Birth of the Buddha - evening practice

Welcome everybody, welcome everybody here in person, welcome to those joining online. We're going to begin by listening to Anji read The ancestor prayer.

Before we take Our next action, we pause to remember our ancestors. We remember our Indian ancestors, firstly Shakyamuni, who is born in Lambini and enlightened in Bodhgaya and set the Dharma wheel turning in this age. We remember those who came before Shakyamuni and passed their wisdom to him. We remember Maha Prajapati, who walked 150 miles, one step after another, before becoming the first Buddhist nun. We remember the monastic and lay disciplines of the Buddha and generations of teachers that spread Buddhism through the East and throughout the world, and who refreshed the precious Dharma. We remember awakened beings of all spiritual traditions, trusting that wisdom appears in the world in many different ways, at many different times, in many different places. We call to mind the wisdom of marginalized and oppressed groups much of which has already been lost. We remember our biological ancestors, our parents and grandparents, known and unknown generations stretching back through time to the first humans in Africa. We remember the ancestors of our chosen families, We remember the ancestors of our own mind stream, the beings of our precious lives who practiced Dharma and brought light and joy to others. We remember people across the world who stood against oppression and for human rights and the rights of all living things and for the Earth. We remember those who have oppressed and marginalized and harmed. We carry the legacies of all of these ancestors, their gifts and their burdens. How wonderful to have the opportunity to work with all that has been handed down to us. We remember our great ancestor, the Earth, and her great ancestor, the universe itself. Ancient Buddhas and ancestors were as we. We shall come to be Buddhas and ancestors. Venerating Buddhas and ancestors, we are one with Buddhas and ancestors. Contemplating awakened mind, we are one with awakened mind. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

In the meditation known as just sitting, shikantaza, mōzazen, there are no— the only instructions given are the way to sit, the shape your body should be in, upright and easy like a mountain. No instruction is given on how to breathe or what to do with your awareness, simply to sit. If there is any instruction given, it might be to notice what you notice. That's my invitation for this period of silence to sit and notice what you notice. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. 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. For refuge I go to the Dharma, all that guides us to wisdom and compassion. Namo Dharmaya. For refuge I go to the Sangha, those who live in the Buddha's light.

Those who live in the Buddha's light.

Namo Sanghaya.

Namo Sanghaya.

With faith in the Three Jewels.

With faith in the Three Jewels.

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— —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 sentient beings, we vow to save them all. Inexhaustible arduous passions, we vow to transform them all.

Immeasurable are the Dharma teachings.

We vow to master them all.

Infertile is the bodhisattva's wife.

