A Buddhist group practice session with guided meditation, chants from multiple traditions (Kwan Yin, Namah Shivaya, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, Namo Amida Butsu), and a talk on lineage and working with reactivity. Includes the Three Refuges, Five Precepts, and Bodhisattva vows.
Chapters
Good morning everybody, welcome to our Saturday morning practice together. Uh, we're joined by Philip on Zoom live from Morecambe. Welcome, hope it's as sunny there as it is here. This morning Katie's going to read a Dharma glimpse for us from the Bright Dawn book. Thank you. So I'll move the microphone over.
Dharma rain, Mark K. O'Fives. At my job, rain halts our work and creates a welcomed break. We all congregate in the maintenance building until it passes, or in cases where it looks like it will stick around for a while, we are sent home. Last week, while sitting at work watching the rainfall, I found myself lost in contemplation as I discovered that rain is the perfect model to inspire us in our Buddhist lives, a model that contained many teachings to be discovered. If we look at the life of a single raindrop, we can see that it leads a very enlightened existence. Born in the clouds, a raindrop begins its short life as a drop falling to the earth with no aspirations to be anything more than a raindrop, not dwelling in the past or worrying about the future, just being the best raindrop that it can be in the here and now. At the end of its short life, it reaches the earth with no regrets. It gladly falls exactly where it is supposed to be. Having lived in harmony with the universe. Maybe it will be absorbed into the earth, a river, or an ocean where it begins a new life. Maybe it will be absorbed into the roots of a tree. What once was a tiny raindrop now becomes part of a mighty tree. Maybe it will drop into a lazy stream to be sipped by a newborn fawn. Maybe it will just land on a sidewalk waiting on the sun's evaporating heat to take it back to the clouds where it could become a raindrop once again. In this way, the tiny raindrop teaches us about transmigration, or rebirth and death, as well as the naturalness of all life.
Together for about 15 minutes. Invitation to begin by noticing your body, the weight of your body connecting with the earth through the floor, through the seat. Maybe there's different amounts of pressure or holding in different places as you're supported by the earth. Bringing awareness to the breath, noticing cooler air entering the tip of the nose, warmer air Leaving, noticing the pause between breaths, noticing how the breath changes the shape of your body. And if the mind If your mind and body is particularly peaceful this morning, maybe letting go of awareness of the breath and just dwelling in silence. Okay, distracting parts are active. If you're noticing other things are taking your attention Gently bringing awareness back to the breath. So now we will move into reciting a mantra together. We'll recite the Kwan Yin mantra this morning. Namo Kwan Ching Vasat. Amitābha, or Amida, is the Buddha of compassion. Guanyīn is a bodhisattva of compassion. She, um, in some ways she's a more popular bodhisattva to connect with than Amida in Asian countries. Lots of ordinary people have an affinity for her. She's seen as more approachable somehow. Amitābha sits in the Pure Land in the full meditation position, creating this realm of peace and light and loving kindness that we can step into. Kwan Yin spas are about coming from the Pure Land into this world to meet us where we are. And in the Lotus Sutra, it says that she will help with very practical things, like if you fall into a pit, she'll help get you out of the pit. If you're set upon by bandits, she'll protect you from the bandits, and various other examples that maybe make less sense in the modern context than they did when the Lotus Sutra was written in ancient China.
And the reality is both of these figures do both of these things.
Amita's light comes to us and meets us where we are and offers healing and solace and loving kindness. And Kuan Yin is also someone we can step into and step into her Küland. And yet, for whatever reason, this culture's grown up where lots of ordinary people find it easier to connect with the idea of Kuan Yin as a compassionate being who is coming to meet them in their own ordinary lives. Her name means one who hears the cries of the world. Anyway, we will recite her mantra, Namo Guan Yin Bosatsu. Inviting her to meet us where we are, and also perhaps calling forth some of that same spirit, that same sympathy and empathy and compassion that she embodies, and calling some of that up for ourselves.
Namah Shivaya. Namah Shivaya.
Namah Shivaya. Namah Shivaya.
