Evening practice: importance of daily practice

Welcome to practice. Welcome if you're joining us on Zoom. Peace, pandemi, and where is is going to see here. And, uh, we'll begin as always with a Dharma glimpse this week written by Frankie Carboni, and Katie is very kindly going to read it for us.

So the Dharma glimpse is called Be Like Water. I'm fortunate to have a spare room which I use both as a sacred space for my goddess practice as a sort of studio for my creative practice. Now, we live on the ground floor of a small apartment block, and it so happens that this room is directly underneath our neighbour's bathroom.

After some time, I became aware and consequently irritated by the fact that during meditation I could hear my neighbours actually using the bathroom, and I mean I could hear everything. This started to feel a little unsacred to me, a little too much secularity entering into my oasis of calm abiding. I considered various options: earplugs, noise-canceling headphones. Moving wasn't an option, but perhaps some ambient background noise might help. And then it occurred to me—our narratives, the stories we believe of ourselves, and remembering one of my teachers talking about how those narratives don't have to be our story. Our story can be that we sit in front of the Buddha, that we recite the Nembutsu, that we dedicate ourselves to sitting in formless meditation. Opening the mind in this way can be extended to all challenges that arise. So could I change the narrative about bathroom sounds? Could this be a different story? My story could be that I sit with the beautiful sound of running water. After all, that is just what I was hearing. And so it became. And when next door's teenagers arrived for the summer, that loud drum and bass that they love became the rhythm of my chanting. The espresso machine and chat from the bar nearby became a reminder of my connection with others. I realized that I didn't need space and silence from the outside world to practice, because with acceptance of what is, I discovered that space and silence come from within and are always present. I only need to be like water and go with the flow.

Namomi dabu. Thank you.

It reminds me— you'll remember this, Satya Robyn— when we went to my brother's Buddhist practice session in Birmingham, and there was some house, there's a little courtyard and then some houses and somebody was playing very loud reggae versions of pop classics that just kicked in as we went into the silent meditation. And I had the same thought, well, I could get really annoyed about this, or I could just kind of, you know, this is what's here. Maybe I can even find a way of appreciating it. And we're going to go into some silent meditation now. Who knows what we will hear? I think everybody who lives above the shrine room is in the shrine room, so probably no bathroom noises from above, but an invitation to sit quietly together for 15 minutes, something like that, 10 or 15 minutes. Just noticing what you notice, noticing how you are, noticing your breath, noticing sounds in the space. Not pulling any one thing in particular towards you or making a story about any one particular thing. If that happens, just coming back to welcoming whatever's here. If your mind's particularly busy this evening, it can help to name the things you're noticing. Oh, here's a thought about that awkward meeting I've got tomorrow, or here's a feeling about this thing that happened today, and here's a car going past. But otherwise, allowing the mind to be quiet and just letting thoughts, feelings, sounds, sensations come and go. We'll chant this evening, as we often do, the name of Amitābha Buddha. Amitābha, a Buddha of wisdom and compassion. And in saying their name, we're reminding ourselves that those qualities exist in the universe, that they're streaming towards us, and also that Underneath our own greed, ill will, and ignorance, there is a, a wellspring of those qualities as well.

Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Ame Saba.

Ame Saba. Ame Saba.

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

Ame Saba.

Ame Saba. Ame Saba.

Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha.

Ame Satya.

Ame Satya. Ame Satya. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Aami cha.

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Now we'll recite the refuges and precepts and bodhisattva vows, which the first part I'll invite you to repeat after me, and the final section is call and response. If you want to see the words there on the sheet of A4, that's either next to you or underneath your chair. So please repeat after me. 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.

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.

For refuge I go to the Sangha.

For refuge I go to the Sangha.

Those who live in the Buddha's light.

Those who live in the Buddha's light.

Namo Sanghaya. Namo Sanghaya. With faith in the Three Jewels.

With faith in the Three Jewels.

I pray that I may not take life.

I pray that I may not take thy food—

With faith in The Three Jewels...

—with Faith In The 3 jewels! "With Fear That Is Not Yours!" ...may steal." "...Pray this time you're gonna do it still?" "--With Faith In The 'Three' Jewels..." ..."praying to me through your lips—" "I Pray This Time You Will Follow Us Sexual Misconduct"—

"..pray thusly forth into sexual misconduct," "..._with Faith In The three Jews...." "..faith of these two jewellers..." I pray that I may not fall into wrong speech. I pray that I may not fall into wrong speech. With faith in the Three Jewels.

With faith in the Three Jewels.

