Practice - a tender hour

Good morning.

Good morning, Tony. Lovely to see you. A very select few, very high quality people here in the Dharma. Group this morning. Um, uh, I was expecting that, um, we were going to have a Dharma glimpse by Paul, but he's not here, so I've just chosen a very quick one, which—

would you be willing to read it out, Katie?

That would be amazing.

Thank you very much.

You're prepared with your glasses, that's great. So just the top one, that's called 'Dandelion.' So Katie will begin by reading a glimpse from the 'Bright Dawn' book.

'Dandelions.' Michael Chino Lawrence. Today I noticed dandelions popping up everywhere. I began thinking back to when I was a little boy. Dandelions were beautiful flowers, not weeds. I would pick them and give them to my mother, who would then fill a glass of water to put them in as if they were special flowers. There were a lot of fun things to do with our dandelions. We would string them together and wear them around our necks, on our heads, or around our arms. We also would use them to mark ourselves up or mark others with them. It was even more fun when they turned to seeds. Then we could pick them and blow the seeds everywhere. Adults did not see this as fun at all. Blowing seeds everywhere just meant we were planting more weeds. Dandelions are hard to control and they spread so fast. Seeing all the bright and sunny dandelions today made me think about what it means to see things through a child's eyes. Children can see things with wonderment. It's nice to remember what that is like. It's nice to see the beauty in what may be perceived as ugly or weeds. Maybe dandelions can symbolize the Dharma, and as we blow the seeds everywhere, the Dharma can spread and grow.

Thank you very much.

Morning, Philip. So we will have some silence together. Hopefully where you are you can hear the birds singing. We've got some really beautiful birdsong here this morning when we were walking around in the temple garden and Satya Robyn, it felt extra loud this morning. So as we sit together, just allow whatever is in you to be there. Just notice it all, try not to change it. If you notice yourself trying to change it, then just notice that. And over time, you may feel a settling, a relaxation in your body, in your mind. You may feel a little bit more peace seeping in. When that peace comes in, just dwell in that peace, enjoy that peace. And if there's no peace this morning, that's also fine. Sitting quietly, maybe preparing the ground for peace to visit you later. Namaste.

Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh.

For refuge I go to the Buddha. For refuge I go to the Dharma. For refuge I go to the Sangha. For refuge I go to the sangha. With faith in The Three Jewels— With Faith In A Tree Jews I pray that time may not take life—I Pray That Time May Not Take Life—with Faith And The 3 jewels—with Faith In This Free Tools I prayer—that they're my own steal-I-Prayer-that-Time-May-not-steal-with-Faith-In-The-Tree-Jewels The faith in the Three Jewels. I pray that I may avoid intoxication. I pray that I may avoid intoxication. No blame, no blame. Be kind, be kind. Love everything, 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 fulfill it completely.

