Satya Robyn leads a Buddhist practice session in a shrine room featuring newly gifted Shakyamuni and Amida statues. The group performs guided meditation, chanting, and nenbutsu while exploring Amitābha's unconditional loving-kindness and Pure Land teachings.
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Good evening everybody. So tonight we have Philip, Kasper, and me, Satya Robyn, in the shrine room. And this week is the last week that we are closed to non-residents. Next week we may have more people in the room, you may not, and joining us Welcome everybody. I can't see the screen. Deborah, is it your first time? Yes. Great. Okay, welcome, and I will endeavour to explain a little bit about what we're doing as we go along. Thank you. Satya is referring to the new statue that's on the shrine, which you can't see if you're on the Zoom call, but we'll show it to you afterwards. We Satya and I are sitting at the back of the shrine room, which is in the west, is the west end of the room. And next to us there is an Amida Buddha statue, because Amida Buddha's Pure Land is supposedly many millions of miles away to the west. There's this mythic place of jeweled trees and perfect temperature bathing pools with beautiful lotus flowers. Where everybody is guaranteed to become enlightened. And in the center of this brilliant illuminated world is Amitābha, or Amida Buddha. So the statue sits in the West because that mythic land representing harmony and enlightenment is said to be in the west in ancient Indian and Chinese cosmology, ancient Buddhist cosmology. In the east of the shrine room, we have Shakyamuni sitting on a shrine in front of the tall Georgian windows, and it's a new Buddha statue. We used to have a tall standing Shakyamuni Buddha, and now we have a beautiful sitting statue that we were gifted. Satya's going to turn the camera around so you can see. It might be a bit silhouetted because of the light. Oh well, later on we'll put the camera close and you'll be able to see. It's just a little webcam, not a proper television studio. It's a really lovely statue, and we were gifted it from the Buddhist House community by Caroline Brazier, um, because that community is closing, they're downsizing. And it's a big statue for us, so they were very happy to pass it on to the Buddhist community. Shakyamuni Buddha is the physical person who started the Buddhist tradition 2,500 years ago, more or less. Shakya is the name of the people, the clan that he belongs to, and muni means something like sage. So his given name was Siddhartha Gautama. He became known as the Buddha and sometimes was called Shakyamuni, sage of the Shakya people. So he's sitting over there in the east looking at Amitābha Buddha. He's looking towards the harmony world, the pure land of Amitābha Buddha. He's looking as inspiration. So there's a sense here that this Buddha Amitābha, who is the embodiment or the representation of unconditional love— love streams out from Amida to each being in the universe, loving them just as they are. We don't need to do anything to earn this. Love. We don't need to keep the precepts. It's good if we do, but we don't need to do that. The love just flows towards us. That's the particular quality of enlightenment that Amitābha represents. And if you hang around Buddhist centers long enough, you'll hear the names of other Buddhas who represent other aspects of enlightenment, like wisdom or stamina, strength, vigor, and so on. Amitābha represents unconditional love flowing towards us. And Shakyamuni is gazing across at Amitābha, inspired by that sense of loving kindness, inspired by the idea of enlightenment. So here we have this idea that enlightenment both exists inside of us potentially, and perfected inside the Buddha who lived 2,500 years ago, and also almost as a sort of field of energy or an attitude that permeates the universe, that we can be inspired by and lifted up by and in tune with. So we can say that the life of Shakyamuni Buddha was a life lived in tune with this energy of loving kindness, of unconditional love. And as Pure Land Buddhists, we aspire to be tuned in in the same way. And we particularly do that through saying the name of Amitābha in different ways, in different languages. It can all sound very complicated, as any 2,500-year-old tradition would do. But at its core is a very simple practice and a very simple idea that we are here as ordinary foolish beings, trusting that there is something that loves us just as we are, and that we can put ourselves in relationship to that, and that through that relationship, in time, we'll become transformed. Formed. And occasionally we'll find that space of unconditional loving kindness within ourselves. It will be revealed as well, and we're able to reflect that back into the world. In the Theravada tradition, which is the Buddhist tradition of, um, that traveled south from India, so India, Sri Lanka, those kind of areas. They're celebrating Dharma Day today. It's the anniversary in, in the calendar that they use, the lunar calendar. It's the anniversary of the first teaching that Shakyamuni gave after his enlightenment. I could give a whole load of talking about that. I'm not going to, but it does