Satya Robyn leads a meditation session on slowing down and relaxing into difficulty, using a motorbike metaphor for riding through wind. The practice includes guided meditation, chants to Amida Buddha, and a dharma reading about learning to play piano slowly and softly.
Chapters
Morning everybody, well done for making it through the rain this morning, or just downstairs depending on where you have come from. We have a lovely little select practice this morning and we're going to start with a Dharma glimpse. From the Bright Dawn Book of Dharma Glimpses, read by—
written by—
I'm not sure I could pronounce it. The Silent Piano by David Nichio Babatangelo.
Is that right?
The other day, my 7-year-old son Connell asked me to come and look at something in the dining room. 'Watch this,' he said, standing at the piano with a big smile. He proceeded to press 5 keys, one at a time, all the way down without making a sound. 'That's great,' I said, but little did Connell appreciate how much he had really impressed me. I took piano lessons for almost 10 years when I was younger, then went about 25 years without a piano. A few years ago, I started taking lessons again. When I did, I had the goal of really mastering a couple of showstoppers. The vision in my head: my wife and I are invited to my boss's house for cocktails. I notice the piano. I walk over and nonchalantly pluck a couple of keys. 'Oh, do you play?' my boss asks. 'Do you play?' my boss asks. 'A little,' I say coyly, and then I sit down and rip through Chopin's Revolutionary Étude, a flurry of arpeggios and crescendos that flies through hundreds of notes in 2 minutes and 8 seconds. I calmly pick up my martini and rejoin the party as the conversation restarts. Having duly impressed my boss, the halo effect carries over into the office and I am quickly promoted. So with this in mind, I work on the Revolution étude. At some point in the lesson, my teacher inevitably says, "Hmm," and I never finish the piece. I play the first page quite impressively, but But I find I don't have the patience to slow down enough to really work through the whole thing. Soon thereafter, my teacher begins the lesson with, "Anyone fool can play loud and fast. It takes talent to play slowly and softly." For the next half year, we play slowly, slowly. We talk about Glenn Gould and play a lot of Bach. Bach did not put time signatures on his music, and Gould gained international renown for his interpretation of Bach, which he of course played much more slowly than anyone else. After 6 months, I could play slowly, and guess what? It is much more difficult to play slowly than quickly. Mechanically, it might be more difficult to move your fingers quickly, but it takes a great deal of emotional and mental discipline to slow down and maintain a tempo throughout a piece. For the last 5 months or so, we started every lesson with some exercises to design to build finger strength and independence of hands. That is, be able to play very softly with one hand and loudly with the other. It involves doing exactly what Connell did, striking the key without creating a sound. Trust me, it is very, very difficult to do. At least I find it very, very difficult, especially on a poorly regulated piano. Typically, every couple of months, my piano teacher gives me a couple of books to take home. I find a song or two that I really enjoy and play it throughout the week, look forward to playing it at my next lesson. We go through our exercises and then I play the song. Inevitably, I play 4 or 5 measures and he stops me to go back over something. To play it more slowly, carefully, or tenderly. So after having spent half a year playing songs as slowly and steadily as possible, and the last 5 months playing them as softly as possible, I took a new book home a couple of weeks ago and found a piece I really liked— Chopin's Nocturne in E minor. Surprisingly, when I played it at my lesson, my teacher didn't even stop me once. That, he said, was beautiful. I told him that I thought I had sped up a little in a couple of parts. He told me that perhaps I had, but maybe by about 2%. Well, I thought, I had played it slowly, softly, and beautifully. But I had not just played it slowly and softly, I had played with an