Bright Earth Buddhism Morning Practice with Satya

Good morning everybody, good morning to Chris joining us on Zoom, and today is special practice for people that haven't been before. There were lots and lots of people that said maybe on Facebook. Sophie didn't see it on Facebook and came today for the first time, so that's a little lesson from the universe. I don't know what the lesson is, but same thing happened on Wednesday. So I'll do a little bit more explanation around what we're doing, but really the only way of working out if this is the right place for you or not is to just come here and see what it feels like. It's a very, um, like a heart connection. I sometimes say to people it's a bit like going on a first date, you know, you sort of, you can kind of tell roughly whether you fancy them or not, but it takes a while to work out, you know, what beliefs each other have and I don't know. How you fit together. So it's very much like that, finding a group to practice with. So welcome to your first date. And we always begin with a reading. Sometimes we read a short piece written by someone in the community, but today I have a piece by Reverend Gyomei Kubose, who's a Japanese Buddhist teacher who died Um, some time ago, his son— me and Caspar did a course run by his son Koyo Kobose, who also died a few years ago at the age of 60-something. Um, and what I love about his writings is that they're just very simple. They're very, um, they're very simple, and also there's, there's a lot to them. So this short piece is called Establish Your Center. You must establish your center in order to make life truly meaningful. It is only when you have not found your center that you become disturbed and look to external things for help. In our lives, we are dependent upon external things. If a businessman were asked, what is the center of your life? He might respond, my center is making money. Someone else might respond, 'I'm not interested in making money. I am interested in love or friendship or understanding.' However, what if these things are not forthcoming? We expect other people to behave in a predictable way. When our expectations are not met, we become upset. Our anger is a reaction to the environment. Greed is also a reaction to the environment. When things work out nicely, we expect this to continue, and our ego demands more and more. Unless we are aware, good environmental conditions are as much of a pitfall as misfortune. You have anger and greed because there is no established center in your life. There is no center from which all your activities, words, and thoughts flow. If you do have such a center, you will not be disturbed in life. Establishing this center is a way to enlighten yourself. From this center, life must express itself. It is a matter of life or death. If life does not continually gush forth, it will die. Life cannot be other than itself. A plant, if it cannot grow will die. Water must flow, if not it stagnates. There is something in life from which life moves on. We can call it the center. Where is your center? Or are you content to just exist? Find out what you want. This is the very reason Siddhartha, although destined to become a king, went searching to find a free, enlightened life. He found something more than being a king. He became a truth seeker and established his own life, not a king's life, but his life. This is the teaching of the Buddha. Each individual has unique absolute value. It is not necessary to follow the crowd or compare yourself with others. You should establish your center and be yourself. One does not do this by depending on external things, but by looking deep within. When you find yourself, life becomes meaningful and all things open up for you. So we will now do some quiet sitting together. Um, In the silence, you can either just pay attention to your breath as it comes and goes without changing it, or you might just want to sit with this idea of your center. Where is your center? And what arises in you as you listen to Reverend Gyomei Kubose's words Is your life gushing forth? Is it stagnant? How much do you depend on external things, which Buddhism tells us can't be depended on? And it may be that as you contemplate your center, you, you connect a little bit with it, however that feels like. And if you don't, that's also fine. Just allow the silence to work on you and let things be. We've spent some time sitting quietly together. Now we'll join our voices together, and we do different chants on different days, and today we will chant to Shakyamuni, the Buddha who we all know of as the Buddha. There are many Buddhas, but this one lived in India 2,500 years ago, and he was a member of the Shakya clan, so he's known as Shakya Muni. Muni is wise person, and this chant doesn't really have much of a tune, but it goes om Muni Muni Maha Muni. Maha means great. Satya Muni Svaha. And Svaha is like a kind of hooray, wonderful. Um, so do join in. It is written on the liturgy sheet if you want to see it written down, but do join in when you get the hang of it.

