Earth Day Practice

Welcome everybody. We'll begin this evening by reading together Jyusui Gakkuei, or the Life of No Regret. This is a section from the larger Pure Land Sutra where the Bodhisattva Dharmakāra, not yet transformed into Amida, meets his own teacher for the first time, a Buddha called Lokeshvara Rāja, and is so inspired by the countenance of this Buddha, he spontaneously recites this text, which is, uh, full of aspiration and inspiration. So you can imagine it as, on the one hand, describing the attitude of Amida to the rest of the world, and on the other hand, a pretty good vow that to take yourself if you feel so inspired to create, that we can also create pure lands for the beings around us. So Kema will say the title and then we'll all recite the text together and we'll chant the final words, Tan Butsu Gei, and have one bell at the end.

Life, no regret.

Your radiant face, like a mountain peak catching the first burst of morning light, has awesome and unequaled majesty. Like black ink by comparison are the sun, the moon, or the Māni treasure. Tathāgata. Such is your incomparable face. The melody of your enlightenment fills the world. Rare and precious are your precepts, learning, energy, meditation, wisdom, and amazing virtue. The oceanic Dharma of all Buddhas, which you fathom to its deepest depths, dispels the three poisons from the world. You are like a lion, valiant and divinely pure. Great power, deep wisdom, awesome light, reverberation. A prayer I make, a Buddha to become equal to you, my Dharma King, to lead all beings to the other shore, leaving none behind. The six parameters to perfect, with Prajna at their head. Should I become Buddha, I will fulfill this prayer completely. To everyone I'll bring great peace. To Buddhas countless as sand grains, my offerings I make. And do not flinch from the trials of the incomparable way. Powerful, straight, and true. Though Buddha lands and worldly realms be numberless like sand, by sheer power of aspiration I'll fill them all with light. Let me become a Buddha and the multitude of beings will all enjoy my primordial nirvana world. By indiscriminate compassion I will enlighten all, reborn here from no matter where. In my country, their hearts will lighten and be joyful, happy, and at ease. Oh, you Buddha, witness my vow, my true aspiration. Establishing my vow on you gives me the strength to fulfill it. Buddhas throughout space and time, Of unimpeded wisdom, always witness my heart's practice. No matter the obstacles, the hardships, my practice will endure through all without regret.

Na mo mi.

Oh jeez, I've confused two things there. What came into my head was the old chant from Saturday morning walking meditation. What came out of my mouth was something different.

Namitoh.

Thank you. We used to— pre-pandemic, we used to open every practice session with walking and chanting. On Wednesday evenings, we'd walk and chant Amitabha, and Saturday mornings we chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, which is a Chinese version of the Nembutsu. Chinese words, Amitabha is Amida Buddha. Quite tricky to pitch actually because it goes so low in the second half. And then when we reopened after the pandemic, we dropped that practice regularly because I think, or we thought, that for the first thing that people, new people particularly, when they come into the shrine room, to do walking and chanting together and you sort of watching people as they're walking felt quite intimidating as the the first thing that you experience. So we've simplified the practice, but I do, I do still like that Chinese form of Nembutsu. All right, for refuge I go to the Buddha, 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 Dhamma. For refuge I go to the Sangha, those who live in the Buddha's light.

Those who live in the Buddha's light.

Namo Sangha.

Namo Sangha.

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 Bhumye.

Namo Bhumye.

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— of when I take life. I pray that I may become aware— of when I take what is not freely given.

When I take what is not really given.

I pray that I may become aware—

I pray that I may come away of when I fall into sexual misconduct— of my fault— it's such a misfortune!

—I pray that time may become aware—

but I prayed at some point to come away from me—

falling wrong-speech— what? Wrong-speech?! —I pray this on May Become Aware—

Pray That Time Made Come Away From Me—

Of When I Become Intoxicated— Oh My God! 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. Immeasurable are the Dharma teachings, we vow to master them all. Infinite is the Buddha's way, we vow to cultivate completely.

Ama Amitabha.

