Practice

Good morning everyone, lovely to have a nice full shrine room this morning. Happy birthday Izzy, we won't sing for you right now, maybe afterwards. And lovely to see you, Matt. Welcome, Matt, all the way from Cornwall. So this morning we will begin with a Dharma glimpse, uh, read by Jyami. And a Dharma glimpse is a little piece of writing, a little or longer, um, describing a moment of inspiration or truth connecting with the reality that, that is always there if we can open our eyes to it, open our ears to it. So I will pass over to Johnny. Thank you very much.

Okay, now, Mami Dubu. Permission to be vulnerable. I recently had to leave a job as a combination of problems with it were making me ill, and so I did quite suddenly. So I did it quite suddenly and without securing anything else to fall back on. I couldn't afford to have too much time off, and so I started making job applications and went on the old familiar rounds of paperwork interviews and waiting around to hear back. I had applied for a carer job and it seemed to be going well, but the process was complicated by the fact that it was happening so close to Christmas and there was some uncertainty about my availability for the fixed rota patterns. Not long after the first interview and in a state of anxiety around the outcome, I found myself overwhelmed in a social situation when I was bombarded with career advice by my colleagues and friends about how to proceed with it. All well-meaning input, but communicated in what felt like quite an overpowering way, which didn't seem to leave much room for my feelings about things. I sputtered out something defensive, angrily dismissed the advice, and managed to steer the conversation away from the subject. I immediately felt frustrated as I struggle with expressing myself verbally and couldn't manage to say what I wanted to say at the time. It all left me feeling a bit hurt and vulnerable. After sleeping on it, I decided to clarify myself with a message to the community about my feelings and the reasons why I had been quite stubborn about my position. I made it clear that I understood the sentiment behind their intervention but that I had my reasons for maintaining my approach and apologised if my reaction had seemed harsh. The message was met with understanding and grace from my friends. They appreciated the honesty and that I had taken the care and thought that went into the message. A few days later, a friend who was present at the social event mentioned the incident and that they'd seen me being pressured and were so impressed and inspired by my message response that they took a similar approach to an ongoing issue that they were struggling with at the time. My example helped them to muster up the courage to open up and say what was really on their mind, even after the initial event had passed, which made them feel lighter and more at ease. I thought about what happened, how my initial reaction was restricted unclear because of my social frozenness, and how reflection on my part in the situation had produced a more balanced response. It struck me that the active ingredients in this transmission were vulnerability and humility. My honest— honesty and willingness to expose my feelings like that showed a kind of softness that was interpreted on some level as a permission to be vulnerable on the part of my friend. It really showed me the power of openness and how authenticity can spread in a good way, even when we're attempting to clear up the mess after the fact. I felt this is a kind of sharing between friends, colleagues, and practitioners. The softness that happens when we practice Buddhism is a kind of transmission between us and the Buddha. We catch a bit of love and compassion and and then in turn pass that on to others around us who hopefully will do the same as they walk their respective paths. We can't always be in control of our behaviours. We are, after all, inescapably human, but we will transmit what is in our hearts and minds, and if we stay close to Amida, it might just be enough to cut through the misunderstandings that happen between us and help to bring us closer together.

Namu Amida Butsu. So we'll have some— we'll share some silence together now, sitting with the Buddha, sitting with the Buddhas, both physical representations of Buddhas, pictures of Buddhas in this space, and something more mysterious, the presence of the Buddhas in the silence. Maybe just allow whoever wants to be with you to be with you. Allow their compassion and wisdom to bathe you, and if you get caught in tangles or discomfort, just hand it over to the Buddhas. And hopefully your system will begin to settle. If it doesn't, that's also fine. It's just settling slower than you hoped it would. And after some time, I'll begin a chant, so do join with me in the chant.

Namoo amida boo soo namo ami dabu soo namo ami dabu soo namo ami dabu soo namoo ami dabu soomnamoomidabuu— Soo namo amida butsu. Namo amida butsu. Nammo ami dabu soo. Nammo ami dabu soo. Nammo ami dabu soo. Ramo ami dabu. Soo namo amida butsu. Soo namo amida butsu. Soo namo amida butsu. Namoh ami dabu soom namoh ami dabu soo namoh ami dabu. Soo namo amida butsu. Soo namo amida butsu. Soo namo amida butsu. Soo namo amida butsu. Namoh ami dabu. Soo namo amida butsu! Soo namo amida butsu! Soo namo amida butsu! Namoh ami dabu soom... Namo Ami Dabhu— soo namo Ami Dabhu. Soo namo amida butsu. Soo namo amida butsu. Soo namo amida butsu. Soo namo amida butsu. Namoh ami dabu. Soo namo amida butsu. Soo namo amida butsu. Soo namo amida butsu. Soo namo amida butsu. Namoh ami dabu. Soo namo amida butsu. Namo amida butsu. Soo namo amida butsu. Soo namo amida butsu.

Namoh ami dabu.

Soo namo ami dabu. Soo namo amida butsu! Soo namo amida butsu! Soo namo amida butsu! Namoh ami dabu soom... Namo ami dabu soo— Namoh ami dabu soo— Namoh ami dabu sooamidabuuu?

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 love.

The one who is awake and full of love.

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 Sangha! With faith in the Three Jewels and in light of our human tendencies I pray that I may become aware of when I take life. I pray that I may become aware of when I take what is not freely given. Of when I take what is not freely given.' 'I pray that I may become aware—' 'Of when I fall into sexual misconduct—

of my falling to sexual misconduct.