Namoh Shivayin Gosat. Namoh Shivayin Gosat. Namoh Shivayin Gosat. Namoh vamshi inrosat. Namoh vamshi inrosat. Namoh vamshi inrosat. Namah Shivaya. Namah Shivaya. Namah Shivaya. Namah Shivaya. Namah Shivaya. Namah Shivaya. Namah Shivaya. Namah Shivaya. Namah Shivaya. Namah Shivaya. Namah Shivaya. Namah Shivaya. Namah Panchi Ingosat! Namo Kwamshi Ingoshat! Namoh Kwanji Ngossat—Namokwanshi Ingozatt...Namuo Kuansi Imbrosaat? No more Quanxi imbozzats?! Namah Panchen Bosatsat! Namah Panchen Bosatsat! Namah Panchen Goshatzat!
Namah Panchen Gossatz—
namo panchi im gos satzaam...
Namo Panchin Borsaat. Na mo banshee im go sat—
na moo baan shee im goo saat...
Na mook waanshii immoosat— namoo kwan shiim boo saht! Namoon ban Sheem Go Saath? Namah Anchi Imbho Satya Robyn.
Namah Anchi Imbho Satya Robyn. Namah Anchi Imbho Satya Robyn.
So in a moment we'll recite the refuges and precepts together. The three refuges: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. The Buddha, both Shakyamuni Buddha, who was enlightened 2,500 years ago and went on to teach, founding the Buddhist movement. And Buddha meaning simply awakened one, so all awakened beings. The Dharma, what those awakened beings are pointing to, as well as the specific words of Buddha Shakyamuni. And the Sangha, the community of people who put those words into practice. So please repeat after me. For refuge I go to the Buddha. For refuge I go to the Buddha. Namo Buddhaia. For refuge I go to the Dharma.
For refuge I go to the Dharma.
Namo Dharmaya. For refuge I go to the Sangha.
For refuge I go to the Sangha. Namo Sangaya. Namo Sangaya.
And now the 5 precepts that the Buddha gave to lay people that we recite to remind us of the importance of living a compassionate, ethical life, and also to connect us with that ancient tradition of practitioners. With faith in the Three Jewels, with faith in the Three Jewels, I pray that I may not take life.
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 sexual misconduct—
—with faith in The Three Jewels! I pray that I may not fall into wrong speech.
I pray that I may not fall into 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.
And now for the three lines from Terry Keenan: no blame, no blame, Be kind. Be kind. Love everything. Love everything. And finally, the Bodhisattva vows that Satya will lead in call and response. And the words to this are on the piece of paper next to you.
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. Namaste. Lovely to see some bright sunlight this morning. I woke up feeling very blessed and grateful with the sunshine and the birds singing, and then I quickly discovered that I hadn't actually got very much patience. A number of little things I was reacting to. Oh, there's something going on here. Ralph wanted to come upstairs into my office with me when I came up to do my morning yoga practice. It's like, fine. He's been up a couple of times this week, and once he was able to settle, and once he was really whiny and scratchy at the door. And this morning he was really whiny and scratchy at the door the whole time. It's okay, you're supposed to be peaceful. You can just include this in, in the what's happening. And no, it was really bloody annoying. So I did a shorter practice than usual and brought him back downstairs again. Um, and then I had an email from somebody saying, oh, there was a mix-up in the assignments for your class this week. Can you— you're supposed to be doing the work. Can you write something by tomorrow? I said no. I've got a really full weekend. I mean, probably I can do it, but just noticing that reactivity. Ralph came from the garden and jumped on my trousers. I really wanted clean trousers this morning because I thought there might be some new people here, so I could sympathize with you, David. I had to change my trousers and various other little things. So I was just getting hotter and hotter under the collar at my therapy supervision this week. We ended up talking quite a lot about ideas of transmission and lineage. And in Buddhism, there's in many of all the traditional schools of Buddhism, there's some more than others, but there's a sense of receiving something through the generations, that the Dharma is something that gets passed on like a torch that is lit from one person to another. And then, you know, you take your little unlit torch and light it from that person, and so on and so forth. And there's there can be a bit of a myth around sometimes, particularly when you look at some of the very early Buddhist stuff in English, that these teachers are perfect beings and they don't make any mistakes and everything they do is for your benefit. And actually, of course, they're also real human beings. We're also real human beings that make mistakes sometimes, because like this morning, we just find ourselves being reactive. Sometimes completely unintentionally, you can be feeling in a really compassionate place and still impact somebody else. Somebody else can still feel bruised by something you do because you use the wrong word without realizing it, or something happens that you weren't anticipating. And this is also what gets passed down somehow, the mistakes, the shadow. We're also transmitting the shadow, the darkness. And how do we make sense of that? How do we find a way of being grateful for receiving that complicated bundle of light and dark? One thing my supervisor Chrissy suggested is that the transmission is, is not just the impactful stuff, but also the ways that we learn to find peace and come to terms with that and keep ourselves safe around it. That actually, that, that is something we receive as a kind of gift there. 