Buddhism, in a nutshell, I might say, is just to keep abreast of change. moment by moment, to be faithful to this suchness as it happens, to live a life which is to witness and act from the advent of all things, moment after moment.

[01:18]

To be balanced in the present, not leaning forward into the future, not leaning backwards into the past. And in order to realize this balanced presence, in order to stay abreast of events, we also need to learn the art of dying. So the realization of change and the realization of dying are key to the Buddha's way. This isn't all of Buddhism, but it is the source. Great wisdom and great compassion are born from this kind of effort.

[02:20]

If you can stay abreast of events, if life can be simply witnessing and acting from the advent of all things, you naturally will behave in a wise and compassionate manner. I emphasize this today because today and tomorrow are days when we are going to have some ceremonies. After the lecture today, we're going to have a ceremony, a 49-day memorial ceremony for Virginia Satir. Her request as she was practicing dying was to have a 49-day Buddhist memorial service.

[03:30]

And today is the forty-ninth day. So one element in my mind as I talk to you now is her life and her request. And I'm preparing through this talk for this ceremony, and this talk is a kind of overture to the ceremony. Her name is on the altar right now. And I actually never met her face to face, but I have felt through many people the effects of her life. She shared a similar work to Gregory Bateson, who I have met many times, And we did a ceremony for him here in this room in 1980.

[04:36]

I said myself at that time that if adults or if parents have the ability or the right to adopt children, then maybe children have the right or opportunity to adopt parents. So I adopted him as my parent, as my ancestor. And without even meeting Virginia Satir, I want to adopt her as my ancestor too. So I'm not qualified to speak deeply, or I should say extensively, about her life but I dare to say that I feel from her own words that she focused that she concentrated that she had only one thought in her hearth and that was

[06:00]

to help the people who came to her in pain, to realize change in their life. Her intention is the intention which I just stated, namely, to realize change in your life. in both senses, not just to realize that your life is changing or to change your life, but to bring change into your life and to join change. She realized, she practiced the compassionate path of how. Another thing that's motivating my talk is that tomorrow afternoon we're going to do a ceremony called Seigaki, a traditional Buddhist ceremony which is also something like a memorial ceremony but different, a special type of memorial ceremony.

[07:24]

Seigaki means to feed the hungry spirits It's partly a memorial ceremony for not only hungry spirits, but also all the benefactors in our life too. And it's also partly a cleansing ceremony, a ceremony to recognize for others and for ourselves obstructions and hindrances to the realization of change obstructions and hindrances to the art of dying for ourselves and others we're doing it on Halloween and I just might say that in the Orient they don't usually practice Halloween

[08:37]

Probably they do now, but in the past they didn't do it so much. And they do this ceremony in various contexts. The Western context, as you may know, is Halloween is usually celebrated on the 31st of October, and on November 1st is All Saints Day in the Catholic Church and also in the Anglican Catholic Church. So, and then on November 2nd is All Souls Day. In a sense, Seigaki is a combination of Halloween, the eve before All Saints Day, the eve before Hallowed Day, and it also has elements of All Souls Day. All Saints Day is a day for veneration

[09:40]

of God through the saints, or appreciation of God through appreciation of the saints. All Souls Day is a day for praying and remembrance of various lost souls. And Halloween is the evening when we consciously bring up and release all the goblins and monsters. to let them come out and play and give them entertainment and food and put them to rest so that we can have a quiet All Saints Day. Originally at Zen Center, we started to do the Seigaki ceremony. We fed the hungry spirits in conjunction with veneration of our ancestor, of our founder, Suzuki Roshi. we sort of did it in reverse though first we venerated the ancestor and then we used the the good effects of that veneration of our ancestor of our founder to build up kind of momentum for the Seigaki ceremony the

[11:05]

One story of the origins, the historical origins of the Segaki ceremony is Buddha had a disciple named Madgalana. Madgalana had a vision, a dream of his mother who had died, a horrible dream which he told the Buddha about. He said, I dream my mother when she Whenever food came to her lips, it turned to fire. And whenever water came to her lips, it turned to blood and pus. And the Buddha said, oh, that means your mother is in the realm of the hungry spirits, the hungry ghosts, the unsatisfied beings. And what you could do is make an offering to her, a ceremonial offering to her, of things which she would be likely to find digestible, things she would like to eat.

