Hanamatsuri 2022 Dharma Talk on Easter and Buddha’s Birthday

Greetings. On April 8th in Japan, the Hanamatsuri or Flower Festival is celebrated. This is the commemoration of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha’s, birthday. Tomorrow will be the Christian celebration of Easter, the day that in the Christian tradition it is said that Jesus the Christ was resurrected or raised from death. The name “Easter” however, comes from the pre-Christian holiday celebrated by the Celts, a celebration of spring and the return of life to the world after the death of winter. This is the reason for the rabbits and eggs, which are fertility symbols. Somewhere, I remember reading that the ancient Celts would color their eggs and roll them down the hills to represent the return of the sun to the world. When the Celts became Christians, they kept their traditional holidays celebrating the seasons of the year but infused them with Christian insights and values.

The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra says, “All of the non-Buddhist scriptures and writings in society are themselves Buddhist teachings, not non-Buddhist teachings.” In chapter 19, “The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma,” chapter of the Lotus Sutra it says of the good men or women who keep, read, recite, expound, or copy the Lotus Sutra , “When they expound the scriptures of non-Buddhist schools, or give advice to the government, or teach the way to earn a livelihood, they will be able to be in accord with the right teachings of the Buddha.” Today, I don’t plan on giving advice to the government or recommending how you should earn a livelihood, perhaps to the relief of some of you here. But in the spirit of the Nirvana Sutra and the Lotus Sutra, I would like to talk about both Easter and Hanamatsuri together to see if we can more deeply explore what they are both pointing to. In other words, I would like to offer a Buddhist reading of the Easter story, and use the Easter story to suggest the deeper Buddhist meaning of the Buddha’s birth story.

Let’s begin with the birth of the Buddha. According to the account in the Lalitavistara or Multitudinous Graceful Actions Sutra, the bodhisattva or compassionate being who would become Shakyamuni Buddha resided in the Tushita or Heaven of Contentment until the time was ripe to appear in the world for the liberation of all beings. Here is the Lalitavistara Sutra’s account of what occurred next:

The Bodhisattva at this time assumed the form of a huge white elephant with six tusks and descended from the Tushita Heaven. He then passed under Queen Maya’s right arm and entered her womb as she slept peacefully. The palace was filled with joy and peace. Auspicious clouds trailed in the sky and enveloped the tiled roofs of the lofty towers.

One day in the last month of her pregnancy, the queen decided that she would like to pass the spring day in a flower garden. Receiving permission from the king and attended by a retinue of ladies-in-waiting, she had herself driven to the Lumbini Grove. The trees were abloom with beautiful flowers that gave off pleasant fragrances; the deep green grasses were like the tail feathers of a peacock and swayed like the soft fine silk blown by the wind. The queen took a pleasant stroll; she leaned on the limb of an ashoka tree (or sorrowless tree) that drooped down because of the weight of its flowers. At that moment, the Bodhisattva was born, suddenly and yet peacefully. Immediately after birth, he took seven steps in each of the four directions and proclaimed, “In heaven above and earth below, I am the most honored one. I shall dispel the suffering that fills the world.”

The divine beings residing in space praised the virtues of the mother, Queen Maya. The Naga king rained down cold and warm water and bathed the body of the Bodhisattva. The great earth trembled and shook with joy. Shortly thereafter, the queen received the infant, and since everything proceeded without difficulty, the prince was named Siddhartha (Whose Goal is Achieved).  (Buddha-Dharma, p. 5)

It is easy enough to see the connections made in this story between the flowering of spring and the birth of a new buddha or “awakened one” into a world which had for ages been bereft of the Dharma, the teaching that would lead people beyond the sufferings of birth and death. In this story, miracles and divine activity are abundant. Particularly miraculous is the very self-aware, ambulatory, confident, and talkative newborn baby who can proclaim, “In heaven above and earth below, I am the most honored one. I shall dispel the suffering that fills the world.” It is hard to connect this paragon with the distraught prince who would leave the palace 29 years later determined to overcome suffering, and yet not at all sure of how to go about it or if he would succeed. That prince seems human, this baby seems like something that goes beyond all human limitations, truly a Buddha in the form of an infant and not simply an infant who would grow up to become the Buddha. The 18th-century Zen Master Hakuin said of this incident that if he had been there he would have washed that presumptuous brat’s mouth out with soap for being a braggart. And yet, Hakuin’s comments are ironic, for he knew that there is something more going on here than a precocious baby’s swaggering self-aggrandizement. What, then, are we to make of such a baby?

For now, however, I would like to turn to the events of Easter, which is not about a birth, but a resurrection, a rebirth of one who was cruelly put to death into a new mode of life that goes beyond birth and death. In the account in the Gospel of John, on Easter Sunday Jesus’ disciple Mary Magdelene visited the sepulcher or tomb where Jesus’ body had been put to rest.

But Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulcher, and saw two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they said to her, “Woman, why do you weep?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have lain him.”

And when she had said this, she turned back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why do you weep? Who do you seek?” She, supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, “Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have lain him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned herself, and said to him, “Rabboni;” which is to say, “Master.” Jesus said to her, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say to them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.”

Mary Magdelene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things to her. Then the same day that evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be unto you.” And when he had said this, he showed to them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. Then Jesus said to them again, “Peace be unto you: for as my Father has sent me, even so I send you.” And when he said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive you the Holy Spirit: Whoever’s sins you remit, they are remitted from them; and whoever’s sins you retain, they are retained.”