emotion that I couldn't have mustered 3 years or even 5 months ago. Not only had I played better, I was more fully aware of what I had played, sensing even that slight unintended increase in temper, and I had done it almost effortlessly and subconsciously. My other son has special educational needs, and we have had incredible difficulty with the local school district to fully execute his independent education plan. After trying and trying to work collaboratively with the school, we finally given up and had to engage a lawyer. I can't remember anything that has gotten me as angry When we met with the lawyer, he said that he was going to bring an interning to take notes because he gets so agitated at these meetings that he forgets to take them himself. He said that he would be the bad guy so that my wife and I would seem reasonable by comparison. To be honest, at this point I didn't care whether the school administration thought I was reasonable. I just wanted to walk into that room and lay into him and every one of his administrators. But that would be the easy thing to do. Any fool can play loud and fast. This is true with emotions. It is easy to get angry, rehearse the pithy zingers, then let fly. It's much harder to look with compassion at those who are failing my son. I spent a lot of time meditating and contemplating in the CTA Zendo, that is the 136 Express bus, on the way to work. It has been hard to let go of my rage and view the people involved in my son's education without emotion, and even harder to view them with compassion. I focused on slowing down my emotion and thinking compassionate thoughts, and as I do this, I'm more aware when I do start to get angry and better able to pull back. But this is what we must do in our practice. We must work hard at playing slowly and softly, and we must do it in an unregulated life. Just like a few pianists have the benefit of playing on a perfectly regulated piano where each key has the same feel and response as the key next to it, few people have a similarly regulated life. Life is out of tune, keys stick. There are so many variables outside our control that even the best laid plans can go awry. Perhaps this is why it is so important to find time for meditation and retreat. As we focus on developing our compassion and awareness of our true feelings, We are better able to control our anger, greed, and delusion. Anger is always an affliction. It was interesting that Koenal had been able to strike the keys without making a noise. Although he had obviously worked at it a little before showing me, it did not take him a lot of effort. He just pressed the keys I never thought about whether the piano was in tune or not.
Thank you very much. So we're going to move into a short period of meditation. Maybe choosing, once you've kind of had a little wiggle and felt the floor, seat. Yeah. Maybe choosing to regard your experience as a not 100% regulated piano and see how that is. We're going to move into some chanting. And we're going to chant Om Amideva Hari, to chant to Amida Buddha. Om Amideva Hari.
Om Amideva Hari. Om Nami Devi Wari. Om Nami Devi Wari. Om Nami Devi Wari. Om Nami Deva Hari. Om Nami Deva Hari. Om Nami Deva Hari. Om Nami Deva Sri. Om Nami Deva Sri. Om Nami Deva Sri. Om Nami Devi Wari. Om Nami Devi Wari. Om Nami Devi Wari. Om Nami Deva Hari. Om Nami Deva Hari. Om Nami Deva Hari. Om Ami Ne Wa Rhi. Om Ami Ne Wa Rhi. Om Ami Ne Wa Rhi. Om Nami Deva Hari. Om Nami Deva Bree. Om Nami Deva Bree. Om Nami Deva Sri. Om Nami Deva Sri. Om Nami Deva Sri. Om Nami Deva Hari. Om Nami Deva Hari. Om Nami Deva Hari. Om Nami Devi Wari. Om Nami Devi Wari. Om Nami Devi Wari. Om Nami Deva Hari. Om Nami Deva Hari. Om Nami Deva Hari.
Satsang. So we're now going to recite the refuges and precepts, which can be found on the little liturgy sheet next to you. The refuges are things that we can lean into, take solace in, take refuge in amidst the turbulence of life. And the precepts are ethical ideals that, if we move in their general direction, can make for kinder— a kinder life. So we begin. It's call and response. So, 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.
Namo Buddha. 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. Namo Dharmaya.
Namo Dharmaya.
