Buddhist Exceptionalism and not putting ourselves above others

Good morning everybody, welcome, nice to see you all. Welcome to Philip and Paul on Zoom. Satya Robyn. Usually take it in turns from the practice sessions. We do a Wednesday and a Saturday each and then swap over. For various reasons, I've done about the last 4 or 5 Saturdays, so I just wanted to let people know that it's not just me running practice sessions. Yeah, yeah, you will get to hear Satya speak again very soon. We're back on the ordinary rhythm now. So we're starting this morning with a Dharma glimpse by Paul, who's joining us on Zoom. So I'll make sure the volume's turned up. A Dharma glimpse is a piece of writing or a piece of speaking about an experience that we've had in our lives that teaches us something or reminds us of a Buddhist teaching. We kind of make that connection between something that we experience or something that we're doing and something that, yeah, brings insight or affects change. There's lots written by lots of different people on the website, and we really welcome and encourage other people to write them and maybe even to come here and read them or speak them at the start of practice. This morning Paul, you let me know when you're ready. I could see you moving around.

Yes, your daughter's just shouting me.

Okay, okay, thank you.

So each morning I bring the Step 3 prayer of the 12-step program into my mind. And this prayer has been in my life for a few years, and the words that resonate with me from this prayer: relieve me of the bondage of self, and God, I offer myself to thee. So this prayer for me manifests in different forms. The prayer might become a bow to the Buddha, an action I've been putting off, like putting my name first on a list, overcoming that fear. But it recently occurred to me that when I say the Nembutsu, the essence of this prayer really shines through me. So, 'Namo,' you know, I surrender myself. 'Amida' to a loving, all-accepting power. And 'Buddha,' which is something beyond my small contracted self. And so when I do that, you know, today is a good day. And then and things go more smoothly for me. So when I align myself to this loving higher power, and that's what I wrote.

So, thank you. So that will go on the website if anyone wants to read it for themselves later. And we'll go into a period of quiet sitting together now. And I'll make the same invitation that I did on Wednesday evening. Notice what's around. Notice what's arising. A thought about this or that, a feeling, an emotion, a sensation in the body. As you notice these things, inviting them to take a step back, or inviting yourself to take a step back, so you have a sense of, oh, here I am, and here's the thing I'm observing, here's the thought, here's the feeling. And as we continue to invite more space into ourselves that allows the light, the love of the Buddha, to become more obvious and more present in our systems. If you happen to notice that and it feels peaceful, maybe just relaxing into the peace. And then if something else comes that you notice seeing what that is and inviting it to give some space again. In this Dharma glimpse, Paul spoke about Nembutsu. Nembutsu is the name of the practice where we say the name of Amida Buddha in the form that Paul described, Namo Amida Butsu. I surrender to the loving presence of the awakened one that I can't that is bigger than my small self, that is bigger than my controlling mind, than my reactive mind. There's different words that we use for the same prayer depending on which country they come out of. This morning we will sing Om Amidaewa Kri, which is the Tibetan form of the same words. Om Amideva Hri.

Om Amideva Hri. Om Amideva Hri. Om Amidevari. Om Amidevari. Om Amidevari. Om Amitewa Re. Om Amitewa Re. Om Amitewa Re. Om Amitewari. Om Amitewari. Om Amitewari. Omami te wa ri. Omami te wa ri. Omami te wa ri. Om Amitewari. Om Amitewari. Om Amitewari. Om Ami Te Wari. Om Ami Te Wari. Om Ami Te Wari. Om Amitewari. Om Amitewari. Om Amitewari. Om Amideva Hari. Om Amideva Hari. Om Amideva Hari. Om Amitewa Re. Om Amitewa Re. Om Amitewa Re. Om Amitewari. Om Amitewari. Om Amitewari. Om Amideva Hari. Om Amideva Hari. Om Amideva Hari. Om Ami Deva Hari. Om Ami Deva Hari. Om Ami Deva Hari. Om Amideva Hri. Om Amideva Hri. Om Amideva Hri.

So in a moment we'll recite the refuges and precepts together, which I'll ask you to repeat after me. They are on the piece of paper next to you if you'd like to follow along. Then we'll recite the Bodhisattva vows, which are in call and response, so you will need the piece of paper for that if you don't know the words. So please repeat after me. For refuge I go to the Buddha.

For refuge I go to the Buddha.

Namo Buddhaya. Namo Buddhaya. For refuge I go to the Dharma.

For refuge I go to the Dharma.

Namo Dharmaya. For refuge I go to the Sangha. Namo Sangha. With faith in the Three Jewels, I pray that I may not take life. With faith in the Three Jewels, I pray that I may not steal. With faith of 3 jewels— I pray that may not fall into sexual misconduct—I am afraid so With Faith—in-the-Three-Jewels—with-Faith-in—the-three-jews-I-pray-that-may-not-fall-into-wrong-speech-with-Faith-in-the-Treasure-of-three-jews—I-am Afraid-so/I'm-Afraid—that-May-Not-Fall Into Wrong-Speech—with-Faith-in-the-Threat Jewells—I-AmAfraid That May Avoid Intoxication.

