Philip leads a group Buddhist practice session with guided meditation, chanting, and discussion about assumptions in secular Buddhism. The group reads "Lessons from a Microwave Oven" by Patty Keo, chants refuge vows, and talks through how beginners approach practice without religious framing.
Chapters
Good morning everybody for our last practice session with a closed temple. Fingers crossed.
So from Wednesday we'll be open officially to the public again.
We've just done some morning practice in the garden and Anjali and Dave have gone off to do other things. Joined in the shrine room by Sam, Izzy, Casper, David, Keima, and Katie. Katie on my right. And we will begin as we do these days with the Dharma glimpse.
We've run out of Dharma glimpses from the congregation now, I've had to resort back to the book. So if anyone's got any budding, just sketch them down, send them to me, or bring them with you, and you can feature in next week's slot.
Over to Katie.
Thanks, Katie.
Oh, morning, Philip.
Hi, Philip.
Lesson from a Microwave Oven.
Oh, I knew I was going to forget that.
Lessons from a Microwave Oven, written by Patty Keo. My dharma glimpse came to me at about 2 AM the other day. When I got up to microwave heat a rice-filled thingy I use for neck pain, something I do just about every night. Like 10,000 times before, it was just me and the microwave in the middle of the night for 2 minutes on high. I've owned this same microwave for 10 years. It's installed above the stove right at my eye level, and of course I use it many times during the day, every day. But this night I became aware for the first time that it had buttons on it labeled popcorn, reheat, vegetables, and some others. I couldn't believe my eyes. This is a new and exciting feature. Who put those there, and when did, and when did they do it? Whilst being amazed and excited at the new microwaving possibilities in my future, the bell dinged. I opened the door, and that's when I noticed for the first time, there was a cooking guide just inside the door. Say what? Yes, a cooking guide corresponding to the new buttons on the outside. I began to wonder how it is that I've been using this machine every day, several times a day, and not seen half of the prominently displayed features. What else is in the front of my face that I'm overlooking? As I wandered back to bed, I wondered when was the last time I actually looked at my family members' faces. What did my daughter wear to school today? How often do I walk past my good people and look through them? In our reading this week, Stephen Batchelor stated that we are unaware of the extent to which we are distracted, because distraction is a state of unawareness. My microwave oven is trying to tell me the same thing: wake up! It only takes 1 second to actually look at someone and see them, but in my semi-consciousness state, I'm missing out on the here and the now. If someone were to tell me that I had only another 24 hours to live, you bet I'd be looking at everything and everyone consciously and deliberately awake. I can never look at my microwave oven the same now since it spoke to me without being reminded to pay attention. Thank you, honorable microwave.
As we move into silence together, we might want to notice how our bodies are in the same way that Patti Coe noticed her microwave. Just what's present, what's happening in your body. What's happening in your mind, what feelings are floating through. And as you become aware of what's right here, don't hold on to it or make a story from it. Just allow it to drift through. And when you find your mind wandering, as it will, just bring it back to right now. Whatever is this here moment.
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. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha.
For refuge I go to the Buddha.
For refuge I go to the Buddha.
Namo Buddhaya. For refuge I go to the Dharma!
For refuge I go to the Dharma!
Namo Dharmaya—Namo Dharmaya—for Refuge I Go To The Sangha! —for Refuge I Go To The Sangha! Nammo sanghaya—Nammo sanghaya—with Faith In The Three Jewels—with faith in three jewels—I pray that I may not take life—I pray that I will not take my own With Faith And There Are 3 Jewels—With Faith In The Three Jewels—I Pray That I May Not Steal I pray that I may not steal— With faith in the Three Jewels! —with faith in three jewels! I pray that I may not fall into sexual misconduct—
I pray that I might have fallen to sexual misconduct—
With faith in the Three Jewels! —With faith in three jewels! I pray that time they don't fall into wrong speech—
I praise them— They're falling through false knowledge—
Faith in the Three Jewels! —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 devoted passions, we vow to transform them all.
Immeasurable are the Dharma teachings.
We bow to Master. Infinite is the Buddha's way. We bow to full faith completely.
Namaste boo. Just checking a name. Okay, so, um, me and Casper are currently engaged in a study program with an organization called Bright Dawn in America, and one of the previous students of this program is called Noah Rashita.