I pray that I may become aware—' foreign language '—when I fall into wrong speech— of when I'm going through one's beach. I pray that time they become aware— I pray that some day you come away— of when I become intoxicated,' intoxicated. No blame. Be kind. Love everything.

Innumerable are sentient beings.

We vow to save them all.

Inexhaustible are deluded passions.

We vow to transform man more.

Immeasurable are the Dharma teachings.

We vow to master them more. Infinite is the Buddha's way. We vow to fulfill completely A moment to be.

So walking around the garden this morning before coming into the shrine room, there was a bamboo across one of the paths that we were going to go down., and I tried to move to bend it out of the way so people could get through. And as I bent it, I felt it break. And I'm not, uh, sentimental about killing plants. I know that, um, a while ago we had someone living here who every time tree was cut down, they just— it really affected them. Um, I don't really mind, you know. I, I mean, obviously let's keep the trees if we can, but when they need to be cut down, then that's part of life, that they get cut down and we grow new ones. And if we didn't, um, kill things in the temple garden, we wouldn't have a temple garden, uh, in 5 years' time we wouldn't be able to walk round because it would be overgrown. That's the nature of cultivated spaces. So I was quite surprised this morning when I felt the breaking of this bamboo, that I felt a kind of a, "Oh!" I felt really sorry. I felt really sorry that I'd broken it. And I felt a little bit of pain, as if it was the bamboo feeling the pain of breaking. Somehow it was worse than the idea of clipping it, what we have to do with our bamboo, because you know what bamboo's like. We have to clip it off at the bottom to keep it from going completely crazy, as Fee knows very well. Great bamboo clipping, Fee. Needs to be done again soon. That somehow would have felt different because we were, you know, we were just kind of clearing the space. But the breaking, there was something very physical about it, like it was a bone or something. And of course, whenever— well, not of course, but whenever I walk in the garden, I'm reminded of impermanence. I'm reminded of suffering, of death. And the harm that we cause, the harm that we cause other living things, the harm that we cause ourselves, the inevitability of that. One of my favorite spiritual books, Testament of Devotion by Thomas Kelly, speaks of what happens to us as we mature in our spiritual practice. And he says that two things happen at the same time. One thing is that we somehow become more expansive and our vision becomes wider. We're aware of the, the kind of the oneness of everything. We we feel able to, um, interact with other beings with a kind of detachment, not with a kind of non-attachment, not a detachment, uh, that we're not so codependent would be one way of saying it, that we can be alongside suffering more easily, that we, um, that we're not so affected by the everyday ups and downs, because we've got this bigger context to fit everything in. And the other thing that happens at exactly the same time is that we get closer to the ground, we get closer to the reality of the suffering, that we connect in more painfully with loss, with disappointment, with calm, that our hearts become more tender, that our hearts open. And it's a difficult, uh, concept to grasp because it feels like they cancel each other out, or it feels like you can only move in one direction or the other. But my experience is that it is both. That we become more affected by the suffering of our fellow beings, the breaking of the bamboo, and that we have this context to set things in, which is a great mystery that, that we can't imagine we can't imagine how, how complex. And my words are even failing me even trying to explain that we can't describe what we can't describe. The, the great mystery, the great mystery becomes a reality to us. It becomes something that we experience and it holds us. Jamy spoke really beautifully about how when we are able to take a risk of showing that tenderness, then it can connect us with others. There's something about that tenderness that's really necessary in life. If we want to be loved, if we want to love, we want to help others, and we can't get swept under by that because we'd exhaust ourselves. So we're trying, as always, to find the middle way, the middle way between our hearts breaking every moment of every day with the reality and a kind of spiritual bypassy, floaty separation from, from the world, from matter. And we bob and weave as we always do. It's, uh, I don't know anyone that manages to do that. And that maybe as we do more of this, what we're doing this morning, what we're doing today, as we do more of intentionally connecting with great love. Maybe there is something that we're not just— we're not just this. You have to look at me for this, it's not going to make sense. We're not just this, we kind of become this. We're bigger. We can kind of— we can straddle both worlds at one time. And it's not just 2D or 3D, but it's 12D. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. So we now make prostrations to the Buddha. So when Dave rings the bell, just find some ground in front of you and copy everyone else doing. Mhm. In gratitude, we make this offering to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space and time. May it be as fragrant as Earth itself, reflecting our careful efforts, our wholehearted mindfulness, and the fruits of understanding slowly brightening. May we and all beings be companions of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. May we awaken from forgetfulness and realize our true home. Today we have a retreat day for anyone who'd like to stay or come back. We have a talk from Casper about Other Power at quarter to 11, and then I think— I can't remember the times, but Angie, after that, then lunch at 12:30, a walk if the weather is kind enough to us, and maybe we'll go anyway, and then a sharing circle at the end of the day. Uh, donation bowl is in the hallway, or you can pay online, offer us something online. I think that's probably it.

Put your name down to read a Dharma Glimpse.

It would be amazing if people could commit to reading a Dharma Glimpse. We've got some now, so you don't even have to write one, you just have to put your name down on the list. And if there isn't anyone— I've said this already, but I'm going to say it again— if there isn't anyone when you arrive and you're willing to do it, if you could write your name down, that really helps the celebrants out. It especially helps the celebrants that aren't We don't do this all the time because it's really another job to do to try and find someone, so thank you Sangha for your support. I will finish with the closing verse. Bless Satya Robyn, her spotless light. May we care for all living things and the Holy Earth. I am going to leave in silence now, but I will be back, Matt, if you want to hang around. Satya Robyn. How you doing? Yeah, I'm really good, thanks. How are you doing?

Thanks for that talk, that was great.

Oh, let me just stop the record.