Satya Robyn leads a recorded group Buddhist practice session from December 2022. The session includes guided meditation, Amitabha chanting, a Dharma reading on acceptance and grief, and a teaching on Pure Land practice and the Laughing Buddha.
Chapters
Good morning everybody, welcome Philip joining us live on Zoom. We're going to start with a glimpse that's been sent in by Frankie. He's been taking part in some of the book groups, and Jaume has kindly agreed to read it out for me. Thank you.
Thank you. Acceptance and Grief: A Dharma Glimpse by Frankie. And it starts with a couple of little poems. Bamboo wind chime, she even forgets her own child's death. Mitsu Suzuki— that's by Mitsu Suzuki, a white T-ball. And the next one is, soon I'll forget that my son is a murderer. Soon I'll forget that I have a son. Um, I'm assuming that's an excerpt from a book or something, but not by Nigel Havers, Andrew Wilding in Midsomer Murders. Last week my aunt was diagnosed as being in the early stages of Alzheimer's. Despite all evidence to the contrary, my cousin and I still have difficulty believing this could happen to Pat. Full of youth and vigor, lively-minded, active every single day. She's been the matriarch and life force of us all, reminding us always to take care of ourselves, eat good healthy food, stay fit. She has followed her own rules always. The rest of us, not so much. I can't get my head around any of this. In the last few days, everything seems to have been about memory. Streisand and Redford in The Way We Were, We Were on TV. An episode of Midsomer Murders about Alzheimer's and memory, even browsing one of my favorite haiku collections. All of these fingers pointing to a large, clouded, ominous moon. Acceptance and grief seem to sit within me in equal measures. I allow grief to be. We aren't strangers. Familiar narratives have emerged naturally and without being sought. Nothing is permanent. Change is inevitable. The brevity of our fleeting lives in this floating world. And I see in this moment how this journey, this dharma, my teachers and companions, are supporting me in the face of my knee-jerk anger, my me-centered weakness, my resistance. Something comes up again and again. I find consolation in the fact that my aunt and uncle are in their early 90s and find myself hoping that they leave this world before their memories desert them completely. I hope that having been married for more than 70 years, they will never be strangers to one another. I feel guilty thinking about their deaths. But I weigh it up against compassion, against love. Not wishing upon— not wishing it upon them, but wishing for kindness, calling upon Amitabha Buddha and Kannon for their compassion to hear and guide not just me, but all of us, my family, and all families confronting similar journeys. Nama Kwan Shin Bosatsu.
Move into a period of silence together. Invitation to notice anything that's arising, anything that's moving through you— thoughts, feelings. Sensations, welcoming whatever's here without, uh, without making something big out of it, also without pushing it away. Oh, now I'm noticing such and such. Maybe it's changing and fading, and oh, here's something else, and just like that. Why do we say Amida's name when in one sense it's true that All Buddhas are the same Buddha, all manifestations of enlightenment. We can understand that Kuan Yin is Amida, Medicine Buddha is Amida, Amida is Manjushri and Green Tara. And we do say all those different names sometimes, and there is merit in that, but we keep coming back to the Nembutsu. Because although all of those Buddhas made different vows to liberate all beings, in the texts at least, Amitabha is the only one that explicitly welcomes all of us, all of our parts, all of our dysfunctions, providing that we call on the name understanding, that we're being received into the Pure Land as we do that. So it reminds us of this aspect in particular of enlightenment. This face of the Buddha out of all their faces. Just as you are. Just are you are, as it says on the back of the leaflets. Really, just as you are. So we'll, uh, we'll recite 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. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha.
So we'll run through the refuges and precepts and so on. The— if you want to follow along with the words, it's on the liturgy sheet. Otherwise, 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 light.
The one who is awake and full of light.
Namo Buddhaya.
Namo Buddhaya.
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.
Those who live in the Buddha's light.
Namo Sanghaya.
Namo Sanghaya.
Having said light for the Buddha, I wondered if I should say those who live in the Buddha's love for the Sangha, but I thought maybe that would be too convincing.
That works too.
Yeah, it's— they're both nice. No blame.
No blame.
Be kind.
Be kind.
Love everything. Love everything. See, I've just lost the plot. Um, I'm not here. I'm not entirely present this morning, despite all that lovely chanting and meditating. And that Now we'll do the Five Loprisets.
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 wrong speech.
I pray that I may not fall into gross speech—
With faith in the Three Jewels... —with faith in the three jewels... I pray that I may not fall into sexual misconduct—
...I pray that I might not fall into sexual misconduct—
With faith in the Three Jewels...
—With faith in the 3 jewels...
I pray that I may avoid intoxication— ...I pray that I may avoid intoxication—
Innumerable sentient beings!
