Practice - keeping it simple

Welcome everybody to our Wednesday evening practice session. Welcome to Dave, Philip, Jarno, myself, and Satya physically present in the shrine room, and on Zoom, welcome to Karmadeva, Becky, and Lovely to have you with us this evening. Tonight Satya Robyn will be leading the practice session.

Namomi Dabu. I like how you welcome yourself. So this week I received my second letter from a man in prison in America. Who had found this Buddhist temple online and written to us with some questions about Pure Land Buddhism, and he asked for a printed version of Amitābha, and he said it had to be just a bit on a bit of paper because if it was laminated it would get confiscated, but he really just wanted an image So one of the parts of the job of replying to the letter was finding an image, suitable image, and printing it out. A couple of days ago I painted the bench that we sit on to look out across the valley. I always call it my blue bench because it was blue for many years. I painted it maybe 3 times blue, and then the last time I painted it a few years ago there was no blue paint in the shops, so I had to paint it pale green. It called it olive green, but it definitely wasn't olive green. I continued to call it my blue bench, and now it actually is my blue bench again. So that was quite a satisfying job to just slowly get all the different angles and slats covered. And then today me and Casper went to St. Wilston's, a park near us, and it was hot, and we were walking around the big field, and there's a little stream where the dogs always stop to have a paddle, and I thought I'd like to have a paddle too, so took off my socks and went in the water, which was icy cold. Beautiful. So 3 very simple events where something was required of me from the world: a letter, a bench that was starting to rot where the paint had worn off, a cool stream. And I responded by doing the, the simple thing, and in all three of those cases Because my head was in the right space, I enjoyed them all, especially this dream. They were simple things and they were satisfying and felt somehow complete. I've been doing quite a lot of reading recently, pure— on Pure Land. The history of Pure Land Buddhism and looking at lots of doctrine and history and facts and figures and different views from different teachers. And there's a part of me that quite enjoys that and is interested in all that knowledge and likes to ponder it. And there's also a danger that I start to get bogged down. Complication, because what really attracts me to Pure Land Buddhism is its simplicity. That the only thing that is required is that we say the name of Amitabha, and we don't have to worry about anything else. The idea is that that's accessible to you however however much money you have, however learned you are, whatever work you're doing, however full of virtue or sin you are, but it's the same for everybody. A very simple practice. It's helpful for me to remember this Because when I remember the simplicity of the practice, and what I'm doing is connecting to the Buddha, then all that reading becomes interesting. And maybe skillful means useful at some point for talking to someone who has a particular question, but really a kind of extraness. It's, um, surplus. It's unnecessary. And there's a, there's a joy in that. There's a joy in the immediate relationship with the Buddha's love, with the Buddha's wisdom. That means all that kind of falls away. So we say things at the beginning of each practice session, and we say different things so you don't get bored, hopefully. But all of the things we say are variations on a theme. It's the extra stuff that's not really necessary. Because what we really do when we come into this room is we just relax and let the Buddha's love wash over us. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Aba, ami taba, ami taba. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Ame taba. Ame taba.

Ame. Satya Robyn.

Ba.

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 Dharmaya.

Namo Dharmaya.

For refuge I go to the Sangha.

For refuge I go to the Sangha.

Nammo Sanghaya.

Nammo Sanghaya.

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 take life.

With faith of The Three Jewels—

With Faith In 3 jewels I pray that may not steal—I Pray That May Not Steal—with Faith Of The three jeweled stones—and they think it's really cool—"I prayer this time" "may fall into sexual misconduct"—"I prayed at all night on falling to sexually misconduct." —with Faith And Threep Jewel Stones...

...and them saying "The Tree Jewelry"... "...I praying for me might have fallen wrong speeches"—..."And then say 'May Fall Into Wrong Speeches'!" 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.

Innumerable sentient beings, we vow to save them all. Inexhaustible are the buddhi 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.

So now we will bow to each other and to the Buddha. As soon as people would like to unmute, we will recite the verse together, which will appear in your chat. Blessed by Amitabha's light, may we care for all living things and the holy earth. Namomi debu. It's getting more and more beautiful with the light, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. I'll just show— can I show