Here are some of the
main points of the presentation. Please note my presentation is based on the
lineage of Higashi Honganji teachers (Japan and U.S.) and that other Buddhist
groups will have different presentations because of their particular viewpoints.
1. The historical
Buddha Shakyamuni was a human being
He was no different
from any of us and his path of seeking is the same one we are on.
2. The importance of
the teacher
The “four gates” story
is just a legend – any 29 year old would already know about old age, sickness
and death. Shakyamuni could no longer be happy with his pampered life knowing
that it would inevitably end in death from old age, sickness and possibly the
violence of war. But in the four gates legend, he encounters the man in rags
begging for food and sees the man’s face is shining with joy and serenity, what
the Buddha would describe in the Larger Sutra as ko-gen-gi-gi “light face majestic.” That man is the teacher for
Shakyamuni – the evidence that there was something worth seeking for to
transcend his concerns about the sufferings of life.
3. The provisional
stages
The time (age 29 to
age 35) that Shakyamuni spent studying under various spiritual teachers and
doing harsh ascetic practice represented the provisional stages of
self-centered ethical and religious practices. Coming from a privileged
background, he probably needed the discipline of being denied instant
gratification, and later he recommended the ascetic lifestyle to the monks and
nuns who followed him because most of them came from well-off families.
4. The awakening of
true liberation means breaking out of the ego-shell and identifying with all
beings.
When Shakyamuni
tumbled down the mountain of elitism and landed in the valley of ordinary life,
he experienced the true awakening of breaking out of his self-concerns and
finding interconnection with all beings - humans, animals, plants, minerals. In
the Lotus Sutra he tells the monks and nuns that all they were doing was
preparation for the real enlightenment that is available to all beings, not
just to those who did special practices. The Buddha found that laypeople –
those who worked and cared for family members – didn’t need the monastic life
because the harshness of their own life struggles brought them to hear the
teachings of freedom and equality. Western Buddhists for too long heard the
narrative that the monastic life was the superior path and the traditions like
Pure Land were for those who were too stupid and morally lax to do the hard
practice required for attaining enlightenment. But teachers from Nagarjuna
through to Shinran realized the Buddha taught that the real experience of
awakening is evidenced by identifying with all beings and losing all
justification to look down on any of them. [See reading material “The Third
Birthday” by Rev. Gyoko Saito]
