Satya Robyn leads an evening Buddhist practice with a Dharma reading by Fi on trust, guided meditation, and a talk by Caspar about the purpose of the precepts. The group chants together and renews vows.
Chapters
Good evening everybody, welcome. Hi to Beth and Claire and Philip who are joining us on Zoom. Hi to everybody who's here. Hi to the Buddhas. We're going to start by listening to a Dharma glimpse that Fi has written for us, and hopefully her voice is strong enough to make it to the end.
Thank you, Caspar. This one is called Trust. One of the things I love about my hometown is how close we are to the hills. When I have a day to myself, I love to pack some food and drink in my rucksack and spend a whole day walking them slowly, all on my own, just existing in the present moment. When I do this, I feel absorbed in nature and very conscious of the Buddha. A few years ago, on a summer's day, I set off to do just that. But on the day I'd made my plans, an unexpected fog had closed in on the hills. I felt cheated and irritated. Where was the wide open vista around me which I always found so moving? How could I immerse myself in the profound and sacred nature of the landscape when I could barely see more than a few meters of it at any one time? But as I walked along the familiar path, I began to notice things. Instead of the whole landscape being revealed to me all at once, I was encountering it in what felt like a series of rooms that the fog had created. I was forced to slow not just my pace but my perception and really appreciate what I encountered at each step instead of having my eyes on the horizon. At this point, I had to chuckle at my foolish nature and admit that my attachment to the sort of day I had planned to have was getting in the way of enjoying the day I was going to have. Instead of the majestic spaciousness of the hills and the far-reaching land on either side, I was being invited to rejoice in the smaller and more immediate things. The way the trees were melting towards me out of the mist like an Impressionist painting. The eerie way the spider webs were hung with mist droplets. The way the mist changed the way sound travels, making the journey through the landscape seem more intimate. The drops of moisture that hung all over the leaves and twigs like jewels bringing to mind some descriptions of the Pure Land. In the end, I still had a beautiful and healing experience walking the hills that day. There were several lessons I could have taken away from it: the self-sabotaging nature of attachment, my bambū nature, or the impermanence of both good and bad weather. But what I felt most in my heart at the end of that day was trust. Trust that my personal meditative walks will always bring me healing, provided I don't let my preconceptions get in the way. Trust that the sun was still there beyond the fog, just as we trust that Amida Buddha is there even when the metaphorical clouds of delusion get in the way.
Namah Om Mani Padme Hum. So now we have some time for sitting quietly together. You may want to rest your attention on the breath, noticing how it changes moment to moment. It may be possible to just sit with a soft, open awareness. The theater director Anne Bogart taught two kinds of looking to her performers. One where your eyes focus on a particular object and you pay attention to it and notice, ah, this is what's here, or this is the person that's in front of me. And the other, a softening of the gaze that allows you to notice what's in the center but also what's in your peripheral vision. And both kinds are important to cultivate for meditation. So the invitation this evening perhaps is to that soft focus, open awareness that allows in whatever is coming through the sense gates. Sounds, physical sensations, thoughts and feelings, without fixating on anything in particular, just noticing what's coming and going. And if the mind does begin to fixate on something in particular, and it's a struggle to release that and come back to the soft, wide-open awareness, landing back on the breath for a few moments can help as a way of transitioning from that very focused kind of attention into something more expansive. 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. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Mami.
For refuge I go to the Buddha— for one who is awake and full of love. Namu Buddhaya! For refuge I go to the Dharma— all that guides us to wisdom and compassion.
All that guides us to wisdom and compassion.
Namo Damaya. For refuge I go to the Sangha, those who live in the Buddha's light. Namo Sanghaya. 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 in the Three Jewels, I pray that I may not fall into sexual misconduct. With faith in the Three Jewels, 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 Dharma teachings, We vow to master them all.
Infinite is the Buddha's way.
We vow to cultivate completely.