So this week I've been in London with the Extinction Rebellion Buddhists as part of the week of protests. And that's where Kaspar is today. He'll be in Hyde Park just sitting down with all the other Buddhists and having a check-in. I'm very jealous. And something happened this week that, that was a real gift, and I've been trying to work out why it was such a— why it was so special. And I think it links with the book I'm reading at the moment. I'm reading a book by Christian mystic from, I think, the 1600s or 1700s called Jean-Pierre de Caussade. And he speaks about how if we want to be holy, if we want to be close to God, close to the Dharma, we need to, we need to inhabit the present moment. We need to find everything we need in the present moment, and as he puts it, do the will of God. It's a really beautiful book. It's just kind of bringing me right back to kind of basics. And the thing that happened on Rebellion is that we, on Wednesday, everybody went on a big march, and the idea was that we'd end up at Shell, Shell headquarters, boo, where they they had some brilliant placards made with the names of people that worked in the building on them. So there were all these, there were like 100 placards that said like, you know, Anton, join us, George, join us. And there was a big, I don't know, a trampoline, a mini trampoline like you hold outside a burning building. And it said, I can't remember what it said on it, but I don't know, come out, jump out. It's this big tall building where all the employees were, and it was encouraging them to just leap out into XR. And the idea is that when the secret idea is when the march sort of converged on the headquarters, the police were already there. The police had been guarding the sort of main fossil fuel offices and buildings all week, that some people would run out of the march and try to get into the building and try to block the entrance of the building by kind of gluing themselves onto the floor. And about 8 people did get inside. They were all arrested and carried out while we were there. And when I arrived, I saw that there was a woman that I'd met the day before who was sat in front of the entrance with her hand glued to the ground, and she was just all alone. She was just— there were a big row of policemen behind her, and a policeman was holding her hand kind of up high because the other one was stuck down. She still had glue in her hand, the glue pot. And the moment— I was in the moment, and I didn't think, but the moment required that I just went to her and sat down next to her. And I asked her how she was, and she said that it's been a real scramble to try and get to the place, and the police had been dragging them away, and it was all, uh, very kind of adrenalized. And so her adrenaline was really high, and she was quite shaken. She was kind of, um, in a state of distress. So I just sat down next to her. I'm feeling moved as I'm sharing it because it was a moving moment. And then I looked to my right and all the Buddhists had all sat down alongside, and they'd all got their placards around their necks, and they were all just sitting quietly. And I just sat next to her and put my hands on her knee. And for the next hour, it was my job to just stay with her. I tucked her hair behind her ears for her because she couldn't, you know, kept flopping around her face. I got out a patch so I could pin it on her front for the photos. We had some food, so I fed her some kind of spoonfuls of of curry that the Hare Krishnas had made for us all. Um, and there was this real intimacy between us, even though I only met her the day before. I didn't know her, she didn't know me, but we were just doing this thing together. And I was just in the moment. I was just doing God's will, that that's what my role was in, in, in that time. And time went on, and I, you know, needed to go and do something, and when I came back, she was surrounded by other people, and I still felt quite responsible for her, so I kind of kept sort of coming and checking in. But actually, my job with her was over then because she had other people around her, and it was their turn somehow, and it was my turn to go and have an orange juice in a café with some other Buddhists. And it just felt like such a privilege. It felt like such a privilege to be of use, to be of use to the Buddha. It felt like it was a very simple thing to do, but it was the Buddha's work. And I think in his book, Jean-Pierre de Caussade is, is saying the same thing. He's saying that we find the Buddha in those little ordinary moments, if only we can look in the right way. So we don't have to get involved in a big demonstration and do something unusual to find Buddha. We find Buddha in filling the dog bowl with water, or cleaning the sink, or weeding a vegetable patch, or dealing with a difficult relative. All of these things are sent to us by the Buddha, and we can respond to each of them in that way. We can respond to each of them by just accepting whatever it is trusting, having faith, and doing the Buddha's will, doing God's will. So I, I'm, I'm still— that memory is still kind of reverberating in me. It feels very precious. And what I want it to remind me of is that I can have that sense of use of holiness. Any moment, this moment right now, we're sitting together in the empty shrine room, joined by lovely Tony and Philip, maybe some other people later watching the video. And we've got the birdsong coming in and We've got each other's company, we've got this beautiful building. Right now the Buddha is asking us to just be here, and later he'll be asking the same thing. So I'm hoping you might be able to just carry a little bit of that with you during the day as well. Just notice when you want things to be different, where you kind of— you're not able to just be present with what's being sent and trust that, that, um, that the Dharma is unfolding through us and around us every moment. Namomi tobi. So it's prostrations now, I think. Is that right? I'm going to stay here with you because it feels like I'll be lonely over there. It's not my way to be.

Namoh Amida Butsu. Namoh Amida. Namoh Amida. Namoh Amida Butsu. Namoh Amida Butsu. Namoh Amida Butsu. Namoh Amida. Namoh Amida. Namoh Amida Butsu. Namoha Nidhaguru! Namoha Nidhaguru! Namoha Nidaa! Namoha Nidaa! Namoha Nidaa!

I'm going to do unmute, guys, if you would just like the closing verse with us. By Amitabha's light, may we care for all living things and the holy earth. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Just stop the recording.