Satya Robyn leads a Wednesday night Buddhist practice session with guided meditation, chanting the Kwan Yin mantra and Nembutsu, and a reflective talk that weaves T.S. Eliot with Qigong centering practice. A climbing anecdote illustrates how to stay present when fear arises.
Chapters
Welcome everybody to our Wednesday night practice. Really enjoyed the bell just then. I just felt like it was even more present. Than normal. So we're going to start with a little excerpt from The Center Within, which is by Gervaiso. It's one of the books we did in the book group a while back. Here is a question. Suppose you meet an enlightened person. What would you do? They know everything. Explanation is not needed, and yet you should not be silent. How would you act? Well, you meet enlightened ones every day. As soon as you step out of the door, you meet birds, dogs, flowers, the sky. Enlightenment is something beyond speech and silence. Meet everything face to face. This is important. A flower blooms, a dog barks, the wind blows. We have to be aware. On December 8th, Bodhi Day, Siddhartha met the Morning Star gently, kindly, and he attained enlightenment. Siddhartha had seen the star many times, but that particular morning he met the Morning Star face to face. The star was shining. When Siddhartha met that shining star, he understood and a new life was started. Do not over-intellectualize. Enlightenment does not need intellectualization. In life, there is immediate touch, immediate communication. A Spark Between Lives. Beyond speech and silence, there is a true world. This is the world that all true Buddhists have experienced for themselves and revealed to others. The whole world is enlightened. You are in enlightenment. Just open your life and meet it directly, intimately. For this you need awareness. You try to find enlightenment elsewhere, but it is here in your everyday life. The star is here and shining. Namamitabhu. So moving into a short period of meditation. So just have a little wiggle, a little shift of the body, making any little adjustments you need to make so that the body can be fairly relaxed and yet also be effortlessly alert. Maybe noticing the contact between the body and the floor and the air. And the breath. And there's an invitation, if you like, to see if you can settle in to the center of your being. Maybe settling into the heart or the belly and allowing all the rest of your experience to come to you— sensations, the images, the thoughts— being at the center of them and allowing them to come to you. In a moment, we're going to move into some chanting. We're going to chant the Kwan Yin mantra to Kwan Yin, the bodhisattva of compassion. And it's written on the little liturgy sheet beside you if you want to see it written down, and it goes: Namo Kwan Shee Yin Bo Sat. Nam. Kwan Shee Yin Bo Sat.
Nammo Kwan Shee Yin Bo Sat. Nammo Kwan Shee Yin Bo Sat. Namokwan Chi in Bosat. Namokwan Chi in Bosat. Namokwan Chi in Bosat. Namokwanji in Bosat. Namokwanji in Bosat. Namokwanji in Bosat. Namokwanji in Bosat. Namokwanji in Bosat. Namokwanji in Bosat. Namokwanji in Bosat. Namokwanji in Bosat. Namokwanji in Bosat. Namokwanji in Gosat. Namokwanji in Gosat. Namokwanji in Gosat. Namokwanji in vosat. Namokwanji in vosat. Namokwanji in vosat. Namo Kwanji in Bosat. Namo Kwanji in Bosat. Namo Kwanji in Bosat.
We're going to recite the refuges and precepts which are written down on the liturgy sheet. Mostly I say it and then you say it, and then I say a bit more and then you say a bit more. For refuge I go to the Buddha.
For refuge I go to the Buddha.
The one who is awake and full of love.
The one who is awake and full of love.
Namo Buddha.
Namo Buddha.
For refuge I go to the Dharma.
For refuge I go to the Dharma.
All that guides us to wisdom and compassion.
All that guides us to wisdom and compassion.
Namo Dharma. For refuge I go to the Sangha.
For refuge I go to the Sangha.
Those who live in the Buddha's light.
Those who live in the Buddha's light.
Namo Sangha.
Namo Sangha.
For refuge I go to the Earth.
For refuge I go to the Earth.
The holy ground of awakening.
The holy ground of awakening.
Namobhumya.
Namobhumya.
With faith in the Four Refuges.
With faith in the Four Refuges.
And in light of my human tendencies.
And in light of my human tendencies.
I pray that I may become aware.
I pray that I may become aware.
Of when I take life.
Of when I take life.
I pray that I may become aware— of when I take what is not freely given. I pray that I may become aware— of when I fall into sexual misconduct. I pray that I may become aware— of when I fall into wrong speech. I pray that I may become aware—
I pray that I may become aware of when I become intoxicated. Of when I become intoxicated.
No blame.
No blame.
Be kind.
Be kind.
Love everything.
Love everything. Innumerable are sentient beings.
We vow to save them all.
Inexhaustible are deluded passions.
We vow to transform them all.
Immeasurable are the Dharma teachings.
We vow to master them all.
Infinite is the Buddha's way.
We bow to fulfill it completely.