But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.” And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas was with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace be unto you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Reach forth your finger, and behold my hands; and reach forth your hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.” And Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God.” (John 20:11-28)

In Buddhism we teach “form is emptiness, and emptiness is form.” The things of this world, including our own selves are not to be grasped and clung to. And yet, the true reality is not a blank nothingness, but a wondrous concrete expression of dynamic interdependence that gives rise through each of us to a selfless compassion that is the active side of the wisdom of non-clinging and deep caring. So here in one instance, Jesus says, “touch me not” for there is a deeper reality to be known; but in the other, he says to Thomas, “reach forth” so that he can feel the wounds and literally enter into the life of the newly arisen Lord directly.

What is the difference between the Jesus who was put to death and the Jesus who appeared to Mary and the apostles? Paul later wrote:

All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differs from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. (I Corinthians 15: 39-44)

I wonder if this is ringing any bells among us? As Buddhists do we not also teach that the Buddha can be perceived in terms of three different bodies? There is the nirmana-kaya or accommodative-body that is the historical concrete body of birth and death. This is the body of the Buddha who was born in 463 BCE and who passed away in 383 BCE according to some accounts. This is Paul’s terrestrial or earthly body. Then there is the sambhoga-kaya or reward-body, it is a glorified or idealized body that resides in the pure lands. It arises as a result of the meritorious actions of the buddhas and bodhisattvas and this body is not bound by earthly conditions. It is usually imperceptible to all those except the advanced bodhisattvas and those reborn in their pure lands after death. This is a body of wisdom and compassion personified with an unlimited range of life and light that reaches into our own lives when we open our hearts and minds in faith.  This is Paul’s celestial body. Then there is the Dharma-kaya or Dharma-body. This is the ultimate true nature of reality that the buddhas awaken to as the true essence of all things. Without the Dharma-body, things would not be as they are, there would be nothing and not the suchness or something that we do live. Speaking poetically, it is like a father or parent of all that is. But in the view of Buddhism, it is not a person, though not impersonal. It is not a thing, though it is the true nature that allows for the appearance of things. The theologian Paul Tillich spoke of God as the ground of being, and the Dharma-body may be analogous, but all analogies break down. One could just as well say the Dharma-body is a groundless ground. It is true emptiness and wondrous being. Another name of a Buddha is Tathagata, a word that means both “One who Comes” and “One who Goes.” A Tathagata comes and goes from the Dharma-body, from the body of reality. But in another sense, there is no coming or going. There is no birth or death, no appearance or disappearance.

In chapter 16, the “Lifespan of the Tathagata” chapter of the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha reveals that from his point of view, he sees no birth or death. There is a deeper view of things:

All that I say is true, not false, because I see the triple world as it is. I see that the triple world is the world in which living beings have neither birth nor death, that is to say, do not appear or disappear, that it is the world in which I do not appear or from which I do not disappear, that it is not real or unreal, and that it is not as it seems or as it does not seem. I do not see the triple world in the same way as the living beings of the triple world do. I see all this clearly and infallibly. The living beings are various in their natures, desires, deeds, thoughts and opinions. Therefore I expounded the Dharma with various stories of previous lives, with various parables, similes, and discourses, in order to cause all living beings to plant the roots of good. I have never stopped doing what I should do. As I said before, it is very long since I became the Buddha. The duration of my life is innumerable, asamkhya kalpas. I am always here. I shall never pass away. (Lotus Sutra, p. 243)

Rabbits, Easter eggs, flower bouquets, and other signs of spring all bear witness to the revival of life after the death of winter. They bear witness to the life hidden within the seeming absence of life in the winter months, at least in more northerly climates. The Christian story of Easter points to a new life that springs forth and transcends the cycle of birth and death. There are terrestrial bodies, bodies of birth and death that are the seeds of celestial bodies that transcend birth and death. Buddhism teaches that while the buddhas are born and die with their accommodative-bodies, their reward-bodies reside in the pure lands and invite us to join them, and their Dharma-body is the deepest truth of life that is untouched by birth and death, though hidden within it and making possible the precious transience of life as we know it, the life of birth and death. The Great Master Tiantai and Nichiren Daishonin both taught that these three bodies, the terrestrial, the celestial, and the ineffable reality are all integral aspects of a single whole, a whole that we enter by faith through Buddhist practice and insight.

Returning now to the baby Buddha, the infant who immediately after birth, took seven steps in each of the four directions and proclaimed, “In heaven above and earth below, I am the most honored one. I shall dispel the suffering that fills the world.” I now have this question. Who did this and said this? Was it a terrestrial infant, an accommodative earthly body of birth and death? Was it a celestial infant, a reward-body buddha in infant form? Or was it reality itself speaking as a newborn knowing that ultimately there is no birth or death to cling to or escape from – just the real in all its non-dual purity? Or perhaps all are at work? Here is a more important question: What if each of us said, “In heaven above and earth below, I am the most honored one. I shall dispel the suffering that fills the world”? Can we say this?

Perhaps the point of Easter and of Hanamatsuri is not so much to direct our minds to what a past infant in India did or even said, or to the resurrection of a beloved Lord as a past event 2000 years ago; but rather to direct our attention, our faith, to the nature of our lives here and now. A life renewed every moment that we turn away from clinging and false views and instead open our hearts and minds to the Wonderful Dharma wherein there is no birth or death, only life abundant and everlasting. Amid our practice we recognize the conditioned to be impure, suffering, impermanent, and lacking in authentic selfhood; but we also find that the true nature of the conditioned is a suchness that is unconditioned, which is pure, blissful, constant, and authentic.