Om Muni Muni Maha Muni Satya Muni Om Muni Muni Maha Muni Satya Munisvaha. Om Muni Muni Maha Muni Satya Munisvaha. Om muni muni maha muni shakya muni svaha. Om muni muni maha muni shakya muni svaha. Om mune muhne ma ha muni shakya munisvaha! Om mune muhne mahamunishakyamuniswaahaa! Om mune muhne mahamunishakyamunisoohaahhaa! Oh my God— Satya Muneesvaha. Om Mune Mune Maha Mune Shakya Muneesvaha. Om Mune Mune Maha Mune Shakya Muneesvaha. Om Nama Shivaya. Om Nama Shivaya. Om Nama'hamuni Sathyamunisvaha! Om Nama'hamuni Satya Munishwara! Om Namahimune Maha Manushreshwar! Om Namahimune Mahamaneshvara! Shakyamuni Swaha. Om Muni Muni Maha Muni Shakyamuni Swaha. Om Muni Muni Maha Muni Shakyamuni Swaha. Om Nama Nama Maha Mani Satya Mani Swaha. Om Nama Nama Maha Mani Satya Mani Swaha.

So we'll now repeat, um, the precepts, refuges, and bodhisattva vows together. And these are a little bit like a kind of a Buddhism in a nutshell. These words contain really important truths and um, things that we can lean into and things that we can aspire to. And there is a value in repetition that, that I've probably said these words hundreds and maybe thousands of times, some of them, um, because this stuff is difficult. So it's like we need to remind ourselves over and over again But there's also a gentleness to the, the way that we've written them, that, that we're not saying you must do this or you won't be a good person or you won't be a good Buddhist. We're saying it would be wonderful if you could aspire to do this, and also we understand that you are human. So these are also on the liturgy sheet if you want to see them written down, but they're repeat after me mostly. 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 Dharmaya. For refuge I go to the Sangha.

For refuge I go to Sangha.

Those who live in the Buddha's light.

Those who live in the Buddha's light.

Namo Sanghaya.

Namo Sanghaya.

For refuge I go to the Earth.

For refuge I go to the Earth.

The holy ground of awakening.

The holy ground of awakening.

Namo Guru Miah. With faith in the Three Jewels, with faith in the Four Refuges, and in light of our 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—

of when I take what's not freely given—I pray that I may become aware—

I pray that I may come aware—of when I fall into sexual misconduct—and for this conduct—I pray that I may become aware—may be unaware—when I fall into wrong speech—wrong speech—I pray that I might 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.

Immensurable are the Dharma teachings.

We vow to master them all.

Infinite is the Buddha's way.

We vow to fulfill it completely.

