Practice - getting closer to the Buddha

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Welcome everybody. Nice to see Philip, Jharmaya, and Satya in the shrine room, and we've got Chris and Paul and Beth joining us by the power of Zoom for the moment. Maybe, maybe we'll get a couple more as time ticks on. A few weeks ago, I was tempted by Twitter into buying a book about a particular form of tai chi. One of the American Zen Buddhists that I follow, who does a podcast and teaches an online group, had got this book and was really enthusiastic about it. And described the feeling of doing the movements, you know, kind of coming away feeling more awake and with more energy. And I was like, oh, I want to be more awake and have more energy, I'll get this book. And so the book arrived, and the first third or half is full of quite intricate Chinese philosophy, what they call Taoist shamanistic Taoism. So it's very closely linked with Chinese medicine, with ritual. And each movement is associated with a sign of the zodiac. I'm doing this because they move across the, you know, star signs, an element— metal, fire, air— various meridians in the body. And there's a sense that there's a real art to this, there's a precision. And if you see somebody doing formal tai chi, it looks very beautiful. If you see a group of people doing formal tai chi, they move almost as one creature. The movements are so in sync together. It's quite difficult to learn that from a book, I discovered. The person tweeting about it is learning one movement a week from copying the photographs. And I've got another book about tai chi that I bought years ago, which is a series of transcripts of talks from a workshop in Esalen, I think, in California, by an American— Japanese-American or Chinese-American, let's say Chinese-American ballet dancer. Satya Robyn, who then went and studied— having studied ballet and reached a very high level, went to study tai chi. And these talks, well, the feel is very different. It's about this deep listening to your own body. And expressing the movement that is almost already beginning. So he sort of suggests some things to people as they're warming up, different ways of moving the body to kind of get them used to the different ways that your arms and legs and hips and various joints can move. But then they're transitioning into something that is just about their particular body in that particular space. Now I've done that kind of workshop and it has its own beauty. Everybody is different in the space and they— and sometimes people really are tuned into their, their bodies and there is a real sensitivity to the movement. Years ago I remember speaking about a form of dance therapy that a friend of mine did, and she described supporting the clients to, to find that smallest of movements and learn how to express it in a larger way, learning how to express themselves, their emotions through their bodies. And there is a release in that kind of movement.. And in the first kind of practice, the formal practice where everything is very prescribed, and something about that reminds me of traditional Japanese Buddhist training where you light the incense in this way and you make the offering, other offerings in this way, and you sit exactly in this position and you move through the shrine room in this way and so on, and you eat you eat your food in this way and you wash your bowl in that way, and this is how you do the cleaning. Everybody's doing it in the same way. Those traditional forms can also evoke a certain sort of feeling and spirit. When I was working with community theatre and in my, my drama degree, there's kind of two ways of evoking a performance from an actor. One is to invite them to listen to their emotions and to kind of really feel what the character is feeling, and naturally when they do that, some expression moves across their face and their body changes shape. And the other is to suggest a physical shape for them to put their body in. And when we put our body in a particular shape, it evokes a particular feeling. This kind of mirrors these two styles of teaching. But this isn't a talk about tai chi, it's a Buddhist practice session. And both of these styles are present in Buddhism. You go to, you know, like I described, the Japanese monastery, you get that kind of style. You go to maybe a Shambhala class and the cushions are all scattered in different places on the floor, very different feeling. And both have some merit to them. The end point should be the same for pure Buddhists, that we find a genuine connection with the Buddha. And we might do this by copying what the old masters did, saying 40,000 to 60,000 Nembutsu a day, as Honen suggested. Well, that worked for Honen, so I am going to do that. Well, the Buddha did lots of meditation, so I will do lots of meditation. And there's a real validity in that. When we follow the forms of the old masters, sometimes we catch what they caught. But I think it's really important to know that I am not Honen, I'm not Shakyamuni Buddha, I'm looking for my relationship with the Buddha, and I might get a taste of that by doing what they did, but the exact form my practice takes will be a bit different because I'm a bit different, and the experience of the Buddha that I have will be different because I'm a bit different. And the leading edge of Curiosity, the leading edge of my practice, should be this question: What takes me closer to the Buddha? Or what takes me further away from the Buddha? It's easy to ask other questions. How can I look like the best trainee? How can I look like some of these old masters? And along the way, by doing that, you might get a taste of the real thing. But if we keep coming back to this question, how do I get closer to the Buddha? Eventually we start to get closer to the Buddha. Namaste. So just, I'll say welcome to Becky, nice to see you. And now we'll go into a period of quiet meditation together.

Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Ame taba. Ame taba. Ame taba. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Ami. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha.

For refuge I go to Amitābha. Namo Amitābha. For refuge I go to the Buddha. For refuge I go to Buddha . For refuge I go to Dharma . Nam-myoho-dhamaya . For refuge I go to Sangha . 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 , I pray that I may not steal— but I will not steal— with faith in the three jewels! —With Faith In The 3 Jewels, I pray that I may not fall into sexual misconduct— I pray that I might have fallen to sexual misconduct— with faith in the three jewels! —With Faith In The Three Jewels, I pray that I may not fall into wrong speaking— 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. Inimical sentient beings, we vow to save them all. Inexhaustible are the Buddha's 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. Please.

Namoh Amida. Namoh Amida. Namoh Amida. Namoh Amida. Namoh Amitabh. Namoh Amitabh. Namoh Amitabh. Namahamiya. Namahamiya. Namahamiya. Namahamiya. Namoha mi tabu. Namoha mi tabu. Namoha mi tabu. Namoha mi tabu.

Sew back to each other. Bow to our seats and do a mute so that we can recite the closing verse together. I'll make sure there's some volume on here so we can hear you. Blessed by Amitābha's light, may we care for all living things and the holy earth. Namamitabhu. Thank you, everybody. Namamitabhu. Namamitabhu. I'm going to skip away.

That's fine.

See you later.