A Buddhist retreat morning practice with guided zazen sitting, group chanting of Amitabha and Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, and a teaching on beginner's mind. Izzy wrote a Dharma glimpse that Dave reads aloud before the group moves through refuge vows and sitting instructions.
Chapters
Welcome everyone to the first— I guess the second session because we've been in the garden already— of the this month's retreat day. Very lovely to see you all. Welcome if you're joining us on Zoom. Matt and Suzanne. Suzanne, I think you were here when we accidentally closed the Zoom room really abruptly, so we just want to apologize for not, uh, saying goodbye properly at the end of the last practice session. But lovely to see you again. And we're going to begin with a glimpse that Izzy has written, but, um, Dave has agreed to read to save Izzy's sore throat.
Dharma Glimpse by Izzy, or Harper Dharma Glimpse as it's called. It's Friday morning and I'm accompanying visits on my first day of work today. I was slow to sleep at 11 PM last night and woke up at 6 AM sharp, feeling alert, my mind racing, my stomach churning. I do what I do every morning. I lie there for a while before getting up and slowly making my way down to the shrine room to sit with the Buddha. Today is a bright day with beams of golden sun— the beam— and beams of golden sun shine in streaks through the window. The Buddha shines back, looking beautiful. I sit. This is my daily practice at the moment. There is nothing to do, just sit. As my mind wanders, I'm taken back to yesterday and and the struggle I had with writing my Dharma glimpse. I sat down to write it a few times throughout the day, every time my attention getting pulled away. I allow myself to feel in— feel into the fear, let it wash over me. Fear of not writing a worthy Dharma glimpse, fear of starting a new job today, fear of being late, fear of the unknown. Then I am taken back to Monday and my class on the Introduction to Counseling course. Topic this week was empathy. It was something I thought I knew what it meant, and now I'm not so sure. Something that came up was the idea that to be truly empathic— empathetic— empathetic can be frightening. I thought about how, as I listened, I felt myself opening up to the speaker's experience. There was a sense of letting go, and for the first time I felt some fear. Where will they take me? Where will we go? I was with them. Namomi dabu.
In that, uh, glimpse, Izzy beautifully described the practice of shikantaza, just sitting, or zazen, seated meditation. So we'll practice that now together. And, and really, uh, the instructions for just sitting are simply to sit and not do anything else, which is really hard because of course we're tempted to do all sorts of things— think about this, think about that, shuffle around. But we're here, the Buddha's here, we're all just sitting together.
Amitabha. Amitabha.
Amitabha.
Amitabh. Amitabh.
Amitabh.
Amitabh. Amita, Amita, Amita. Amita, Amita, Amita. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh.
Amitabh.
Amitabh.
Amitabh.
Amitabh.
Amitabh. Amitabh.
Amitabh.
Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh.
Amitabh.
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.
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. With faith in The Three Jewels— With Faith In 3 Jews I pray that may not take life—I prayed so many months ago—with faith in The three jewels-I think it's really cool-I hope you like this video—and steal-with-faith-in-the-three-jewls-and-three-gems-i-pray-that-may-not-fall-into-sexual misconduct—not fall into sexual conduct; With faith in the Three Jewels— With faith in the Three Jewels— I pray that I may avoid wrong speech. I pray that I may avoid 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. Be kind. Love everything.
Innumerable are 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 perfect it completely.
Thoughts about retreats and retreat days swimming around in my head, and different sorts of retreats, and, um, The very first retreats, Buddhist retreats, were the rains retreats. So there was quite a practical reason, uh, in— not only practical reason, but it was partly a practical reason. You know, the traditional life of the Buddhist monk or nun was to wander from place to place begging for alms, usually in small groups, settling somewhere, giving a few teachings moving on, sustaining themselves in this way. But it's very difficult to do that during monsoon period where there's huge storms. So they gathered together in larger groups to practice together, and the Buddha was also present then, so they could receive teachings as a group. And by the time the Buddha's sangha had grown to be a substantial size. He'd got enough popularity that people were donating pieces of land, parks on the edges of towns and villages, as sort of safe spaces. You can come and camp here. So a lot of the time We think of them as, you know, we're told the Buddha left home and went into the wilderness, but for much of the Buddha's career, actually, it was in this edge place between the wilderness and between suburbia. So they could easily go and collect offerings and alms and then come back to a place of a little more seclusion. So there's always this kind of rhythm between going forth and returning, movement and stillness. And as householders, most of our lives are in the world with our work, with our families, with our friends, and then we have some movement into stillness. When we come into practice, in daily practice, in weekly practice with each other, and then for longer periods of time like a day, or going away with a group for a longer period of time. The Buddha, of course, would also go off on his own into the wilderness for solitary retreat. Sometimes occasionally you get a sense of, in the spirit of, I've really had enough of you guys, I'll see you in a few months' time. And often in the spirit of, it's time to go and do some introspection and some inquiry and some resourcing to be with Buddha nature, to be with the mythical Buddhas. You see this in the sages of all great traditions, you know, Christ going into the desert for 40 days. So it's important to find the right balance between being in the world and, and in the place where, uh, we get triggered and our emotions go up and down and we're kind of working and and we're trying to do good, but we're not always doing good because we're human beings. And coming into a place where there's some holding, some sense of being able to relax— perhaps easier to find a connection with the Buddha in these spaces. And from that place, when things become to settle, bring some curiosity to ourself to the Buddha, to our lives. So it's not monsoon weather today, but we are gathered, uh, for a retreat day, and the theme is Beginner's mind. I thought of that because it's the first retreat day of the year, so it's like, oh, the year's beginning, beginner's mind. Just simple word association. As far as I knew, a term coined by Suzuki Roshi, which I'll say more about later, um, this afternoon. But for now, an encouragement, and I'm going to— so later I'm going to describe what I think beginner's mind is, and now I'm going to invite you to approach the day with beginner's mind before I've told you what that means. But we have some sense of it just from the phrase itself. Not deciding how things are going to be, being alive to different possibilities, just noticing how it is, how I am in moment to moment, holding things lightly. So the next, uh, The next session in here will be Shraddha's Beginner's Mind voice workshop at 10:30. Does that sound right? Yeah. Um, so I've done a little bit of a shorter practice so we can have time if you want to grab a drink and also to shuffle the shrine room around.
Uh, no, no need to go. We dedicate the merits of this incense offering to all Buddhas, But Satya Robyn, throughout space and time, may these fragrance deserve herself, reflecting our careful efforts, our wholehearted awareness, roots of understanding slowly ripening. May we and all beings be compassionate, companions of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas. May we awaken from forgetfulness, realize our truth. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Thank you.
Thanks everybody. So the schedule for the day is pinned to the dining room door. This quiet space is the living room and the library. If you want to escape from the hubbub of the dining room at any time, or what's going on in here, feel free to drop in or out to as much as little as feels comfortable.
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
Blessed by Amritsar Buddha's light, may we care for all living things
