Satya Robyn leads a Pure Land Buddhist practice session with guided chanting of Amitabha and Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, refuges, and precepts. The teaching opens with a reflection on a covered bowl and uses two dogs, Aiko and Ralph, to explore how attachment works.
Chapters
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. So I'll start this morning with a quote from this beautiful book called The Fragrance of Light by an Australian Pure Land Buddhist, John Paravaskopoulos, who is a lovely man, and he writes really eloquently. This is a compilation of quotes from other people, but I I'd really recommend his book 'Call of the Infinite'. It's one of my favourite Piyalan books. I'll put that in the chat later if anyone else is interested. And it's a very short quote: 'There is no heart far from Amida, but the covered bowl of water cannot reflect the moon.' It's fine, okay, you might just hear a little bit of chewing noises. Ralph chews his antler. Yeah, I know, there's only one, I'm afraid. So I'm just going to read it again. "There is no heart far from Amida, but a covered bowl of water cannot reflect the moon." I love the imagery of that quote, that there's something very simple about a bowl of water and the moon, and the moon is often in Buddhism a symbol of enlightenment, that the light of the moon is the love of the Buddha reaching us. I love the idea of the heart of Amida, the heart of the personification of compassion and wisdom, never being far from us, but it's us that somehow prevent ourselves from being able to receive it. And I was wondering about the covering of the bowl and what that might be, what that might look like for us as individuals. For me, any small thing that I become entranced by or transfixed by or worried about or anything that I really want, or anything that I really don't want, all of those things come between me and the Buddha because they make my line of vision focus in on that thing, and while I'm looking at that thing, who knows what else could be happening around me? Who knows what I'm missing? I love that in the 12-step programs, one of the things they say is that you are always either taking a step— oh, I know, I know, it's hard, isn't it? You're always either taking a step away from the Buddha or towards the Buddha, or your higher power, that you can't stand still. I kind of love it and hate it because it kind of brings something home to me, this idea that whenever we do anything, we're either opening our heart up or we're closing our heart down. What's happening right now is that there is an object that Aiko is really intent on having that Ralph is currently chewing. And for her the whole world is the antler that she doesn't have. It's really, really hard. And there might be, you know, people stroking you, or might be other things to do in the other room that would be really fun. There's a whole toy box through there, but all she can think about, all she can see, is this antler that she can't have. And now if we take the antler away— enlightenment! And I guess that it's easy to talk about these things, it's easy to say, well, if you just didn't focus on the whatever, then you would be able to receive the marvels of Amida. And as human beings and as dogs, It doesn't work like that, because you know where the antler is, you just climb up and fetch it. I'm going to throw it away, guys, so you can go away. So the wonderful thing about Pure Land Buddhism is that we don't need to feel entirely responsible for the covering on our bowl, that it's not something that we're always in control of. We do what we can, and we're also driven by our greed and our hate and our delusion. And what we can do is say the name of the Buddha. We can say Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, we can say Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, we can say Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, and we can trust that when we call out, we're asking for the Buddha's help. We're asking that the Buddha might shine a little bit harder on our covered bowl, and that maybe in that shining— I'm going to mix my metaphors now— that it's like the sun that shone on the coat of the person that began to take their coat off because they felt warm enough. That as we feel warmer and safer and more loved then we can just turn a little bit towards the Buddha and receive everything that's already beaming at us but we're not able to take in. So as we sit silently, you might want to just imagine yourself as a bowl of water with a covering over the top. The covering will be made up of all kinds of things. And just allow the light of Amida to shine on that covering. Don't push anything, don't worry, and if a little bit of light gets in here and there, then just savor that light and allow it to nourish you. And then after a while, I'll begin chanting, and we'll chant Amitabha, and Iko's now got the bone, which has definitely helped her, and Ralph is not suffering too much. Doing all right, aren't you? Yeah, good boy. Now, momitabu.
Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh. Amitabh.
Amitabh.
Amitabh. 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. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Aami taba. Aami taba. Aami taba. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha.
So we'll now repeat the refuges and precepts. So if you could repeat after me: For refuge I go to the Buddha.
For refuge I go to the Buddha.
Namo Buddhaya.
Namo Buddhaya.
For refuge I go to the Dharma.
For refuge I go to the Dharma.
Namo Dharmaya. For refuge I go to the Sangha.
Namo Sanghaya.
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 of Three Jewels— I pray that may not fall into sexual misconduct—I prayer to time they're falling too sexually misconduct—with faith in The 3 jewels With Faith In The 3 Jewel—I pray at all times will avoid wrong-speech-I prays it on my own for enterong's peach-with-faith-in-The-Three-Jewel-with-FaitH-In-ThE-Tre-E JeWeL.
"May Avoid Intoxication"—may void intoxication; 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 fulfill it completely.
So now stand and do prostrations if you're able to go right down to the floor, then do. If not, then a bow or an internal bow is fine. And the chant is the Nam-myoho-renge-kyo chant.
Namoh Amitabh. Namoh Amitabh.
Namoh Amitabh. Namoh Amitabh.
Namah Amitabha. Namah Amitabha. Namah Amitabha. Namah Amitabha.
Namoha Amita! Amo amida! Amo amita buu!
Namoha Amita buu! Namoha Amita buu!
Namoha Amita buu!
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. So now we will bow to each other. And bow to the Buddha, wherever the Buddha is in your room. There'll be one somewhere, even if you can't see it. Maybe on the screen. Maybe on the screen, yeah. Oh, not much space down here. And now we finish by, if everybody would like to unmute, we will say our closing verse together. So it's a nice jumble of people's voices. Blessed by Amitabha's light, may we all care for all living things and the holy earth. Amritabha. You haven't quite learned it yet, have you?
It's all a different voice at a different time.
