Buddhist Nembutsu Practice - evening service 8th April

A moment to be.

A moment to be. I'll keep an eye Alas, people busily engaged in secular matters take no notice of life wearing away day by day. Night by night. Like a lamp in the wind, how long can it last? In the six realms of vast samsara, there is no fixed abode. Until we are emancipated by the seeds of affliction, how can we not be at peace? Should we not be afraid? While still young and strong, let us each hear the Dharma Sama. Let us strive and diligently seek the path to eternity.

So we're now going to do some chanting. We're going to be chanting Amitābha, which is a Sanskrit name for Amida, using the tune that we usually use when we're walking around the Buddha in the shrine room on a Wednesday evening. We're not going to be walking this evening, but we'll do the same chant. This is The spirit of this is me as an ordinary foolish being remembering that the light of the Buddha is already present.

Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha.

Amitabha.

Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha.

Amitābha. So as some of you will know, today in the Japanese calendar is Hanamatsuri, the birthday of the Buddha. It's a flower festival as much, or flowers are used to celebrate the birthday of the Buddha. So we've made sure we've got some flowers on the shrine here this evening. The Buddha, the birthday of the Buddha, that's about remembering the life of the Buddha, and it's about remembering the spirit that moved the Buddha, that spirit of loving kindness. Of compassion for the whole world that moved him to teach and to receive people and to keep loving people and guiding them from the moment of his enlightenment until his death many years later. And this celebration of the Buddha's life and his spirit and teaching is intertwined with loss, is intertwined with his death and dying. It was grief for the world that inspired him to compassion, to teach in the first place, seeing the Four Sights, the old person, the sick person, the dying person, and then the holy sage moving through life with equanimity. The Buddha wanted to solve this puzzle of suffering for himself and for the people around him. And eventually, after practicing for a long time with some of the great teachers in the forests of northern India. He became enlightened. He became enlightened after receiving the kindness of Sujata, who nursed him back to health after he collapsed at the side of the road from those austere practices that he'd been taking part in. So we find these two things pressed up against each other the whole time: life of the Buddha— compassion, love, kindness— and death, loss, grief. Hanamatsuri in Japan often falls at the same time as the cherry blossom festival. And the cherry blossom festival, as many of you will know, is this time when the the cherries blossom, when the beautiful flowers come out on the trees. And it's celebrated as a festival because in many parts of Japan there are strong winds that come at the same time, so these beautiful blossoms just last for a day or two before they're blown onto the floor. The petals start to rot and turn brown and congregate in gutters, although modern Japanese are very neat people, so I imagine there's a lot of sweeping away that happens. But again, life and death— this beauty of the world is intertwined with its transience, it's inseparable from its transience. And right now we're celebrating the birthday of the Buddha in the midst of a global pandemic, which reminds us all of impermanence and suffering as loved ones become ill. Or perhaps if we haven't been touched directly, we're still aware of this virus moving through many countries in the world, affecting families as people become sick and die. And here we are this evening in the middle of this time, celebrating the Buddha's birthday. Reminding ourselves that perhaps because life is like a lightning flash or a bubble on a stream that just appears and disappears, a lifetime can be so short. The Buddha was moved to compassion, and in the same way, as we bring ourselves close to the experience of impermanence, we can also be moved to compassion, to kindness, to love. And as ordinary foolish human beings, it can be hard to do that sometimes. It's a wonderful idea, but actually we, we find ourselves reacting in all sorts of ways to what's happening at the moment. Many of which aren't kind. And what allows us— good evening, joined by Roshi the cat— what allows us to respond with kindness is knowing that there is something that isn't impermanent, there is something that isn't transient, there is something that isn't conditioned in the way that ordinary life is conditioned. And this is the Buddha, this is nirvana, this is the unconditional love of Amitābha. Knowing that we are supported by this unconditional love, we can move closer to that edge of impermanence that cuts through all our lives. And meet it with kindness from our own side, and meet others, meet ourselves and others with kindness. So as we celebrate the Buddha's birthday, we remember these three things: impermanence, our own impulse to move towards love, and the fact that in the midst of this impermanent We are already loved just as we are. Namaste.

Namaste.

So now have some time for quiet sitting. Satya and I are now going to make our prostrations to the Buddha as a way of expressing our gratitude. We do this using the Nembutsu. Chanting the Nembutsu, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. We'll make 5 prostrations, one for each of the Three Jewels, one for Amida, and one for the Pure Land. Please feel free to join us physically or just in spirit and voice.

Namu Amitabha.

Namu Amitabha.

Namu Amitabha.

Namu Amitabha.

Namah Amitabhu! Namoh Amida Pu! Namo Amida—

Namo Amida.

Namoh Amitabh. Namoh Amitabh. Namoh Amitabh. Namoh Amitabh.

Namoh Amida.

Namoh Amida Bu. Namoh Amida Bu.

Namoh Amida Bu.

We will now recite Evening Service together, which is on page 13 and 14 of your service book.

With body, speech, and mind, humble I prostrate and make offerings both set out and imagined. I confess my wrong deeds from all time and rejoice in the virtues of all. Please stay until samsara ceases and turn the wheel of Dharma for us. I dedicate all virtues to Great Enlightened. The ground sprinkled with perfume and spread with flowers, the great mountain full of sun and moon, Seen as a Buddha land and offered thus, may all beings enjoy such pure land. Yidam guru rakma mandala kam hiryatayami. By the grace that I receive through Amitabha's vows, may I be moved to deeds for the benefit of all. By the grace that I receive through Amitābha's vows, may I be moved to deeds for the benefit of all. By the grace that I receive through Amitābha's vows, may I be moved to deeds for the benefit of all. The purpose of our practice is to be a pure container wherein the karmic actions mature as higher wisdom. The preliminary outlook comes with bowing and contrition, facing up to my obstructions and seizing life's first essence. Devotion to my teacher ends my smugness and dejection. Held by his compassion, I will find a straight direction. By refuge vows and precepts, recitation of the sutras, I grow through every challenge. Embodysatva aspiration. Cooperation in a sangha brings so many joys and freedoms. Through gentle words and gestures comes collective transformation. Settled faith and inner cleansing brings us home to life's great meaning. In the Four Divine Abidings Buddha's light is always with us. Multitudes are disconcerted by impermanence and difference. With Dharma as true refuge, we dwell within the pure land. Now gratitude is overflowing, going forth, returning richly. I offer gifts of Dharma Buddha's pathless bestowing. Innumerable are sentient beings, we vow to save them all. Inexhaustible are deluded passions, we vow to transform them all.

Infinite are the Buddha's teachings.

We vow to master them all. Infinite is the Buddha's way. We vow to fulfill it completely.

Invocation of Akalanatha.

Hail to the mandala! Let our soul be engulfed within its treasures evermore, that by our own wills and vigilance may we our fetters cut away. May we within the temple of our own hearts dwell amidst the myriad mountains.

Hail, hail, hail. Invocation of Maha Kala.

Let us be engulfed within the mandala of the Sangha of Buddha. Hail, hail, hail. The Arrow of Emptiness. Hell. Invocation of Varachana Buddha.

Hell.

The magnificent mystic. The treasure.

Hell.

Hell.

The golden bell that rings but once.

So bow to each other. And to the Buddha.