"Bodhi Day--The Move Towards Awakening"

© Rev. Susan Karlson
December 14, 2010


In all my years as a Unitarian Universalist minister or as a lay leader in my home congregation, we have not focused on Bodhi Day during this manifold season of festivals from the world’s religions. Bodhi Day is a minor holiday for many Buddhists—far more widespread is the celebration of Buddha’s Nirvana, his final exit from this world and his birth. Yet, Bodhi Day is cast in a whole new light now along with its relevance to Unitarian Universalists and others who are not Buddhist practitioners.
The story of the Buddha is an inspiring one as is the story of all religious figures. In a way, Buddha’s beginnings are in stark contrast to the humble birth of Jesus, born in a stable to parents who had difficulty finding an adequate dwelling place for one later known as the Prince of Peace. There’s something holistic about these two stories side by side, retold at this time of year—something beyond our associations with abject poverty or lascivious wealth.
The prince, Siddhartha Gautama whom we now know as the Buddha, had every material comfort and privilege his royal family could provide. Sheltered in a palace, so the legend goes, he never saw the sick, poor, aged or knew anything about death or dying. One day he witnessed these human sufferings and he vowed to find the cause and the solution. He fled from his family and the luxurious life he’d known—leaving behind his parents, wife and a young son.
After leaving behind all the palatial pleasures of his youth that he grew up expecting would bring happiness, he spent six years denying his body, undergoing extreme ascetic practices to get at the root of suffering. Finally, sitting beneath a pipul tree, now known as the ficus religiosa or Bodhi tree, he awakened fully and understood about the nature of the world and the causes of suffering.
In this state of total awareness, “suffering”, “struggle”, “sorrow” and “strife” disappeared. He came to the Middle Path, neither punishing nor pampering his body. In the instant of his Enlightenment, he understood the interconnection of all life. Although he was tempted to remain in this state of bliss, freed from deprivation and asceticism on one hand or from striving to find fulfillment through the pleasures of the material world on the other, he got up and “started a new day”. He spent the remainder of his life teaching and mentoring others about the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path he understood from his Awakening (story from Siddhartha’s Awakening, http://www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith/spiritpractice/workshop9/workshopplan/stories/60546.shtml ).
How often do we misunderstand the religions of the world? We see the flaws and shortcomings of the followers, no matter what the path. In the case of Eastern religions, Westerners tend to denigrate adherents as “navel gazers”, totally removed from the rest of the world or completely self-absorbed. How unlike the Buddha, the Awakened one, who spent his life pointing to a way beyond the suffering of delusion, self-absorption and identification with this mind that takes us on the adult equivalent of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. The myths about Buddhism depart so far from the core of Buddhist teachings about compassion, respect and loving kindness for all living beings. The Buddha, too, was a prince of peace.
Buddhism teaches that Enlightenment, Awakening, is not restricted to the historic personality of the 6th century BCE Buddha. Being fully present in this moment and the next, and the next, is possible but it goes against our natural human tendencies. Every experience gets categorized as pleasurable (which bears repeating), painful (which should be avoided) or neutral (which just seems boring). As I speak about it, this moment now is gone—it has already become the past. It seems a conundrum to stay in the present—it evaporates like dew when the sun comes out.
One of our members gave me permission to tell a story about a great revelation she had recently about staying present and being aware and awake. She was enjoying dinner with some friends when the waitress reached for her plate. Poised with her fork in mid air, ready to take another bite, she vehemently told the waitress she was still eating. The waitress rolled her eyes as if to say, “oh, here we go again.” It was after the waitress left that she realized that her actions could be perceived as ready to stab the waitress with her fork.
She apologized to the waitress and the waitress responded that she had experienced all kinds of hostile behavior from diners in her years as a waitress. The revelation for this diner was that in her preoccupation with her dinner plate and her fears that her meal would be taken or she wouldn’t have enough, she had lost the present moment in the interaction with the waitress, wrapped up in her concerns and responding out of that place. Through our conversation, I realized how much of the pain and suffering we experience or inflict on others is due to turmoil arising from our fears, from not being fully present with ourselves or one another in the moment before us.
It’s hard to stay in the present. One of our readings was a litany of ways that the author was a bad meditator (Ways I Have Been a Bad Meditator by Ted Weinstein). Ironically, being aware of how the thoughts race and the mind jumps from place to place, from past to future, is being mindful, if not present. Even the judgment that I am a bad meditator is a step on the journey to being more aware, leading to being present more often. And every mindful moment is a part of Awakening. The more time spent awake and aware in the present, the more effective we can be as change agents, as celebrants in building the kinder, more generous and peaceful world we envision and the relationships we want to create with each another.
During the Buddha’s austere period, he almost starved himself, practically knocking on death’s door. A woman came by to offer rice and milk to Mother Ganga, the river goddess, when she discovered Buddha, motionless, meditating and fainting from hunger. Offering him this blessed food, she helped sustain him, not knowing that he would go on to Awaken and teach others the path to Enlightenment. Every moment builds on the one before it and leads on to the next one yet we don’t know the results or consequences of our actions. We can only be more aware, aware and present.
The pipul or Bo tree is a tree that spreads out in all directions. In India, it is sometimes known as the mother of all trees and is worshiped as such. Buddha awakened under a pipul tree and cuttings from that original tree have been planted in other places. One of those transplanted trees is around 2300 years old, the oldest known tree planted by humans. Bodhi Day derives some of its significance from this original tree. In some celebrations, a ficus tree is decorated to represent the tree under which the Buddha gained his wisdom.
Having seen these trees recently in India, they inspire reflection on what is timeless and breathtaking. The Buddha spoke of trees as gracious “living organism[s] which give food, shelter, warmth and protection to all living things. It even gives shade to those who wield an axe to cut it down.” (http://www.hindu.com/seta/2010/11//18/stoires/2010111850071200.htm
This Bodhi Day, I decorated a Norfolk Island pine tree with lights made by women from Thailand out of pipul tree leaves, part of a Fair Trade program of empowerment. This tree and these lights symbolize the wisdom and the beneficent teachings of the Buddha. The milk and rice in this bowl remind us to be generous, spontaneous and present to the opportunity before us this moment and every other moment of our lives.
You see the dilemma of the minister; speak of symbols and tell stories about how to achieve that first goal, which is “to see the thing itself, in and for itself, to see it simply and clearly for what it is, no symbolism, please”, the thing being our very existence in this precious, fleeting moment. Self-awareness. Awakening.
What brings you back to now, to this one life and the chance to share with others out of the great gifts you are given?
May this Bodhi Day just passed remind you of what is everlasting and yet ever changing as that original Bodhi tree sprouting new growth alluding to the wisdom of the ages. May your life touch others, reflecting and beaming beyond all pretense and arrogance, sharing each precious moment as it unfolds like the Awakened One who inspired Bodhi Day, even this celebration today.