Satya Robyn leads a guided Buddhist practice session with Christopher reading from Pure Land tradition, group chanting of Amitābha and Nam-myōhō-renge-kyō, and a Dharma talk on giving. The first day of a 2022 retreat includes meditation, the Five Lay Precepts, Bodhisattva vows, and Satya Robyn speaking later on receiving.
Chapters
Good morning everybody, welcome to morning practice. Satya Robyn is asking me something about the door. I just heard the door, but maybe it's not going. Yeah. I closed it properly, so okay. So this, uh, we've got quite a full shrine room this morning as it's the first retreat day of 2022 that we're offering. Uh, Paul's joining us on Zoom. Welcome, Paul. Philip usually joined us on Zoom but is actually in the room today, which is really nice. We'll begin practice with the reading from Christopher, who's a Pure Land minister in Salt Lake City, that he's going to read for us. Let me put the microphone near you. Thank you.
I was never taught how to receive. Were you? Most of us have been taught that it is better to give than to receive. But how can that be, since to give you need to have someone who receives? Proportionately, it just doesn't add up. So truly receiving is something different from taking. There is an inherent humility, there is an openness of heart, an acknowledgement of our interdependence. And an awareness of our dependence on a myriad of things. Receiving is a place of openness and courage, that it implies a vulnerability. We may ask for something in that open space and not get it, yet in realising our lack of control, our inability to fix love, joy, and peace in place by somehow earning them, those very things arise naturally. Everything I receive is a gift, a gift to me, the receiver, and a gift to the giver, an ever-expanding circle of giving where in the end there is no giver, no receiver, and no gift. Christopher kakuyuleibo, Bright Dawn Minister.
So receiving is the theme today, which Satya will speak about later on. But right now we're going to do some quiet sitting together. So just finding a nice position. Jeremy Shan talks about the meditation posture being a dignified position, which I think is a really nice way of describing it— upright and relaxed. Maybe taking a moment just to notice how your body is meeting the earth, the weight of your body on the cushion or the floor. And then invitation to bring awareness to the breath, noticing the cooler air entering at the tip of the nose, noticing the warmer air leaving, noticing how the body changes with the breath. Not trying to breathe in any particular way, just noticing how it is moment to moment. And if, when your attention gets taken by something else, if you notice that, bring awareness back to the breath. In a moment, excuse me, in a moment we'll chant the name of the Buddha Amitābha together for a few minutes. Amitābha, this Buddha here on the shrine next to me, the Buddha of infinite light. What is the light? It is love. Kindness, acceptance, flowing out of the Buddha like water flowing out of the spring on the hills after a heavy rainfall. So as we recite the name, imagining or trusting that there is something in the universe sending that loving energy towards us.
Ari Satya. Ari Satya. Ari Satya. Ari Chawla! Ari Chawla! Aamiin Kaan! Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha.
Amitabha.
We'll now recite the refuges and the Five Lavery Sutras. The refuges are what we're opening our heart to, what we're experimenting with trusting when we start walking the Buddhist path. So they are the Buddha, both the Buddha from 2,500 years ago and awakened teachers that we trust today, the Dharma, the words actions, the teachings of that Buddha. But, but both, as well as such a sense of reality as it is that we can learn from anything around us, from the looking of the right eyes, because the Buddha was simply teaching what's true. And the Sangha, the community of people who have taken those teachings to heart and everything. To practice in their own lives. And then we'll recite the Five Lay Precepts, which are the precepts that were given 2,500 years ago to non-monastic followers of the Buddha. As I said last time, part of the reason we say them is to make that connection with those very early Buddhist practitioners, and also because They point the way to living an ethical lifestyle. So please repeat after me. 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 Dhammaya.
Namo Dhammaya.
For refuge I go to the Sangha.
For refuge I go to the Sangha.
Namo sanghaya.
Namaste.
With faith in the Three Jewels—
with your 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—
with faith in the Three Jewels—
I pray that I may not steal.
I pray that I may not steal.
With faith in the Three Jewels— With faith in the three jewels I pray that I may not fall into sexual misconduct—I pray that I may not fall into sexual misconduct—with faith in the Three Jewels—with faith in the three jewels I pray so it may not fall into wrong speech-I pray this time you're falling to wrong speech-with faith in these rituals—with faith in the Three Jewels I pray that's why my body talks wrongly—and if anyone asks me anything about them all of which I will happen very soon!
pray that I may avoid intoxication.
And now we'll recite a 3-line teaching or summary of the Buddhist path by Terry Keenan, who's a Zen monk over in Ireland. So again, repeating, please repeat after me. No blame. No blame. Be kind.