We vow to fall faithfully. I've been thinking about the birth of the Buddha recently, uh, Shakyamuni Buddha, the human being. Who started the whole tradition. Partly because in a few weeks we're going to be celebrating the Buddha's birthday on the April 12th retreat, partly because a couple of days ago some of us attended a celebration of the birthday of the Buddha in Hawaii on Zoom. We didn't all fly over for an hour and then come back again. And there's two different kinds of stories that are told about the Buddha's birth, and they're both important, and they're both stories about our own spiritual lives as much as they are anything to do with the birth of the actual Buddha. So the first is a story of cause and effect, that the Buddha lived many previous lifetimes, spending 10 lifetimes perfecting the virtue of compassion and 10 lifetimes perfecting the virtue of patience. 10 lifetimes perfecting the virtue of kindness, of vigor, of all these really key Buddhist qualities. Maybe it's more than 10 times in that sutra. And then he's cooked and ready to emerge as the perfectly enlightened being. And that story of causes and conditions, whether you believe in previous lives or not, we can also, uh, in, in, in the course of one lifetime, we can see it in the Buddha's life, that he was cared for by his parents, um, by his father, by his mother, who birthed him and died a few days after he was born, by his stepmother. He was taught by spiritual teachers. He received lots of blessings in his life. This is the story of Course in Effect. This is, this is, is the story of how when we receive kindness, we're more likely to be able to offer kindness. When we receive compassion, we're more likely to able to offer compassion. It's the story of one candle being lit from another candle that then lights another candle, and so on throughout time. So that's one way the story of the Buddhist birth is told. And that's a really good way to look at our own lives. What have I received that has supported me to be in this place? And what blessings am I receiving right now in this very moment? And actually, the more aware we become of the blessings, the more likely we are to let them in and receive them. The more likely we are to be humble, the less likely we are to be egotistical seeing that the good we do is the result of the good we've received. So that's a good story to think about, that way of telling the story of the Buddha's birth, that way of looking at the cause and effect in our own lives. And the other way of telling the story about the Buddha's birth is that he sprang from emptiness, which is to say that the love he gave out into the world was not dependent on anything that he'd received. It has some other quality to it. This is perhaps a more mystical way of speaking, and maybe even a more confusing way of speaking. One of the images that Dogen writes about is flowers appearing in an empty sky, and it sort of has that quality, like, oh, Well, they're not supposed to be there. Like, there's no earth, there's no roots. Why are flowers appearing in the sky? And this— there's a— it stands in distinction to the other way of telling the story. And this is also a way that we can examine our own lives and think, well, what, what does that way of talking have to do with my own practice, my own experience of living? And what it has to do in my experience is that actually the awakened heart of Amida, the, the awakened heart of enlightenment, is available in every moment. It's actually not dependent on whether I've had a good childhood or a good upbringing or been through good causes, what we might think of as good causes and conditions, whether I've been blessed or cursed in this lifetime. There's something different going on with the Buddha's love. It's not dependent on any of those things. It's always present. And this is also a really helpful thing. Like, we might think, oh, well, both these things can't be true. You, Kasipa, you can't tell me that the Buddha was dependent on all the kindness he received and then straight away say the Buddha wasn't dependent on the kindness he received. That's not helpful. And you'd be right if you're trying to make sense of this rationally. There's a sort of— the enlightened mind has the quality of clarity about it, but it also has the quality of confusion about it. Or Suzuki calls it beginner's mind, that we don't know everything actually. There are limits to what we can know, and different ways of seeing things are helpful at different times. And both these ways of understanding are useful things to think about. It's helpful to pay attention to cause and effect. That does make some difference whether we're actually kind to people and we actually receive kindness. And it's also true that the Buddha's love is not dependent on those processes in the way that we usually think of them. That sometimes magic happens, and we just know, even in the worst of times, we know that we're loved by the Buddha. It appears without warning, without condition, without, uh, without cause, like these flowers in the empty sky that Dogen was talking about. There's no explanation for it, but here's the blessing. Maybe there are ways of squaring those two versions of the story, right? But That's for a longer talk, and actually it's not so important. The invitation really is, is to honor both of these things in our own practice: cause and effect, and the spontaneous unconditional love of the Buddha.

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. In gratitude, we offer this incense 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 opening May we and all beings be companions. May we awaken from forgetfulness and realize.

Come back to standing, Earth Voices. Do put the chanting day on the 22nd of March in your diary. Following practice, we'll do 3 hours of continuous chanting, 4 hours of continuous chanting. And, um, if you're coming that time, do bring something to bring and share lunch as well, which will, will just sort of you know, nip out, get something to eat, come back in, the chant will carry on in the room. And also the 12th of April when we're going to have the ceremony celebrating the Buddha's birthday, when we will bathe the baby Buddha statue, the baby Buddha, in sweet tea. Finally, donation bowl in the hallway. Do pop something in if you can, or leave a donation online. Regular— you can make a regular donation through the website, which is great for us and means you don't have to think about it. And you can also give dated, so if you do it that way as well, we get 25% more if you are a UK tax payer.

Just a reminder to people that we're having our inaugural meeting for 2 new groups on Saturday morning at 10:30. 40 minutes, we'll be talking about how we can let people know about what we do here. Various things. And then at 11:20 we'll be meeting for 30 minutes to talk about how we can raise money. So we've got 3 people in each group so far. If you can't make Saturday but you want to join like an email group, then let me or Dave know if you've got any questions or answers or questions about the group. Yeah, um, and we're looking for a mixture of people that have been here for a while and people who haven't been here for a while because it's really helpful to have a fresh view of things. So don't think that you don't have that.

Blessings. May you care for all living things.