Satya Robyn introduces Bright Earth Buddhism, a practice rooted in Pure Land Buddhism that emphasizes radical inclusivity, devotion, and refuge. The talk traces influences from Pema Chödrön and Suzuki, explores how to integrate nature and climate concerns into practice, and offers guidance on finding teachers and building daily practice.
Chapters
So welcome everybody, and, um, this is an introduction to Pure Land Buddhism, but it's also, I guess, uh, my personal story, how I, how I landed in this place of, um, being in relationship with the Buddha. With the Buddha and the teachings of the Buddha. And yes, so I'll speak for about 20-30 minutes and then we'll have time for questions at the end. I feel like I've forgotten to say something, but if I have, hopefully it will come back. So I grew up— we'll begin at the beginning— I grew up um, a very, um, self-sufficient kind of person. I was, um, I was kind of trained to only trust my own, um, judgment, to take pride in being self-reliant, and that suited me really well. There were lots of advantages to that. I got lots of things done. I, I, I didn't have to be vulnerable and ask people for help. I learned a lot of things that I probably wouldn't have learned otherwise. And, and that served me really well for, um, many years until, um, I reached a point in my life where I couldn't manage things anymore. So I was in a relationship with a lovely man who was also in a relationship with drinking, and as his drinking progressed Um, I started to meet my limits in a way that I hadn't met them before. I, um, I'm, I'm quite good at, uh, helping people. I'm quite good at, uh, kind of behaving— you know, I'm trying to think how to say this without saying quite good at—
not—
it's not always manipulation, but I'm quite good at influ— let's say influencing people. Um, and all of the things that I was trying in this relationship were not working. He was getting sicker. He was, he was getting more, um, more dependent on the alcohol and less in control of other areas of his life. And, uh, I was also getting sicker. I was also leaning more and more into trying to change the reality of, of what was happening, to try and change him. So eventually I reached a point where the desperation or the distress or the, uh, the kind of the— what was still a real kind of need to what I thought I really wanted was to get better at manipulation in order to fix this. That reached a point that, that I, I went to, um, I asked for help basically. I went to a 12-step group for people who are affected by someone else's drinking, um, and, and I, I say this and I think it's still true, it's probably one of the scariest things I've done was walk into that room, which doesn't really make any sense because it was just, you 7 people sat around in a, in a church, uh, you know, kind of a community room in a church. Um, but there was something symbolic about what I was doing internally, which was acknowledging my helplessness. Step 1, I was acknowledging that I was not in control. Um, and to my surprise, I think most people that go to this group are surprised by this, they didn't have, uh, any, uh, advice for me about how I could change my partner. That, that actually wasn't what it was about. But they did have lots of advice about how I could look at myself and my own part in what was happening. And, uh, how well I was looking after myself. Um, and the big thing that I encountered in that group, which, which changed my life forever, was that people kept talking about God, people kept talking about higher power. Um, and at that point I was, I was atheist. I was very proudly um, didn't believe that anything happened when you died, didn't believe in anything spiritual. Um, so it was quite, uh, it was quite challenging to, to notice over time that the people that I really admired in the, in that group, the ones that were, seemed to be most well, seemed to be living good lives and were, um, making jokes and were, you know, saying wise things, that those were the people that also talked about their higher power. It's like there was this, um, this confluence between those two things. Um, and you're advised to get a sponsor, so I got a sponsor. And the person that I asked was a, a lovely woman called Rosie, who I'm still in touch with, who talks about God all the time. And one of the first things she said to me is that when she, when she joined the 12 steps, she hated the word God and she, she wasn't at all spiritual. Um, and that helped me, that helped me to feel open to something that I hadn't been open to before. Um, so my, my year or two in that group and similar groups was the, the first crack in my, in my self-protection, in my, in my self-protective defenses against the idea that maybe I didn't know everything, that maybe there was something bigger than me that, that I could be in relationship with and that I could lean into in some way. Because that's what happened. That's what, as I, as I practiced, as I did the things that I was advised to do, handed things over or asked for help, or meditated, or all those things, as I did those things, what I noticed is my life got better. My life improved. And sometimes answers came to me that didn't feel like they came from inside me. It felt like they came from outside. Um, and yeah, it was, it was a gift. So when I did encounter Buddhism, it's like the ground had been prepared. It's like the there was the seeds that went in, there was something for the seeds to be nourished by and something that allowed those seeds to grow. And the seeds were quite simple. The first seeds, I