Namamitabhu. There's overlapping, different overlapping reasons for the various Buddhist precepts. I guess I'm particularly thinking of the precepts that the Buddha gave to monks and nuns 2,500 years ago, but The reasons for those we can apply to our lives today, to our ethical conduct in the present day, even if we haven't taken those specific precepts. So one of the reasons for some of the precepts was about keeping the community safe, not doing things to discredit the community. Don't do things that might upset the locals too much, because the early Buddhist sangha was dependent on the locals for their food, for places to stay and practice. And of course, the Buddha did plenty of things in some ways to upset the locals. He ordained people not in the order of their caste, you know, he upset that system of status being based on the family that you're born into. He told kings things that they didn't want to hear about how they were ruling, although usually diplomatically phrased. Rather than, "You're doing this wrong," "This is what a good king would do," a hypothetical good king. It's nothing to do with what you're doing. But at the same time, there was a sense that it was good to have a decent reputation in your local community. So some of the precepts were aimed at that. Some were aimed at the practical safety of the community. Don't go asking for alms in the afternoon and the evening is because that's when you're more likely to be beaten up by gangs of unruly people. And if you go first thing in the morning, they don't tend to be awake, so it's safer. So go begging in the morning. So some things to keep the community safe, some things to keep individuals safe. And then I guess there are two other reasons for the precepts. One is about caring for the world and for the people in front of you, thinking about the impact that my actions have on other living beings and on the earth for the sake of those things. Nothing at all to do with me. I don't hurt somebody because it's painful for them to be hurt. And the final reason is that they support our own spiritual path. The impulses in me towards ill will or greed or kidding myself about the way things are, those are the things that get in between me and the Buddha, in between me and love and compassion. And the teachings on karma tell us that the more we indulge in those kinds of thoughts and behaviors, the more likely we are to do it again. The Buddha used the analogy of a seed, bija. When you water a negative karmic seed, a flower appears, and it puts new seeds in your mind. So your one negative act leads to other negative acts in the future. Creating more distance between me and the Buddha. So if I restrain myself from doing those things, it can begin to create the conditions for an easier relationship between me and the Buddha. I'm not setting myself up for failure in the— in the way that I would be if I was acting out. Although we know as human beings it's very difficult to simply choose not to do things sometimes. And that's often— if you, um, if you sort of— some sort of Buddhist training manuals, you begin with restraint for that reason. Sila is the word that's often used to describe the precepts— restraint. I will hold myself back from causing trouble, and then I will begin my meditation practice. Whereas other schools will tell you that actually it's fine to meditate while you're causing trouble because you can learn something from meditating, and so on and so forth. And the other way that the precepts are valuable to our spiritual practice is that every time we step over that line, somehow it's a signpost to that greed or ill will or kidding ourselves in our own system. There can be a mirror in that way. It tells us something about what's happening inside. The precept around right speech, for example. And you know, as a therapist, I'm particularly trained in listening and speaking. And one of the things we're particularly trained to look out for, especially in this IFS model that Satya Robyn uses, is whether we have an agenda when we're speaking. Do I want you to feel better because then I will feel better? That's an agenda that's unhelpful for the other person. Am I making a joke that actually makes— puffs me up a little bit and puts you down a little bit? That's a different kind of agenda. Advice giving usually comes from an agenda because it's hard to bear things not being sorted out. Perhaps occasionally, like when the Buddha gave advice, I trust that most of the time actually it came from a place of really noticing that the person was ready to do something differently. And often we don't check that out before giving advice. But all of these things tell us, sometimes in very big ways and sometimes in quite subtle ways, that we are speaking in this case from a place of self-protection rather than from a place of having an open heart. And we can bring that self-protection into our meditation, into our Nembutsu chanting, into relationship with the Buddha. Satya Robyn and I are very, very slowly reading a book called How to Grow a Lotus Flower by Reverend— sorry, Lotus Blossom, sorry, by Reverend Koshin. And Schomburg. I'm reading it much more slowly than Satya Robyn's, but I've just reached the point where he describes bringing these things into the light of the Buddha and the light dissolving them, bringing these kind of knots of initially self-protectiveness and then the pain underneath those into the light of the Buddha, and the light dissolves them and frees us from them. And the precepts can point us to where those things are. So they're really useful in all of these ways: for protecting our communities, for protecting ourselves practically, for taking care of other people, and for being a really valuable spiritual tool that allows us to tune in more deeply to what we need to bring to the attention of the Buddha's loving kindness.
Namaste. Namaste. Namaste. Namaste. In gratitude, we offer this incense to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space and time. May it be fragrant as Earth herself. Reflecting our careful efforts, our wholehearted awareness, and the fruits of understanding slowly ripen. May we and all beings be companions to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. May we awaken from forgetfulness and realize our true home.
Blessed by Amitabha's light, may we care for all living things and the holy earth. Namamitabhu. Do you want to mention your gardening?
This is Saturday from 2 to 3 PM. Me and Angie will be gardening if anyone wants to join us, and then we'll be having a cup of tea and probably cookies. So what more would you need? Yeah, so just gentle lead and no experience necessary. Free dogs.
No worries.