[12:19]

And you could do this ceremony at the same time that we do our monthly confession. So the origins of the ceremony are twofold. One is to evoke the presence Externally, to evoke the presence of any wandering, lost, unsatisfied spirits in the trees, in the hills, in the cities, in other people, and in between. To invite them to come, to evoke them. and then to feed them. Feed them with music, feed them with food, feed them with best intentions, and then send them back to rest. The other side of the ceremony, because of being done in the same day as confession of the monks, was it has an element of confession, an element of an internal side, where you invoke

[13:30]

Invoke clinging. Invoke obstruction. Bring them to mind. Feed them. Give them good intentions. The best intention in this case is go your way. Change. Let it change. So internally and externally, we evoke unsatisfied lost spirits. We feed them, entertain them, and let them go. when we do the ceremony we put the altar down at this end so up that end we have Manjushi Bodhisattva up there you have a being representing the part of us that's not clean that stays with the present that can accept change and can die

[14:33]

So far away from that side, over here, we pay homage to the side of ourselves and others that can't stay abreast of change or doesn't want to, that resists the facts of impermanence, that clings, that's afraid of change, that shrinks away from it, that runs ahead of it, that does anything but settle with change. And we say, okay, Okay, that's those spirits. Today we pay attention to you. We bring you forth and we hope that on this occasion you actually can accept your life and achieve realization right now. If you don't want to, okay, fine. At least have a good time today and go take a rest afterwards and maybe next year. so at the beginning of the ceremony we make wonderful strange music real kind of like hard rock ancient weird sounds that almost anybody that would appeal to the real wide range of creatures but we do it all at the same time so it's kind of a mess but anyway they hopefully come forth

[16:02]

And their presence is evoked. And then we give them good food. And we give them wonderful mantrams. Mantrams to open their throat. Open their throat so that they can accept what's happening. So they can accept our offerings. Because usually these hungry ghosts, the problem is they have very thin little throats. And huge stomachs. And the thinness of their throat is the thinness of their acceptance of reality. They say, well, yes, you're trying to feed me, but actually, I don't like it. Would you give me something different, please? They don't say please, even. Down at that end, where Manjushri Bodhisattva sits, Manjushri Bodhisattva has a huge throat. It's the same size as the universe. Everything is food, everything is Dharma food from Manjishri Bodhisattva.

[17:05]

So part of our nature is, whatever happens, we can accept this as a wonderful teaching. We have that capacity. Friday night, as a matter of fact, I had a chance. It was offered to me. I was driving on the freeway here out to Green Gulch, and the transmission kind of went out on my car. My throat got real tight. Yesterday, I worked really hard digging in the dirt around the house I live in. digging hard, digging out the rocks. I was trying careful not to kill the potato bugs. Anyway, I got really tired and in the middle of all that my throat got bigger and bigger and finally I accepted my car, my car's behavior, my car's change into being this nice car, into being this car that doesn't run.

[18:22]

But I could feel, you know, how terrible it was when my throat got small and I couldn't accept. I couldn't accept my car and I couldn't accept what I did to make my car be that way. Actually, I had more trouble accepting my conduct than the car's conduct. Because I had something to do with this car being in that condition. It was due to my stupidity. I had trouble accepting my stupidity. I got tight and I felt terrible. Now, today, I pretty much accept my stupidity. I feel pretty good. In that sense, this is my... In that sense, I'm like Manjushi Bodhisattva, like Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva. I can accept all the stupidity today. Tomorrow, I might do something that, again, I'll get tight, and I won't be able to accept about myself, and I'll feel terrible again. But it would be a good day to feel that way, because later in the day, a ceremony will be held for that tight, restricted, petty, demanding side of myself that won't be satisfied by this, but wants that.