think, were quotes that I found online by Pema Chödrön that I just liked what she was saying. I didn't know who she was. I didn't know she was Buddhist. So I followed that thread and I, um, read a little bit about her and, and just kind of formed that kind of connection where you— like with my sponsor, where she had something I wanted. She knew stuff, or she was living in a way that I admired or that I wanted to emulate. Um, and then the next big seed was, um, the book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Suzuki Shinryu, the Zen, the amazing Zen teacher, which I understood very little of. I read it, I read it as if it was sort of medicine that I'm, I kind of thought must be good for me somehow, but I didn't really know what he was talking about most of the time, but there was something about his, his way of being, his manner, that again, I, I, I, I was like, oh, he's got something, he's got something here that I haven't really seen anywhere else and that I want more of. I want to be more like him. I want to, I want to learn from him. Um, and then it was many, many years before I, I, I had a little dalliance with a, a Zen group, um, when I was, um, when I was young. And, um, I, um, and that didn't quite work out. It didn't, wasn't quite right. So, so that nothing really happened until I must have had some reason to put therapy and Buddhism. I was looking for a course, a, a kind of, uh, some further learning as a therapist, and I put therapy and Buddhism in the search engine. And, um, the, the group that came up were the Amida Order, where I met my future spouse, who's downstairs at the moment with her dogs, and I met my, my first proper Buddhist teacher. Who, um, who I ordained with. So there's a bit of a fast— there's a bit of a gap there between— but, but I guess that, that what's interesting is the— that we just have to follow these little threads, and we never really know where the threads are taking us, but somehow, somehow they, they took me in exactly the right direction, in exactly the right direction. Um, so, uh, that's a kind of a very potted history of, of how I, how I first opened up to Buddhism. And I'll maybe say a little bit now about Bright Earth Buddhism and about the, the kind of the influences, um, that have come into Bright Earth Buddhism. So the main influence in Bright Earth Buddhism is Pure Land Buddhism, the Japanese form of Buddhism that is still very popular in Japan. The School of Jodo Shinshu are the largest Pure Land school. There are several things, and, and my, my first teacher was a Pure Land Buddhist. There are several things about Pure Land Buddhism that particularly appeal to me with my psychology or with my karma. And we can talk about— we have karmic affinity for various things. The first is that it talks about— many of you on the call know about this— it talks about how foolish we are. It talks about foolish beings who are driven by their greed and their hate and their delusion. And the idea is that this is our starting position, is that we are all foolish beings.. And there's something about that which I think I find quite rare in, um, in spiritual traditions. I guess that there, there is, there is lots of talk about sin and, um, you know, kind of our, uh, our leaning towards doing bad things. This is, this is, this felt different to me. It was more a very warm acknowledgement of of just how limited we are, just how fallible we are, just how, just how, how our self-protection, um, leads us to cause harm to ourselves, cause harm to other people, um, in all kinds of ways. So something about the honesty of that that really appeals to me because it, it, it both allows me to be honest about myself and it helps me to be in relationship with other foolish beings. Um, the other thing about Pure Land Buddhism that appeals to me is that we are told that the Buddha accepts us just as we are. So it comes together with, with, with our fallibility and our limited nature. It comes as one, is that that's how we are, and the Buddha gets that and really appreciates it. Us, uh, really, really accepts us, really gets why we are that way, and, and is able to, is able to love us all the way through. So we talk about, um, the Buddha having, having compassion that kind of penetrates right inside into all the murky places inside us that haven't received light. Um, I really like the radical inclusivity of Pure Land Buddhism, that it, it, it, it came at a time in Japan where— oh, somebody's just arrived. Um, hi Andrew, welcome. I'm just talking about, uh, Pure Land Buddhism. So, so Pure Land Buddhism emerged at a time in Japan when it— in order to be Buddhist, you had to be a monk, or you had to be from a rich family, or you had to be able to do lots of learning and studying. You had to, to have a certain amount of money. Pure Land Buddhism emerged from a desire to offer the kind of the preciousness of, of the teachings to everybody, regardless of how um, regardless of how much money they had or what families they were born into. And I think that that has persisted into modern-day Pure Land Buddhism in lots of ways. Um, and I also, uh, really appreciate that there's something quite grounded about— there's— when I encounter Pure Land Buddhism, when I encounter, um, heritage Buddhists practicing Pure Land Buddhism, there's something just very ordinary about it. It's just very down to earth. And that, you know, in the churches, in, in the temples in Japan, there'll often be children at the back running around, or that it's a real kind of, um, there's something kind of just ordinary about it. And I