Practice - elders & koans

So welcome everybody, welcome to Claire joining us on Zoom. We'll begin as always with a Dharma glimpse this week written by Dharmae, and Helen is kindly going to read it for us.

Thank you. Learning to Suffer by Dharmae.

I noticed recently that the majority of the elderly people that I work with seem to have a gracious attitude towards their very often challenging predicaments. Many of them have extremely debilitating health conditions and are dependent on people like myself for some of their most basic needs. Despite this fact, and the fact that I obviously in many ways represent the absence of their independence and a potential threat to their dignity, Most of them go out of their way to make my job as easy as possible and treat me with love and respect. I would go so far as to say that some of them positively radiate grace. Given my Buddhist learnings and the learning and training that I've so fortunately received over the years, I'm inclined to wonder about the meaning of this phenomena. My musings often lead me to ideas about how we learn to deal with suffering. How it seems to soften some of us up and make some of us more receptive to spiritual wisdom. I know that accept— I know that the acceptance and that I eventually found— sorry, I know that the acceptance that I eventually found with regards to the inevitability of my own suffering seemed to nudge me from the state of constant agitation to a much more tolerant and philosophical outlook. But this took time. When I think about some of my elderly clients, I can see that most of them have had more than twice as much time to me to master their afflictions and have maybe become more adept at holding them or even subverting them. Maybe they've inadvertently resolved the dilemma inherent to the Buddha's teaching on the Four Noble Truths, to which, which to me imply a kind of enlightenment. I often think about how, in our terminally busy lives, we are inclined to dismiss the elderly as if they've had their day and no longer have anything valuable to offer society. In reality, they might be showing us and teaching us the most important lesson that we could ever learn. Western culture seems to lack the elder function that's so central to the health and prosperity evident in some of the indigenous populations around the world. I wonder if our obsession with wealth and success has superseded and thereby made obsolete essential elements of the natural process by which real wisdom is transmitted from generation to generation. If nothing else, my journey has taught me to pay attention to what the world is showing me and to try and think outside the box. This affliction to impermanence has a deeper meaning, and if we engage with it in a constructive way, can reveal great power and wisdom.

So now have some time in quiet meditation, and then we'll move into chanting. And we— this evening we will recite Om Amidaewa.

Great. Om Mani Devi Wari. Om Mani Devi Wari. Om Mani Devi.

Please repeat after me. 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 Buddha.

Namo Buddha.

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.

Namo Dhamma.

Namo Dhamma.

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 Sangha.

Namo Sangha.

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 fall into wrong speech.

With faith in the Three Jewels, with 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 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 perfect it completely. Mm, sorry Claire and anyone watching later on YouTube, it's really dark on the recording now. I guess it's really dark outside. Time's whizzing by. I've started reading this collection of Zen koans collected by Gyomei Kibose for the study group that I'm doing Sunday nights. I thought, well, maybe there'd be something in here to inspire me this evening. Koan, you could say, is just a little teaching story. Well, I could say more about where they come from another time, but this is a very little story, just a couple of lines really. Shūzān held out his— so it's usually between two Buddhist teachers, but here it's just one speaking out, I guess, to a crowd of disciples maybe, or to another teacher. Shūzān held out his short staff and said, if you call this a short staff, you oppose reality. If you do not call it a short stuff, you ignore the facts. Now, what are you going to call it?

Namamitabhu.

And this, uh, this really struck me, particularly this week when there's been, you know, with the, the Queen dying on Thursday and so much prescription in the media of how people should feel and mourn and express their reactions, and people arrested and moved on by the police for not having exactly the right reaction. And somehow I made a connection between these— this teaching story and these events, because what Xu Zhen is saying is you can't really measure this staff. There's lot— it's lots of different things. If I hit you, it's a stick to beat you with. If I kind of draw in the sand, it's a pencil. If I juggle with it, it's a juggling stick. If you put 3 more together and a flat piece on top, it's a stool. And it's all of these different things at once. So you can't really say it's a short staff. As soon as you do that, you destroy all the other possibilities. And Bogart, the Canadian postmodern theater director, once said, as soon as you put a chair on the stage, you destroy all the other possibilities of where the chair might be. And it's the same when we're using words and when we're seeing things. As soon as we pin something down, we lose a whole load of meaning. And like when we do a first-timer service and it's tempting to explain the different things that we do— well, this means this and that means that— like the offerings I made at the beginning of practice, there's 3 water bowls Well, you could say it's for the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. That's one way that I was taught. But I was also taught it's water to drink, water to bathe in, and water to represent all of offerings. And both of those are true, but neither of them encompass the full meaning, which you can only really experience by going and doing the water offerings a lot of times. And then you start to find out what the bowl of water means. And the kind of classic answer to this koan would be to take the stick and, you know, do something very Zen-like with it, strike it across the teacher's knee or something. Luckily I haven't got any sticks this evening. Yeah, and it— and, and there's been an edge to that in some of the conversations happening around the monarchy, like, how can I be— feel moved and tender and grieving and also a Republican? And yet both of those things can be true in the same person. It's both a short staff and not a short staff. So I suppose that's my invitation when you find yourself, and you probably won't notice it, but occasionally you might notice it, pinning something down, to ask, well, what else is true here? How does this thing also contain its opposite.

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

So as we prostrate 3 times, we will recite Ganenbutsu in the form of Namo Amida Butsu. Namo Amida Butsu.

Namo Amida Butsu.

Namoha mi tam.

Namoha mi tam. Namoha mi tam.

Namoha mi tam. Mambo amigable! Mambo amiga!

Mamo amiga! Mamo amiga! In gratitude, we offer this incense to all Buddhas and bodhisattvas throughout space and time. May be fragrant as Earth herself, reflecting our careful efforts, our wholehearted awareness, and the fruits of understanding slowly ripening. May we and all Buddhas be companions to Buddhas and bodhisattvas. May we awaken from a place—

place—

may we and all beings—

yes, double back to each other.

Namaste.

We'll tidy our seats, come back to our seats, and we'll finish with the closing verse, which is on top of the Please say 5 if you want to read along with us. Blessed by Amitabha's light, may we care for all living things and the holy earth. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Thank you everybody. Gardening maintenance, couple of hours on Saturday from 2. Very welcome to come and join us, do some weeding or some cleaning.

That's it.

You've got a very puzzled look on your face. No, my meat is very good. You can say hi to Satya Robyn.

Yeah.

Oh, it's not very good.