I'm going to talk to you a little bit today about mystery. I like it. Those are the kinds of noises I like when I announce a dharma talk. So reading the piece just now, something that always amused me about Buddhism, especially when I was just entering into learning about it or soaking myself in it, is that In some ways it feels very simple, but the writers or the teachers that I read never actually told me what to do or what it was all about or how to do it, how to become enlightened. So there's this talk about finding your center. So why don't you tell us how to— how do we find our center? What is our center? And, um, he Kubo-sensei does mention that, that Shakyamuni Buddha was a truth seeker, and that's true, but it's not just about seeking truth. That, uh, that at the heart of Buddhism, my experience, is mystery, because it's impossible to talk about what it is we're doing here. And that is true for all the great spiritual paths, especially the mystical end of spiritual paths. So the, um, the kind of Christian mysticism, the, um, Sufi kind of strand of, of Islam, um, the, the kind of people who tell crazy stories and live in a crazy way and, and just have something. They've just got something. And when we ask them what they do or how they got it or what we should do, we have a teaching like this: just find your center. Okay, and it's because Reverend Gyomei Kubese has found his center, but he can't make you find your center. However carefully he explains what he did or how he felt or what he experienced, it's a bit like taking a horse to water. You can You can, you know, you can put the horse really close to the water and you can explain to the horse how it feels to drink. But until the horse takes a mouthful, it doesn't really mean much. So we're in a kind of a strange position. This is, you know, Pani's new ministry. This is the job we've got, is taking horses to water., and then being like, and there are all kinds of different ways to do that. Um, but, but really what, what my experience of my journey through just becoming vaguely interested in— but I was very, uh, kind of strongly atheist when I was growing up, and I had to go to 12 Steps to kind of crack me open and to prepare me for, for having a spiritual kind of dimension to my life. Um, the, the, the, the steps along the way for me were really personal and idiosyncratic. They had to be just the right thing for me. Um, you know, to— if, if, if I was to say to you, for you to get to where I am, and I feel very connected and deep in my faith, and it supports me in everything I do, you'd have to grow up atheist, then you'd have to have a relationship with an alcoholic for 13 years, and then you'd have to go to the 12 steps, and then you'd have to chance upon a therapy training with a teacher who is amazing, and a, you know, where I met Casper and fell in love with Casper. And then, you know, it's just crazy. It doesn't work like that. Um, but what we can do— there's good news— that what we can do is we can be inspired by, by witnessing or hanging out with or seeking out other people who have got a little bit further along the path than, than we have. Um, or even they might not be managing certain things in a very good way at all, but they've got something that we haven't got. And just hang out with those people and learn from those people, because those people have something that is transmittable. And the method of transmission, the, the, the kind of the mechanism, um, is mysterious. I wish that, you know, we're not the kind of Buddhist school where you come and you do 10 things and then you get enlightened, or, you know, even do 10,000 things and get enlightened. Um, but there are structures in place that support that process. And we weren't really so good at saying this in the early days, but it does help if you come to practice. Like, you know, if you come to practice, you're more likely to come into contact with something that will be helpful to you. It does help if you do a little daily practice. It does help if you think about Buddhist principles in your everyday life, um, and it does help if you call out to the Buddha for help, which is really the main practice here, is we say Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. We're calling out to Amida Buddha, and we're trusting that something mysterious happens as a result of that. Even if we don't understand it, even if we've got parts that are skeptical about it, which is totally fine and correct, even if we're kind of, you know, one foot in and one foot out, we just slowly, um, you know, put our mouth into the water and see how it tastes and see how it has— how our life is, see if we're becoming kinder people or not, see if we're becoming less grumpy, see if we're becoming more forgiving of ourselves and other people. And if we are, then that's— then we're on the right path, and that's a good thing. It's not always easy. It's not always easy to get here. It's not always easy when we connect into community and, and stuff comes up, as it does when we come into relationship with people, with ordinary people. But if we can keep going, there's real treasure here. There's real treasure. And once you develop the kind of eyes that see that treasure, it's everywhere. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. So we always end practice by making prostrations to the main shrine. So do as much as your body allows you to, and we use the chant Namomi Dabu. Um, lots of ways of talking about prostrations. It can feel unusual to people in the West to— they have associations between prostration and submission, or, um, there's another word I can't think of when you kind of debase yourself a little bit. So that people can feel uncomfortable with that, that what we're actually doing is coming from a place of humility and a place of gratitude. And we're, we're just kind of resting on the ground and, and acknowledging that the Buddha kind of holds us, that the earth holds us, and that we can rest for a minute. And it's also a way of paying respect to the Buddha. So when we're down on the floor we lift our hands above our heads, and that's a way of signifying that the Buddha is more important than us. And I read this thing a long time ago, I can't remember where, which I really loved. Someone, a Buddhist teacher, was saying, don't do that because that's like throwing the Buddha over your head. It's just like a gentle lifting. So it's just a little— those little details is just all about respect and, and kind of carefulness, like when, you know, like when we arrange the flowers or do the cleaning, it's all about offering blessings and taking care. And yeah, so I, when I first did this practice, it felt very strange to me, but it's my favorite practice now. Some people do 108 prostrations every day. It keeps you fit. So maybe I should, maybe I should do that for a while. So Banu will ring the bell and then we just will find a spot and point towards the shrine. And then we're done. Tidy our seats and bow to our seats to thank our seats. So the only announcement is that we have a New Year's Eve practice between 11 and midnight. I'll be interpreting in— we finish with a closing verse. Blessed by Amitabha's light, may we care for all beings.