really like that. So Pure Land Buddhism is our biggest influence at Bright Earth, but we also have absorbed lots of things from different places, as we all do, that the natural world is really important to us. Both Caspar, my spouse, and I were pretty involved with climate activism about 5 years ago and really connected with the reality of what's happening to our planet. So it feels really crucially important to, as Buddhists, as people that care about where we live, to weave that in weave that right into what we do. And also as a resource, as a huge resource to have nature as, well, we've taken nature as our, we've taken the earth as our fourth refuge, which is quite unusual. So along with leaning into the Buddha, leaning into the Buddha's teachings, and leaning into the community of Buddhists, we lean into the earth at Bright Earth. Um, we also, uh, we also really encourage people to think about how the teachings they receive change them in their daily lives. So if it's not actually changing how we are in our daily lives when we're talking to our annoying relatives or, um, when we're, you know, going about our lives Um, has— have our teachings actually made any difference to those things? And if not, then I don't know, maybe they're not so much— not so useful. Um, we're also quite devotional at Bright Earth, which isn't for everybody. I think that especially these days, especially in the UK, not so much in America maybe, that there is, um, there's a lot of wariness around anything that kind of puts us into relationship with the mystery of spiritual relationship, that kind of a relationship between me and the something other, the something bigger, the that we can call the Buddha, but we could also call by other names that we— I think that for me, it's one of the things that's been the most helpful to me, that relationship. So it's something— and for other people that practice with us. So that's something that we— that is a part of our offering, and it's not You know, some people do find that helpful and some people don't get it, and that's fine. But we're not embarrassed to talk about devotion and the divine at Bright Earth, however people want to experience that. And I guess that the other thing that is important to us and important to me is that we hope that over time people come to experience, um, refuge, which is, which is essential. You know, all, all Buddhists talk about refuge. Um, for me, there is something really important about knowing that I can lean in, knowing that I can, um, over time develop a relationship with Buddhist teachings, with nature, with other people that I practice with, that holds me, that kind of supports me in a particular way. So refuge is really, I want to say it's what it's all about. I could say that lots of things are what it's all about because I think there are lots of windows onto the whole But, but refuge is important, and it, it's quite a difficult sell. It's quite difficult to talk about because until you practice a bit, until you kind of dip your toe in the water, in these, in these waters, you know, Bright Earth waters or wherever waters— I don't mind where people get their spiritual nourishment, I just really would love for them to have that relationship— until you do it, it's hard to really know what it's like. And I was lucky in a lot of ways because I was forced into that room by my desperation, by coming to the end of myself. And I think that sometimes people have to suffer a lot before they get there, but not always. And hopefully that's one of the— well, that's one of the reasons why I'm here tonight speaking to you all, having made this offering, because I really would love for other people to get a taste of this thing that I have. And even though it is difficult to talk about it, and it's, it's, uh, maybe it's a kind of a countercultural thing in some ways, it feels too precious to keep to myself. I want to share it around. Um, and yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? I did, uh, a fate— I'll stop talking in a minute, but I did a Facebook event for this and paid for it to be shown to people. And there were, I think, 100— more than 100 people clicked, maybe. Maybe, maybe, maybe. And some of those people would have clicked it by mistake. But most people, there was something about the offering that intrigued them, that just led them to to click maybe. But going from maybe to even stepping in the door is quite a big deal. So, you know, the couple of you that are brand new tonight, well done, you made it through that door in a way that lots of other people didn't. And, you know, maybe unsurprisingly everyone else here tonight, I know already, we have a relationship already. There's something, yeah, there's something I, yeah, well, there'll be lots of reasons why people didn't actually come, but I think it's a very, I think it's a very personal and vulnerable thing, what I'm talking about tonight. I felt quite nervous before I came onto the call because it is, it's vulnerable. It's something that's kind of deeply private in some way. And it's also something that I think, um, for me is really closely related to trust. Like, how can I trust— how can I trust this person who's, who's sharing these things? Um, because people are people, as, as Pure Land Buddhism tells us. Uh, people are fallible and limited. Um, but also, how can I trust this thing that I'm talking about that, that is bigger than us. Which brings me back to the beginning of the talk, I guess, that, that until I stepped into that room, I, I only trusted myself. And I had good reason for that, you