Satya Robyn leads a Buddhist group practice featuring readings from the Anguttara Nikaya, chants, and a Dharma talk that uses a crumpled-paper-to-origami metaphor to explore transformation and healing.
Chapters
Welcome everybody to this incredibly quiet little Saturday morning practice, and welcome to Klati joining us online.
So I'm going to start by reading a verse from the Anguttara Nikaya, translated by Thich Nhat Hanh. This body is not me. I am not caught in this body. I am life without boundaries. I have never been born and I have never died. Over there, the wide ocean and the sky with many galaxies all manifest from the basic consciousness. Since beginningless time, I have always been free. Birth and death are only a door through which we go in and out. Birth and death are only a game of hide and seek. So smile to me and take my hand and wave goodbye. Tomorrow we shall meet again, or even before. We shall always be meeting again at the true source, always meeting again on the myriad paths of life. I'll read it a second time. This body is not me. I am not caught in this body. I am life without boundaries. I've never been born and I've never died. Over there, the wide ocean and the sky with many galaxies, all manifests from the basis of consciousness. Since beginningless time, I have always been free. Birth and death are only a door through which we go in and out. Birth and death are only a game of hide and seek. So smile to me and take my hand and wave goodbye. Tomorrow we shall meet again, or even before. We shall always be meeting again at the true source, always meeting again on the myriad paths of life.
Namo Kwan Chi Inbo Sat. Namo Kwan Chi Inbo Sat. Namo Kwan Chi Inbo Sat. Namokwanji in vosat. Namokwanji in vosat. Namokwanji in vosat. Namokwanji Indosat. Namokwanji Indosat. Namokwanji Indosat. Namoh Kwan Chi Invo Sat. Namoh Kwan Chi Invo Sat. Namoh Kwan Chi Invo Sat. Namokwan shi in vosat. Namokwan shi in vosat. Namokwan shi in vosat. Namokwanji in vosat. Namokwanji in vosat. Namokwanji in vosat. Namo Kwanji Ngo Saat.
Nammo Kwanshi Ngo Saat.
Nammo Kwanshi Ngo Saat. Nammo Kwanshi Ngo Saat.
Satya Robyn.
Namokwanji in Bosan. Namokwanji in Bosan. Namokwanji in Bosan. Namokwanji in Bosat. Namokwanji in Bosat. Namokwanji. Namo Kwan Chi Invo Sat. Namo Kwan Chi Invo Sat. Namo Kwanshi Ingo Satya Robyn. Namo Kwanshi Ingo Satya Robyn. Namo Kwanshi Ingo Satya Robyn. Namo Kwan Chi Inbo Sat. Namo Kwan Chi Inbo Sat. Namo Kwan Chi Inbo Sat. Namoh Kwan Chi Inbosa. Namoh Kwan Chi Inbosa. Namoh Kwan Chi Inbosa. Namokwanji in Bosa. Namokwanji in Bosa. Namokwanji in Bos— Namoh Kwanji Indosat. Namoh Kwanji Indosat. Namoh Kwanji Indosat. Namokwanji in Bosasa. Namokwanji in Bosasa. Namokwanji.
For refuge, I go to the Buddha. The one who is awake and full of love. Namo Buddha. For refuge I go to the Dharma, all that guides us to wisdom and compassion. Namo Dharma. For refuge I go to the Sangha, those who live in the Buddha's light. Namo Sangha. For refuge I go to the Earth, the holy ground of Awakening. Namo Bumiye. With faith in the Four Refuges, and in light of my human tendencies, I pray that I may become aware 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 of when I become intoxicated. No blame. Be kind. 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 vow to fulfill it completely.