So it was Earth Day this week. I've been thinking about a talk that I heard a few years ago by Yanai Postulnik, a Buddhist response to the climate crisis. I've been also thinking about a particular way of thinking about Pure Land Buddhism, and there's some parallels between the two things that I wanted to share. So I'll start by— well, I can't give the talk that Yanai gave, and it was a few years ago, so I may not even sum it up properly. So let's say that this is inspired by what he spoke about. And the question was something like, how do I sort of maintain my mindfulness in the face of the climate crisis? It's so easy to be overwhelmed when we give our attention to extreme weather events, the actual suffering of people that, that causes, or imagining how the future will unfold, that those events will get worse, that that the climate will become more unstable, that the soil is losing its nutrients, and all of those things that we know about. But to come into close emotional contact with them can be quite destabilizing and dysregulating. And Nyanai reminded us about the length of time that the Earth has already existed for and how it will continue to exist in the future, regardless of how the climate crisis unfolds. And beyond that, the length of time that the universe has existed for and how the universe will continue to exist in the future. Even if life as we know it disappears, the activity of the universe, the energy of the universe will continue to unfold. And actually life, not life as we know it, but life as the world knows it, has already collapsed. You know, when the asteroid hit and wiped out all the dinosaurs and something else came to replace it. So there's this cycle of life and death and rebirth on these enormous timescales. This week, scientists, uh, put— some scientists, astrologers, put out a press release that they have found a planet in this sort of sweet spot for the conditions of life. And one of them, I think, was quoted as saying, 99% sure there will be life on this planet somewhere. Now, possibly they're only talking about you know, little microbes. But still, how vast and amazing the universe is. You know, whatever happens to life on Earth as we know it, in 3 billion years the sun will begin to cool down and expand and become a red giant and engulf one by one all of the planets in the solar system, destroying them all. And something about this vast time scale, and that the cycles that happen on those vast time scales, and the sense that this activity will always continue— the suggestion was that actually that can bring a sense of ease if we step back and see that big picture. It can bring a sense of calmness, trusting that something will continue. Now, this doesn't mean turning away from acute suffering. The idea, I think, is that we take in the big picture and feel some of that, uh, sort of— what do people call it? Like, someone's being philosophical about it, like, that's That's sort of an expression you say, oh, he feels pretty philosophical about it, like that sort of equanimity. And then feeling steadier, coming back into the acute suffering to take some action, to make some response, even just to do some witnessing and moving between these two things and knowing that in the face of this very real acute suffering, there is also something much bigger going on. That was something like that was the invitation from Yanai. And there's this way of thinking about Pure Land Buddhism that's sort of been percolating in me for a little while that has some parallels with this. In whether it's the, the, the suffering that the climate crisis created or something that's really personal to our own lives, it's so easy to become blinkered and fixated and, and focused on the bad news. It's really, uh, I really noticed that in myself, this. And you know, there's plenty of it around in the world and, and potentially in our own lives when we move through the different phases of our life. This is awful, that's awful. Starting to become dysregulated, starting to go into crisis mode, whatever that looks like for each of us, becoming hyper-aroused or hypo-aroused, and forgetting that the Pure Land is also present. So remembering to, as Honin said, the moon shines on everyone in the hamlet, but Not everyone's looking up at the moon, right? Remembering to look up and see the moon. Oh, Amita's also here. The Pure Land is also here. And this is the expansiveness. This is the thing that brings ease and steadiness. This is the parallel with the sort of vastness of the universe, knowing that there is something of the Pure Land present in every single moment. And for some people, those two things are identical, that the vastness of the universe is the pure land being present in this moment, right? Whether that's true for you, or whether you have a sense of right now that it's more like something breaking through the universe, a light that comes to you It is true that we can experience the presence of Amitabha, that feeling of loving kindness, of acceptance, in every moment, if only we remember it, which is what Nembutsu means, right? To remember the Buddha. That's literally where the meaning of that word comes from, Buddha Smriti in Sanskrit, Buddha remembering. Yeah, so that's it really, just maybe a slightly different way or thinking about practice, or just using Yanai's talk as a mirror to the practice that we already do. And, and, and, um, Yeah, just as every practice is an invitation to remember that the Buddha is always here. And like with that universe, the vastness of the universe allowing me to step in and tend to the suffering, it's the same with our Pure Land practice. It's not that I disappear into the Pure Land and bliss out, and that's where I'm staying, and I'm not going to look at any of this stuff. That's tempting, of course, and that's called spiritual bypassing. Actually, it's about including that sense and then coming back into the world and tending to our own hearts and the hearts of others and tending to the climate crisis and whatever suffering there is, and then looking up again. And maybe sometimes you can keep an eye on both. Maybe sometimes it's looking up and then looking down, but Buddhist practice holds both of those things. Together, namaste.

Gratitude to make this offering to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space. Space and time. May it be as fragrant as earth itself, reflecting our careful efforts, our wholehearted mindfulness, and fruits of understanding slowly ripening. May we and all beings be companions to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. May we awaken from our forgetfulness and realize our true nature. That sounds good.

On Sunday night, you're welcome to join.

That's all I've got. Great. It is not happening. Okay, I don't know.

We don't know if it's By Amitābha's light, may we care for all living things. Amma Harinath.