Satya Robyn leads a group Buddhist practice session with participants including Casper, Fi, Jaume, and Brian. The group chants Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and invokes Buddhist figures like Maha Kala and Vairochana. Casper shares a story about joining an Extinction Rebellion hike to a beacon, connecting spiritual practice to community action.
Chapters
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 from the sea of affliction, how can we rest in peace? Should we not be afraid? While still young and strong, let us each hear the Dharma. Let us strive and diligently seek the path to eternity.
Amee ta. Amee ta.
Aami toha.
Aami toha. Amitabh. Amitabh.
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Today inside the shrine room we have me, Casper, Fi, Jaume, and Brian, and in the virtual shrine room we have Liz, Jan, Véronique, Becky, Chris, Welcome everybody. Yesterday morning, on a whim, I decided to go and join an Extinction Rebellion action called Wings of Change, which is led by a woman called Vei, who lives in Herefordshire. And involves flying windsocks in various parts of the country from high places. And so we were going to go to the Beacon, and I was a bit anxious before going because I'm not fit and I haven't been to the Beacon for a long time, and I knew that I might not quite be in control of how fast we went up to the beacon. So there were about 10 of us and 2 little dogs— not my 2 little dogs, 2 other little dogs— including a couple of younger boys and a couple of teenagers, one of whom had got a little bit of a hangover after having 3 hours sleep the night before, and a filmmaker from wherever she was from, from a different country, who was putting the whole thing together. So we had lots of massive long bamboo poles and lots of flags that we kind of had taped up to start with, so nobody knew what we were doing. We started trekking off up the hill. It was a lovely thing to be doing on a Tuesday morning. And it was hard. There was one point at which the filmmaker wanted us to take a very strange route up the hill to get a good shot. So it was right across a non-pathy area, and it was really steep, and we had to do it socially distanced, so we had to keep kind of an equidistant to the person in front of us. So we trudged up this hill really far too fast for my liking. And then we got to the top and then they said, 'Do it again!' I was like, 'Ahh!' So we had to come all the way down and go up the exact same bit of hill again. And at one point it started raining really hard. I hadn't brought anything with me apart from my mask, my mobile phone, hadn't got any water. So it felt like a little bit of a mini, mini, what would you call it, like a mission, but that's not the word.
Like a bush tucker trial.
A bush tucker trial, like a hero's journey, what's the word for it? Odyssey, quest. Odyssey, quest, yeah. That's the kind of thing. Thank you. Even though it's only up to the beacon, I know some people wouldn't think that was a quest, but for me it was a quest. And we got up to the beacon and that's when the rain kind of came down. And Lisa, a woman I've never met before from Worcester, brought out loads of vegan biscuits from her bag and shared them around. My friend Emma had a flask of coffee, so I had some coffee to drink and she gave me water to drink. Another woman I'd never met before, Kathy, pulled a big sweatshirt out of her bag and said that I should wear it even though her husband's shielding. Everybody was just really lovely, and it felt really good to have reached the top. And I think that I— what I don't like is that often it's the things that slightly stretch us that take us somewhere new, that open us up somehow to being vulnerable, to being slightly nearer to the edges of our capacity. And it reminded me of how it was on the streets in October, where everybody was just looking out for each other. Even though the physical conditions were very tough, I felt safe. I felt like— I felt like I could put up with more. I could put up with more hardship because the community were there and because there was a kind of a deeper meaning for our reason for being there. And I kind of see it as a bit like when a new plant is in a storm, that if the storm is too hard, the plant breaks and dies, but if it's just enough to give it a kind of a real battering, that can really strengthen the stem. I don't think that we need to seek these opportunities out. I think that life generally provides us with plenty of them, but it helps me sometimes when I am being stretched a little bit to just remember that it may be Amida stretching me, just sort of pulling at me a little bit in order to give me something, in order to In order to help me find the space in myself to let something new in. Namoh Amida Buu!
Namoh Amida Buu! Namoh Amida Buu! Namoh Amida— Humbly I prostrate and make offerings for both Satya Robyn and Imaji. 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 Enlightenment. The ground sprinkled with perfume and spread with flowers, the great mountain for land serenity, seen as the Buddha land and offered us May all beings enjoy such pure lands. By the graces I receive through Amitabha's vows, may I be moved to deeds for the benefit of all. By the grace that I receive through Amitabha's vows, may I be moved to deeds for the benefits of all. By the grace that I receive through Amitabha's vows, may I be moved to deeds for the benefits of all. The purpose of our practice is to be a pure container wherein the common passions mature as higher wisdom. The preliminary outlook comes with bowing and contrition, facing up to my obstructions. I'm seizing life's first essence. Devotion to my teacher ends my smugness and dejection. Held by his compassion, I will find a straight direction. I refuge vows and precepts, recitation of the sutras. I grow through every challenge. In bodhisattva aspiration, cooperation in a sangha brings so many joys and freedoms. Through gentle words and gestures comes collective transformation. Central 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. Our gratitude is overflowing. Going forth, returning richly, I offer gifts of Dharma. Buddha's path is bestowed in me. Innumerable sentient beings, we vow to save them all.
Inexhaustible, unlimited passions.
We vow to transform now.
Immeasurable Abhidharma teachings.
We vow to master them all.
Infinite is the Buddha's way.
We bow before Kṛṣṇa completely. Hail to the Mandala! Let our soul be engulfed within its praises evermore. That by our own wills and vigilance may we our fetters cast away. May we within the temple of our own hearts dwell, amidst a myriad mountains. Hail, hail, hail!
Invocation of Maha Kala.
Let us be engulfed within the mandala of the Sangha of Buddha. Hehehe. The Arrow of Emptiness. Hehehe.
Invocation of Vairochana Buddha.
Hello, the Beneficent Mystic, the treasure, the golden bell rings but once. Peace upon the kingdom.
Thank you very much.