We vow to save them all.
Inexhaustible deluded passion, we vow to transform them all.
Immeasurable are the Dharma teachings, we vow to master A few years ago, I was reading a book. I won't say who I think it was Satya Robyn, in case I get it wrong, but it was a Buddhist teacher, and she was writing about having delivered a talk to a group of students, but she'd flown a long way and it had been a busy teaching schedule and she was a bit jet-lagged. And she said, partway through the talk, I realized that I was repeating myself. Maybe it was a prepared talk and I was reading the same page that I'd already read at the beginning. And I, I suddenly noticed, and maybe people in the audience had twigged a little bit earlier than she had. And she said, I just paused and said, like, this is also a really important teaching, talking about all these, these ideals which we do. And here's an actual human being who's jet-lagged and tired and doesn't know which page of the talk they're supposed to be reading from. This morning I was reading about some of the origins of, uh, Ho-Ti, the Laughing Buddha. There's a little, uh, little wooden statue in the dining room, the smiling Buddha, the fat Buddha. Um, and there's some suggestion that he was based on a real monk that lived in China a few hundred years ago, maybe 1,000 years ago. And, um, This was after a period in Chinese history where the Chinese emperor and government had outlawed lots of different kinds of religions because they experienced them as competing against, uh, revering the empire and the emperor, I guess. So Christianity, Taoism, but— and Buddhism was one of the ones that was outlawed. So Buddhist statues were taken out of temples, temples were torn down, Buddhist monks and nuns went into hiding or went back into lay life, just disappeared. It was a very turbulent time, and this was supposed to bring stability to the empire, and it didn't, of course. It created much more disruption, and this particular imperial house eventually crumbled, you know, didn't last too long because of these oppressive actions they were taking, in part. And then slowly the religion starts to come back, the monks and nuns reappeared from where they'd been hiding. And one of these was a wandering monk who became known as— I want to say something like, uh, Budai, which is the name for the sack that he carried. And I, I fear, fear that I haven't got the the name for that, the Chinese name for that exactly right. But this was the sack that he carried, and he was the wandering monk. He's described as being very cheerful and smiley, living as monks did, like a beggar. And actually, they didn't all live like that in China. Many of them lived in huge monasteries where they were supported by the communities and by monks that worked on the land. But he'd gone back to the traditional begging bowl, robe, going out, walking lifestyle. Except instead of a begging bowl, he just had this sack, and whenever he had anything spare, he would very happily share it out. So he became known as this really smiley, warm character that was, that was really generous. I don't think people are sharing that story because it's coming close to Christmas time and it's about a smiley old chap with a sack that he used to share things from, but you never know. And, uh, there's an ideal and it's so easy to go, oh, I should be that generous. Everything— I mean, in the text, you know, in the, in what I was reading, it says everything that was spare or left over. And of course, that's a very slippery concept, but he had very little, and what he did have, he shared. I was like, oh, I should share more. But I know that, um, if I push myself into that place it's possible there will be a backlash. There'll be resentment building up because it's coming from a place of ought rather than a genuine turning in the heart. So this is where we have to be mindful and where I really appreciate Pure Land Buddhism piercing the, the bubble of the many, many ideals that Buddhism offers to us, because they are, they are all good things to practice, they're all good things to do. But if we do them out of a place of obligation or duty or grasping, sooner or later we're going to get into trouble. If we're not so far away from those things, then actually practicing them a little bit more can be very helpful, and the turning, the kind of heart maybe sort of sorts itself out. But if we, if we, if we really want to take a big leap to somewhere over there, uh, yeah, that's when the wheels can come off. So it's this idea, or this, this holding these people in mind— this guy with it, this, this guy who's the embodiment of absolute generosity— is a really important part of the practice. But the other half is about really seeing ourselves clearly and starting from where we are. Who am I right now? The more I can honor that starting place, the more likely it is that at some point I'll end up over there. If I just try and be over there, I probably, um, will end up somewhere worse. That's my experience anyway. Namaste.
Namoh Ani Da. Namoh Ani Babu. Namoh Ani Babu. Namoh Ani Da.
In gratitude, we dedicate the merits of this incense offering 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 within. May we and all beings be companions in time of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. May we awaken from forgetfulness and realize our true—
Namamitabha.
Stand in our places, bow to each other.
Remain shine. We turn to our seats and bow to our seats. We'll finish with the closing verse, which is on the top of one of the sides of the liturgy sheet. Blessed by Amitabha's light, may we care for all living things and the holy earth.
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Thank you, Mark. New Year's Eve, there will be practice in the shrine room between 11 PM and midnight. Anyone wants to join us. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
