Practice - Granny & the Four Noble Truths

Welcome everybody to Wednesday evening practice. We have Chris joining us from Zoom tonight and various people in the shrine room. I will begin by handing over to Casper, who has a Dharma glimpse by our very own Dave Smith to read out on Living in Upton.

Dharma glimpse from Upton by Dave Smith. My partner and I have been living at the Buddhist temple in Malvern for about a year and a half now. It has been our home and our place of refuge. And we've benefited greatly from living at the heart of this wonderful Buddhist community. Several weeks ago, we unexpectedly had to move out to help care for an elderly relative in a neighboring town. At first, this seemed like a wrench and an inconvenience, and I was looking forward to our life returning to how it was before. Now, when I look at our life, I feel thankful for this opportunity to spend time living with Granny. I have had the privilege to witness the love and compassion between her and my partner. There is sometimes a clash of personalities, as Granny is not always the easiest person to live with, but beneath this there is a real tenderness between them. Our lives have changed quite considerably, but when I look out the window, there is still the same sky Still the same sun and moon, and the birds are still singing. Living at the temple taught me about attachment and impermanence. Now I've been given the opportunity to put into practice some of these teachings. Living here, I have a warm, comfortable bed, a shower when I want one, and the companionship of my partner and her granny. It's an easy life. I'm regularly requested to leave the room when some of the more personal care is carried out. I spend this time reading, walking the dog, or contemplating life whilst washing up. My time for Buddhist practice has increased due to the new routines of our situation and these short periods of time when I'm alone. As soon as I stopped craving and longing for what I thought I'd lost or what I perceived I was missing out on, it quickly became apparent that I have everything I need and more. The ever-changing world outside is still there, and my ability to find either peace or suffering is still within me. I'm choosing peace. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

Thank you, Dave. Kate. So we will now move into some silence together, sit together in silence for a little while. As we sit in the silence, you can either just pay attention to your breath as it goes in and out without changing it Or just notice what's going on inside you. And as you notice things, try not to hold on to them, just let them float past you. I once had the description of it's like you're in a room and the leaves are blowing in one side through an open door, just let them blow out the other door. Don't hold on to them. After a while of sitting, we will begin chanting together, and do join in the chanting when you roughly get the tune, and then we'll have a little bit more silence before we move on to something else. Namomi dabu.

Um, meet up. Amitabha. Amitabha.

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Amitabha. Amitabha. Ameetaabha. Ameetaabha. Ameetaabha.

So now we recite some traditional Buddhist words together, and you can just repeat after me. They're also written on your bit of paper. First of all, we recite the refuges. Refuge is central to Buddhism and allows us to lean into something, and we lean into three things, which are the things here on this list: the Buddha, the teachings of the Buddha, and the community of the Buddha. So please repeat after me: For refuge I go to the Buddha.

For refuge I go to the Buddha.

Namo Buddhaya. For refuge I go to the Dharma.

For refuge I go to the Dharma.

Namo Dharmaya.

Namo Dharmaya.

For refuge I go to the Sangha.

For refuge I go to the Sangha.

Namo Sanghaya.

Namo Sanghaya.

So those three are known as the Three Jewels. And next we recite the precepts, which are guidelines for how we might live more ethically. 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 pray that I may not fall into wrong speech.

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. And then my friend Terry's mantra: no blame, be kind, love everything. Love everything. And then we will do call and response for the Bodhisattva vows, which again are ideals that we can point ourselves towards.

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 fulfill it completely.

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

Today somebody asked me what Buddhism was, which I thought was an excellent question. Completely stumped me. But I will maybe talk a little bit this evening about the Four Noble Truths, which is one of the main teachings of the Buddha. And to illustrate it, I'll talk about my friend Angus, who's very much on my mind at the moment. He's also known as Uncle on Hunger Strike, and he's on day 3 today of his hunger strike outside Parliament. And his intention is to continue for as long as it takes. His demand is that the people who— people in government who have power to make decisions and the public have a consultation with someone like Sir Patrick Vallance, who is a member of SAGE and knows a lot about climate science, Boris Johnson met with Patrick Vallance before COP26, and it was seen to be the conversation that shifted him before the meeting and kind of, yeah, helped him to get the gravity of the situation. So it seems like an entirely reasonable demand to me, but we shall see what happens. So yes, he was outside in the rain all day today, had some good conversations, and he's decided to go on this hunger strike because he is an uncle. He has several nephews and nieces who are all in their early teens, and he is terrified for their future. And this is the first noble truth, is that we suffer, that things happen that cause suffering, and that we can't avoid that suffering. That we might try all kinds of different things to get around it or to push it away or to protect ourselves, but there is an inevitability to that suffering. And the second truth is that when we encounter suffering, something happens inside us. We have a reaction to the fact of suffering. And in Angus's case, he has had long periods of feeling despairing, of feeling powerless, of knowing the truth of what's happening and knowing that it will affect his nephews and nieces, but not having any idea about what to do or not having any response, but just the emotion, just the emotion kind of coming up. The third noble truth is that when we encounter suffering and a response comes up in us, we have a choice. We can either be kind of blown around by the response, we can be, um, at the mercy of our response, or we can contain our response in a particular way. And the way I was talking about it earlier with the person that asked me the question is that we can be steady in, in response to our feeling as it comes up. The metaphor that the Buddha used was, um, an earth bank. Nirodha. That's right, isn't it? Nirodha.