[19:38]

You know? We all have this quality. You know, here's people silver as rice, and we say, well, how about a little bit of gumashio on it? Now it's better. It sounds like a minor thing, but anyway, we can escalate that, making things better and better and better and better until finally ordinary things don't satisfy us at all. And after a while, even special things don't satisfy us. And nothing can satisfy us. It's okay to put gamashio on your rice. It's okay. Even a great Buddha might do that, but... It's good to be satisfied with the rice before you put the gomasio on it. If you can be satisfied with this, you can put some gomasio on it. And be satisfied with that. And then you can put some ketchup on it. And so on. It's okay to keep doing things.

[20:41]

But step by step, open your throat. So in the ceremony, we all chant this wonderful mantra called the gate, opening the gate of sweet doom. with the feeling like what's happening is really sweet do, if we can just open our throat and drink it. And for those who can't do this and for that side of ourself which can't be satisfied by ordinary stuff, we open that, we intend to open that. Usually the greatest gift to give to a great Bodhisattva or a great Buddha, the gift they like best is just the teaching, the teaching of Buddha. That's what we give them. That's their favorite treat. No eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, no color. They love to hear that. But there's a side of ourselves which doesn't find that very entertaining.

[21:43]

So that side of ourselves, we give them whatever it wants. What do you want? Some rice? Here. so that's the feeling of the ceremony calling forth unsatisfied lost beings giving them something nice encouraging them giving them attention and then recognizing within ourselves what in us is like that and giving that what it needs to be satisfied and let go And then we have, that's our Halloween celebration. And as I said, we also take the opportunity on that occasion to pay our respects to the Buddha, to our benefactors, and to all other departed spirits,

[22:57]

people who have realized death and so many people have also submitted names if you have any names you'd like to be included in the ceremony we already have quite a few so if you'd like to submit some friend who you think is in good shape or who you're worried about or something about yourself even that you'd like to do we can give that to the ceremony also If you want to come to the ceremony, it's tomorrow afternoon at 5 o'clock, I think. Is that right? Also, we've lost daylight savings time now. We're back to standard time. So it will be getting dark earlier. And again, traditional... Traditional lore, I think, is that at that time of day is a time when the goblins and demons squeak out. They sort of come out in the crack there between the sun and the darkness.

[24:02]

So we do the ceremony at twilight. I don't know if that's the time they wake up or just before they go to sleep. But anyway, it's a time when the spirits are available and active, coming up. for our attention. At the beginning of the ceremony, we pay homage And the word homage, by the way, means not only respect, you know, veneration for something, but also that you align yourself with it. You align yourself with its lineage.

[25:04]

So we pay homage to the the Buddhas in Ten Directions. We paid homage to the perfect teaching in Ten Directions. We pay homage to the communities of practitioners in Ten Directions. We evoked their presence. And then we state our intention in doing the ceremony. Giving rise to the Bodhi mind, we respectfully hold one bowl of pure food. We offer it to all hungry ghosts in all ten directions extending to the end of vast emptiness and encompassing every minute particle in the Dharma realm. We invite all deceased ancestors and spirits of the mountains, rivers and earth and all the demons and untamed lands to come and assemble here. Now with compassion and empathy We should have empathy for these beings.

[26:09]

We should know this in ourselves. We offer to each of you food. We sincerely hope that each and every one of you will receive our blessings. Turn it over and pass it on to all Buddhas, Arhats and sentient beings throughout the realm of vast emptiness. May you and all sentient beings together fully be satisfied. Again, we hope your bodies will be conveyed by these offerings and mantrams so that you may let go of all suffering and attain liberation, be born in heaven, receive joy, and play freely in the pure lands in ten directions. We support you in producing the awakening mind, practicing the way of Bodhi, moment by moment becoming Buddha without regressing. May those who had previously attained the way vow to realize the other shore together with all beings.

