Bodhi Day

INTRODUCTION

On Bodhi Day, the community pauses to remember the Buddha’s awakening beneath the Bodhi tree and to reflect on what awakening might look like in their own lives. The Buddha taught that much of human suffering arises from the stories people tell about who they are, what they deserve, and how the world is supposed to be.

In the context of the Buddha’s own awakening story, this talk considers how the stories people tell shape their experience and limit their understanding. It also turns to the way the Buddhist tradition—especially the Pure Land path—uses story itself as a means of liberation. The myth of Amida Buddha shows that the very medium that can mislead, language and narrative, can also become a pathway toward awakening.

The Dharma Talk

I would like to start today’s Dharma talk with one of my favorite stories of the Buddha is from the Pali canon, the earliest written accounts of the Buddha, which were written shortly after his enlightenment, when he encountered several men who recognized him as a very extraordinary being. They asked him:

“Are you a god?” “No,” he replied.

“Are you a reincarnation of god?” “No,” he replied.

“Are you a wizard, then?” “No.”

“Well, are you a human being?” “No.”

“So what are you?” They asked, being very perplexed.

Buddha replied: “I am awake.” From the “Dona Sutta.”

Today, that’s what we celebrate, the very fact that someone woke up to be truly human and free. And it is not just the fact that he woke up but that others have too and we too can “wake up.”

I appreciate this quote from Alan Watts:

“The Buddha as the man who woke up, is regarded as one Buddha among a potentiality of myriads of Buddhas, everybody can be a Buddha everybody has in himself the capacity to wake up from the illusion of being simply this separate individual.”

Traditionally, this awakening happened under a sacred fig tree, whose descendant is said to live today in Bodhgaya, India.

There is something beautiful about the image at the center of the story of the Buddha: a man sitting quietly under a tree. A tree, as one poet has written, is the earth’s prayer to the stars. As I reflected on this this week, I realized how many trees appear in the life of the Buddha, and how he spent most of his life among them. Even though he was the son of a king, he wasn’t born in a palace but under a tree.

As a young boy he became aware of the deep suffering of all things watching a plow cut into the earth during the planting festival, seeing how all things struggle to live—from the oxen pulling the plow to the worms cut by the plow and the birds eating the insects that scurry around from the plowing. It was under this same tree that he first experienced a state of mind whose memory would lead him to his awakening many years later.

After 6 years of ascetic practice and very near death, it was a young woman bringing an offering of cow’s milk and rice to a tree god, who gave him the food that saved him from dying. Then, under the fig tree, he vows not to move until he finds what he wants to understand, and finally, at his death, he died between two trees. Something I like to think about.

Now back to our story: after 6 years of deep practice and many teachers and great meditative states, Siddhartha realized even with all he had learned and accomplished, he knew nothing. It was this openness to his own unknowing that cleared the way for his awakening.

And while he was thus engaged, in the traditional story, Mara the tempter comes, tempting the Buddha with temptation after temptation, fear after fear, and then threatening his life and sowing seeds of doubt that he was just a man, not worthy to learn the truths of life.

How many of us have had a similar experience when we let go of all our stories of self-seeking transformation, self-criticism, shame, guilt, and the deep doubt that change is possible?

As Gyomay Kubose Sensei teaches:

“The temptations kept coming and Siddhartha wondered why. He realized that temptations were not coming from anywhere; they were all within himself. When he realized that he was the source of all temptation, then duality was transcended…”

Siddhartha simply reached down and touched the earth to bear witness to his worthiness, and the arrows sent by the armies of Mara to destroy him rained down as flower petals. And then on the morning of the 49th day, Gyomay Sensei goes on to teach:

“…Siddhartha met the morning star – gently, kindly and he attained enlightenment. Siddhartha had seen the stars many times, but that morning he met the morning star face to face. The star was shining. When Siddhartha met that shining star he understood.”

How long have the stars been waiting for us to look up?