Yeah, I don't know if the Buddha explicitly talked about an earth bank, but the root of the word itself also means an earth bank.

Yes.

So even if he didn't draw out the meanings, he hinted at it.

Illusion. Who knows? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the idea is that if you build an earth bank around a fire, rather than the fire kind of dissipating and losing its energy, that energy is contained and focused. And can be used for a good purpose, can be used to cook something. So that when we approach this arising of response from this steady place, we can direct our energy, we can, we can make the choices that are the good choices, and we can go on to follow what the Buddha described as the Eightfold Path. Which includes— you might have heard of it— I won't be able to remember them all, but it includes right understanding, right speech, right livelihood, right meditation. And right isn't the right of kind of right and wrong, but it's more a sense of the good thing to do, the correct thing to do, the appropriate thing to do. And that will be different for all of us. But in Angus's case, for him, the, the right thing to do is to take this hugely drastic action and to do that in a very public way, to, to do something with, with that feeling that he is experiencing in reaction to the suffering. And so as Buddhists, one of the things that we can experiment with is, is noticing this, this cycle in ourselves. Is, is what, what is the suffering? Where is the suffering? What response is coming up in me? How can I steady myself? How can I become more solid and less blown around? And then what might I want to do with the energy that has come up in me? And we can either approach it in a kind of a 'I must try harder' way— sometimes that works. But we can also notice that when we are just feeling more settled or more relaxed, it's more likely that these things will naturally happen in us. They just, they just go that way. So another thing that Buddhism can help us with is getting us into that state of just feeling a little bit more relaxed, a little bit less protected. Or anxious. And that process is quite a mysterious one. It's quite subtle. It works on us gradually. Um, many of the people in this shrine room have been in this shrine room many times before, so there is something that keeps them coming back here. There's something that— there's some process that unfolds when we put ourselves in these places. And that it unfolds over time. And we don't even have to understand it, we just have to kind of know that it's good for us and trust that it's good for us. So thinking of Angus and Thinking of the Buddha, who also did many brave things, whether we might be able to follow the example of the Buddha just a tiny bit. Namu Amida Butsu. So we finish with prostrations in front of the Buddha. So everyone will stand up in a minute and face the Buddha with a bit of floor in front of them. And if you feel able physically and mentally, just copy what everyone else is doing. The words that we will be chanting are Namo Amida Butsu. So there's— it's just another way of becoming more steady, of leaning into something that's steady, in this case the Buddha. And there's also a tune. So it's a bit complicated the first time because there's words, a tune, and body motions. So don't worry if it all goes a bit wrong. But the idea of prostrating is really, it's just a way for us to kind of just let go and relax and trust, take refuge in something that knows better than we do and just not worry so much. And ja mei, I said that Satya Robyn was going to do the water offering. I don't know why I said that because It'll be me, just in case that throws you off. So it threw me off. I'm like, what? Yeah, so it'll be me doing that. Thank you. Namaste.

Namah, namah, namah.

In gratitude, we offer this incense to all monas and bodhisattvas throughout space and time. May it be as fragrant as Earth itself, reflecting our careful efforts, our wholehearted awareness, and the fruits of understanding. So be it. May we and all beings be companions of Buddhas and bodhisattvas. May we awaken from forgetfulness and realize the pure land.

And then we finish by bowing to each other. So I will turn this way and Casper will turn that way, and the rest of you can work out what happens.

Who you bow to first.

That's not helped, has it? So you bow to Angela first and then turn and bow to Dharma. Yep, perfect. And then we bow to the Buddha, tidy our seats, bow to our seats. And then we finish with the closing verse, which is on the bit of paper.

So that's blessed.

Do unmute if you would like to. Blessed by Amma's father's light, may we care for all living things. Namomi Dabu. So some of you can have a cup of tea, and I'm going to say hello to Chris Pancake. No Philip, no.