The traditional calculations of the Buddha’s birth follow a lunar calendar which floats around this season. However among the various modernizations of Japan’s meji era was the establishment of a solar calendar and therefore a fixed date for observing various things.
Among them is the Buddha’s birth. which is today.
Now in Buddhism that word “buddha,” which literally translates as “awake,” means several different things. Here we’re talking about the buddha of history, the former prince Gautama Siddhartha who left family and inheritance in order to find answers to the questions why sickness, old age and death?
Who after a great struggle and surrender found the answer, and broadcast it to the world.
And whose children’s children came west to bring that healing message to us.
While in some ways I am more the child of Huineng and Dogen and Hakuin, and while I must also bow in gratitude to many other great teachers, very much including Laotzu, Chuangtzu, Job, Solomon and Jesus, it is Gautama Siddhartha who set the stage, who opened the way, and to whom I owe endless gratitude…
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