Amee de poo. So now I was like, am I going to start with the poem? And I'm like, yeah, I'm going to start with the poem, I'm going to finish with the poem. So I'm going to have like bookends. Some of you will probably know this. This is, um, T.S. Eliot. It's from the Four Quartets. At the still point of the turning world, neither flesh nor fleshless, neither from nor toward. At the still point, there the dance is, but neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity, where past and future are gathered, neither movement from nor towards, neither ascent nor decline, except for the point, the still point. There would be no dance, and there is only the dance. So my Qigong teacher is, is always telling us to drop the awareness into the belly, to soften the belly, to drop the awareness into the belly. And one of the things this does is helps to center the mind, and also help all movements to come from the center, which is obviously really helpful in Tai Chi and Qigong, and it's also really helpful in life in general. And there's a phrase that's been kind of just appearing in my mind often for the last period of time, months, maybe more than months. And it's just a, it's just a sentence, and it says, be at the center of your experience. This is, this is what it's saying to me. So it's me, be at the center of your experience. So sometimes I can feel like I'm a kind of octopus, and there's that center, which is this body, the body of the octopus. And then there's legs, and maybe there's more than 8 legs. Maybe it's a kind of crazy freak octopus with loads of legs. And, and each leg is like when my energy and my awareness rushes into something, whether it's like a situation or a memory or something I'm organizing or something I'm planning or the next thing in my day. And what can happen is all my energy can leave that center body and rush down to the, rush down to the tip of the leg. And sometimes, particularly this used to happen more, but, but sometimes it's almost as if that body just disappears. Yeah, and I'm just at the end of this leg and my energy's rushed and, you know, yeah. And, and, and that, and that sentence, you know, be at the center of your experience, for me is an immediate return back to the body of the octopus, back to the center, back to the still point. And this happens still now sometimes, and it used to happen more. And I think there can be— I think that's kind of quite relatable. I think that, I think that quite often we lose touch with our core, with our center. With that still point. And I think there can be this idea that as soon as you start practicing meditation or practicing, you know, spiritual practice, practicing Buddhism, that, that you should be able to really be in that center. Although quite helpfully in Pure Land Buddhism, there's obviously also this attitude that we're bonbu beings, we have this foolish nature, and of course we're going to get drawn out of our center on a regular basis by the world and by the life, and that, and that's okay. And that we often, we need something bigger than us, this bigger presence to help us to come back to that still point. And if I look at, you know, the— if I look at my life, I would say I'm definitely more— I'm in the center, in the body of that octopus more of the time, partly through Working through some of the things that draw me out of it, partly through spiritual practice, partly through getting a lot of practice hours in with clients, with therapy clients, of being in, in my center, being in touch with that presence. And yeah, obviously I am often still drawn out into the tips of the legs of the octopus, out into situations. And there's something about that, actually, although sometimes I can think, oh God, you know, I've lost it again. And, and, and yet there's something in that dance that T.S. Eliot is referring to, that You know, without that still point, there wouldn't be this dance between the turning world and the still point, the center. And actually, there's an opportunity there, an opportunity every time we find ourselves drawn out of our center, an opportunity to engage with something, particularly if it happened quite strongly. So the other day I was, uh, I was climbing and, um, I was doing the ropes for somebody and something happened and I don't really know what happened, but I lost control of the ropes and, um, panicked. And thankfully the person who was climbing was okay. They were fine and they bounced back. They actually seemed really unperturbed that it had happened. I was completely freaked out by the fact that it had happened, like, because they could have been, like, hurt. They definitely could have been hurt. And if it had happened outside, they could have been quite seriously injured. So they were there bouncing back from it, being like, oh, it's fine, yeah, you know, it happens, and you know what to do next time.
And we weren't outside.
And there's me, like, completely consumed by what had happened for, for a while. And, and so I was spending some time with what it— that had stirred up in me the next day. And I came across this, like, young part that was really scared, that was really scared that it lost control. And that someone could have been really hurt by that. And by hanging out with that younger part and being with it and processing some of that, I was able to return back to my center. And so that experience was part of the dance. That experience was an opportunity for me to engage with one of the things that takes me away. And we're given these kind of opportunities all the time. And so I'm grateful to be in this kind of tradition which really embraces the dance between settling more and more into that presence, that still point, and also knowing that we are going to be drawn out of it on a regular basis, and that's okay. So I'm gonna read the poem again. At the still point of the turning world, neither flesh nor fleshless neither from nor toward. At the still point there the dance is, but neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor toward, neither ascent nor decline, except for the point the still point, there would be no dance. And there is only the dance. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Moving into some stations, maybe chanting, moving the body in a kind of expression of surrendering to something bigger than ourselves, which if you're new you can just watch or you can join in.
In gratitude, we make this offering to all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space and time. May it be as fragrant as earth itself, reflecting our careful efforts, our wholehearted mindfulness, May we and all beings be companions of Buddha and the disciples. May we awaken from forgetfulness and realize our true home.
In the bell dings, we're going to bow one way and then the other way, and then we'll bow to the main shrine. We tidy our seats and we bow to our seats. So lovely announcements. Does it start this— does it start tomorrow night? You know, okay, so I'll do it in date order. So this Sunday night, Kirtan and curry, going to be gorgeous. So, so going to have dinner and then chanting and singing. If you want to come and you haven't told me yet, please tell me so I know how many people to cook for. 7 o'clock Sunday night. And then starting next week—
yeah, next— so from next Thursday evening, we've got the Essentials of Brighter Buddhism course starting one evening a week for 8 weeks, covering origins of Buddhism, the Nembutsu that we chant here, the Four Noble Truths, all the important teachings that make sense of what happens in this room. There may be space on the Zoom one. Probably not. Probably not.
Let me know if you're interested in Zoom.
But let's— yeah, let's actually know if you're interested in Zoom. There's definitely still space in the face-to-face group, so let me know if that's something. Yeah, which will happen downstairs in the living room here.
Thank you. Yeah, and then at some point in the spring, hoping to have a return of the book groups in a simpler, more easy, less labour-intensive format. Great. Blessed by Amitabha's light, may we care for all living things. Ah hooray!
