Buddhist group practice led by Satya Robyn with a Dharma talk on autumn and activism. Beth reflects on seasonal cleansing while the facilitator shares their experience at an Extinction Rebellion protest in London, exploring how activism connects to spiritual practice.
Chapters
Ah, good morning. Lovely to see Kema, Dave, Luna, Angie, and Izzy in the shrine room, and Matt and Philip on Zoom. Um, and this morning We will start with a Dharma glimpse by Beth on, uh, I think it's about hay fever, but I can't quite remember. But over to Izzy.
Am I meant to be?
Autumn cleansing. Today I sneezed 3 times in a row and I knew it had begun. I had not long returned from a walk in the woods with the daisies, kicking fallen leaves, examining strange and bizarre fungi, and generally feeling the wildlife and landscape slowly closing down. More leaves below than up above, acorn shells free of their nuts, squirreled away somewhere secret, and the smell of decaying matter being laid down, ready in preparation for next year's beginnings. I sneezed 3 times more, 3 more times, and my eyes smarted with the coming of the spore release. The twitching of the nose, the itching of the ears, and feelings of tiny particles of damp migrating furry things on my body. Ugh, it all felt unpleasant. But this is life at its most incredible and most bizarre. Some truly magnificent creatures and plants are playing out their wondrous acts. Ugly, bizarre, stinky, and pretty, incredulously complicated sights to behold. Why is it that spring is seen as the bearing of beautiful things while autumn delivers hideous, unforsaken sights? Autumn is amazing and so enriching and enticing, a perfect example of bewitching and beguiling, tricking us, scaring us, and propelling us into the path of death and decay. Autumn is about preparing, looking ahead, and closing down for some dying. So I'm experiencing an autumn cleanse, and I should be used to it by now. I kind of embraced the thought of a cle— of a general cleansing of the body, ridding itself of all the pollen and summer clutter accumulated through the warm seasons. But actually, I could face this unpleasant reality far better if I too could snuggle down into a fern-lined hidey hole with spagnum, spagnum moss pillows to rest my head upon, with hazelnuts and chestnuts to munch on until spring's release arrives again.
Namow Amidabu.
So maybe in our silence this morning, you might want to inhabit Beth's hidey hole in the woods with some moss as a pillow. Um, or you might want to be elsewhere in nature, wherever you feel called to this morning. I might just imagine myself sitting in that little patch, hidden patch in the bamboo that Angie told me about down in the garden. Um, everything glistening with the rain around. Um, and see if the Buddha would like to join you there and offer you some blessings. Namaste.
Om bekenje, bekenje, maha bekenje, ratsa samurtate.
Satya Robyn, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, rat, samut, kati, soha. Satya Robyn, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, rat, samut, kati, Thaiyatha Om Bekken Je, Bekken Je, Maha Bekken Je, Ratsasammutkathesuha. Thaiyatha Om Bekken Je, Bekken Je, Maha Bekken Je, Ratsasammutkathesuha.
For refuge I go to the Buddha.
For refuge I go to the Buddha.
The one who is awake and full of love.
The one who is awake and full of love.
Namo Buddha.
Namo Buddha.
For refuge I go to the Dharma.
For refuge I go to the Dharma.
All that guides us to wisdom and compassion.
All that guides us to wisdom and passion.
Namo Dharmaya.
Namo Dharmaya.
For refuge I go to the Sangha.
For refuge I go to the Sangha.
Those who live in the Buddha's light.
Those who live in the Buddha's light.
Namo Sangaya.
Namo Sangaya.
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.
Faith in the Three Jewels.
With faith in 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 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.
No blame.
No blame.
Be kind.
Be kind.
Love everything.
Love everything. Innumerable sentient beings, we vow to save them all. In exhaustible 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.
Namaste. So yesterday I went to London with Extinction Rebellion Buddhists and locals and Christians and all the others. And that's where Casper is today. And, um, there were a couple of thousand of us, I think, and we sat outside Downing Street for 5 or 6 hours. Um, and, uh, if I wasn't telling you this, you probably wouldn't know because it wasn't in any of the papers. We were completely upstaged by JSO and a tin of soup that was thrown over the sunflowers, Van Gogh's sunflowers. And of course, upstaged is the wrong word because the message that they had is the same message that, that, that we have, which is that we need to just stop oil and, um, all the other things. Um, but it, it kind of caused me to reflect on, um, how it would be to know that, um, that what I was do— that what I did yesterday, or what everybody did yesterday, had no effect. And I guess there's maybe 3 levels of effect that are possible with activism. One is that the protests, uh, definitely lead to change in the world. So so that there is a, a kind of a clear correlation between, um, protests and laws changing, or, um, public opinion changing, or governments and corporations changing. Um, and the second is a more sort of metaphysical kind of effect that the idea that if we put love into the world, that that love is never lost. We might not know where it's going or what it's doing, but it's kind of, it's out there. And there's something tangible about that. There's something real about the sort of the input of protest equals the output of sort of some kind of good change, and we don't know when or how, but we can trust it. And then the third possibility is that it, it really doesn't make any difference at all, literally nothing, that, that, that a few people see and, and give it a passing thought, or the police have to— you know, there were hardly any police there yesterday. They've really got clever at policing us. There were like maybe 10 policemen. I don't know. They were just like, leave them there. They've said they're going home at 6. They'll all go home at 6.
And we did.
Um, and one of the questions I have for myself this morning is, you know, yeah, great if it's level 1 or level 2. Um, how would it be if it really was, uh, if there really was no effect at all from having traveled on the train and taken my sandwiches and gone on the tube and been outside and come home again for everybody times 2,000. Um, and the way I feel right now, because this is so complex and shifting all the time, and we all have to find our own answers to these kinds of questions, but the answer for me right now is I'm really glad I went because I got to— my body was saying something. My body was in a particular place with other bodies and it was saying something. It was expressing something that doesn't have many places to be expressed in my life. And not only that, but as a bonus, because that's how it was to do my vigil in town on my own. As a bonus, there were all these other people who were also there and who were also saying something about what is wrong and what needs to change. And so even if you take away all the nice contact I have with, with people that I know and the time I got to read on the train, which is amazing, a whole 2 and a half hours. Stuck in a seat, not being able to do anything else but read and listen to music. Um, even if you take away the, uh, half hour of chanting the Buddhists did, uh, near the end of the day, which was just beautiful, like samba over there and speeches over there, and just this little circle of, of, uh, of Kuan Yin chanting and Amitabha chanting and even if you take away all of that, it was good to be there. And I think about, um, how, you know, we hear that activism should be a spiritual practice. It should be something that we do not because we want something back, or that we, um, or that it gives us anything, But it's a practice that we can, we can do for its own sake. And sometimes it feels good and sometimes it doesn't. And that's okay. And, and that's what we do here. That's what we're doing in this room. We're, we're turning up because it feels like whatever all of our reasons are, there's something important that our bodies are here right now rather than in bed with a cup of tea or watching morning TV, or in Kema's case, doing a garden, probably. That we are here because there's something we're saying with our bodies. And it's always good to have company. I'm very happy to have you all here. But if you weren't here, I would still be here, just me and the Buddha.
Yeah.
Namu Amida Butsu.
Do you come back to your seats? Do I mute, guys? Bless.
Now, maybe everyone could come and say hello to Philip and Matt because it feels like
