Satya Robyn leads an evening Buddhist service marking the Buddha's parinirvana, with facilitator Casper guiding group chanting of the Nembutsu and Shakyamuni mantra, meditation, and readings on the Buddha's final words. Chris shares a personal reflection connecting swimming to Amida Buddha.
Chapters
Namamitabhu.
Welcome everybody. Today we remember the paranirvana of the Buddha. Nirvana being when the Buddha was enlightened, which we celebrate in December. Parinirvana being the anniversary of the Buddha's death, so the transition from this physical world into nirvana without having a body, whatever that means. So we are thinking particularly of the founder of Buddhism, today. Welcome if you're joining us on Zoom. Helen, Katie— I was going to say iPhone— Beth, sorry, and Chris. And Chris hopefully is ready to read a glimpse for us. Great. So let me make sure the volume here is turned up. That's fine. And yeah, I'll hand over to Chris. Thank you. Namaste.
Thank you, Casper. Swimming into the light. In an attempt to improve my fitness, I joined the local leisure centre last December. As well as attending gym sessions, I've also started to swim again after a 30-year break from the pool. I'm not a strong swimmer, And to be honest, I've found swimming quite hard work after such a long time, but I have been improving gradually with each visit and was starting to feel quite pleased with my progress— until this morning, that is. The pool is divided into 3 sections for lane swimming depending on one's ability: easy, medium, and fast. As I'm very definitely in the easy category, that's where I am to be found. I've worked up to doing 24 lengths in half an hour, and that is my aim this morning. As I set off, I'm feeling good, but within a couple of lengths I become aware of another swimmer coming up on my left and begin— beginning to overtake me. A middle-aged woman with gray curly hair and a determined expression. I observe her swimming action, which seems very similar to mine, so how come she's going so much faster? A few lengths later and the same thing happens, this time with an elderly chap sporting goggles and a shiny bald head. I start to feel slightly despondent as he pulls away from me. When I finish my 24 lengths, I pause for a rest before leaving the pool. My gaze is drawn up to the pool guard sitting atop his tower. My eyesight is not so good these days, so I can't see his face in detail. But I'm sure he's observing me. Look at that old woman, I imagine him thinking. She's really pathetic at swimming. I wonder why she bothers coming at all. As I climb the steps out of the pool, my dodgy hip protests at being lifted out of the weightless comfort of the water. And my whole body suddenly feels much heavier. I head towards the changing area and pass two young women on their way to the pool, all toned limbs and flat stomachs. They are deep in conversation and do not acknowledge me as I pass. I'm painfully aware of my own aging body as I limp into the shower cubicle. The warm water is soothing as I stand in the shower. As I soak myself with shower gel and shampoo, my mind takes me back to the pool. But instead of being watched over by a muscled pool guard, I imagine Amida Buddha is sitting on the tower looking down on me as I swim my lengths. Amitabha is not thinking, look at that Chris with her flabby thighs and bingo wings. Everyone else is putting in some real effort, but she's really not trying at all. She's pathetic. No, Amitabha is looking down on me with love and compassion, accepting me just as I am with all my faults and failings. My tendency to self-criticize and to measure myself against others. Amida Buddha's light falls on me just as it does on everyone else. As I sit by the exit to put on my shoes, an elderly man, one of the regulars I've got to know over the weeks, sits beside me on the bench. 'You looked as if you were enjoying the swim today,' he says. I pause before answering. 'Yes,' I say. 'Yes, in a strange way, I think I did enjoy it.' The sun is just rising as I leave the leisure centre. I walk out into the light. With the light of Amida in my heart. Namu Amida Butsu.
Namu Amida Butsu. Thank you very much. Chris's Zoom background is a swimming pool today, appropriately. So, uh, let's go into a time of meditation together. We're When we come out of the quiet, we will recite the Shakyamuni mantra, which you can find on the liturgy sheet. And in the silence, an invitation to begin noticing the breath, not breathing in any particular way, just noticing how it is moment to moment. The cooler air entering at the tip of the nose, warmer air leaving the pause between breaths. And if thoughts, feelings, sensations appear, noticing— here's a thought, here's a feeling— then returning To the breath. So in a moment we'll begin reciting the Shakyamuni mantra, which I'm going to type into the chat as well. Om Muni Muni Maha Muni Shakyamuni Swaha. Or in English, something like, oh sage Sage, great sage of the Shakyan people. And you know, when you call a friend to mind or a loved one to mind, you kind of have a sense of their sort of energy, of their personality. Maybe even you notice a shift in yourself when you think of a loved one. In the same way, well, this is Nembutsu, isn't it? When we call, the Buddha appears and something— yeah, something can open up in us as well.
