December 8th, Buddha's Day of Enlightenment

December 8th was a memorial day of the enlightenment for Buddha. In Japan, we call the ceremony Jōdōe (成道会) and the service is held all over our chain of islands.

When we hear that someone has “awakened”, we might think, “did his mind all of the sudden change on that day?” or “was it the day when he suddenly start to see things that commoners cannot see?” In my opinion that is not the case.

I sense that this is the day when Shaka had come to one decision. The decision was about “trusting oneself, not to depend on others and simply act from one’s own good will.” Like a jackal, he only looked straight ahead, kept going only by following his own heart and trusting himself.

How do you measure a good will or a good heart? “Would this be good for this person?” or ”Would this be bad for this person?” These questions are always in our mind. Those consciousnesses “thoughtfulness” are built in our heart from the day we were born. Even the most brutal criminals have the same good heart as much as we do. But they simply do not choose to use it.

“Thoughtfulness” is something we were all given by the Root God.

For Shaka, the idea of thoughtfulness was or still is to teach a way to take away the pain from people’s heart. That was his idea of compassion. To express his compassion to others, he gave up everything of his possession and dedicated his soul to the people. Shaka said that people are in pain because of the attachment. If you are attached to someone you love, you will suffer when he or she leaves. If you are attached to your assets, you will be afraid to loose it. If you are attached to a status or outlook, you will suffer when you loose it.

So how can one not be attached to any of these? Simply enjoy while you have them, be grateful about it and always keep your heart to give more to others.

When you live by simply depending on your own good will and not on others, you will start to see the hidden side of things. You will start to sense the true nature of things, the righteous spiritual world. You will start to awaken a new part of yourself that has a whole new perspective. “A good will” was created by the root source of the universe, so this all makes sense when you think about it.

Humans are weak and even he/she want to follow his/her good consciousness he/she might not be able to act on it. Even if you fail to do it once, you should try again the next time. If you continue to keep trying, one day it will become a strong and straight “right path” walking like a jackal.

Ikashite-itadaite Arigato-gozaimasu

Thank you for letting us live