This content was created by Satya Robyn. This content was uploaded by Satya Robyn. This is a YouTube video titled "1st April Nembutsu evening service" (created 2020-04-01T19:38:13Z). The excerpt is a Buddhist evening service/Nembutsu gathering with multiple participants (labeled SPEAKER A, B, and C). It contains repeated Amitabha/Nam-myoho-renge-kyo chanting, instructions to turn to page 13 of the service book, prostrations, liturgical recitations, dedications and invocations, and a short spoken reflection on coping during the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions. The recording alternates between communal chanting, ritual text reading, and brief pastoral remarks to practitioners.
Chapters
Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh! Amitabh! Amitabh! Amitabh! Amitabha! Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh.
Amitabh.
Amitabh! Amitabh!
Amitabh!
Amitabh! Amitabh! Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Ameedaboo.
Really lovely to see you all, or see your names, and hello if you're watching later on YouTube. Yeah, this is the bit where I say something, and it feels like there are so many things already being said at the moment about the times we're in. I have restricted myself to one view of Guardian website a day. Because of the fresh news that they are spewing out every 6 minutes, and the parts of me that feel that if I know the completely up-to-date news, then I will be safer or more in control, or I don't know what. And the reality is that there is a lot of unknown in our situation. I had an email from a colleague, Buddhist colleague in China today, and he said that they're just entering their second wave of the virus and that they're under restrictions again, and they're not at the moment as restrictive as the first wave of restrictions, but who knows, who knows what will happen next. It feels somehow as if it's been much longer than a week and a half, and also much shorter. We're sort of swimming in uncharted waters, all of us, and certainly my the work I do as a psychotherapist, if that's the random sample of people that I'm in touch with through that work or anything to go by, we are all having various extreme reactions to various parts of what's happening. It's different for different people. We've all got different like if something's coming in and prodding at us, like a— I've got a kind of a map, I'm imagining this sort of thing with lots of spikes on it, then we've all got little tender spots in different places, and we've got little holes in our armor or wounds that are already sore, and that different people are experiencing different anxieties, different angers, different confusions, different whatever. And I think that one of the things for me that's been so clear is how, how much refuge I have taken in all sorts of things that I can't do anymore. I found myself online yesterday for a 25 minutes shopping for vegan cheese, and I had £36 worth of vegan cheese in my basket before I kind of came to my senses and realized that actually I was just trying to comfort myself with something, with shopping and vegan cheese. I looked up a recipe instead and made that, and that's very nice, and that was free. But there's all these things that we have been doing that we can't do anymore, and that's leading to all kinds of instabilities. I'm aware that on camera it's annoying when people jiggle around, so I try not to jiggle around, but I'm a very jiggly around talker, so it's quite difficult. Jiggly around chanter as well, like Jarno. So I'll try and stay still. Yeah, and I guess that's what we're trying to do, isn't it? Is that we're kind of off balance, a lot of us, and we're trying to pull ourselves back with all the things we have at our disposal. And some of those things are seen by the world as functioning, our kind of manager parts, which maybe plan more, criticize us more, or try and get things into order. And we also have the parts that are kind of emergency stations, parts that make us eat chocolate or buy too much chocolate or watch too many programs on Netflix in a row. I was seeing Casper last night. So all of that is evidence that we have been leaning on the wrong things, and that's very human thing to do. We are bambu, we will continue to do that. And whenever one of these things is pulled away, it gives us an opportunity to remember that there is something to lean on that will not go away, that we can lean on the Buddha, that the Buddha isn't dependent on whether we're locked in our house or not. Isn't dependent on whether we're well or ill, whether we're sad or angry or happy, isn't dependent on how we behave. And that for me has been a biggie, that kind of drive to do more, to help more, to be of more use during these times. Amida doesn't need us to do more. Will be more. He/She is accepting us right now just as we are, and that's what we're reminding ourselves of as we practice here together. People from around the world who have an experience of Amida already, we're reminding ourselves that we're already plugged into that. And that we can rest on that. We can lean in, we can let ourselves just be. And it feels good to do that here with you all. There's a concentrated effect of Buddhists coming together. I'm really grateful that you're all here. And that as we chant, that you'll be chanting with us wherever you are. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
Namoha Amitabh. Namoha Amitabh. Namoha Amitabh. Namoh Amitabhu. Namoh Amitabhu. Namoh Amitabhu. Amitabh! Amitabh! Amitabh! Amitabh! Amitabh! Amitabh Buddha!
Amitabha— Please turn to page 13 of your service book for Evening service.
We're going to do prostrations.
We're now going to do prostrations.
Namami Tabuu.
Namah Amitabh. Namah Amitabh. Namah Amitabh. Namah Amitabh. Namaste. Namaste. Namaste.
Namaste.
Namaste.
Namoh Amitabh! Namoh Amitabh! Namoh Amitabh! Namoh Amitabh! Namoh Amrita Bhutanamoha!
Now please turn to page 13. With body, speech, and mind, humbly I prostrate and make offerings both set out and imagined. I confess my wrong deeds from all time and rejoice in the virtues of all. Please stay until samsara ceases and turn the wheel of Dharma for us. I dedicate all virtue to Great Enlightened. The ground sprinkled with perfume and spread with flowers, the great mountain full of sun and moon, Sinasah Buddha land and offered us. May all beings enjoy such pure lands. Hirdanguru Ratnamandala kamniryatayami. By the grace that I received through Amitabha's vows, may I be moved to deeds for the benefit of all. By the grace that I receive through Amitabha's vows, may I be moved to deeds for the benefit of all. By the grace that I receive through Amitabha's vows, may I be moved to deeds for the benefit of all. The purpose of our practice is to be a pure container wherein the common passions mature as higher wisdom. The preliminary outlook comes with bowing and contrition, facing up to my obstructions Unceasing life's first essence. Devotion to my teacher ends my smugness and dejection. Held by his compassion, I will find a straight direction. By refuge vows and precepts, recitation of the sutras, I grow through every challenge. Embodi Sattva aspiration. Cooperation in a sangha brings so many joys and freedoms. Through gentle words and gestures comes collective transformation. Settled faith and inner cleansing brings us home to life's great meaning. In the Four Divine Abidings, Buddha's light is always with us. Multitudes are disconcerted by impermanence and difference. With Dharma as true refuge, we dwell within the pure land. Now gratitude is overflowing. Going forth, returning richly, I offer gifts of Dharma. Buddha's path bliss bestowed. Innumerable are sentient beings. We vow to save them all. Inexhaustible are deluded passions. We try to transform them all. Immeasurable are the Dharma teachings. We vow to transform after them all. Infinite is the Buddha's way. We vow to fulfill it completely. Invocation of Akalanaṭṭha. Hail to the mandala! Let us so be engulfed within its praises evermore, that by our own wills and vigilance may we our fetters cut away. May we within the temple of our own hearts dwell amidst the myriad mountain Invocation of Mahakala. Let us be engulfed within the mandala of the Sangha of Buddha. The Arrow of Emptiness. Invocation of Farachana Buddha. Hell, hell, hell, magnificent mystic, the treasure. Hell, hell, hell, the golden bell that rings but once.
Peace upon the people. Bow to each other.
My bellmaster is telling me that the bell's too far away. He's got it now.
It's not the ideal circumstance to run a service in.
So if we could bow to each other, just bow to your left and right and imagine the people on either side of the screen. This is us bowing to you all and to the Buddha. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. I'm just going to stop the recording.
