This content was created by Satya Robyn. This content was uploaded by Satya Robyn. This is a YouTube video titled "Practice - awake at 3am and my friend's bad week" (created 2023-02-11). The excerpt is a group Buddhist practice session held in a shrine room that includes a Dharma glimpse/read by Barbara about insomnia and trusting the Tathagata, guided breathing and Nembutsu practice, extended chanting (e.g., Om Mani Padme Hum, Namu Amida Butsu), recitation of the refuges and precepts, a short Dharma talk reflecting on dukkha (suffering) and finding refuge, and a dedication of merits. Participants include a session leader (SPEAKER A), Barbara (the reader), and multiple congregants/speakers (SPEAKER B, D, E, F). The content is in English and centers on meditation, Buddhist teachings, compassion, and coping with difficulty.
Chapters
Good morning, everyone. Lovely to have a quieter American lady telling us that the recording started this morning. A very warm welcome to Matt, Suzanne, and Keima. It looks very cozy there, and welcome to everyone in the shrine room. We will begin today with a Dharma glimpse by Barbara, which Barbara has kindly agreed to read for us.
Over to you.
It was around 3 AM and I was wide awake again. On full alert for the third night running. One of my anxieties being that I was returning to a familiar pattern of insomnia that had plagued me in bouts since I was a teenager. I tried a new strategy, imagining that I was on a walk, but I was barely in the woods when up popped another worry, and I was off chasing it and escalating anxieties. After a while, I decided to get up and do something useful. The house was bitterly cold, but I returned from downstairs with a hot drink, water bottle, and December Fan by Manji Kyozawa, the book we are studying in our book group. I groaned inwardly at the title of a new chapter, My Religious Conviction. I was skeptical. And had adamantly denied having any religious conviction despite having assiduously meditated for over 15 years. I longingly cast eyes on my new novel but began reading the chapter. Kao Tsao wrote, "Religious conviction refers to the mind that trusts Tathagata. In his mind, they refer to one and the same reality." not two different things. Oh dear, is this like the Holy Trinity? I thought. He asks, what is my religious conviction? It is to trust Tathagata. And what is the Tathagata that I trust? It is a fundamental reality underlying my existence. What a lot to digest, I thought, especially at 3 o'clock in the morning. As I continued reading, I became increasingly immersed in his reasoning. Firstly, that if we trust in Tathagata, we are relieved of distress and suffering. Therefore, there can be no room for my anxieties, my what-ifs and should-haves, and if only I'd done this or that. These benefits only follow if there is trust. Secondly, after much searching within himself, Kaisawa reached the conclusion that our intellect is limited and that the meaning of life is inscrutable. He entrusts all matters to Tathagata, being aware of his own total ignorance, the most essential point of his religious conviction. Thirdly, he emphasizes that his religious conviction is the fundamental reality in which he cannot help but trust. Captivated by now in the whole chapter of Kao Tsao-wa's humane reasoning, he writes that Tathagata's infinite compassion, infinite wisdom, and infinite power is limitless. I thought deeply as I reread and mulled over sections It made real sense and was so sensitively written, allowing us into his thoughts and struggles. But I was tired now, and perhaps it was time to let go of my own worn-out defenses over religious conviction and consciously trust in Tathagata. I turned off the lamp, snuggled under my duvet, and with a feeling of diving into the unknown, felt great calm as I sank into a deep sleep.
Namah Amida Butsu.
Thank you so much.
You've extinguished the candle with your glimpse of enlightenment. It went out just as you finished. That's a very, very good Okay, so we will now move into some quiet together. On Wednesday we did breathing nenbutsu. I'll invite you to do the same if you would like today, letting the name of Amida float on your breath. You can either use the word Amitabha Ami on an in-breath and Taba on an out-breath. Or you can use Namu Amida Bu, Namu Ah on the in-breath and Amida Bu on the out-breath. So don't change your breath, just let it be however it is and allow the Nembutsu, the name of Amida, to follow When your thoughts wander, which they will, just notice, give them a little bow, and return back to the Nembutsu. Namomidebu.
Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum.
Om Mani Padme Humri!
Om Mani Padme Humri! Om Mani Padme Umri! Om Mani Padme Umbri!
Om mani padme hum.
Om mani padme hum. Om mani padme hum. Om Mani Padme Hum.
