Practice - cats & letting the weeds grow

Good morning everybody, lovely to see you all in the shrine room and lovely to see Matt and Ian. Hi Matt and Ian on Zoom.

Hi, Ian.

Getting some nice waves. Do feel free to come and say hello to people afterwards if you haven't met these people that I read out every time. It's really nice for them to meet you and you to meet them, so do feel free to come and say hi. Most of you know that my dad is in the last days of his life, and so I do have my phone in my pocket, so if I do get a call from my mum, I will exit the shrine room and Caspar will take over very smoothly. And there'll be no bells, but should we just do a trial?

Yeah.

Um, and yeah, it's really lovely to be here with you all this morning. I'm feeling very supported by the community. Um, so we will begin with a Dharma glimpse by Maria. We were going to have Luna, but she didn't make it in time, so I've let her know that she's Yeah, so she can do hers another time. Over to you, Maria.

Thank you.

So this is called 'Pace.' Today has been a strange day indeed. It began with snow on the hills in March and a slightly annoying pulsing headache as I reluctantly got out of bed. There has been so much going on recently, I thought, as I went through the morning routine, my cats jumping under my feet begging for food. They say you can't fool the cats trying to conceal your emotions, and if you're nervous, they'll know. I have resigned from my job and accepted a new one to start in a couple of months. I have embarked on a new spiritual journey. I have got a new harp, and this has opened a whole world of musical possibilities which I've started exploring straight away. I've been getting ready for a very busy holiday, arranging transport and accommodation. Packing and booking events. Sounds exciting, doesn't it? Of course it does to me. I have been observing my cats run around the house and try to play with the new harp. Maybe they are a bit more jumpy than normal. Maybe they are hiding under the sofa too much when the doorbell rings. Suddenly Cassie is not as keen on her wet food and Starbuck jolts when I'm trying to pet him. Oh no. Are my cats excited about all this change? Hard covers and suitcases around the house? Of course not. They're petrified. They don't understand what's going on. All they can see is disruption to their daily routine. As they jump carelessly under my feet, they are trying desperately to get my attention away from all my personal worries. I haven't been checking in with them, or with my husband for that matter. As I have been jumping myself from one appointment to the other, one problem to the other, my inner manager taking over more and more of my personal life. Sometimes our lives move at pace, and being aware of impermanence, we accept that change is part of the game. But change shouldn't make us ignorant and swipe away our capacity for empathy and care for those around us. Maybe the annoying headache has been here today to remind me that now is the time to slow down and check in with my family. Maybe they are struggling with something that I have just taken for granted. Maybe they feel like I've been slipping away from them. Maybe getting over it is not always a good option. Maybe we all need to step back a bit before we move forward. Maybe I have been so wrapped up in the pace of change that I've sacrificed the mindfulness of moving through this change in life. As I'm writing this, my headache is slowly dissipating, and maybe now I'm starting to move with the right pace.

Thank you. So we'll sit in silence together for a little while. Just noticing how you are this morning, how your body's feeling, what thoughts flicker through your head, what feelings move through you. Maybe whenever you notice something about your body or your mind or your feelings or your spirit. Just give it a little bow and let it go on its way.

Thai, Thai.

Thai Aṭhā oṁ bekkhen jē, bekkhen jē maha bekkhen jē rātsa sammunggat te soha. Thai Aṭhā oṁ bekkhen jē, bekkhen jē maha bekkhen jē rātsa sammunggat te soha. Thai Aum Bekken Jai, Bekken Jai Maha Bekken Jai Ratsasamudgatse Soha! Thai Aum Bekken Jai, Bekken Jai Maha Bekken Jai Ratsasamudgatse Soha! Satya Robyn, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon. Satya Robyn, bacon, bacon, maha bacon, rat sa samudgati suha. Satya Robyn, bacon, bacon, maha bacon, rat sa samudgati suha. Thai, Thai. Prat sa samboya te so.

For refuge we go to the Buddha—

for Refuge We Go To The One Who Is Awake And Full Of Love! For one who's awake full of love?

Namo Buddhaya! For refuge we go to the Dharma— all that guides us to wisdom and compassion—

or what drives us through wisdom and passion?

Namodamae!