Be kind.
Love everything.
Love everything.
And finally, Kema will lead us in reciting the Bodhisattva vows, which are call and response. You can find the words on the piece of paper next to you. And yeah, these just express our heartfelt wish to practice deeply and to, to spread the love, I suppose, to give and receive the love. Well, I think looking through the window today is the thing. 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 walk it properly.
So after practice, Satya Robyn is going to speak about receiving. I thought I'd say a few words about giving. Hopefully that will be complementary and not contradict anything or even repeat anything. I can't repeat anything because I'm speaking before you, but I don't know what you're going to say. The Buddha's mind or spirit is naturally giving. The enlightened heart, the enlightened mind is naturally giving. The word for mind and heart in Sanskrit is the same actually, chitta. So it's these two things together, thoughts and feelings that move us. And what is the difference between the heart-mind of the Buddha and the heart-mind of an ordinary person when they're giving? The Buddha has no agenda apart from wanting the best for everybody. So a Buddha wants what's best for everybody but doesn't know what that looks like, holds any expectations around that, likes— whereas when we give from our ordinary minds, we often do have some expectation, even if it's as simple as I hope this person likes it because then maybe they'll like me a bit more. Or I hope I get to play with this toy that I bought for my nephew later. Or I hope somebody notices when I'm making this charitable donation. Or I feel guilty because I had an argument earlier. So now I'm going to buy some flowers, and I hope that makes up for it. I definitely have done that. And what happens is, we're, as human beings, we're pretty, we can be pretty sensitive, not always consciously, but to those agendas, and it affects how we do the receiving. When you're little, someone buys you, you know, an aunt or something, somebody or a family friend buys you a jumper or a pair of socks at Christmas time, and it doesn't really, you know, really you were hoping for a toy, or it's got something on the jumper that you don't like, but you can see they really want you to like it, and of course that has an impact. You sort of— you perform for them, and then maybe you feel the disappointment of it more keenly later on because you've kind of been sensitive to their wanting you, kind of desperation to like, to like it in giving it to you. It makes life more complicated. When we're helping people, it's, it's the same. We can help from a place of, I'm offering this and I don't mind how you take it and kind of what you make of it, as long as it's working for you. Or we can help off, I know exactly what's best for you and this is what you should do and this is how you're going to do it. If you don't do it, I'm going to be a bit disturbed by that because this offer of help is about making me feel better or safer. I want to help you because it disturbs me the way you're being at the moment. So that's about my needs, not about your needs. And if you're receiving help like that, that can be a bit discombobulating. And not only that, actually it can make things worse. We can end up digging our heels into our bad habits even more, certainly. I can do that if somebody approaches me in that way. So the Buddha offers help and teachings and gifts without any agenda. And we can make a practice of that in our own lives. When the impulse to be kind comes up, or to give, or to offer help, taking a moment to check, oh, have I got— is there anything about me mixed up in this? Have I got some agenda that I haven't noticed. Just asking that to step back for a moment as we make the offering, as we do the giving, trusting that actually when we come from that place of not wanting anything, what we offer is more likely to be received, is more likely to be useful. It's more likely to flower in some way. We don't always know what the flower will be, but we're giving— when we offer without asking for anything in return, we're giving our offering the best chance in life. And I guess that's what Christopher means when he says the giver disappears, because the parts of us that want something disappear. And all that's left is the act of passing something on, the act of loving another person. And when we really give from that place, it tends to connect with the place in the other person that is also selfless. It, it is more likely to bring that to the surface. So when we're giving in that way, we're not just offering the help that we're offering, we're not just giving the gift that we're giving, we're also passing on a little bit of enlightenment, we're passing on a little bit of the Dharma, because some connection is made between our own loving heart and the loving heart of the person in front of us. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. In a moment, Kengo will ring the bell. We'll do some prostrations facing the main shrine. Please join us in bowing as much as your body, your mind allows you to, and we will chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo which is just another, another form of the chant we did earlier, calling out the Buddha of Infinite Light.
Namoh Amida Butsu. Namoh Amida Butsu. Namoh Amida Butsu. Namoh Amida Butsu.
We dedicate the merits of this incense offering to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space and time. May it be fragrant as Earth herself, reflecting our careful efforts, our wholehearted awareness, and the fruit of understanding slowly ripening. May we and all beings be companions of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. May awaken— we awaken from forgetfulness and realize our true home. So we'll now pass each other. In a moment we'll finish with the closing verse, which is on the piece of paper, but I'll just tell you that Satya Robyn will be in here at half past 10, so there's time to get a cup of tea before moving on. Whatever you'd like to do.