Om Mani Padme Hum.
Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mane Padme Hum.
Om Mane Padme Hum.
Om Mane Padme Hum. Om mani padme hum. Om mani padme hum.
Om mani padme hum.
Om mani padme hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum.
Om Mani Padme Hum.
Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum.
Om Mani Padme Hum. Om mani padme hum.
Om mani padme hum. Om mani padme hum.
Om mani padme hum. Om mani padme hum.
Om mani padme hum. Om mani padme hum.
Om Mani Padme Hum.
Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum.
For refuge I go to the Buddha.
For refuge I go to the Buddha.
The one who is awake and full of love.
The one who is awake and full of love.
Namo Buddhaya.
Namo Buddhaya.
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.
Namadramaya.
Namadramaya.
For refuge I go to the Sangha.
For refuge I go to the Sangha.
Those who live in the Buddha's light.
Those who live in the Buddha's light.
Namo Sanghaya.
Namo Sanghaya.
With faith in the Three Jewels.
With faith in the Three Jewels.
I pray that I may not take life.
I pray that I may not take life—
With faith in The Three Jewels! —with Faith In The 3 jewels—I Pray That I May Not Steal... ...With Faith In The 3 jeweled stones—with Faith Into three tools…I Pray That I May Fall into Sexual Misconduct... ...With Faith And The Three Tools... I PraY ThaT tImE mAy Avoid Wrong Speech... ...and prayed so they avoid wrongs to each other?
FaITH AND THE THREE JEWELS... With faith in 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 sentient beings, we vow to save them all.
Inexhaustible are the Buddha's passions.
We vow to transform them all. Immeasurable are the Buddha's teachings. We vow to master them all. Infinite is the Buddha's way. We vow to fall flat completely.
A moment to breathe. This morning I'm thinking about my friend Mark, uh, he's had a bad week. He was running a special sort of training event this week, and he lives in a van, so he went to his friend's house to get some more reliable internet. His friend wasn't there, so he went to his friend's house and went to the toilet, got locked in, phoned his friend's flatmate who came and tried to get him out, couldn't get him out. Locksmith had to come. He missed the training, had to be cancelled. Had to pay £200 to the locksmith. He hasn't really got much money, so all sorts of things have been happening where money's been hemorrhaging from him. And then he left me a very short message this morning to say that last night his bike was stolen from outside his van. So he says he doesn't know what the universe is playing at, trying to tell him And it just reminds me how, how the world is, how life is, that difficult things happen. And difficult things happen to us from outside, other people, a terrible earthquake, all the things that, that we're not in control of. And things also happen to us from inside of us, that we have parts that cause chaos sometimes, or carry suffering, or, um, struggle in various ways. And this is the first noble truth, that there is dukkha. We can't avoid dukkha, we can't avoid suffering. And your Dharma glimpse was a perfect example of that, that kind of 3 AM stuff that happens to us all sometimes. End of Dharma talk. And when we recite the refuges We are trying to remind ourselves of something, or even trying to discover something for the very first time, which is that there is something that we can rely on. And sometimes it takes difficult things to, uh, crack through our self-protection and allow the possibility of that reliable other in. If we're lucky, it doesn't take that, but for a lot of us, we need to suffer before we, uh, we're sort of forced to include the possibility of something different, something that will help that isn't inside us, or something that isn't within our current mechanism. And there are many faces of that other thing, and we meet it in lots of different ways. This morning I met it as we walked around the garden, and I saw the first primroses in the garden. And the little tips of the fig tree where the leaves are just coming out, just forming. We might meet it when a dog tries to lick our face, or a friend sends us a message to say they're thinking about us, or someone we don't know smiles at us in the street. And all of these little tiny moments are openings into that infinite source of love and wisdom. Sometimes we spend long periods cut off from it, and even then I'm telling you that you can trust that when you call to the Buddhas for help, that help will be offered. Maybe not in the form you expect, maybe not in the form you would like, but it will be offered. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. English. That's what I thought. Not so great.
Thanks.
We dedicate, we dedicate the merits of this incense offering to all Buddhas and bodhisattvas throughout space and time. May it be fragrant to the Earth herself Letting 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 release our true home.
Blessed by Amitabha's light, may we care for all living things and the Holy Earth. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Just a couple
