NPR (Weekend Edition Saturday, 12/5/20); Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Buddhists prepare to observe Bodhi Day, when Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha
NPR Host Scott Simon asks Prof. Takashi Miyaji of the Southern Alameda County Buddhist Church in California about Bodhi Day.
HOST SCOTT SIMON: These winter holidays are a time for fellowship, joy, and, for [Abrahamic faith religieux] people around the world, worship. For many [spiritual, free thinking, agnostic, atheist, and theistic] Buddhists, [Enlightenment Day] Bodhi Day is December 8th. And tomorrow [12/6/20] starts the celebration. Bodhi Day marks the day that Prince Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha. Takashi Miyaji is a professor at the Institute of Buddhist Studies and a minister at Southern Alameda County Buddhist Church in Union City, Northern California. And he joins us now. Dr. Miyaji, thank you so much for being with us.
PROF. TAKASHI MIYAJI: Thank you very much for having me.
SIMON: I had the joy of having many Buddhist friends in high school who took me to their temples. And I've always been impressed that Gautama [/go-tah-ma/] gained wisdom through his experience of suffering [dukkha, lack of fulfillment, disappointment].
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| The historical Buddha, Prince Sid Gautama |
MIYAJI: Yeah. You know, Siddhartha Gautama is the story of the historical Buddha who figured out a path to the resolution of why people suffer. [He overcame all suffering and all possibility for further suffering, realizing the path to enlightenment and the ultimate bliss and peace of nirvana.] And I think millions of people to this day are influenced by what Siddhartha Gautama, or what we know as Shakyamuni Buddha, was able to discover.
SIMON: I think there are many people who throw around that word, enlightenment [bodhi, awakening]. Help us really understand it, if you can.
MIYAJI: Buddhism teaches that all things have Buddha nature or the potential to become a Buddha [an awakened one]. So the Buddha is "the Enlightened One." It is a state of true liberation from this world [samsara, the Wheel of Endless Rebirth] of confusion and delusion. So you might ask, you know, What is the purpose for becoming a Buddha? Well, the Buddha is one who has kind of realized the universal truth and can see the true nature of existence just as it is. And we call this in Buddhism to attain the state of true wisdom.
SIMON: Does that mean a Buddha knows the meaning of life?
MIYAJI: Yes, in the sense that this life is one of [awakening to the true nature of existence, which has three universal marks in that it is disappointing, impermanent, and impersonal], actually, is one of difficulty. In finding that resolution [nirvana or, literally, the end of all suffering], in finding the true wisdom that helps us to overcome that suffering, then yes, that one has found the meaning of life.
SIMON: Overcome that suffering or learn something from it, live with it, become better by it?
MIYAJI: I think it's a little bit of both. I think it is -- in finding that resolution or learning to accept oneself for who you truly are -- that is, in a way, laying down the groundwork towards enlightenment.
And so Siddhartha Gautama lived in northern India [actually ancient proto-India, Scythia or Shakya Land, Sakastan, Gandhara, Bactria, Afghanistan, formerly the northwestern frontier of Emperor Asoka's territory]. And he was a prince, and he was destined to be the next king. Prince Siddhartha got older. And so he goes through this path of being a mendicant monk [a yogi shraman or wandering ascetic] and abandons his life of luxury and lives in the woods [leaves Scythia and travels to Magadha, now India, to find a teacher or teaching to realize the end of all suffering]. But the practice that he engaged in was extremely rigorous, and he almost killed himself [through such severe austerities]. The life of luxury and lavishness, on the one hand, the one of hedonism, isn't going to give him the answer to life. And on the other end of that spectrum, the life of rigorous practice [of painful austerities] where he is engaging and hurting himself, his body, is also not going to allow him to awaken to the [ultimate] truth. And so this is where he awakens to the Middle Path and the path [that avoids both extremes some might call] moderation. And then he goes to [meditate] underneath a bodhi tree [Ficus religiosa, banyan tree, a kind of fig tree used for his enlightenment] and says to himself, I am not leaving from this place until I attain awakening. He finally does so [one night through a process of realization that continues until] morning [dawns]. And we say that that day is on December 8th.
SIMON: Any particular [meditative practices or] rituals that you'll be observing for Bodhi Day this year?
MIYAJI: Yeah. For Bodhi Day, what we do is we have a special service. And normally everybody would come to the temple, and we would have a service where we do [communal] chanting [of the teachings] basically.
SIMON: May we ask you to chant something?
MIYAJI: Sure. Yeah. (Chanting in [the ancient Pali language also called Magadhi the Buddha spoke in his day, which is a kind of simplified Sanskrit since Sanskrit was only spoken by scholarly Brahmin priests at the time]).
(CHANTING) Namo tassa bhavagato arahato samma sambuddhasa. Homage to him, the Exalted One, the Enlightened One, the Supremely Awakened One.
Buddham saranam gacchami. Dhammam saranam gacchami. Sangham saranam gacchami. I go to the Buddha for guidance. I go to the Dharma for guidance. I go to the [noble] Sangha [enlightened disciples of this Teaching] for guidance.
SIMON: Thank you so much for filling us with the sounds of that chant. What's giving you comfort over these past few vexing and trying months, in particular?
MIYAJI: For me what Buddhism teaches me is that we are, indeed, imperfect people, you know, that we do try our best, but we fall short a lot of times. And the key, though, is to understand and not to beat yourself up and to be depressed over this, but rather we are embraced within this true reality. There is no judgment. And everybody is going to make it [when and if they begin to strive for the Truth, which may be many many -- too many -- lives from now].
I don't know if you recall of this movie "Backdraft" where, you know...
SIMON: Firefighters!
MIYAJI: Yeah, the firefighter movie.
SIMON: Sure, I remember.
MIYAJI: Yeah, with Kurt Russell, yes. And in that movie, in the last scene, he doesn't want to let go of this one guy. And he says, "You go, we go," right? So that's essentially what the Bodhisattva Path [the Mahayana Buddhist conception of everyone striving to become a teaching buddha to help awaken others, as contrasted from the older Theravada Buddhist teaching that every enlightened person is a kind of buddha or awakened being] is. Everyone's got to make it. And if we're not all going to make it, then no one's going to make it.
SIMON: Takashi Miyaji of the Southern Alameda County Buddhist Church, thank you so much!
MIYAJI: Thank you very much for your time. Source
(SOUNDBITE OF THE STEELY DAN SONG "BODHISATTVA" [a "Being Bent On Becoming Enlightened"])
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