I vow to face the truth and not the targeted word. Happy birthday. I was invited to give this talk today, and I feel grateful to have this opportunity.

[01:04]

Thank you for inviting me. I just got back from Tassajara. Our event center is Monastery in the Mountains. I got a message before I came that because of the many events happening this morning, which we'd like to have finished by lunchtime, would I please make my talk It's almost time to stop.

[02:07]

And today, too, many people are in this room, of course, and oftentimes when I give a talk here, I feel like I have a big responsibility since many people have made an effort to come and listen to the Buddha Dharma. Today, however, I feel like a minor player in a larger drama since there's many other shows to follow. And I think that's more appropriate anyway. Last year, I also gave a talk on Buddha's birthday. And they asked me to make it short then, too. And my text for my talk was the birth of the Buddha. that event in the history of the world.

[03:32]

And I actually look forward. I have the appealing thought to spend, perhaps, if I have the opportunity, many more years. and each year to talk about this day, this birth of this person, and bring up a different aspect of this event. And even to talk about one aspect of this event and bring up innumerable aspects of it. So Before talking about the event, I thought I might just mention a bit about the cause of this event, this birth of a Buddha. Of course, there's innumerable causes of a Buddha.

[04:39]

And the The full complement of those causes rarely occurs. But as soon as those causes are assembled, then there will be a Buddha in the world. Sometimes people ask, are there Buddhas in the world now? And the answer is yes. However, the causes to bring these Buddhas to maturity are not necessarily assembled. Each one of us can be a Buddha under the right circumstances. Each one of us can be completely compassionate and insightful given the right circumstances. So there are many causes of a Buddha. However, there is one great cause of a Buddha. It is called the one great cause of the appearance of the Buddhas in the world.

[05:56]

This cause is always there, and it is the cause, the cause is suffering creatures, living creatures. This is the one great cause of the appearance of a Buddha. Without suffering beings, there is no need for a Buddha. Their whole point, not even their whole point, Buddha is simply the response to suffering, the liberating response to suffering. That's Buddha. And that is the one cause which is always present. Therefore, in order to be Buddha, we live a life of vow to respond to the cries and needs of suffering creatures.

[07:07]

We live a life of dedication to the benefit, the welfare of other people and other suffering animals. The cause for this vow is the suffering creatures. And by living the vow, we gradually assemble all the causes necessary for the Buddha. So looking now at what happened at the time of the Buddha, at the birth of the Buddha, I think there's a lot of stories, but the story I like best is that when Buddha was born, after being delivered out of his mother's body, he was somehow able to stand up and take seven steps.

[08:18]

He then stood And with, I believe, his, well, one of his hands, he pointed upward like that and said, beneath heaven, and then he pointed down, and earth, I alone am the world-honored one. Last year I talked about this, and I'd like to talk about this statement again. And as I said last year, when I hear about our founder talking like that, I'm a little embarrassed. Because it does sound a little arrogant.

[09:24]

So what does this mean? Between heaven and earth, I alone am the world-honored one. Thinking about this statement for several years, I really, I sincerely feel If you can see all of Buddha's teachings coming out of this one statement, which he said when he was first born, that the rest of his career of practice and realization and teaching all come from this one statement. All his compassion and wisdom is contained therein. This is also true of everything that Buddha ever did.

[10:38]

This is an English translation, I alone. And the word alone is a very useful word. It can refer to something that's all by itself. It may have something around it. But the things around it are isolated from it. Don't reach it. But it's also useful to look at the word and see another L in it so that you see it says all one. So the word has a dynamic in it that it means in one sense, something that has nothing reaching it and is isolated, and it also means something that's all one.

[12:05]

In other words, something that's interconnected with everything. So one way to understand I alone is I all one. In other words, the interconnected being the being which is the interconnectedness of all living creatures, of all life. This is the world-honored one. This is the one that the world honors. It honors its interconnectedness. And it is because of this interconnectedness, this oneness, that a Buddha is born. It is because the Buddha is born out of oneness with all suffering creatures. The Buddha is born of the mass, the total mass of all living beings.

[13:15]

That's where a Buddha is born. And no living being is excluded from this mass of life. Each living being has sense organs and is able to have experience of itself as separate from other living beings. But the total mass of all the living beings, each one of which can feel separate, that is what a Buddha is born from. And the little baby can say and speak for this entire mass, the little baby who has renounced all selfishness can say, it's the world-honored one. After eons, countless eons of unselfish life, it is now born to say, I.

[14:20]

Later, when the Buddha was older, around 29 years old, he made a resolution to sit one night and not to move until he attained complete enlightenment for the sake of all these living beings. And Mara. the king of the mass of demons, came and tested his understanding of what he said when he was first born. You, the demon said, you alone are going to attain enlightenment? How can one person

[15:29]

How can a person attain enlightenment? How can you be the place where enlightenment will happen? And the adult man reached down with his right hand and touched the earth. For the earth to attest, to testify that it would be possible, that it is all right for enlightenment to happen to an individual person. And the Earth shook and roared and said, yes, enlightenment can happen here because this person is unselfish.

[16:44]

This person can act on behalf of the interconnectedness of this entire planet. In other words, enlightenment can be here. For a long time, from different parts of the world, people have said that this mass of living beings is a sphere of infinite extent, and that it's located everywhere. Excuse me, it's centered everywhere.

[17:52]

The mass of living beings is centered everywhere. And it has no circumference. So each one of you is the center of the total mass of light. And also, no one else is farther, is out toward the edge of this mass. It's that kind of a mass. It's just kind of this unusual type of mass. So that I'm at the center, and each one of you is at the center, and no one's farther from the center than you. To think that someone is, to think that some being The idea or the sense that some being is farther from the center, that you're at the center and some other being is farther from the center, that is called the demonic, the demon.

[19:06]

That some being is far away from the center is demonic. And that demon should come to you, the Buddha, or the Buddha candidate, and see if you think that you're going to do it more than them. If you think they're far away, they have a right to challenge you. But you can touch the earth and ask the earth, aside from this question, Do you believe that I believe that no one is farther from the center than me? That I'm acting for each person's center, and each person is acting for all our centers, for all of us being at the center?

[20:13]

Please answer, Earth, whether you trust me to play this role. Am I really unselfish? Am I really not caught by myself to think that someone else is playing a lesser role? Do I really have ultimate, boundless respect for every living creature? If I do, Then I can stay here, and awakening will occur. If I don't, the demon will harass me. I will be disturbed. I will be disturbed by the thought, something out there farther away from here.

[21:18]

So the word alone, for me, is an expression. When I hear it, it reminds me of my place and all other people's places. It reminds me to respect all other living beings and to see their role. for them to really feel that they are the center of the universe and that no one else is less of a center than them. The feeling of isolation, which is associated with the word alone, what it means is that you're isolated from demons. Not isolated from living beings, isolated from demons.

[23:36]

Isolated from something that's far away. In other words, there's nothing that's far away. You're isolated from the idea that there's something out there, separate from yourself. In other words, you have drop the sense of there being something outside. It's not that you don't see other people. It's that you don't think other people are objects. Or if you do think they're objects, you don't really believe that as something real. You know it's just the product of the sense equipment. In that sense, you're isolated from demons.

[24:38]

And therefore, you are just absorbed into the mass of one life. You have faith in the fact that there is just one life, not two, not six billion, not 10 trillion. There's only one. And Buddha is that one. Wisdom and compassion is simply that one. My time is up. And that's the only joke I have to tell.

[25:37]

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