Rohatsu

 With palms together,

Today, December 8th, is the day in history Siddhartha became the Buddha, the Enlightened One. We call it Rohatsu, "the eighth day of the twelfth month." It is said, after practicing zazen under a tree, on the eighth morning he looked up and saw the morning star and in that instant became fully awake: "Anutarra Samyak Sambodhi" complete unexcelled awakening.

He saw all things in the entire universe were one, as Master Dogen Zenji puts it, "one bright pearl." He saw that time and space were one so he saw the past and future in the same moment. These realizations were 'deeply profound and minutely subtle.' Getting up from his seat he believed it would be impossible to teach such things. No one would understand him.

Yet, as he walked away from the tree and met some former friends, they noticed something had changed in him. These friends were seekers of the way, as well, and wanted to learn. They convinced him to teach and so he did with his first teaching being the Four Noble Truths; life is suffering because we are attached to things, there is a way to end this suffering and the way is the eightfold noble path, a "middle" way," a way between extremes.

Today, it seems to me, we all might accept this truth: extremes of any sort are problematic, if not destructive. Releasing ourselves from being overly invested in things, realizing we are all together living on the same planet, breathing the same air, may be our way of growing closer together, uniting as one family, to become more caring and compassionate.

Winter has always been a time when the light is low and we look to renew ourselves by bringing the light of hop into our world. Lets all do that this month and maybe, just maybe, the darkness eclipsing our societal sun will be lifted.

Gassho