Satya Robyn leads a Buddhist practice service drawing on Pure Land teachings and Shinran's writings. The group explores true entrusting in Amida Buddha through a sailing metaphor, then chants the Nembutsu together, with prostrations and communal vows.
Chapters
Momi dabu, apologies everyone. Welcome to Chris, Ellie, Lesley, and Klaati, and sorry about the dodgy camera angle. Something's gone— got gremlins in our computer this morning. So I'm going to begin this morning with a reading from this book, Essential Shinran. Shinran is really the teacher who we are mostly inspired by here in this temple, and we often talk about our practice here calling Amida Buddha's name. We talk about it as being a really simple, easy practice. That anyone can do, that's accessible, that's effective. Um, and there aren't many people here. There are some people away. But what is it about the Nembutsu that is maybe not as easy as, as we might say it is? So this is Shinran talking about that. And the introduction is by Alfred Bloom, who put this book together, and it's called The Paradox of True Entrusting. The Pure Land teaching has always emphasized that it belongs to the easy path tradition stemming from Nagarjuna, who introduced that terminology and compared the easy path with riding a ship in comparison to traveling overland. Nevertheless, in many passages Shinran speaks of the great difficulty of the path of true entrusting. Depending on our karmic heritage, it is difficult to meet teachers who guide us into the path, but it is also difficult to accept such teaching. The Larger Sutra also states that it is easy to go, but no one goes. The difficulty lies in the fact that it appears too good to be true. In business, when something is too good to be true, it usually is, so the buyer must be wary. This attitude carries over into spiritual issues. It goes against Zen, which places a premium on virtue and achievement. See A Record and Lament of Divergences, where Shinran states Though it is so, people commonly say even an evil person attains birth, so it goes without saying that a good person will. This statement may seem well-founded at first, but it runs counter to the intent of the primal vow, which is other power. However, it is easy because it is the fruit of Amida's vow and his power in awakening true entrusting. It is difficult when approached from the perspective of self-power as a means to attain salvation. One cannot easily generate true entrusting through one's own determination. When the truth of Amida's compassion and vow grasp one, the paradox is transcended. And then just a couple of quotes from Shinran directly. Paradox 1: It is difficult to meet true teachers and difficult for them to instruct. It is difficult to hear the teaching well and more difficult still to accept it. And then the second quote, which is from the Kyogo Shinsho: Ish and ignorant who are ever sinking and in birth and death the multitudes turning in transmigration. It is not attainment of the unexcelled, incomparable fruit of enlightenment that is difficult. The genuine difficulty is realizing true and real shinjin. Why? Because this realization takes place through the Tathāgata's supportive power, because it comes about wholly through the power of great compassion and all-embracing wisdom. If pure shinjin should be realized, that mind will not be inverted, that mind will not be vain or false. Thereupon, that sentient being of extreme evil, profound and immense, will realize the mind of great joy and receive the veneration and love of all the sacred honored ones. Okay, so we will now move into some silence together. And as we sit in silence, you might just want to pay attention to your breath as it comes and goes, or the sounds around you. Just allowing ourselves to settle and to receive a little of that compassion that the Buddha has for us. And after some silence, we will chant together. We will chant the name of the Buddha of Infinite Light, Amitabha.
Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha.
Ciao!
We'll recite some liturgy together now, and we'll start with the Statement of Faith. Just one bell at the end, if that's okay, John. And then we'll move on to the refuge, refuges, vows, and precepts, which are on the smaller piece of paper.
Statement of faith.
The purpose of our practice is to open us to the wisdom and compassion of the Buddhas. Our heart practice is the Nembutsu The recitation of Amida Buddha's name. We also connect with the Buddha's wisdom through practices like listening to teachings, meditation, and being in the natural world. We treasure Shakyamuni Buddha, who set the wheel of Dharma turning. We learn from Buddhist teachers throughout the ages, awakened beings everywhere. And the world itself. We especially revere the great Pure Land sages Honen and Shinran. Held in Amida's loving gaze, we come to know ourselves deeply, both our bambu nature and our Buddha nature. As bambu beings, we grasp at unreliable refuges, and sometimes we cause harm. Knowing the harm we cause offers us the chance to lessen that harm. Seeing our fallible nature also strengthens our refuge in Amida Buddha. The more deeply we take refuge in Amida, the more our greed, ill will, and delusion will melt like ice into water, allowing our natural compassion to flow into the world. We trust that at the center of each of us is the heart that loves all living beings and that wishes for their liberation. We take action powered by this love in response to suffering in the world. We pay attention to the causes of suffering. We mitigate the power. We practice discerning what work is ours to do. We wish that all who may benefit are able to access the jewels of the Buddha's teachings. Moved by the Buddha's love, we vow to take care of all living beings, including ourselves. Held tenderly by the Buddha's love, we find clarity, consolation, and settled faith. Please repeat after me. For refuge I go to the Buddha, the one who is awake and full of love.
The one who's awake and full of love.
Namo Buddhaya. For refuge I go to the Dharma, all that guides us to wisdom and compassion.
All that guides us to wisdom and compassion.
Namo Dharmaya. 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.
For refuge I go to the Earth.
For refuge I go to the Earth.
The holy ground of awakening.
The holy ground of awakening.
Namobhumyay.
Namobhumyay.
With faith in the Three Jewels, Four Refuges.
With faith in the Four Refuges.
And in light of our human tendencies.
And in light of our human tendencies.
I pray that I may become aware.
I pray that I may become aware.
Of when I take life.
Of when I take life.
I pray that I may become aware.
I pray that I may become aware of when I become intoxicated. Of when I become intoxicated.
No blame.
No blame.
Be kind.
Be kind.
Love everything.
Love everything. Innumerable are sentient beings.
