This content was created by Satya Robyn. This content was uploaded by Satya Robyn. This is a YouTube video titled "Practice - listening to our ancestors" (published/recorded 2021-10-09) containing an English-language Buddhist practice session. The excerpt features a dharma talk delivered by the session leader (identified in the dialogue as Kasparita) reflecting on intuition, a deceased friend (Sundari), and the Pure Land, followed by group ritual practice: offering incense, extended chanting of "Om Amitabha Hum," recitation of the refuges and precepts, and bodhisattva vows. Participants mentioned include Val, Tony, Dave, Casper, Philip and Paul, with multiple speakers taking part in call-and-response practice.
Chapters
Good morning, lovely to see you both here.
We've got Val and Tony in China with Dave and Casper and me, and joining us on Zoom we have Philip who we'll see in real life next weekend, and Paul. So lovely to see both. I will hand over to Kasparita.
Thank you. Good morning, everybody. You know, I've got two things, two different Dharma talks in my mind, and one is fairly conventional and the other is a bit more mysterious and mystical. And the rational parts of my brain don't want me to deliver that one. But that's all I'm going to do. And maybe I'll weave in a bit of the other one if it feels right. Yeah, it's also quite moving for me. I was thinking about our friend Sundari. This morning who died earlier this year, and wondering how her partner was doing. Her widow, I suppose. So when I came in the shrine room this morning, I offered some incense to the ancestor shrine with her in mind and made a prayer. And the prayer that we often make for people who have died in Buddhism is that they— whatever it is of their personality that goes on after death, we make a prayer that it's reborn in the Pure Land. And some Buddhist traditions have the idea that that can be a process that takes time. You know, you go through various different realms before finding landing in a particular place. And this is why they, um, they continue to make prayers often for 40, 49 days, I think, 48 or 49 days after the person's died, just to really keep encouraging them to the right place in case they haven't settled yet. And as I was offering the stick of incense this morning and making that prayer, I had such a deep intuitive sense of, oh, you don't need to worry about that because she's definitely in the Pure Land. And it wasn't a— it wasn't really a thought, it wasn't a bit of my mind. That wanted to comfort me, or it wasn't something that was worked out or rational. It felt like it was coming from, from a much more, a deeper and a place of connection with something beyond my usual knowledge, beyond our usual ways of knowing things. And it reminded me of many years ago, one of the first funerals that I helped to arrange and lead for a lady that I'd been visiting in hospital. I don't usually use the term lady, but she had that quality. To her as an elderly Chinese woman. And there was something of that sort of, uh, yeah, quality. And we, um, we, we did chanting for her. She didn't speak much English. Occasionally we did chanting for her when she was asleep, and sometimes when she wasn't conscious. And even in those times, you could see the, the kind of heart rate monitor— the heart would slow down and the kind of agitate— this, the, the agitation, the system would slow down, settle down as we were there chanting. So something was being transmitted in those times. And then on the day of the funeral, the casket came into the— their coffin came into the shrine room, and we did all the prayers and go to the Pure Land, go into the light. We went to the graveside with the family, and maybe a week or so later I went to visit the grave, and I had such a strong sense of, oh, she's not here. And again, it wasn't like— it wasn't my rational brain saying, oh, it's just remains, blah blah blah. It wasn't anything calculated, or it wasn't coming from my head in any way. It was just this kind of deep gut sense or heart sense, this, this kind of gift of a different way of knowing, oh, she's not here, she's already moved on to the next stage of her journey, she's not hanging around to see what's happening. There's lots of different ways of making sense of those experiences. And certainly when I was at my most atheist and kind of scientific materialist, I would have explained them away. But there's a kind of profound quality that they had that I don't want to explain away. And of course, a part of me is wary of that kind of knowing because it can be, uh, knowingly or unknowingly faked, created, and then misused in all sorts of ways. But my sense is when I really slow down and, and the ordinary froth of my mind settles and dissipates, occasionally something appears that feels like this gift of intuition or knowledge. That wasn't created by me. It's not spoken about in Buddhism very much, although I have heard very occasionally other Buddhist teachers speak about it. This sense that the more and more you practice, the more likely you are to receive these gifts from the Buddha. And I think for me, because they don't come with kind of flashing lights or trumpets blaring, it's, it's kind of easy to dismiss the profundity of them, but they are, yeah, they are important pieces of my spiritual life. Often there's a sort of lesson in a dharma talk, and I try and sum it up at the end, and there isn't really There's no particular moral or lesson or teaching here, just something perhaps to take away and fold into your own spiritual practices as, uh, as feels appropriate. No one needs to be— so we have some time meditating together.
Om Amitabha Hum. Om Amitabha Hum. Om Amitabha Hum. Om Amitabhahum. Om Amitabhahum. Om Amitabhahum. Om Amitabha. Om Amitabha. Om Amitabhahum. Om Amitabhahum. Om Amitabhahum. Om Ami Tabahu. Om Ami Tabahu. Om Ami Tabahu. Om Amitabha. Om Amitabha. Om Amitabha Om. Om Amitabha Om. Om Amitabha Om. Om Ami Tabahom. Om Ami Tabahom. Om Ami Tabahom. Om Ami Tabaho. Om Ami Tabaho. Om Amitabha Om. Om Amitabha Om. Om Amitabha Om. Om Amitabha. Om Amitabha. Om Amitabha. Om Ami Tabaho. Om Ami Tabaho. Om Ami Tabaho. Oh, Mari Tabam. Oh, Wami Tabam.
Oh, Mami.
Om Amitabha. Om Amitabha. Om Amitabha. Om Amitabha. Om Ami Tabahum. Om Ami Tabahum.
Now we will recite the refuges and precepts and bodhisattva vows, if you want. To read there on the piece of paper, but the refuges and precepts we'll do as call, repeat after me, and the bodhisattva vows are call and response. 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 Dhamma. For refuge I go to the Sangha. Namo Sangha. 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.
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. 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 vow.
We vow to fulfill it completely.
In gratitude, we offer this incense to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space and time. May its fragrance preserve herself. Reflecting our careful efforts, our wholehearted awareness, and the fruits of understanding slowly ripening. May we be companions of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. May we awaken from forgetfulness and realize our true nature. So we finish with the closing verse, which is on the top of one of the pages, one of the sides of the page. Blessed. Do unmute if you're on Zoom and want to join in. Blessed by Amitābha's light, may we care for all living things and the holy area. Namāmītabhū. Thank you, everybody.