I pray that I 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. Inexhaustible arduous 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 follow it completely. It's lovely to be in here as the nights draw in and the light changes. It's less lovely if you're joining us on Zoom where we're just getting darker and darker. Apologies. When we set up the temple a few years ago, nearly 8 years ago, we very deliberately set it up based on the kind of Japanese town temple model, like a church, town church, where people come and practice from the community that you live in, from the town that you live in. They come and they go into their own lives and they come back again, rather than a retreat center where people come from a long way away and then go back into their own lives for a long time before coming back. And partly that's because it suited us and we didn't want to do loads of bedding every week. Mm-hmm. But partly, well, the other reason I was reminded of this afternoon, I was listening to a talk on shamanism by Paul Francis, who was describing lots of emails that he get in his, in his inbox by people who go away and do a retreat. Sometimes in different, you know, in different parts of the world, have a big powerful spiritual experience, and maybe the effects of that last for a few months or even a year. But they've come back into their own lives and into the same routine, and eventually the effects of that experience they had wear off, and the old dissatisfaction starts to creep back in, and they feel a bit lost. Why hasn't this changed me? Where have I gone wrong? Why do I feel dissatisfied again? And I spoke to a number of people who had similar experiences with Buddhist retreats when they weren't connected to local sanghas, that they would go away and have amazing experiences and come back and eventually They would come down and they'd, from those experiences, and go back into the office and come home and go back into the office and come home. And then like, oh, this just feels the same again now. Because the dominant culture that we live in is not much of a spiritual one. We are treated as people with buying power or spending power or hours that companies can spend. And the whole of all the messages that we receive kind of reinforce that. Get as much as you can for yourself, buy as much as you can for yourself. All of this kind of thing. And when we're immersed in that, like a cloth that keeps being dipped into a dye over and over again, of course we start to take on that color ourselves. No wonder we lose that feeling of inner peace. So it was really important when we set this place up to have this idea that people would come back and keep topped up, that it would become integrated, that your Buddhist practice becomes integrated into your ordinary life. And maybe it's enough for some people to come here once a week and get that kind of download of chanting and of quiet meditation, and then that kind of sustains them through the week. But I live here and, you know, come twice a week at least to different things that are happening.. And even living in a Buddhist temple, this isn't a monastery, you know, we're quite porous with the outside world. I'm still receiving all of those messages that I talked about. So I'm still curious about, or keeping an eye on, how to bring this spirit from the shrine room into my daily life. One way I do that is by having a, a regular daily practice. Another one is just by asking that question and, and seeing where it leads. I suppose I'm just inviting us to be conscious of this dynamic where we're moving out of hopefully really good conditions in the shrine room into worldly conditions and the effect that that has, and inviting you to think, okay, how can I, how can I do a little bit more to support my spiritual life when I'm in worldly conditions, to remind me to treat the people around me and the objects around me with loving kindness and respect, to remind me to be grateful for all the things that I receive, to remind me that there are Buddhas as well as all these other forces at work. I suppose now is a good time to plug the 30 Days of Nembutsu, which you can do through our website, helping you develop a daily chanting practice. But there's lots of different answers to this question, and right now I'm just inviting you to keep the question in mind. Namo Amida Butsu. So now we'll move into making prostrations, another way that we express our gratitude for the teachings and the spirit of the teachings and invite them into our lives.

So you've got some space in front of you if you want to do prostrations and do as much as feels comfortable. And we'll, as we bow, we'll recite Namo Amida Butsu, another form of the chant that we did earlier.

Namoha Nijabu.

Namoha Nijabu. Namoha Nijabu.

Namoha Nijabu.

has been sent to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space and time. May the fragrance of Earth herself, reflecting our careful efforts, our wholehearted awareness, and the fruits of our good actions slowly ripen. May we and all Buddhas be companions of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. May we awaken from forgetfulness and realize our true home.

Back to your seats, to find what your place is. We'll finish by bowing to each other, first to one side and then the other.

And we tidy our seats and bow to our seats. And we'll finish by reciting the closing verse together, which is on the top of one of the sides of the A5 sheets, if you'd like to read it. Blessed by Amitabha's light may we care for all living things and not harm them at all. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Oh, it really dark on the computer now though you can't see anything at all. Yes, just to remind you've got a retreat day this Saturday so we'll start— oh!

Yeah, thanks, Jāme. I think, yeah, we've got a retreat day.

We've got a retreat on Saturday starting at 9 in the garden or 9:30 in here. The theme is Loving the Earth, Loving Ourselves. Please join us this evening after practice for a cup of tea if you'd wish. And a reminder that the donation bowl is in the hallway.

I know everybody's been squeezed with the cost of living crisis, but all donations appreciated. It's a big old building to keep going.

Thank you. Namaste.