Practice - a trip to London & dog poo

Good morning, everybody. Welcome if you're in training with us, especially if you're here for the first time. Uh, extra points to Dave who was watching me take your showers. Early, in the early hours of this morning on the Move Nails. Everyone else is in bed, and a very warm welcome to Ellie and Beth and Matt and Philip. Lovely to see you all. Oh, I wish you in the room with us. Maybe one day, all of you. Well, Philip, definitely. Um, and so we always start practice with a short piece of writing by somebody who practices with us. Um, so if you want to go away and write something, then we'll feature your writing next week or the week after. And we call them Dharma glimpses, after Bright Dawn, uh, Buddhist organization in America. And they just describe an everyday event that shows us something new that we didn't know before, some new insight, some fresh contact with the truth. And this morning we have a dumplings by Maria, which Caspar Lintell will read for me.

Darma glimpse by Maria. My husband and I spent most of last week in London. It was a hectic combination of work and shows that we'd arranged to attend a while ago, and some that were just spontaneous. Obviously, as the railway strikes were announced shortly before our visit, we had to adjust our traveling arrangements accordingly. Which meant it cost us a lot more. And I didn't end up meeting some of my colleagues I'd been meaning to meet, as they could not get into the office. As I look back on last week, which was a lot of fun in the end, even with disruptions, I realised that a couple of years ago, similar circumstances would have brought me a great deal of stress. I probably would have spent a few days worrying about the trains running, would have struggled to combine work with that much extra activity and also be disappointed about not meeting the people I'd meant to meet. I would have stressed about the queues and got annoyed about the stuffy tube, cursing the big city life that I generally resent, not to mention how much it costs. This time, I sometimes noticed my husband stressing about things not working out on various occasions. And I would generally just say, "Don't worry, it will be what it will be." I think deep down I anticipated London to be chaotic and unpredictable. I expected plans to be fluid and arrangements to change. This is the form of acceptance that I used to find really hard, as I always tried to be organized and used to get annoyed at experiencing the opposite. However, as I've been slowly moving on the Dharma path, I found that sometimes having clear expectations can cause a great deal of distress and disappointment. Even though having no expectations at all is a bit too much of a leap for me sometimes, I'm rather learning to expect the unexpected, kind of like a form of the suffering of change. I find facing the modern chaotic life much less stressful if I just accept that things will change and plans will sometimes fail, and some good may even come out of it. I even find London more agreeable with this kind of mindset. I'm just expecting it to be unpredictable.

Namaste.

So we will move into some silence together this morning. We will maybe do some listening as we sit. Anything that we do when we're sitting quietly is to help us to allow those little particles of mud inside us to settle and for the water to clear. And so because of the way our brains are, it's good to have something to just keep coming back to. And you might want to come back to your breath instead, or some people look at a candle flame or, um, have a mantra that they recite internally. Um, but today you might want to join me in just listening. And as you allow the sounds to be around you, whatever they are, see if you can experience them more like a symphony than tuning into individual things and thinking about them. Just allow the sound to sort of wash over you. And when your attention wanders, which will probably happen in maybe 3 or 4 seconds, um, just notice and allow your attention to return back to what's happening outside. And then after a while of sitting quietly, we'll begin chanting together. Um, Today we will chant a form of Nembutsu, which is borrowed from the Triratna tradition from my friend originally. And we're calling out to the Buddha of Infinite Light, and the words are Om Amidaewa Ri, and they're on your bit of paper if you want to check them when we start chanting. Om Amidaewa Ri. So do join in with us when you get the tune. Namomi to be.

Om Nami Devi Wari. Om Nami Devi Wari. Om Nami Devi Wari. 3. Om Amidevare. Om Amidevare. Om Amideva. Om Namidevah Reem. Om Namidevah Reem. Om Namidevah. Breathe. Om Namo Devi. Om Namo Devi. Om Namo Devi.

So next we repeat some words together which joins us with Buddha— Buddhists throughout history. Um, we talk about taking refuge in those things that are reliable. We talk about trying to be good, and we talk about, uh aiming at saving all living beings, knowing that we will fall very short of that, but aiming in that direction nonetheless. So please repeat after me. These are on your bits of paper if you want, but it's just repeating after me, so you don't need to use them. For refuge I go to the Buddha.

For refuge I go to the Buddha.

The one who is awake and full of love.

For one who is awake and full of love.

Namo Buddha.

Namo Buddha.

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 Dharma. Namo Dharma. For refuge I go to the Sangha.

For refuge I go to the Sangha.

Those who live in the Buddha's light. 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 in the Three Jewels— I pray that I may not fall into sexual misconduct.

I pray that I may not fall into sexual misconduct—

With faith in the Three Jewels. —with faith in the Three Jewels. I pray that I may avoid wrong speech—

I pray that I may avoid 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. No blame! 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.