know. I, I had— it was safest to just trust myself. And, and that worked for a long time until I was forced to see that I needed something more. And now I know that I can trust myself, but I'm not— I don't know as much as the Buddha, and, and I trust the Buddha more, and that works so much better for me. And of course, we have to discern. We have to discern when it comes to Buddhist teachings, Buddhist teachers, um, kind of test whether something feels right to us inside us. I don't think it's helpful to blindly trust anything or anyone. And I guess that what I'm here to share from my own experience today is that there is something that we can trust, and, and when we get to know that thing, it's really wonderful. And I'm very grateful to it. It's underneath everything else in my life. I sometimes say that my relationship with the Buddha, or my relationship with nature, or that kind of not being, not knowing everything, and knowing that there is something else that knows more, is right underneath everything else in my life. And It provides me with a lot of consolation. So, there are other things I could say, but you've been listening to me very patiently for half an hour. I could, it would be really, if you were willing to ask questions and be on the video, that would be amazing. So, other people could hear the questions and hear my answers. But what I might do is, you can, if you don't want to speak, you can just type it in the chat. And then maybe I'll stop the video at a certain point, so if you've got a question you don't want to be recorded, we could do that as well. Um, and if you— you can ask me a question about anything, anything I've said, anything about Bright Earth Buddhism, any, uh, doubts or, or kind of skepticisms or, or confusions you have when it comes to spirituality. Or anything practical about Bright Earth, the floor is yours. So just, you could just unmute or just put your hand up and I'll come to you. So was that you? Did you say something, Alison? Maybe not. So I've got a question from, uh, Martin, so I will read that out if that's okay, Martin, and answer it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm happy to ask the question, but I just thought it— I typed it as earlier on, so yeah.
Do you want to read it yourself?
No, no, please go ahead.
Yes, okay, okay. So Martin says, I wanted to ask about the divine and what this is or means to you and others. I have an issue with humanesque gods, but that might just be me and my personal perspective. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, I think that's a really great question, and, um, I think you're not alone in having that question. Um, so my answer will be my personal answer, and I know that some of my fellow Buddhists find me a little bit, um, divine heavy, or, um, a little bit— I always remember that one of my colleagues called me a Christian Buddhist once with such disdain. Um, so, so first of all, for me, um, I'm really happy with humanesque gods. I'm happy with, uh, whatever, whatever it is, as long as it is communicating something to me that is helpful. So if it, if it contains compassion and wisdom I don't really mind where it comes from, and I don't know, I don't know whether there's such a thing as, as gods or not. Um, but I've got an open mind, which was, which, you know, and however, however many years ago before I was— the atheist version of me would be absolutely horrified at that answer. Um, but when it comes to Buddhists, I guess that most Buddhists tend to be— well, ancient Buddhism, there were hundreds of devas and gods and dragons and all kinds of things. So there's a lot of that, there's a lot of that in the, in the old texts. But a lot of Buddhists these days, um, are, are in relationship with the historical Buddha, who was a man who lived in India, who was very, um, you know, who was enlightened, who had lots of amazing things to pass on. And they might just leave it as that. They might just see that they're in relationship with him and his teachings. Or they might go so far as to think that there are Buddhas that exist in some kind of other space. I guess that— how do— what do I want to say about this? I guess that the, the— what might be interesting is— what might be interesting for, for one to be curious about oneself is, um, what are the objections and what are those objections kind of wanting to protect you from? What's the danger of there maybe being something that is out there that we don't understand? But to be, I think that to be, to have a spiritual life, it's not compulsory that you believe in anything really. A spiritual life depends on your relationship with however it is you want to describe it, as long as it's not you. And, and even if it's the best of you, even if it's something in you, you know, Buddha nature or self-energy, we would say in IFS, if you're in relationship with that, then that's the important bit. And, and, and you'll know that you're in relationship with that because of how it feels. Um, this is— this— I don't know if this is helping at all because it's not really. It, it's, it's a very personal thing. It's a very personal thing. So, so, so I would say take what you like and leave the rest, but continue to be curious about the things that you don't like. And one of my old Buddhist teachers used to say, just put it on a shelf, like put it on a shelf out the way. You don't have to look at it, but just leave it there. And, and then it may be that you're interested in going back and looking at it sometime, and it may be that you're not, and that's totally fine. Does that help?
