, but the Festival of the Enlightenment on the 25th.

Our local Buddhist Church has events monthly, and so Bodhi Day is observed each December, but not necessarily on the 8th.

My friend Anne Macquarie emails to tell me the multicultural Girl Scout 1999 Calendar places Bodhi Day on Dec. 8 as well.

Our local Dharma Zephyr Sangha observes the anniversary of Buddha's enlightenment sometime in December with tea, cake, meditation and readings. Readings can be written by anyone in the sangha or from published material. Old Path White Clouds by Thich Nhat Hanh is a most lyrical, moving narrative of the life of Siddhartha.

I had a blissful introduction to the two chapters about Buddha's enlightenment: "Pippala Leaf" and "The Morning Star Has Risen". Imagine zoning off into deep meditation in a beautiful sunlit room in the Sierra mountains. Thoughts flutter by like butterflies. Occasionally one "awakes" as the wind picks up through the pines, only to drift away again. Slowly a voice, reading, enters your consciousness. It is the story of the night and morning of Siddhartha's achievement of freedom, the goal he had so arduously sought for so long.

Looking up, Siddhartha saw the morning star appear on the horizon, twinkling like a huge diamond. He had seen this star so many times before while sitting beneath the pippala tree, but this morning it was like seeing it for the first time. It was as dazzling as the jubilant smile of Enlightenment. Siddhartha gazed at the star and exclaimed out of deep compassion,"All beings contain within themselves the seeds of Enlightenment, and yet we drown in the ocean of birth and death for so many thousands of lifetimes!"

. . . He promised to find a way to share his discovery to help all others liberate themselves from suffering. Out of his deep insight emerged a profound love for all beings.

The aim in observing this occasion and recounting this story can be, as Goldstein and Kornfield state in Seeking the Heart of Wisdom:

Recollection of the Buddha can be an effective way of arousing and strengthening the spiritual faculties of faith and concentration . . .. Perhaps [in us] there may also arise a deep feeling of love and devotion, which softens our mind and inspires our heart.

So the occasion could be Bodhi Day or it could be Christmas. The softening of the heart and the freeing of the mind are the goals, not any ritualistic observance for its own sake.

Pastor Prof. Dr. Daigan Lee Matsunaga says of Bodhi Day:

. . . The historical Buddha attained enlightenment after leaving his home at age of 29 and spending 6 years in ascetic practices. Some say in history he became so thin his ribs equaled his back. Then one day under a tree . . .

As he sat under the tree and considered all his previous life and striving for perfection...He renounced asceticism and realized there was a middle way to find truth and reality....he realized his humanity and became humble...

The Shasta Abbey festival ceremonies are explained thus:

During these festival ceremonies, the community of trainees expresses reverence and gratitude to the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Ancestors who are the symbols of our religious aspiration. At these times we look within and see how we can emulate their profound example and exhibit the same signs of enlightenment in our daily lives.

So then, to be a Buddhist, one uses a wealth of symbol, tradition, legend and example, toward the goal of attaining freedom for oneself by incorporating these examples into one's personal practice. Teachers and traditions will point the way but, it is as The Dalai Lama says: "At the heart of Buddhism lies the idea that the potential for awakening and perfection is present in every human being and it is a matter of personal effort to realize that potential."

As I read it, this would apply to every choice in life including choices about holidays.It's like buying stocks over the Internet without a broker, as Paul Farrell said January 27, 1999 in his ever-witty daily mutual funds column at:http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/current/... "Stop relying on experts. Take charge of your life and your portfolio"

Just before his enlightenment, as told by Thich Nhat Hanh in Old Path White Clouds Buddha has a conversation with his bhikkhus (aspirants) about the ritual of ordination. It would seem logical to extend this sentiment about one kind of ritual to other ceremonies . . .

"Bhikkhus, please listen. We are totally free, not bound by anything. You understand the path now . . .. Walk as free persons and share the Way of Awakening with others. Please sow the seeds of liberation and enlightenment to bring peace and joy to others."

After the Buddha makes this statement, there follows a discussion of how one would be ordained. It was the aspirants, not the Buddha, who decided that one's hair should be cut and one should wear robes that revealed the right shoulder. The aspirants determined that one should recite three times the vows:

I take refuge in the Buddha; I take refuge in the Dharma; I take refuge in the Sangha.

They needed a form, a template. Buddha had said only:

"Those who wish to receive ordination should be able to do so in their own villages, in the presence of their friends and families....Henceforth when you meet a sincere and aspiring new bhikkhu, you may ordain him wherever you may be."

He was comfortable with ambivalence about the details, but the bhikkhus were not.

This has certainly been confusing if one is looking for absolutes. Maybe we'll lighten it all up with a compilation of Buddhist humor next month!

Namaste to all.