And I'd heard about him through someone else I know who's very involved and looked him up on Facebook to have a little nosy. And he's very kind of impressive looking, slick kind of guy, flies helicopters, got a beautiful wife. And he has a very popular podcast, which is, um, yeah, it's called Secular Buddhism. Buddhism that is just based on the kind of the teachings of the Buddha rather than the idea that there is anything divine as a part of that experience or that teaching. So I had lots of opinions about Nararashita, and I am very attached to my experience of Buddhism as being a devotional practice which includes gods and devas and who knows what kind of mystical experience. For me, the whole point of Buddhism is the mystical experience. So in my head I was like, well, I've got nothing to learn from this guy, and I'm probably slightly jealous of his popularity. And after a long time of being immersed in Pure Land Buddhism, I'm starting to feel like I need to brush up on the basics, the basics of Mahayana Buddhism. Four Noble Truths, the Three Marks of Impermanence, the Twelve-Link Chain of Origination, all of those, all of those kind of bits of theory are very familiar to lots of Mahayana Buddhists. Pure Land Buddhists don't tend to focus on that, they just focus on we connect with Amida and we receive Amida's love and everything's okay. And I love that, but I also wanted to do a bit of, a bit of study. And I know that Noah has written a book which is called No Nonsense Buddhism for Beginners: Clear Answers to Burning Questions About Buddhism. So it's 99p. I downloaded it onto my Kindle yesterday. Had a retreat day yesterday, and after reading half of it, I had to acknowledge to myself that my preconceptions about him had been a little hasty, because it's a really good book.
It's a really good book.
He writes very clearly. He's very in tune with what people actually need to know about, kind of ordinary people, what questions do they have. The whole book's written as kind of questions and answers. So there's questions like, oh, you know, the fat Buddha that people see, is that the same as Shakyamuni Buddha? Those questions that ordinary people have.
And I really enjoyed it.
There were a couple of bits where he spoke about what happened when the Buddha became enlightened that didn't chime with my own reading or my own kind of interpretation of that, because he's a secular Buddhist and I'm a, you know, like on the other end of the scale. But it was really quite astonishing how much we had in common, actually. He wrote in the book about, you know, losing his best friend and being a dad and just, just ordinary things that, that helped me to connect with him as a man rather than this idea I had of him, is all these ideas, these preconceived ideas. And as he says in the book, that is what Buddhism can help us with. It can remind us that all the time we go around making up all kinds of assumptions about the people around us, the people we have met, the people we haven't met. And those stories come from all kinds of places. They come from other people, they come from our stories about ourselves, that we see the world through these glasses that are really shaded with assumptions and self-protection and judgment and expectation.
And need.
And Buddhism is asking us, or it's encouraging us, to just take them off, just even for a moment, and just, just not know, not know what's going to happen, or what something means, or who someone is, just to keep an open mind and encounter the world fresh, to have that fresh experience of life. So I feel very grateful to Noah Rashita, who I haven't met and maybe I never will, for really showing me how all those prejudices I have stopped me from encountering something really useful to me. And who knows how else that happens all the time. But every so often we have these little moments, like the microwave moment, where we suddenly like, oh, there's a whole load of stuff here that I haven't even seen. And coming to practice here together hopefully reminds us of that, and that maybe there's a little effect that maybe later on today you might just notice yourself closing down or pushing something away or pulling something towards you. And in that moment, you've got the opportunity to just pause and just be curious.
What is it that's here?
I don't know.
Let's just be with it and see.
So I'd recommend the book.
I've just ordered one for the library. And, um, am I muted?
We dedicate the merits of this incense offering to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space and time. May it be fragrant as Earth 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 Bodhisattvas. May we awaken from forgetfulness and realize our true home.
So I'd like to transfer the merit from this morning's practice to Thich Nhat Hanh, who died last night. Age of 95, and he has left a great legacy of bringing Buddhism to lots and lots of people. And when I think of Thich Nhat Hanh, I think of kindness. I think of how, um, how he speaks of kindness and embodied kindness, and also his connection to the earth, that he was very connected to the earth and encouraged people to use the Earth in their practice and look after the Earth. So very grateful to him and for all the teachings that he's left, and all the sangha, and all the places, and all the books that we will be able to continue enjoying, and that will keep going forwards. If anyone is going to be in the Pure Land, it's definitely Thich Nhat Hanh. No one needs to be. Okay, so the closing verse, which is on your bit of paper if you don't know it.
Blessed by Amitābha's light may we care for all living things.
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Now Moe meets Boo to join us for a cup of tea!