Immensurable are the Dharma teachings.

We vow to master them all.

Infinite is the Buddha's way.

We vow to fulfill it completely.

Namomi debu. So this is the bit where I say something. And, uh, um, as we were walking around the garden this morning as part of our meditation before we come inside, um, I was conscious as we did the last stretch, which was coming back across the lawn that there was dog poo everywhere. And as I came down the little grass path, I saw a bit ahead, so I thought, right, we'll go around that way. I'll take them here. And then we went around that way and there was some more. I thought, oh, we'll have to take them around here. Um, so that, that wiggly bit at the end was my attempt at not leading you past the dog poo. Uh, but, but I'm laughing because first of all, it was impossible, and secondly, I'm now giving a dharma talk about it, which means I haven't been very successful in, um, hiding it. And I felt like I wanted to hide it this morning because we had new guests and I didn't want to be seen as the kind of person who left dog poo on the, on the temple garden lawn. Especially when it gets scattered by whatever it is that comes and scatters it. Magpies. Magpies. Yeah. Um, and that reminds me of— talking about dog poo reminds me of Reverend Koyo Kabose, who, uh, is the, uh, was the leader of Bright Dawn, the group that Casper and I are studying with in America. And in his book, he has a whole chapter on toilet gassho. So gassho is when we make that sign of respect. And this whole chapter is talking about how he, whenever he goes to the toilet, he makes gassho as a kind of a sign of gratitude that his plumbing and, you know, that his bowels and bladder are working as they should. And it's, it's a, it's a kind of a quite a joyous chapter really, because it's the kind of thing that in polite society we don't talk about. And then I was wondering why I was feeling particularly um, in need this morning of presenting, uh, one image of myself rather than another. And that brought me to an email I received earlier this week out of the blue, um, from a magazine called Tricycle, which in your— with which, if you're in the world of Buddhism, is probably the most well-known Buddhist magazine, comes out in America. Um, and that's— this email was from, uh, one of their editors, a Zen teacher who wanted to do a page, um, on me. They have a kind of an Ask the Teacher page. Um, so I was delighted to get the email, of course. And then all week since then, I've been thinking, how did they find out about me? Uh, what will I say? How will I sound? How will I explain the complicated history that we have with our, with our past Buddhist organization before we became Bright Earth? And so all of that's been going on in the background. Who am I as a teacher? Am I worthy of being on the, the pages of Tricycle? Um, and will I talk to her about dog poo? So what do we do with that? What do I do with that? Those, those bits of me that, um, that want to be seen in a certain way, those bits of me that leave dog poo on the lawn, those bits of me that love the idea of being a famous Buddhist teacher, those bits of me that feel utterly worthless. What do I do with all of that? And what I do with all of that is I bring it to the Buddha. Bring it all to the Buddha, and the Buddha already knows about all of that. The Buddha sees right inside us, into all the nooks and crannies, all our fallibility, all our glorious brokenness, and loves it. The Buddha loves us just as we are. And as I remember that, I feel moved because I don't have to worry. I will go and clear up the dog poo after practice this morning, um, and I will be conscious when I speak to, uh, Sui Ke on Monday night that I will be, uh, wanting her to like me and to see me as credible and, and it's all okay.

We're all like that.

We're all like that. What a relief. In a minute we will stand and together we'll make prostrations to the Buddha and In making prostrations, we're saying, here I am with all of this, and I trust you to accept it, to see it and love it. We make ourselves vulnerable, and in return we are received and held and consoled. Aren't we lucky?

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

So when Casper rings the bell, we will go and stand— well, just stand where you are, but, but point towards the Buddha, and we'll make prostrations to the floor. If you, if you're able to copy us, then do. If not, just do a standing bow. And the words that we chant are Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, which is another form of Nembutsu. And the Nembutsu is Just a way of connecting to the love of the Buddha. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

Namoh Amida Butsu. Namoh Amida Butsu.

Namoh Amida.

Namoh Amida.

Namaste. What's the name of that yoga when you have to sweat? Hot yoga. Hot yoga. Feels like we've done a hot practice this morning. We get extra merit. And then we, we turn to bow to each other. You bow to the Buddha. Tidy our seats and bow to our seats. And then we recite the closing verse together, which is on your bit of paper. It starts, blessed, blessed by Amitabha's love, may we care for all living things and the holy earth. Namomi tabu. So do join us for a cup of tea. Um, dates— we've got, uh, our next retreat date in September, but near the end of August we've got gardening afternoon and Listening Circle, I'll send out all the dates soon. That's it, I think.

Running an ancestor workshop on Zoom this evening, links on the temple website.

Yeah, Casper is doing that, will be very good, I'm sure. Yeah. Okay, you might need to be. You like to put the kettle on and I'll do the thingy jigger.