We vow to save them.
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.
A moment to breathe. It's such an unflattering angle of me, this video camera. Keep looking at it and thinking Okay, so reading the first reading with that metaphor of pure land Buddhism being a boat rather than traveling over land brought back to me my time as a sailor, the time that I I was in boats, and I think I must have been 13. My parents would drop me and my brother off at this lake for the day, and we would be taught all the ins and outs of the way the wind goes and how you need to do different things on the boat. And then we'd get out on the water. I can't remember the name of the boat, but they were little one-person sailing boats. Um, I had really mixed feelings about the whole thing because it was quite hard work physically. I'm not really a physical person, but there was something about being on the boat and having all the ropes where they were meant to be and getting caught by the wind that was really amazing. You just flew. Flew across the water, and I can remember that feeling now. It was a really amazing feeling, um, and I'm thinking about that feeling as other power, as being carried by something that, that I wasn't in control of, and how This is, this is what's difficult about this practice, is that we are invited to, uh, we are invited to surrender to that wind, that powerful wind. And there are various things that I think are difficult about that. One is this, the strength of the wind. Sometimes it was really strong and we could do something. We could change the sails so there wasn't so much sail being caught by the wind. But if it was really strong, even with the sail— can't remember any of the technical terms— but not much of the sail being caught, it was powerful. And I think that can be scary. I think it can be destabilizing when we're caught by something that we're not in control of. And another thing that I think is difficult about that other power approach is that the wind might take us in a direction that we don't think we want to be going. I remember how complicated it was to— if you were going with the wind, you just speeded, but if you wanted to get back, or if you were going across the wind, you had to tack, which, you know, was a kind of a zigzaggy thing, because the wind has an idea about where it's going. And sometimes when people come and join us here and begin to immerse themselves in practice, the Buddha takes them in a direction that they weren't planning on going. They might come in up against some things in themselves they didn't want to see, or They might be— look, they might look at their lives in a different way. They might find themselves wanting to change their diet or their relationships. All of that is, is, can be complicated. And probably the main thing that it, that might be difficult is is just not being in control. I think that, um, Bloom talks in the paragraph about how we are used in this society to— we know what the deal is. We know that if we work hard and we achieve things, then we will be rewarded, or then we will be praised, or then we will get a good pension, or then we will have a nice house, or that, that, that's the whole programming, is that we, we extend, we, we put effort in, we are good, um, and then we receive things back. And Pure Land Buddhism, uh, kind of cuts through that with this idea that we don't have to do anything to receive the love of the Buddha. And that still blows my mind, even though I've been doing this for a long time now. We don't have to come to practice, we don't have to read Pure Land tomes, we don't have to be kind, we don't have to do anything for the Buddha to love and accept us just as we are. So there is also something of what Bloom was saying about, you know, it's too good to be true. But really what we're being asked to do in this practice is to trust, is to entrust ourselves to this great compassion, which we don't have any evidence of. We don't— there's no proof of it. There's no, um, scientific evidence. Um, it's a mysterious thing, and sometimes we have an experience of it And a lot of the time we don't, like the sun kind of going behind the clouds. We trust that it's there, or we don't trust that it's there, but we are invited to lean into it, to lean into relationship with it. Um, so I really like, uh, I really like that Shinran says it's really difficult Because I think it is. And paradoxically, it's really easy. All we have to do is say the name of Amida and know that we are loved and that Amida will take care of everything. And in the meantime, it's good to try and be kind and to try and, you know, we have the precepts and we have all kinds of teachings to help us use our self-power to become kinder people. It's good to study, it's good to— Chaim is running a book group coming up soon. It's really good to do those things. It helps us to, to stay in that relationship, but it's not the most essential thing. The most essential thing is knowing that the wind— once the wind catches us, we're already on the way. We're already on the way to the Pure Land, experiencing the Pure Land in this life, or going to the Pure Land after death. And there's really nothing we need to do, um, apart from relax. Enjoy it. Enjoy the wind on our face and be grateful. And, um, and maybe invite other people into their own boats, which is what, what the temple is here for, is offering boats that people sometimes get into and find their own wind. So, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. We will now stand and gather around the shrine and make prostrations to the Buddha, and the, the words we use are Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
Alas, people busily engaged in secular matters take no notice of life wearing away day by day. Night by night. Like a lamp in the wind, how long can it last? Six realms of vast samsara, there is no fixed abode. Till we are emancipated from the sea of affliction, how can we rest in peace? Should we not be afraid? While we still have strength, let us each hear the Dharma.
Let us strive diligently, seek If you'd like to come to stand back at your seats. And now we will bow to each other. I'll bow to Jamé. You can work it out. The other side.
Perfect.
And then we bow to the Buddha, tidy our seats. So announcements, we will have a cup of tea now if you'd like to join us, and then there will be be a talk from Kaspa at quarter to 11, which will also be on Zoom if you're free. The same link? No, different link. So you need to go to Eventbrite to buy it.
If you're on the WhatsApp chat, yeah, the link's on there.
Okay, or go to Eventbrite, or let— I'll be hanging around after practice so you can let me know if you need instructions. Um, Johnny is running a book group soon.
Yeah. That's coming up starting Saturday the 20th of June, and it's by— it's a book called Seeing Through the Eyes of a Buddha by Naga Priya, who's a True Bhakta priest, and it's basically about the Four Noble Truths.
And that'll be online? Yeah, online at 7. Well, 6 to 7. So speak to Jhan there if you're interested in that.
Yes, so come and see me if you're interested.
And that's it, I think. So I will leave the shrine room, but I will come back to say hello if you're online. And we'll finish with the closing verse.
Bless the Buddha, Amitābha's light. May we care for all living things and love you.