A client, therapy client of mine, shared a really beautiful image, story that had arisen for them at the end of a therapy session and gave me permission to put it into a Dharma talk. So much gratitude to that client. So their image, their story was that somehow throughout the session there would have been this— and possibly existing for much longer than that— there'd been this crumpled up bit of paper, scrunched up, crumpled up, tossed to one side, that it'd been, been kicked about on the floor, gathering dust, gathering scuff marks. Whatever its previous use had been, had been long forgotten. Whether it was a letter or a shopping list, who knows, who knows. It had become this scrunched up ball of paper. It was kicking around on the floor. And that somehow at the end of the session, or towards the end of the session, by the end of the session, they had experienced that an unseen hand had picked up this piece of paper and smoothed it out, smoothed it out, uncrumpled it, smoothed out some of the creases as best as possible, and crafted it into a beautiful piece of origami. It's quite moving, actually. Into a beautiful piece of origami, this discarded bit of pepper. Had been noticed, had been transformed, had entered another life, another stage of life whereby it— whatever it had been before it was a scrumpled up piece of paper— become a scrumpled up piece of paper and then had been noticed and remembered and cared for and transformed into this beautiful piece of origami. And I had, I had just a little look into the origins of origami because I was curious, and no one seems to be very clear as to where it originated. But there was, there was a bit of a story that I read that Obviously the original types of paper were like bark and, you know, plant matter, that kind of thing that wasn't very flexible and didn't fold, so it wouldn't have come from that time. And then gradually as things evolved and as people started to make handmade paper, so offerings to the gods, to the deities, would be wrapped in these beautiful pieces of handmade paper and placed on the shrine, whether that was a Buddhist shrine or whether it was a shrine to the original nature deities of Japan, um, or all of those, all of the above. And, and so it's been part of this ritual, and, and, and that's a very different story. Yeah, that's a story of something that has been cared for throughout its life. Yeah, so like with right from the gathering of the plant matter and the materials and the water all required to make the paper. The paper-making process probably would have taken a very long time, hours, maybe days, probably days actually, because it gets all shredded and mulched down and then spread out and dried out by the sun, doesn't it? So probably days, you know, it really being cared for and loved and nurtured and had rituals around it all the way right, and then until it was a piece of paper, and then it was wrapped around some offerings to the shrines. And so that, that's a very different story that had been cared for right from the beginning, and that, that had been explicit. And I feel like both of those stories are happening in us. Both of those stories have the potential to happen in us. So on the one side, we can explicitly, if we want to, with intention, work enough, engage enough with the protective layers in our being to access some of those scrumpled up pieces of paper, those discarded parts of ourselves, the, the forgotten, the lost. And we can consciously engage with those scrumpled papers and, and care for them and bring them into the light of awareness, into the light of love. And perhaps if they want to, they might become unscrumpled and they might become beautiful pieces of origami. And we can engage in that process deliberately. And then also sometimes it happens completely by itself. And there was— there is a sense that, that the awakened consciousness, that Amida is, is always there, ready to take a scrumpled, discarded aspect of us and smooth it out and care for it and nurture it and allow it, give it the positive conditions to be transformed into a beautiful piece of origami. And that also the other story is also true, whereby the paper was made and loved and, you know, cared for throughout its life until it became part of an offering on a shrine. And that there is also that the, the universe, even purely the earth, is always providing us nourishment and some level, some level of care. Yeah, even if, however difficult our circumstances may have been at different times of our lives, to still be alive now, we've, we, we've experienced a huge amount of nurture and care through different forms, through different ways. So I was really, really grateful to my, to my client for sharing this powerful, powerful, powerful image and story with me, and for that also to open up the other story of our, of perhaps the origins of origami being the way that handmade paper was folded to wrap around things on a shrine. And to bring in this openness that both of those things are available to us, that both the constant nurture, care, love, awareness, embrace of the infinite is always there. And we often don't have access to it, often it is obscured. But it's, it's always there. It's always there. And on the other hand, it's also sometimes when we least expect it, uh, unloved, forgotten dimension within us, energy within us can be picked up and smoothed out and cared for and remembered and remembered, remembered as part of our body, mind, being. And turned into a beautiful piece of origami. Namomi debu.
Namaste. Namaste. Namaste. In gratitude, we make this offering to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space and time. May it be fragrant as the Earth herself, reflecting our careful efforts, our wholehearted awareness, and the fruits of understanding slowly ripen. May we and all beings be companions, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. May we awaken from forgetfulness. And realize how true that is. We have a volunteer hour next Saturday from 11 to 12. So if you would like to come and do a bit of gardening or anything else like that, then please do come along and join us. And we are still planning a yatra for a day in September, and so there'll be more information to follow. That would be really lovely. That's a long way off. That'd be a long walk on the hills, a long mindful walk on the hills for the day. And we have an opening morning— thank you—
on the 25th of July. Do invite people along, they're always fun and there's always cake. Blessed by Annie Tarver's light, may we care for all living beings.
Anna Olivia.
