Today is Buddha's Enlightenment Day

[Guest guest]

(note: This date is a Japanese custom, not a universal one._

 

dharma talk

What Is Rohatsu?

 

Japanese for 'December 8,' Rohatsu marks the morning Buddha achieved

realization. Every year, we have the same chance.

By Shodo Harada Roshi

 

Every year when December approaches, monks everywhere tremble in

anticipation of the arrival of the rohatsu sesshin [intensive meditation

retreat]. In Zen dojos [practice halls] everywhere, people intensify their

training energy in preparation for this sesshin held from the first to the

eighth of December. The rohatsu sesshin is the consummation of a year's

training, a time when everyone faces the final reckoning of a year of

practice.

 

The Buddha was enlightened on the eighth of December when he looked up at the

morning star, the planet we call Venus. The brightness of this planet was

seen by Buddha from the depths of one week of samadhi [deep awareness]. The

Buddha received that brightness with the same eyes of zazen [sitting

meditation] that enable us to realize perfect enlightenment.

 

One week straight of this deepest possible samadhi was burst through by the

billiance of that morning star. A whole week's experience of that world burst

the brightness of the morning star, plunging into the Buddha's eyes and

giving rebirth to the Buddha's consciousness.

 

He cried:

That's it! That's it! That's it. That's me! That's me that's shining so

brilliantly!

 

How deeply he was moved and what wonder he felt. From this comes all of the

Buddha's dharma. From within this state of mind the Buddha said:

 

How wondrous, how woundrous! All beings are endowed with this pure nature!

What a wondrous, astonishing thing has been realized! All the ten thousand

things, all the flowers, all the trees, all the rocks, all things everywhere

are shining brilliantly! What an amazing thing! It's the same landscape, but

how brilliantly it is illuminated! What freshness is everything!

 

>From within this deep illumination of the mind of the Buddha, all the Buddha'

s wisdom was born. All of Zen is held within the deep impression of the

Buddha's mind at that moment.

 

 

People vow to experience this very same experience of the Buddha as they

approach the rohatsu sesshin. In every single Zen dojo, people put their

lives on the line to be able to experience the exact same state of mind, on

the eighth of December, as that of the Buddha. This is the firm vow with

which they come to the rohatsu sesshin.

 

---------------------------

 

Excerpted with permission from "Morning Dewdrops of the Mind: Teachings of a

Contemporary Zen Master" (published by North Atlantic Books/Frog, Ltd.).

 

 

 

 

 

Shodo Harada Roshi is a Rinzai Zen master who teaches in Japan, Europe, and

at the One Drop Zendo in Seattle, Wash.