'Oh, this has wounded me and I've had to resource myself in other ways to find a way of being okay with this.' That's also a really important learning. So some of these ideas about transmission and lineage and what we receive from our ancestors was in my mind this morning as I was noticing this reactivity that other parts of me felt were really unhelpful, like, oh, you shouldn't be judging, shouldn't be judging, you should be able to be peaceful, you shouldn't be reacting like this. And then as we're doing the walking practice this morning around the garden, I started to slow down and settle down. This little thought appeared, maybe a gift from the Buddha. How can you treat this reactivity as a gift from an ancestor? And I was like, oh, I don't know, how can I treat this reactivity as a gift from an ancestor? I can certainly see its lineage. I can see it How it got passed down to me. Well, I know it's protective. It's an impulse towards protection, even if it happens to be, um, creating trouble for others, or a little bit oversensitive sometimes. And there was something about holding it in that light that I guess initially allowed me to be less critical of it and hold it more compassionately and be curious about it. Oh, here's this thing that I've received. How could this be a gift? What's interesting about this? Something about understanding its protective nature, that in me it's kind of— it knows that I wanted to look good in case new people came. It knows that I was anxious about perhaps leaving the service and doing the action later and So those— that morning routine becomes more important, and it really wanted to guard those spaces for me. I can accept the good intentions of that. I can— it's easier for me to accept it as a gift when I know there's good intentions. And of course, very, very occasionally, very rarely, that kind of very strong energy like Manjushri's sword cutting through delusion can be helpful, can have a positive impact in the world. So it's a helpful tool to have in the toolbox. It's not that useful if it's the sort, you know, you have to choose the right tool for the right job, but it's in and of itself, it's it isn't harmful. Only when it comes out in the wrong time and the wrong place. And I'm sure sort of more things will unravel from that question. I haven't completely got a handle on it. Perhaps a sense, some sense of how it might have served my ancestors and the people that came before me, that reactivity. And how they learned to hold it or didn't learn to hold it, the things they passed on. I guess the question maybe is more interesting than the answer this morning, because it's just the beginning of a thread I'm unraveling. But I invite you to take that away as well. How can this thing that's appearing in my life, how can I treat this as a gift from my ancestors?
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
So in a moment, Satya will ring a bell. We all stand and face the main shrine and make 3 prostrations chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. I I call out to, or I bow towards the Buddha of Infinite Light.
Namoh Amida Butsu! Namoh Amida Butsu! Namo Amida— Namoh Amidasu!
Namoh Amida.
Namoh Amida. Namoh Amida.
Namoh Amida. Namah Amida Buddha!
Namoh Amida Buu! Namoha Mi Da Buu!
We dedicate the merits of this incense offering to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space and time. May it be fragrant as the herself, reflecting our careful efforts, our wholehearted awareness, and the fruit of understanding slowly ripening. May we and all beings be companions of Buddhas and great disciples. May we awaken from forgetfulness and realize our true nature.
Namamitubho.
So in a moment, Satya Robyn will bell and we will bow to each other, first one side and then the other. Main shrine.
We tie our seats back to our seats, and in a moment we will finish with the closing verse that's on the top of the piece of paper. But before we recite that together, just to let you know that this time next week we will have a mindful day of—
in March, first weekend of March. So we'll begin with practice the same as usual, then I will give a talk on living in impossible times, and then we go and sit with XR at the Earth Vigil in town. And then you're welcome to bring something for lunch to share.
That time with us, and we'll have a mindful walk in the afternoon.
Details on the website, or drop one of us a line if you'd like to join us. And I need to put— did you say about the walk in the circle? Oh yeah, I said about the walk. Yes, there'll be a closing sharing circle as well. Thank you. And I need to put— so we'll read the verse together.
Blessed by Amitābha's light, May we all care for all living things and the holy earth. Namaste.