It was there, it was that moment as the morning star rose, and he had transcended the duality of himself. In the Zen tradition, it is said that, at the moment he became awakened, the Buddha said, “O wonder of wonders! All beings just as they are whole and complete! All beings are endowed with Buddha Nature!”

According to the Pali canon, he said:

“Through many births, I wandered in samsara, seeking, but not finding, the builder of the house. Sorrowful is it to be born again and again. O house-builder! Thou art seen. Thou shalt build no house again. All thy rafters are broken. Thy ridge-pole is shattered. My mind has attained the unconditioned. Achieved is the end of craving.”

—Dhammapada (vv. 153-154)

What is the house, and who is the house builder? The house is not a literal dwelling but a metaphor. In our tradition, the house is the stories we have created, the stories we build and rebuild about ourselves and about the world around us. And what are the stories we tell? That we are unworthy, unlovable, weak, broken.

We tell stories about ourselves that were often given to us before we had language. We mistake all of these narratives for truth, forgetting they’re just stories we’ve become attached to—they create our world. We can see in the Buddha’s awakening these truths: The story is not you, the story is not reality, and believing the story is the source of our suffering.

As Muriel Rukeyser wrote, “the world is not made of atoms but of stories.”

It is said that Siddhartha, now a Buddha, walked around the Bodhi tree in amazement, and with each step he took, the earth returned his affection, and flowers bloomed in his footsteps.

It is interesting to think that he was reluctant to share what he experienced, what he learned. You could see him, thinking, “This is too subtle, it will upend everything. People are going to think I’m crazy.” The Buddha almost stayed silent. But then something shifted—he couldn’t just walk away knowing people were stuck in suffering. Compassion overrode his reluctance.

I want to leave the story with one last story: when the Buddha decided to go teach, he went to find his friends he had practiced with for many years to share what he had realized. On the way, he came across a brahman; this brahman was the first person to meet an awakened being. They shared some pleasantries, and the old brahman gave the Buddha directions on which way to go to find where his friends may be—and never ever noticed who was right in front of him.

On Bodhi Day, this is an important lesson for all of us. It is important for us on this day to cultivate our awareness, awareness that we meet an enlightened being every day. Gyomay Sensei wrote in Everyday Suchness, and we recite in our practice manual:

“You meet an enlightened one every day. As soon as you step out the door you meet birds, dogs, flowers, trees and sky. Enlightenment is something beyond speech and silence. Meet each thing face to face (like Siddhartha meeting the morning star). A flower blooms, a dog barks, the wind blows. We have to be aware.”

Namo Amitabha
Buddhaya
Dharmaya
Sanghaya

I want to close my talk with a poem I wrote for Bodhi Day.

Bodhi Day Poem
Christopher Kakuyo Sensei

After many teachers and six years
in deep reflection and ascetic practice
that brought you to the point of death,
sitting under the Bodhi tree you realized

you knew nothing, which opened
the door to your awakening. Beneath
that same tree, you turned the arrows
of suffering, doubt, fear and expectation

into flowers that rained at your feet.
Awakened One, we honor your teaching
and your way. At the very heart
of the Buddha Way is the promise

of awakening—the boundless vow,
the bright flame of Buddha Nature,
the luminous dharma. In response
to your awakening, we pass your light

from one to another, the past reaching
far into the future, encouraging
all to take part in the improbable,
tender awakening of our world.

We now light our candles as a symbol
of passing the light and promise
of awakening from the Buddha
to each of us. "A thousand candles

can be lit from the flame of one
candle, and the life of the candle
will not be shortened." Let us now come
out of the darkness of our unknowing

and the dusk of our dreaming, come out
from far places and go forth
into the Bright Dawn of our awakening.
Let us all now come together,

offering heart, mind, and body,
seeking the clear light of understanding,
seeking the way of the Buddha.
May the light of our joining flames

kindle our resolve, brighten our spirits,
reflect our love, and illuminate
our days. Come now, together, entering
into the brightening dawn.