Satya Robyn leads a Buddhist practice session exploring two qualities of mind: discriminating wisdom and interconnectedness. Participants including Dave, Philip, Casper, and Paul discuss how to hold both in practice, with guided meditation, chanting of the Nembutsu, and references to Zen master Seung Sahn.
Chapters
Good morning everybody, welcome to Saturday practice here at Bright Earth Temple. It's another quiet one. So inside the shrine room we have Dave and Philip and me and Casper, and Paul is joining us online.
Great, thank you, Satya Robyn. I've been reading some short teachings by the Korean Zen master Seung Sahn. Well, I don't need to say too much about those particularly because I'm going to talk about— it just inspired— it got me thinking about what I'm going to talk about this morning. I'll talk about it in quite a different way to the way that he talks about it, but I just wanted to name that's where the inspiration had come from. So I want to talk about two qualities of attention or awareness, or sometimes just called two qualities of mind. That are really valued in Buddhism and how they both work together. And they're exemplified by two different Buddhas. One is Amitābha Buddha, sitting here next to me on the shrine. Amitābha is the Buddha who sees things as they are. And loves them without measuring them. We could call this discriminating wisdom. He notices the difference between things and loves each of them just as they are. Amitābha traditionally is the Buddha of the West, which is partly why it's in this end of the shrine room, because this is the west end of the shrine room. Out of those, there's a group of 5 wisdom Buddhas in Mahayana Buddhism, these kind of archetypal Buddhas that create a mandala. And in this circle of 5 Buddhas, on the opposite side in the east is Akshobhaya Buddha. Is associated with the rising sun. Amitābha is associated with the setting sun. And sometimes we've gone on the hills and done sunset practice. Akshobhya is associated with the morning sun, and their way of seeing things is to notice interconnectedness and to see that all things have the same essential nature. So these are the two different ways of seeing that I want to reflect on this morning: seeing things as different and distinct and unique, and seeing things as all the same. A lot of the teachings that I've been reading by the Zen Master Sang San are about this movement from seeing things as unique and different through to seeing things as the same, back to seeing things as unique and different. There's a, there's a little verse that goes something like, before enlightenment, mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers, and after enlightenment, mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers. That implies this same sort of movement. So in the ordinary deluded state of mind, we see things as different and unique, but we're also clouded by our own judgments. I like this, I don't like that. That serves to prop up these stories that I tell about. Those things don't serve, so I'll discard them, or I won't see them. I'll pull these things in close, so I'll consume more of these things. I'll push these things away. I'll maybe even get angry and frustrated with them. We're constantly dividing up the world in this way— things we like, things we don't like, things that are useful, things that aren't useful. Things that hurt us, things that soothe us. And then as we practice, that begins to soften, and we come into the way of seeing, of bhakshabaya, where we begin to notice the interconnectedness of things, where we begin to notice that in both the material sense— oh, I am made of the same stuff that you are made of, and the earth is made of the same stuff, and the stars are made of the same stuff, and the seas are made of the same stuff— and also, uh, you know, karmically, psychologically I've got my baggage, you've got your baggage. I've got human nature, you've got human nature. I've got a compassionate heart, you've got a compassionate heart. We both cover those up in different ways. We start to notice the essential similarities and connections. To the point where difference can almost completely disappear. Maybe you hear people saying things like, 'Oh, we are one, we're all one.' And that's a really useful spiritual insight, the insight of interconnectedness. Because it allows something in us to soften. It allows us to meet people with more compassion. And the next stage is returning to discriminating wisdom, so that we begin to see things as distinct and unique. Again. And both of these positions are really important. As an environmental activist, to notice the deep interconnectedness of all things, that sense of oneness, of harmony, of everything rising and falling from the same source, brings a great sense of steadiness. It connects in with the long-term view, reminds me that things will be okay regardless of what happens in the short term. And discriminating wisdom reminds me that it's really important to pay attention to to the specificity of how things are unfolding. That there is real suffering, that one thing leads to another, that the pattern of things that emerge from the same source is different, and sometimes more suffering arises and sometimes less suffering arises. That allows me to notice structural oppression. And that kind of insight and wisdom is really useful if you need to take an action, because you need to know, if I do this, probably it will have these consequences. And when we're all one, cause and effect starts to get a bit blurred, and, and those things seem less important. So we hold both of these minds together, understanding that we are all deeply connected and that we're deeply individual and have our own experiences. We pay attention to both of these things. A very common analogy in Buddhism is of the ocean. And the waves on the top are like individuals or individual circumstances. And we can see they're all emerging from the same deep sea, and at the bottom of the deep sea, everything is still and calm. I don't know if that's true actually for seas, but that's always how it's presented in the analogy. And at the top, there's all these different patterns of waves. So we keep an eye on both of these things, on the deep stillness and on the difference and uniqueness of each wave. Namaste, Satya Robyn. Here's what I was going to say about it, a very practical example. So when I'm sitting and dwelling in oneness or in emptiness, it really makes no difference that there's crumbs on the floor because I'm the crumbs and the crumbs are me and the carpet is the sky and everything's lovely and fine. But it's also really important to clean the crumbs away. That's discriminating wisdom.
That's not a Dharma.
No, no. I just noticed as I sat down, that's a good example. But oh, I can sit down and sit in oneness, and then, you know, maybe at some point I'll get the hoover out. Both is important. Welcome everybody, just go into some meditation together. So how we bring these two qualities to a meditation practice is to notice what's arising as distinct and unique, but also keeping in mind that each of us has Buddha nature at the same time inside of us, and that each of us is held by this Buddha field surrounding the Buddhas in the universe. So this morning we'll chant Nembutsu in the Chinese fashion. The tune's a little bit complicated. Yeah, we used to do this every Friday morning with our walking meditation, and Saturday mornings, I guess. Yeah, so the words are 'namo amitabha.' It's just the Chinese version of 'namo amitabha.' So Satya Robyn, I'll start. Do join in when you sort of get the gist of it. Yeah, don't wait too much.
Namomi to. Ama mito, o fo na no mi.
Oh!
Oh!
Namami Toh Ophana— Om phonamomi to phonam. Amitabh. Oh, oh, ah, no, me, to, for, namo Amitabh Ophorana Omi Tofu! Namami tu. Oh, for Namami. Om Mitoh. Namah Mitoh. Oh, oh, oh. Om namo mi to fo namo. Ommitto. Oh, for now.
Oh, me.
Namomi to Ofo Namomi.
Thanks everybody. It's very difficult to maintain that chant to the same pitch. It always seems to get Slightly lower and slightly lower as we go through it. For refuge I go to the Buddha.
For refuge I go to the Buddha.
Namo Buddha.
Namo Buddha.
For refuge I go to the Dharma.
For refuge I go to the Dharma.
Namo Dharmaya. For refuge I go to the Sangha. Namo Sangha. 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.
I pray that I may not fall into 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.
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 pure land. Sapatchi, shall we? And we'll finish with the closing verse. Blessed by Amitābha's light, may we and for all living things and the holy earth. Namamitubhun. It's a tongue twister for me. Years ago I learned a verse that had very similar phrase in it, and even though I haven't said it
