Two weeks ago, Blue Mountain Lotus Society, my local Buddhist community or sangha, celebrated Satori. Satori, or Bodhi Day, as it is known in some parts of the world, is probably the biggest celebration on the Buddhist calendar. It is a celebration of the enlightenment of Buddha Shakyamuni, the former Prince Siddhartha. In recognition of Shakyamuni’s seven days of meditation under the bodhi tree that led to his enlightenment, some monks spend a week in intense meditation themselves.
At this year’s Satori, our lead priest, Sensei Anthony Stultz, offered a written dharma talk, rather than the typical verbal delivery. The following is what he wrote.
By Sensei Anthony Stultz
Greetings on this blessed eve. As many of you know, the Buddhist tradition has become the fastest growing faith in both the United States and Europe. Why is this? I believe that this is because the old religious concepts have become bankrupt.
We are currently experiencing a paradigm shift in our collective consciousness. This shift calls for the death of what has been and the birth of what will be. We are no longer satisfied by the explanations of the past. The idea that we need to be rescued or “saved” has become distorted and useless. The concepts of sin and the corresponding shame imply a definition of human life that I think is false.
We are constantly insulting our humanity out of a particular theological reference. We have been previously taught that we were beggars before an angry god. We were taught that we are fundamentally flawed and unworthy.
The teaching of the Buddha is that this is simply not true. It is therefore bad anthropology, and no one can build good theology on bad anthropology. The Buddha showed us that it is not that we have fallen into sin. It is that we have not yet achieved our full humanity.
The real source of our suffering is found in the remnants of our evolutionary history. This history has conditioned every one of us to become obsessed with our own solitary existence, ignoring the deeper reality of our interconnectedness.
In our beautiful liturgical meditation, we don’t just have faith in this Oneness. Our own senses become a vehicle of that connectedness: Sight- the ceremony and the symbols; sound- the chanting of our ancient wisdom; smell- the offering of the incense which represents our commingling spirit; and touch- the humble and exquisite act of bowing and releasing into our true selves.
We are not content to merely believe in our Buddha Nature, rather we find it in our immediate experience.
The celebration of the Great Enlightenment is the way in which we realize our capacity to awaken to a more universal consciousness, a consciousness that lifts us into a larger being beyond every personal and social boundary. It truly presents us with a new image of what it means to be fully human, a source of endless potential to live more fully, love more freely and plunge ourselves so completely into life that we never stop to count the cost.
Namu Amia Butsu
Sensei Tony
Tags: Blue Mountain Lotus Society, Buddhism, dharma, peace, religion, sangha, Sensei Anthony Stultz
January 1, 2012 at 7:28 pm |
Beautiful! Thank you for sharing this!