Yes, it does. I think I'm in a way wondering if there's something that you sort of hang your hat on, as it were, if there is one thing. So you may believe there is a creator, or you may not. And it's just trying to get my head around that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and that is an interesting one because personally I don't think that, um, the Buddha is an interventionist. It doesn't tend to be seen as an interventionist kind of energy, that the Buddha would, would suffer alongside you but, but wouldn't necessarily be, you know, punishing or saving or creating things that happen. So that, so that I think that probably is more of a Christian idea. Yeah. I think, I think, you know, who knows any of this stuff really? I think for me there's something about what, what kind of being would I want to put my faith into? I wouldn't want to put my faith into a kind of a being that punished. I just don't think it makes any sense. I think we cause our, you know, we cause enough of our own punishments human beings to not have to worry about that. I think that karma kind of takes care of that. So for me, whatever it is, is loving but doesn't stop suffering from happening, you know, and isn't causing suffering, I would say. But yeah, we could probably have a whole, at least a whole hour's conversation about that. And I'm really interested in what other people have to say as well because, you know, I've got one take and, you know, I've learned lots of things from the things I've studied, but I think that these are the kinds of questions that are really live and that we can, you know, we can think about. And how do they support us? Or how do these beliefs support us? Or how do they get in the way? Or that kind of thing. So yeah, thank you. Thank you for the question. So thank you. Ruth has a couple of questions. Can you tell us about, um, do you want to read them, Ruth, or I can read? Thank you. Yeah, yeah, I was curious about, I mean, that was really interesting what you just said, um, um, yeah, about Buddha Amida. So how does he help? Is he, I know you said Christian Buddhist, you know, um, how does he help with practice and how is it different from believing in God. Yeah. And then the enlightenment thing is, for me, it's a really tricky area. It's like, oh, Buddhism would be great if we didn't have to keep banging on about enlightenment all the time. Wow. It just seems so far away. Well, we don't really talk about enlightenment in Pure Land Buddhism. So there you go. Yeah. So yeah, thank you. So Buddha Amida, for people who don't know, is a myth the logical Buddha that, that Shakyamuni Buddha, the Buddha who lived in India a couple of thousand years ago, talked about. And Amida Buddha is the Buddha of infinite light. Um, so, so one of the things that Amida Buddha embodies is, is, is acceptance and compassion. Um, so how he helps with practice, uh, I, I'll answer for myself because other people might give you different answers. There is something for me about knowing that I am seen and accepted and loved that is profoundly powerful. And I don't believe it most of the time. I kind of, I know it in theory, but that sometimes when I get a feeling of that, it kind of shifts everything in my life. So that's one way that Amida helps us to practice. There are practices that one can do as visualization practices, which Chinese Pure Land Buddhists especially do. Japanese Pure Land Buddhists tend to just have one practice, which is very simple, which is we just say the name of Amida Buddha. We chant it or say it, and in saying the name, we are connecting with the, the kind of the salvific power of Amida Buddha. So that what this, what this, the kind of the old teachings say is that if we call out we will be received by Amida Buddha and we will be reborn in their Pure Land, which is their kind of their, their field of merit around them. So you can either see that as happening when we actually die, and then the idea is that we're born into an environment where we are easily enlightened, and then we come back and help everyone. Um, and, and so there's a consolation in knowing that, that we'll be okay when we die. Or you can see that the Pure Land almost arises around us once we come into relationship with that power. So if we are influenced by being around something very loving, we begin to see the world through those eyes. And we may be, rather than seeing people and judging them, we might see them and feel tender towards them because we can, you know, imagine their suffering. Or we might make gardens, or we might, you know, we might create our own little pure lands around us. So there can be something in the moment that, that is transformative. That's a very sort of abbreviated answer to that question, because again, it's a, it's, it's a big question. Um, yeah, yeah. And, and Enlightenment as a goal— I, I'm quite glad that we don't talk about Enlightenment because I, I feel like I've never met anyone that's anywhere near enlightened. I've met some amazing people. I've met some, you know, teachers who are wonderful. And as I get to know them, I see their pompu nature. And that certainly applies to me as well. So I don't find it personally, I don't find it a helpful idea. Partly because I've got lots of striving parts. So my striving parts would really just love to, okay, I'm going to become enlightened. And, and get caught in that way. Um, but also because I don't think it helps me to be a better person, actually. Um, because it's about, it's about a sort of, ah, it, it, it's, for me, it's really hard to think about enlightenment without falling into spiritual bypassing or without becoming a bit less honest about how messed up I really am. So, so for me, there's something, hope, maybe even more enlightening about just really being bomboo, about just really being human and, and limited. Yeah. But you know, different things are helpful for different people. So I, I, I, I'm not saying that that's not a helpful thing. And I think that's one of the things about finding a, a kind of a spiritual group home that feels supportive is that we need to find something that works for us with our particular histories. And yeah, also they're all human too, aren't they? So it's, we find the kind of the best fit that we can. Yeah. Thank you. Interesting questions.
