Hanamatsuri means flower festival in Japanese and is the time of the year when the birth of Siddhatha Gotma is celebrated. It is a new beginning and coincides with a rebirth in the transformational context of joy and sorrow and the possibility of shifting from ignorance to enlightenment.
This Tuesday night April 29, 2025 we will celebrate the Buddha’s birth in a ceremony that is both Soto Zen and Cambodian Theravaden in background. The former is based on the teachings of Taiun Elliston Roshi and the latter Ven. Dr. Kou Sopheap, a monk I met and worked with in 2008.
I will tell the story of Siddhartha’s mother and aunt passed down for 2500 years and seek insights from you as we ponder this event and its role in our practice.
Also thanks to Matt-san we have a new research tool within our new website that allows you to search my previous Dharma Notes by Topic. So, by connecting to https://fszs.org/?s=Hanamatsuri you can check out thirteen times Hanamatsuri has been mentioned by me in talks over the years.
Two more things. One we will bathe all the icons of Buddha and Boshisattvas. You may bring yours from home (flowers too) to the First Congregation Church of Falmouth and if you are on Zoom, use a flower or an evergreen bow to dip in water and splash your icons at home, as we recite The Kannon Sutra.
Finally for those of you at the zendo, you get to bathe me as well by sprinkling water on my head. I’ll talk about Ven. Kou and his teaching on this ceremony. https://zoom.fszs.org (Password: FSZS)
This is a wonderfully joyous celebration and please join us if you can.
Sangaku
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Recall I suggested reading the sutra many times, placing it in historical and cultural context and getting away from"},{"id":"2448","link":"https:\/\/fszs.org\/dharma-notes\/dharma-talk-sangha-sesshin-and-sickness\/","name":"dharma-talk-sangha-sesshin-and-sickness","thumbnail":{"url":false,"alt":false},"title":"Dharma Talk: Sangha, Sesshin, and Sickness","author":{"name":"Unshin Sangaku","link":"https:\/\/fszs.org\/dharma-notes\/author\/unshinsangaku\/"},"date":"Oct 26, 2025","dateGMT":"2025-10-26 16:30:59","modifiedDate":"2025-10-26 12:31:00","modifiedDateGMT":"2025-10-26 16:31:00","commentCount":"0","commentStatus":"closed","categories":{"coma":"<a href=\"https:\/\/fszs.org\/dharma-notes\/category\/uncategorized\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Uncategorized<\/a>","space":"<a href=\"https:\/\/fszs.org\/dharma-notes\/category\/uncategorized\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Uncategorized<\/a>"},"taxonomies":{"post_tag":""},"readTime":{"min":2,"sec":13},"status":"publish","content":"I am ill. This is a human condition identified in the first turning of the Dharma Wheel : if I am such this is thus."},{"id":"2445","link":"https:\/\/fszs.org\/dharma-notes\/flower-garland-sutra\/","name":"flower-garland-sutra","thumbnail":{"url":false,"alt":false},"title":"Flower Garland Sutra","author":{"name":"Unshin Sangaku","link":"https:\/\/fszs.org\/dharma-notes\/author\/unshinsangaku\/"},"date":"Oct 6, 2025","dateGMT":"2025-10-06 17:26:45","modifiedDate":"2025-10-06 13:26:45","modifiedDateGMT":"2025-10-06 17:26:45","commentCount":"0","commentStatus":"closed","categories":{"coma":"<a href=\"https:\/\/fszs.org\/dharma-notes\/category\/uncategorized\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Uncategorized<\/a>","space":"<a href=\"https:\/\/fszs.org\/dharma-notes\/category\/uncategorized\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Uncategorized<\/a>"},"taxonomies":{"post_tag":""},"readTime":{"min":1,"sec":12},"status":"publish","content":"With over 1,600 pages, multiple translations, over six centuries. The Buddh\u0101vata\u1e43saka S\u016btra offers perspective on how many sutras were created. Not by a person but"},{"id":"2441","link":"https:\/\/fszs.org\/dharma-notes\/retreat-update\/","name":"retreat-update","thumbnail":{"url":false,"alt":false},"title":"Retreat Update","author":{"name":"Unshin Sangaku","link":"https:\/\/fszs.org\/dharma-notes\/author\/unshinsangaku\/"},"date":"Oct 4, 2025","dateGMT":"2025-10-04 21:01:12","modifiedDate":"2025-10-04 17:01:12","modifiedDateGMT":"2025-10-04 21:01:12","commentCount":"0","commentStatus":"closed","categories":{"coma":"<a href=\"https:\/\/fszs.org\/dharma-notes\/category\/uncategorized\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Uncategorized<\/a>","space":"<a href=\"https:\/\/fszs.org\/dharma-notes\/category\/uncategorized\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Uncategorized<\/a>"},"taxonomies":{"post_tag":""},"readTime":{"min":0,"sec":50},"status":"publish","content":"All-sans, After a good deal of discussion and deliberation I have decided to cancel our October 29-November 2, 2025 Retreat and Sesshen. The primary reason"},{"id":"2431","link":"https:\/\/fszs.org\/dharma-notes\/open-discussion\/","name":"open-discussion","thumbnail":{"url":false,"alt":false},"title":"Open Discussion","author":{"name":"Unshin Sangaku","link":"https:\/\/fszs.org\/dharma-notes\/author\/unshinsangaku\/"},"date":"Sep 29, 2025","dateGMT":"2025-09-29 15:43:09","modifiedDate":"2025-09-29 11:43:09","modifiedDateGMT":"2025-09-29 15:43:09","commentCount":"0","commentStatus":"closed","categories":{"coma":"<a href=\"https:\/\/fszs.org\/dharma-notes\/category\/uncategorized\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Uncategorized<\/a>","space":"<a href=\"https:\/\/fszs.org\/dharma-notes\/category\/uncategorized\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Uncategorized<\/a>"},"taxonomies":{"post_tag":""},"readTime":{"min":1,"sec":20},"status":"publish","content":"All-sans, I forgot to add a Dharma Talk in our calendar for September 30, 2025. In such cases my fallback is \u201cOpen Discussion.\u201d So this"}]