For refuge I go to the Sangha. For refuge I go to the Sangha. Those who live in the Buddha's light. 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, I pray that I may become aware, of when I take life, of when I take life. I pray that I may become aware— of when I take what is not freely given—I pray that I may become aware—of when I fall into sexual misconduct—I pray that I might become aware—of when I've fallen to wrongspeak; When I fall into wrong speech, I pray that I may become aware. I pray that I may become aware of when I become intoxicated. Of when I become intoxicated. No blame. No blame. Be kind. Be kind. Love everything. Love everything. The next bit isn't directly in call and response, so you don't repeat the bit that I So, but if you choose to, you can repeat the bit that's on the paper. Innumerable are sentient beings, we vow to save them all. Inexhaustible are deluded passions, we vow to transform Immeasurable are the Dharma teachings. We vow to master them all. Infinite is the Buddha's way. We vow to fulfill it completely. I'm gonna need a beer. So the other day I was riding my motorbike to Hereford, Hereford, and it was windy. There's strong gusts of wind that came out when the sides, you know, when I suddenly reached an exposed bit of road. Or, uh, lorry went past me. And I did what I found is the best thing to do when I'm driving in the wind, uh, and that is to relax as much as possible, to relax my body as much as possible so that any movements, any little gusts or that, that are created by the wind. I just flow with as much as possible whilst also holding on to the handlebars and doing the gears and all that. Because if I am more tense and more rigid, then I am more jerked about by the wind. It's harder to ride in it. When I— before I had my motorbike, I had a scooter, a little scooter, and that has a different center of gravity, and that was even more wobbly in the wind. And harder to, harder to be on. It was like, you know, it did, it did okay. I never got totally blown across the road, but, um, it's definitely much more secure on my motorbike. And so This is exactly how it is in life. I think that the more rigid our body, our mind, our hearts are, the harder it is. The more we get tussled about, the more of a struggle life's difficulties can be. And the more we're able to loosen up a bit, to relax a little, or as much as is possible in that moment, in our bodies, in our hearts, in our minds, the less we fight with the difficulties that life throws us. And obviously sometimes that's much easier said than done. So what are some of the conditions? I was wondering, what are some of the conditions which help And I think a really key one is something that is huge within our practice of Pure Land Buddhism that we practice here at Bright Earth, which is entrustment, which is the process of letting go more and more and more into the holding of Amida Buddha, of the infinite source of light and life and love and awareness. Because just to go back to my motorbike metaphor, when I relaxed a bit more in my body, I trusted that my motorbike would carry me along the road and that the road would carry on being there, that the earth would carry on being there for me to ride along. The more I let go into that, the easier it was to move along it, to be carried along it by my vehicle. And what are some of the things that make it harder? What are some of the conditions and factors that make it harder to let go, harder to relax, harder to begin to open and to trust? And I think one of the key ones that comes up for me is fear.
Fear.
That tightening, that tension, that rigidity that comes when we're in a fear state, when all our protections go up and we— our bodies contract. And whether we get into that fear state or not is not in the immediacy something we have control over. Sometimes, you know, a trigger and we contract. And there are things we can do which can help, obviously working with our stuff. Going into therapy, engaging in spiritual practice, learning to breathe to create space within our contracted being if we're in that fear state. And again, I think the greater our trust can become, can grow, our faith that we are held, we are held. We are, as Shinran says, grasped, never to be abandoned. The easier it becomes, even if we are in that fear state, to sense a little bit, and then maybe a little bit more, that there is something outside of that fear that is holding us. And that that fear state too is impermanent. And there may be times when we're more able to soften and open and relax and bend with the winds rather than break like a dying brittle branch on the tree. So learning to ride in the wind. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. We're going to move into some prostrations, which we'll do with a little bit more chanting. These are a way of bowing, of embodying our practice. And if you're new, you can join in, or you can watch, and both are absolutely fine.
Namoha Nidabhu. Namoha Nidabhu. Namoha Nidabhu. Amor a mi. Namoh Ani Da. Namoh Ani Da. Namoh Ani Da.
In gratitude, we offer this incense to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space and time. May it be fragrant as the earth ourselves, reflecting our careful efforts, our wholehearted mindfulness, and the fruits of understanding. May we and all beings be companions of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. May we awaken from forgetfulness and realize our true home. So returning to stand at our seats, we're going to bow first to the left and then to the right. Going to bow to the main shrine, tidy our seats. And bow to our seats. And we're going to close with the closing verse. Blessed by Amitabha's light, may we care for all living things and the holy earth. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