I pray that I may avoid intoxication. No blame.

No blame. Be kind. Be kind. Love everything. Love everything. Innumerable sentient beings, we vow to save them all.

Exhaustible ardor, deep passion, 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.

Thank you. Thanks for being here with us on this glorious morning. The sun and the mist and the clouds and us underneath. It often stands— this kind of symbolism often stands in for the Nembutsu, the Buddha being the sun, the clouds being our ordinary mind, the greed and ill will and ignorance and denial, I suppose, confusion. And then we're on the other side of that, not always sure whether the sun is shining. Or not. Of course, the sun's always shining. Sometimes the clouds are in the way. And I wanted to speak this morning a little bit about Buddhist exceptionalism, which is the idea that the Buddhists have got the best spiritual truth, which is a very attractive idea, particularly if you're a Buddhist. And even if you go back 2,500 years and look at what the Buddha said, or at least what was written down a few hundred years after he lived that was supposed to be what he said. You can find plenty of examples of him saying, that's not right, I've understood it correctly, this is the teaching. And some of that spirit pervades many Buddhist traditions and traditions of other religions, although of course they don't believe that Buddhism is the best, they believe their own thing is the best. And we see it at work in our own lives in all sorts of ways, this kind of egotism. Oh, I know the right way of doing things. When I was making the water offerings before practice this morning, I remembered a trainee that I had years ago that really struggled to balance. Part of the training I received was Once you've filled the water bowls, you lift them up and you balance on your tiptoes as you make the offering. And I was convinced that if this person tried harder, they would just— they'd be able to get it right. There was, there was nothing intrinsically wrong with them. And they were trying to tell me, no, I've got a You know, I've, I've, I've got a cognitive thing around balance. Uh, I'm not going to be able to do that. And I was so convinced that I knew better than they knew that I just was like, no, just keep practicing more. Just keep practicing more. They did get slightly better actually, but, uh, I just felt like, oh yeah, I really used to think that I knew what was best for everybody. When I was much younger. And I would accept advice myself, but only if it came from a very distant source, not somebody that I actually knew myself. Whereas these days I'd be like, okay, fine, let's see how we can work with that. And I assume that you know about the best about how you are about your condition rather than me being the expert. So I think we need to be very mindful of this in ourselves, the way that we put ourselves above, above others. Several Buddhist commentators have talked about this precept. It's a Zen precept, do not put yourself above others, and said that it's the hardest one to follow. It probably isn't the hardest one for everybody to follow, but the people saying this were straight white men, so particularly difficult challenge for them not to put themselves above others. But we all have to keep an eye on it. And I guess the reverse is true as well. We shouldn't put ourselves below others when that isn't actually the case. So it's true for us in our own lives, and it's also true for the tradition that we're in. My experience is that within the— all of the world's religions you can find some strand of their teaching and practice that speaks of this same kind of relationship between something that is completely loving and accepting and inspiring— and it's described in different ways and it has slightly different qualities— and the religious disciple or follower. In Catholicism, Richard Rohr talks about this, and he makes that turnaround from rather than being good to be loved by God, you are loved by God regardless of how good you are. And then maybe you start to be good because you feel loved. I mean, that's the same as Pure Land Buddhism, more or less. You can find it in Sufism, in lots of places. So I suppose this is about trusting that we can receive wisdom from lots of different places, that there are lots of awakened beings, not just ones that are called Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in our tradition, that everybody has something to teach us. We don't— not only do we not always know best, even our teachers don't really always know best. There's always something to learn. Don't say that part out loud. Namaste.

So, some translations. We dedicate the merits of this incense offering to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space and time. May it be fragrant as Earth herself, reflecting our careful efforts. Oh, heart's awareness and the fruit of understanding, so may we and all beings be companions of Buddhas and bodhisattvas. May we awaken from forgetfulness and realize our true home.

So we'll come back to our places to remain standing. And we'll bow to each other in a moment. Now we just bow to one side and then the other. Satya and I will bow away from each other, and then, which means, uh, Dave, you'll bow to Satya, Tony, you'll bow to Aidan, and Muketu, you'll bow to each other. Imogen and I will start, and then we'll turn the other way around. And because there's an even number of people in the room, that might work out.

Perfect. And there's the main shrine.

We'll tie to our seats, back to our seats, and we'll finish with the closing verse. Do unmute if you're on Zoom, as always.

Hopefully Paul and Philip bow to each other perfectly—

Blessed by Amitabha's light may we care for all living beings And now I need to boo thanks everybody!