Thank you.
Does anyone else want to ask a question by just unmuting or write something in the chat?
Oh, I've got—
I'm sorry, I'll just scroll down. Sorry, Alison, I've got your question now. Do you want to read it or should I just read it? You shall read it. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so Alison says, I'm in an area of the country where is— there is very little access to an in-person sangha. If I'm seeking a teacher to delve deeper into my practice How would I go about seeking out others in my area? There's only so much I can learn with solo study. How should I go about developing a daily practice? Any recommendations? Great questions. Um, so I think that when you're seeking out a teacher, you can really let the— I would say let the Buddha help you do that, um, by really just tuning into what feels safe, what feels healthy, um, what feels right. And it won't always feel comfortable. I think that sometimes the teachers that are the most helpful for us are the ones that, um, that aren't just, um, kind of taking us where we are already, that, that, that there may be something uncomfortable about it, but not uncomfortable in a way that feels unsafe. I personally, when I'm looking for teachers, I find it helpful to connect with people who are honest about themselves. So people that are able to look at, you know, kind of own their own dysfunction or don't put themselves into a category of guru. Someone that's maybe living a life that you think, oh, they seem to be happy. They seem to be, you know, they're living a good life. Someone that's got something that you would like. It might be, it might just be steadiness, or it might be little bits of wisdom that you get from them. So it's kind of like following the breadcrumbs, I think. And it is helpful to have in-person contact if you can. So pay particular attention to the people that are close to you geographically. Um, and maybe you do a bit of practice with people locally that it's not the best fit, but it's, you know, it's better than not practicing with people. Um, but now with the, uh, with the internet, I think it's also a lot more possible to connect with sanghas and teachers who are further away. And, um, the same applies, you know, you came tonight, so that's a little breadcrumb that you followed, and you might want to follow some more breadcrumbs into Bright Earth. Or it might be that it's not quite right. So, so just really trust yourself, um, and, and ask the Buddha to help you. Ask the Buddha to kind of show you what the next steps might be. Just pay attention to other people that you're listening to, or books that you read, or what you kind of stumble across, um, And a daily practice, again, I think it's really personal. On the Bright Earth website, we do have a section which, which is talking about different things you can do in a daily practice. So you can have a look on there. I don't know what kind of person you are, but for me, it's best to keep it simple because if I make it really complicated, I don't do it. So I have a very simple daily practice, which is just saying venembutsu is just chanting for 10 minutes. And I'm lucky because I get to go to practice with other people. But I would keep it simple and meaningful. And there is something about repeating things over and over that becomes powerful. So choose something that you do every day. It might just be, you know, make a little— I've got a little shrine behind me. I've got— we've got shrines in most of our rooms. Just make a little shrine and light a candle or just bow to the sun or, um, anything that feels meaningful to you. Um, and keep going. I would say don't give up looking for community, um, because it is really, it is really supportive. It, it is difficult to, I find it difficult to continue on my own, um, without the people that I practice with. It would all be a lot harder. Um, but yeah, but the Buddha accepts you just as you are, so you don't have to worry about— you don't have to worry about doing anything in order to be a good Buddhist or doing anything in order to, um, get anywhere special. Or, uh, I really like the idea of practice as being a sort of an expression of gratitude for what we've already received rather than something we're doing in order to to get something or to be someone different. Um, yeah. Have you got any, any follow-up questions about— if you have, put them in the chat. Yeah, thank you. Good. Any other questions? Or anything that is troubling you. Maybe I'll, uh, stop the recorder now, and then if there aren't any other questions, that's fine. But I'm going to, um, press stop. Thank you for being here. If you, uh, have watched later, and, um, go to the website brightearth.org.