feel important to acknowledge and honor that anniversary, so I just wanted to name it tonight. So in a moment, we'll go into a period of quiet sitting, into a meditation practice together. And the invitation, if you would like to take it, will be to imagine as you breathe in, to imagine that unconditional love coming towards you and making contact with you. If you're a visual person, perhaps imagining a golden light coming towards you. And as you breathe out, imagining that loving kindness sinking through your whole body. As you breathe in, noticing the light coming towards you, the loving kindness coming towards you. As you breathe out, noticing it Moving through your whole body. Namah means boom. If when you become distracted, just returning to the practice. Noticing or imagining loving kindness reaching you as you breathe in, and noticing it, allowing it to sink through your body as you breathe out. So we're now going to a period of chanting or recitation. We will sing, chant the name of Amitābha this evening, which is a practice called nenbutsu, saying the name of the Buddha, in order to align us with that spirit in the way that I was talking about earlier. And sometimes as we do this, we might notice a change and that we really do feel more aligned with that spirit. And sometimes, um, it doesn't make any difference in this moment, but we trust that it's a good thing to do for the long term. And that regardless of whether we are able to really feel like we're receiving the loving kindness from the Buddha— sometimes it's hard to receive things— we can at least experiment with the idea that it is coming towards us, whether we feel it or not. So the word is Amitābha, and there's a little tune. Do join in if it's possible where you are at home, once you have the tune in mind. Amitābha. Amitabh.
Amitabh. Amitabh. Ame Saba. Ame Saba. Ame Saba. Sabaami taba.
Sabaami taba.
Ame Satya Robyn. Ame Satya Robyn.
Ame Satya Robyn.
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.
So in a moment, we'll recite the refuges and the Five Blake Precepts together. The Three Refuges are at the heart of all Buddhist traditions. It's the one common thread throughout all of Buddhism. It's an— and in reciting them, it's an act of entrusting to something beyond my calculating, reactive, selfish thoughts. Rather than being led by my small mind, as it's sometimes called in Buddhism, we are taking refuge in something bigger, more spacious, more loving, in the form of the Buddha which includes the historical Buddha who started the tradition and includes these mythic Buddhas that symbolize vast, infinite enlightenment. In the Dharma, which are the teachings of the Buddha, the written word and the oral tradition before that, and also the sort of spirit of those traditions, the attitude, if you like, and in the Sangha, which is the community of people that dedicate themselves to those teachings. So those are the things that Buddhists entrust themselves to, or aim to entrust themselves to. And then we recite the Five Lay Precepts, and this is like the ethical container that we practice Buddhism within. And they're not— we shouldn't feel them as heavy. There's something to aspire to. And when we— when our lives move in line with them, actually it can produce a real feeling of lightness. 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. Namo Dharmaya. For refuge I go to the Sangha. Namo Sanghaya. Now we'll recite the 5 precepts. And we do this by saying, with faith in the Three Jewels— and the Three Jewels are those refuges that we've just recited— so we're saying, as I put my trust in this Buddhist tradition, I pray that I will be able to keep these precepts. So please repeat after me again: with faith in the Three Jewels With faith of Three Jewels I pray that I may not take life— —with Faith In The 3 Jewels; With Faith Of 3 Jewels I pray That I May Not Steal— —with Faith In The 3 Jewels; I Pray That I May Not Fall Into Sexual Misconduct— With faith in the Three Jewels— With faith in three jewels, I pray that I may not fall into wrong speech. I praise 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 praise I may avoid intoxication. And the last of this section in a moment we'll do a call and response rather than a repeat after me. And I guess unless you've got the website open next to you, you're not going to know what the response is, but I'll just say what we're doing anyway. Okay, well, thanks. So now we'll do the Bodhisattva for us. Would have been a good video, but you've ruined it. Innumerable sentient beings, we vow to save them all. Inexhaustible outer rooted 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.
In gratitude, we offer this incense to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space and time. May it be as fragrant as Earth herself, reflecting our careful efforts, our wholehearted awareness, and the fruits of understanding slowly ripening. May we and all beings be companions of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. May we awaken from forgetfulness and realize the Dharma. Blessed by Amitābha's light, may we care for all living things and the holy hell. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Thank you, everybody.