Om muni munimaha mumishakhyamunisvah! Oh Mune Munima ha-mumisha-kya mu-ni-sva-haa... oh Moonie Moony Ma Ha-Moonieshakyha Mooonii Sfaaaa— hmm?
Hmmmm?!
Om muni muni maham uni shakya munisvaha! Oh Muni muni Maham uni Shakya Munisvaha! Om muni muni Maham uni Sakya Munisvaha! Om muni munimaha mumishakhyamunisvah! Oh Muneemoni mahamu nisha kiamu ni svahaha? Oom moony mooni ma ha mu knee sha kia moo nees fatha— Hmm... Moonie-moonee Mahaa Mooney Shakia Moo Neese Faaa-ha-a-ooohh?! Om muni muni mahamunishakhyamunisvaha! Ahmuni munimahamunishakyamunisvaha! Oh Muni Munima ha-muni Shakhya Munisva— ahem... Om Muni muni mahamunishakya munisvaha!
Ohh...
Munimuni mahamunishakyamunisvaha!
Ooh—
Munimuni mahamunishakyamunisvaha! Om muni muni mahamunishakya munisvaha! Oh Muni muni Mahamunishakya Muniswaha! Om muni muni Mahamunishakya Munisfah— Om muni munimaha muni shakya munisvaham! Om muni munimaha muni shakya munisvaham! Om muni munima— ahmuni Shakya Munisvaaham! Om muni muni mahamunishakya munisvaha! Oh Muni muni Mahamunishakya Muniswaahaa! Om muni muni Mahamunishakya Munisaahaa! Om muni muni mahamunishakya munisvaha! Oh Muni muni Mahamunishakya Munisvaha! Om muni muni Mahamunishakya Munisvaha! Om muni muni mahamunishakya munisvaha! Oh Muni muni Mahamunishakya Muniswaha! Om muni muni Mahamunishakya Muniswaha! Om Mani Mani Mahamuni Shakya Muni Swaha!
Om Mani Mani Ma— Shakyamuni Swaha! Um... Shakyamuni Swaha! For refuge I go to the Buddha. The one who is awake and full of light, love. Namobuddhaya. For refuge I go to the Dharma. All that guides us to wisdom and compassion. Namoh Jamaya. For refuge I go to the Sangha— for those who live in the Buddha's light. Namo Sangaya! 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. 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 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 follow it completely. So the, uh, the American Zen teacher James Ford shared a piece of writing today about the Buddha's last words that he spoke on Parinirvana Day, reflecting on the different— both the different translations and also the fact that there's different accounts of what the Buddha said depending on whether you read in this text or this text. Anyway, I thought I would just read his piece of writing this evening. It begins, it actually begins with a poem by Mary Oliver about the Buddha's last words. So I'll read the poem and then I'll be reading what James said. Make of yourself a light, said the Buddha before he died. I think of this every morning as the east begins to tear off its many clouds of darkness, to send up the first signal, a white fan streaked with pink and violet, even green. An old man, he lay down between two sala trees and and he might have said anything knowing it was his final hour. The light burns upward. It thickens and settles over the fields. Around him, the villagers gathered and stretched forward to listen. Even before the sun itself hangs disattached in the blue air, I am touched everywhere by its ocean of yellow waves. No doubt he thought of everything that had happened in his difficult life. And then I feel the sun itself as it blazes over the hills like a million flowers on fire. Clearly I'm not needed, yet I feel myself turning into something of inexplicable value. Slowly, beneath the branches, he raised his head. He looked into the faces of that frightened crowd. That's the Mary Oliver poem. And James writes, so Mary Oliver tells us the Holy One's last words were, make yourself a light. I like it. I like it a lot. And well, there are other last words attributed to the Buddha too. To consider, not the least his actual last words, or well, his last words as best we can know given all the givens. The principal text addressing the moment when he would have spoken last words, the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta, is clearly, at least by my reading, a digest of his teachings composed with an eye to the continuation of the community he led. I have little doubt a fair amount of it was how shall we say enriched by those who won the ensuing struggles for leadership. For those familiar with New Testament studies, the text feels similar to that second Paul, the author of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus that addresses the young church and is packed full of institutional advice. Much of it, to my read, highly questionable given what we know of Jesus's actual teachings. So those three texts are clearly, to most critical readers, from someone different than the ecstatic mystic who wrote, or whose teachings are compiled, as most of the other letters. With that, the Buddha's last— with that, the Buddha's last words. Captured in this ancient document, the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta. Whatever else is true, they were committed to writing several hundred years after his death. Committed to writing several hundred years after his death. That noted, I suspect the last words had a magical quality, a halo around them, and are more likely than most things to be what he actually said. At least I think, feel, suspect could be the case. There are various translations of them as recorded in the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta. One version goes, 'All compounded things are subject to vanish. Strive with earnestness.' Another has it, 'Experience is