Namo Dhamayo—

for refuge we go to the Sangha— those who live in Buddha's light— Namo Sanghaya! With faith in the Three Jewels, we pray that may not take life—

We pray that may not take life—

With faith in the three jewels, we pray that may not steal—

We pray that we may not steal—

With faith in the Three Jewels! We pray that we may not fall into sexual misconduct—

That you might not fall into sexual misconduct—

Faith in the Three Jewels! —Faith in the Three Jewels! We pray that we may avoid wrong speech—

Pray to me about one's speech—

With faith in the Three Jewels— With faith of three jewels— We pray that we may avoid intoxication— We pray that we 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 deluded passions.

We vow to transform them all.

Immense support of the Dharma teaching.

We vow to master them all.

Infinite is the Buddha's way. We vow to fulfill Completely.

After practice this morning, some of us will be, uh, offering some attention to the temple garden. At least me and Casper, hopefully more. But either way, the temple will get some the temple garden will get some attention. And so as, as we were walking around this morning, I couldn't help but notice the things that we will need to do at some point this spring. There are quite a lot of nettles springing up in various places. Um, what's the name of that stuff that we've got? Ground elder. There's quite a lot of ground elder. Quite a lot of tidying that could be done. And my instinct or my default is to feel slightly guilty that I haven't been able to get into the garden more, or that I haven't been able to find anyone to come and do regular tending. And to feel very slightly sort of not, uh, not overwhelmed, but kind of burdened or, or, um, responsible, to feel responsible, which I am. Me and Casper are responsible for the overall— we have overall responsibility for the upkeep of the temple and the garden. That's That's part of the deal that we have with the trustees. And there is a magnificent honesty flower that has sprung up by the currant bushes just by the platform, the wooden platform. You might have seen it if you were walking around, a big sort of spire of pinky purple flowers. And honesty is the plant that in the autumn, it— the, the blossoms turn into these kind of translucent circles. They're really beautiful. And the honesty that we planted is down in the other side of the garden by the camellia and the ponds. And it occurred to me that if we had been taking very good care of the garden, and if we'd mowed already and weeded That honesty would not be there because it would have been flattened. And so the metaphor, uh, insists itself upon me with my dad being so ill. I am a person that really likes to know what my schedule is. I like to know what I'm doing and when. I'm very aware all the time of what's in my diary, how much I can do, what the balance is. Um, and at the moment, my, my life could change at any moment if I have a phone call which says that Dad's died. Then we will need to move into a different phase of action, and I'm not sure if I'll go and stay with my mom or what will be needed. I don't even know what the plan will be because that will be dependent on, on what she needs, and she doesn't know. So it's, it's forced me to be a little more soft around the future. And it also means that there has been space for unexpected blossoms, that there have been moments of tenderness that wouldn't have occurred if it wasn't for what's happening. There's been some kind of reprioritizing in my head of what's actually important. Like, if I, if I need to look after myself this week, then what can I cancel? Or, um, what are the things that I want to do? And on a much bigger scale, it brings home the, the reality of impermanence, which as Buddhists we talk about all the time, but it's very difficult to really understand until, or in between, it's difficult to understand in between those moments of facing it or being faced with it, our own mortality, the mortality of someone we love. Just by coincidence, I'm reading alongside this, this process that I'm in a book by Rachel, uh, Remen. I can't remember her other name. There's 3 names, but she, um, it's called Kitchen Table Wisdom, I think. And she's a physician and has a long-term chronic illness. And she's 85 now. I looked her up on Facebook. She's still full of life. And they're just little, little stories about the, the, um, the experiences she's had in her life. She's worked a lot with people who've got cancer and worked a lot with physicians who look after people who are very ill, and all the, uh, the liveliness and the learning and the, uh, grace and the, um, the beauty that, that is woven into those experiences for people. And I'd kind of forgotten that. I'd had a lovely experience of that with Ed, our sangha member who died a few years ago, when we spent time with him as he was dying. And I'd forgotten about the kind of the joy— it sounds crazy to say it, but the kind of the joy of being around him and the privilege of being around him. Learning from him. And he's still here. In his last weeks, he— not his last weeks, his last months, he— we were doing walking meditation and he came and, and we used to just walk round and round. And I'll never forget him kind of just about getting round and Nick kind of stood behind him just in case he fell over. I feel his spirit's really here this morning. So gratitude for impermanence. Also parts of me that really hate it, but what I'm feeling right now this morning is gratitude. And may we all Receive the gifts of impermanence. Namami Tobey.

We offer the merit of 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, serioulaikini. May we and all beings be companions of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. May we awaken from forgetfulness and realize our true nature. Blessed Father, Mother, and Child of Light, may we care for all living things on the Holy Earth and may we be