[27:14]

Again we hope you and everyone, day and night without end, will sustain and protect us so that our vows will be fulfilled. Thus we offer this food to you. We convert and dedicate the merit of this offering to all sentient beings in the Dharma realm so that they may all receive it equally. With all beings equally holding this benefit, we turn it over and dedicate it to the unsurpassed Bodhi and to all liberating insights. We hope for your swift attainment of Buddhahood free from unfortunate retribution. May all conscious life of the Dharma realm be conveyed in this manner to accomplish quickly the Buddha's way. And then we, as I say, chant the mantram to open the throat, to receive the offerings, and then we chant the dharani of great compassion.

[28:17]

And at the end, we say, as a dedication of this ceremony, Now we have offered the food and water of the dharma. We have chanted the sutra of opening the gate of sweet dew and the dharani of great compassion for, and then we say the names of all the ancestors and friends and the names of people we've done ceremonies for during the last year and the names that you people and others have submitted to be read. In Japan, the way they do it is they have a little wooden card in the shape of a stupa, a shape of a Buddhist memorial stone that you put at the gravesite, a little thin wooden shirt that's shaped just like the tombstone. and they write the person's name on it and they give this thing to each person who submits a name and then they take that thin card and they bring it to the site of their friend or loved one and put it on the site behind the stone or in front of the stone.

[29:33]

If you go to a cemetery in Japan you see they have the stone and in front of the stone are one new card And then behind that card, depending on how long the person's been there, other cards in various states of rotting, and the back one's practically totally fallen apart. But you see this nice clean one, and then these going back older and older ones, and they're just falling and decaying back there, and then the rock one behind that. So we thought of doing that, but we haven't got the technique down yet of cutting the wood in thin little sheets. But maybe next year we'll have that. Then after the names are read, we say, and for boundless wandering beings thirsting in the swirling days of material and dharma worlds, all these beings, real and unreal, that suffer in myriad forms, today have been brought together and their deep desires completely satisfied.

[30:34]

Freed from the burdens of conscious and unconscious karma, the light and dark worlds have become seeds of wisdom for perfect enlightenment. May this great being be one with our compassionate mind. And that's the ceremony. So if you'd like to come tomorrow afternoon, you're welcome to do so. And also, in a few minutes, we will do a ceremony for a short, probably about 10-15 minutes ceremony for Virginia Satir, a memorial service for her, which you can come to if you like. I don't know how many of you will come to question and answer or the ceremony, but I just want to say to you that when I first started practicing Zen, all I was interested in was sitting. Just sitting. That's what attracted me. And ceremonies like this or putting fruit offerings on altars to Buddhas or departed spirits was something which I really didn't have much sense for.

[31:46]

It seemed very strange. So if you think it's strange too, I can empathize with you. But over the years, I guess I've become strange because now it seems like okay or not so strange. I guess it's strange, but I like it now. All this stuff is done with some sense of non-duality, you know, and it's all illusion. The question is, does it touch your heart? And if you have some resistance at the beginning for 5 or 10 or 20 years, it's understandable. Because our society, we were raised in our society to believe in materialism. And the spiritual realm is pretty much just, you know, kind of like for kids or for other countries or something. But Buddhism actually, although it's pretty tough in certain sense, you know, down to earth and just sit and all that stuff, it does recognize at least the tentative, illusory existence of the world of spirits.

[33:00]

Just like it recognizes the tentative, illusory experience of rocks and computers. It's all illusion, so we shouldn't necessarily just cross off the spiritual side. But we were trained to do so, and we actually, I think it's worked pretty well on us, so it takes quite a few years of meditation to overcome our training to think that this stuff is just, I don't know what. Anyway, you're invited to come, and if you don't want to come, I'll see you at question and answer. Thank you. May all our intention

[33:46]

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