disappointing. It is through vigilance that you succeed.' Another, still another reads: All fabrications are subject to decay. Bring about completion by being heedful. All fabrications are subject to decay, full stop. Bring about completion by being heedful. And another: All component things in the world are changeable. They are not lasting. Work hard to gain your own salvation. What we get are two points: an observation and an exhortation. With that, my paraphrase of those two things: Dear ones, all things pass away. Walk with reverence. The first part continues the theme the Buddha touched on throughout his teaching ministry: things are composed of parts, and anything composed of parts will come apart. And with that grasping of those most transient, of what are more moments than things, will ultimately be thwarted. Grasping water. And with that, frustration, unhappiness, dissatisfaction, dis-ease follows like night follows day. And then the exhortation, it turns very much on volition. On his confidence that the individual, you and I, can win some victory through our sustained attention. What that victory is, he doesn't spell out, or rather it's spelled out a bit differently in the various traditions that follow him. It's a release. The Dhammapada, a collection of his sayings, tells us when the Buddha had his great awakening, he declared, 'House builder, You are seen through. You will not build a house again. The rafters are broken, the ridgepole is destroyed, all gone to the unformed. The mind has come to the end of craving. Much, much later, Keizan Jōkin, in his anthology of the line of transmission in the Zen school, declares that what actually happened went more like this. Shakyamuni Buddha saw the morning star, awakened to the way, and said, I, together with great earth and sentient beings, simultaneously attained the way. I noticed the different schools shift what that victory is a fair amount, ranging from separation and extinction to fully engaged without attaching to any result. Me, I'm not so inclined to that first view, and completely in accord with the second. Not that I'm attaching to any results, you understand. In any case, that old monk who gathered a small band around him and preached a lot of sermons in a land so alien it's even hard to picture, much less comprehend it, teaching in a language lost to us and so recorded centuries after his death in languages he did not speak, sparked something. And that fire continues to burn, sort of a light shining into the darkness. Dear ones, all things pass away. Walk with reverence. A light into many individual hearts. Those individual hearts he called to work diligently, to see through the transience of things and to win some great victory on the other side of grasping things. And this becomes our victory along the way. We discover our individuality is intimately connected to everyone and everything else. And so no one can be left behind a great blight. No mummy to boo. And then he links to a YouTube video of Leonard Cohen's song. Maybe later. See how strong the tea is.
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 ripening. May we and all beings be companions of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. May we awaken from forgetfulness and realize our true home.
Come back to standing in our places. He's going to ring the inking once, and we'll bow to each other first to to one side and then to the other, but not opposites because we do the bowing to the center a bit later on after you've read the closing verse. I will bow to the bell master. Satya will bow to Jharmay. Jharmay and Beth will bow to each other. Alison and Asma, Philip and Dave. That means that in the first instance, Sharon, you weren't bad to anybody. And yeah, and oh yeah, and I'm not sure what you do, Angela. Well, you can do, yeah. And, uh, and, and then the other way around, in which case then you would go to Laszlo, I think. But it will never work out perfectly because of the layout of the room, but it's something like that that we're attempting to do. The main shrine, and then tidy our seats and batch our seats.
Hopefully Zoom people are also bowing to each other. Yeah, of course.
And then a couple of announcements before the closing verse. Saturday, mindful maintenance after practice. Two weekends' time is the kirtan at the end of February on Sunday evening. Which will be very lovely again, I'm sure. Registration's open for the next set of book groups, Nāgāpriya, which will run for quite 16 weeks here over the summer. And also I'll be leading a group on Ocean, the Kentonika Introduction to Pure Land Buddhism, but face to face here at the temple, also over the summer. Which is also quite long, 12 weeks, but the chunks of writing are much smaller, so that will be easier to digest and is more suitable for beginners taking— well, the details are all on the website. I don't need to describe both the books. Let us know if you're interested in any of those things. All right, so we'll finish with the closing verse, which is on the liturgy sheet, if you want to read it for us. Blessed by Amitabha's light, may we care for all living things and the holy earth. Just one more announcement. Now, where am I to be? Oh, I forgot to record it. Oh well, I'm sure I— oh no, I'm sure I started the recording. There it is. Stop recording.
