Satya Robyn leads a Pure Land Buddhist practice session with group chanting of the Nembutsu and a teaching on the term "foolish being" (bambu/pratānja). The talk explores how this concept relates to trusting the Buddha, tenderness, and the practice itself.
Chapters
Welcome everybody. Welcome to those of you inside the shrine room. Welcome to Philip, Beth, and Chris joining us on Zoom. Welcome if you're watching on YouTube later on. Welcome if you're never going to see this. And that's the exhaustive list. We're going to begin with a Dharma glimpse. This has been sent in by Karma Deva, who lives in Birmingham and occasionally visits Dharma. One of the translations of Dharma is truth, so this is a glimpse truth that we've been encouraging people to write, or we've been reading some that have been pre-written by another group that we're connected with. A glimpse of something true about our own lives, about the world, about spiritual practice. So, um, Fi is going to read Karmadeva's offering.
Foolish beings. Foolish being by Karmadeva Andrew Nichols. This week has seen me struggle with several problems, not huge but a bit annoying. Firstly, I didn't attend work on the night that I'd been asked to cover the management of our crisis team, and then found that someone hadn't allowed access to a place where I'd booked repairs. My anger started mostly with myself for being so foolish, How could I forget to go to work? And why hadn't I used better communications with the repairs? Then today I received some really nice feedback at work and was delighted. How clever I am is basically how I felt. I even thought this is because I'm guided by other power. I knew I had done the right thing. After I had finished my self-praise and adulation, I sat and reflected on my actions. My delusional behavior made me smile. I thought to myself, at least in the middle of my ego taking over one way or another, I was right about one thing: I am a truly foolish being.
So I'll say something about foolish beings later on. For now, we'll have some time to sit in quiet meditation together.
Om Amitabha.
Om Amitabha.
Om Amitabha. Om Ami Tabahu. Om Ami Tabahu. Om Ami Tabahu. Omami tabaho. Omami tabaho. Omami tabaho. Om Amitabha. Om Amitabha. Om Amitabha. Om Amitabha. Om Amitabha. Om Amitabha. Om Ami Tabahu. Om Ami Tabahu. Om Ami Tabahu. Omami tabaho. Omami tabaho. Omami tabaho. Omami tabaho. Omami tabaho. Omami tabaho. Omami tabahum. Omami tabahum. Omami tabahum. Om Amitabha Hum. Om Amitabha Hum. Om Amitabha Hum. Om Ami Tabahu. Om Ami Tabahu.
For refuge I go to the Buddha.
For refuge I go to the Buddha.
Namo Buddhaya.
Namo Buddhaya.
For refuge I go to the Dharma.
For refuge I go to the Dharma.
Namo Dhamaya. For refuge I go to the Sangha. Namo Sanghaya. With faith in the Three Jewels, I pray that I may not take life. With faith in the Three Jewels, I pray that I may not steal. With faith in the Three Jewels, I pray that I may not fall into sexual misconduct. With faith in the Three Jewels, I pray that I may not fall into wrong speech. 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.
Inhumable sentient beings, we vow to save them all. Inexhaustible Dharma teachings, we vow to transform them all. Immeasurable Dharma teachings, we vow to master them all. Infinitely, we vow to fulfill it completely.
As Satya mentioned last week, foolish being is a translation of the word 'bambu,' Japanese word 'bambu,' which is itself a translation of the word 'pratājna' from Sanskrit. Which sort of means person who is definitely not going to get enlightened. And it has— foolish being— it has different feeling qualities. I've experienced myself using that label for myself with different feeling qualities at different times in my practice. Sometimes when I can't— when I'm tense and tight and can't— couldn't work out how to get out of the knot I was tangled up in, and practice wasn't helping, and writing about it wasn't helping, and nothing is helping, I would really feel the truth of being a foolish being in that moment and really understanding 'Oh, there is nothing I can do right now to change how I'm reacting, how I'm responding, how I feel about the situation I'm in.' I mean, I definitely can't change the world, but sometimes landing in that place of, 'Oh, and I can't even change myself, and I'm not a very nice self right now.' And there can be a— and then turning to Nembutsu, reciting the name of the Buddha as the practice that was given to people who couldn't do anything else, who couldn't use any other practice, and a kind of desperation in that. Please, Buddha, please come forward to me. Particularly in my early life as an Embutsu practitioner, that desperation— look, I really am foolish, I can't do anything. And there Pure Land Buddhists trust that there is a realm of loving kindness available, and that from that realm the Buddha comes to meet us, the bodhisattvas come to meet us. And some Pure Land Buddhist commentators and teachers say that the Buddha comes from that place particularly for those of us who are foolish. For those of us who've realized that we can't, we can't get to that place on our own. From the Buddhist point of view, when they see us being foolish in that way, if that desperation that we call to them, there is a tenderness and a kindness in their eyes. Ah, here's another foolish being for me to take care of. In the way that we might be moved at a plant nursery when we see the, the kind of most discounted scraggly plant by the door that nobody has bought and think, oh, I can bring that home and water it and repot it and it will flower under my care. Sometimes we're the plant and the Buddha is the gardener.. And then later in my life as a Pure Land Buddhist, when I find myself in similar places, occasionally falling into desperation, but now with some experience behind me, trusting that I don't need to worry, that the gardener is there, that the Buddha is there. So turning to Nembutsu in the moments where I feel particularly foolish, and that all the ordinary things I've tried, and maybe even other spiritual practices, have failed. So I will return once again to saying the Nembutsu and feeling like, oh, I'm a fool, I tried this and it didn't work, or I let my ego get inflated, there I went again. But this has a slightly different quality to it. Because I trust that the Buddha is present with my foolishness, it's like I catch some of that tenderness and softness that the Buddha looks at me with. So when I'm saying foolish being now, there's a kind of lightness to it. And sometimes even a humor. Oh, there I go again. I guess I am a foolish being after all. But because there's a sense of trusting that that isn't the end of the world, you can still be a foolish being and be loved by the Buddha. You can still be a foolish being and be reborn into that land of loving kindness. Then the word foolishness, foolish being, takes on a kind of loving quality. I guess I wanted to share that because I know when I read, first read Satya Robyn's Buddhist texts, and I know other people have had this experience, a bit of a reaction to, what do you mean you're a foolish being? No, you're good, you're a good person. And yet we do have that experience sometimes, and occasionally it can feel heavy and harsh. Oh, I'm a foolish being again. But the more our trust in the Buddha grows, actually recognizing our foolish nature can be an act of love. Namamitabha.
