Practice - my bedroom carpet

Welcome everybody. I have to introduce myself this evening because Casper's running a meeting for Eco Dharma about Buddhist Action Month. In the Shrine Room we have Dave, Philip, and Jahmei, and from elsewhere we have Chris, Beth, Becky, Andrew, and Claire, so welcome everyone. I'm still really blurry, I don't know why, sorry for the blur. I wanted to talk to you this evening about my bedroom carpet. Which is currently in a state of unhooveredness, and I've been thinking, not at length today, about how certain jobs take on a real weight in my mind, that all kinds of resistance builds up around them. And hoovering the bedroom is one of those jobs for me. And I know that there are various reasons for that, that cleaning is not something I enjoy, that I have had a history of, of kind of not feeling like I'm very good at it, so I feel there's something there about not feeling like it's in my comfort zone. Whatever the reasons, there's a kind of a disproportionate barrier between me and the bedroom hoovering, and I know that when I do the bedroom hoovering, it will probably take 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and I'll be really happy to have done it, and it'll all be over until the next time I put it off and put it off until it gets really disgusting. And I'm really offering my lack of bedroom hoovering as an example of how human beings work, and I'm hoping that You probably are much better at hearing the bedroom than me, but there may be other things that you are thinking of right now that you can, you can identify with that sense of you kind of know it's not going to be a difficult task, but it just feels big and it takes up space and you avoid it and you're very relieved when you've done it and then it kind of gets to be a big deal again almost immediately. I think that when I started out in spiritual practice, I had this idea that if I did enough spiritual practice or if I did enough therapy, that I would completely erase those kinds of things from happening in my life, that I would become the kind of person that just did whatever needed to be done without a second thought and without any, anything extra, any distractions or fears or whatever it is. And now that I'm 46 and I've been doing spiritual practice and therapy and 12 steps and all sorts of other things for quite a long time now, I'm beginning to realize that, that that's probably not the way it works, and that I may get better at doing the hoovering in the bedroom I may get worse, I might stay about the same, and the same is true for all sorts of other things in my life that I avoid or that I find difficult or that I have phobias around or that I don't even know that I have a problem with because I just don't go anywhere near it. All the time there's this process of healing in some areas and, and learning and improving, and in other areas there's a kind of a stagnating or deteriorating. I often think about the garden when I think about metaphors. I often go to growing things as a metaphor, and I'm thinking about the garden here, that over time it has developed and there are some nice things in it that we put in it and we've taken out some things that weren't looking so good, and there have been some kind of major projects of improvement, and there are also areas that have maybe not looking as tidy as they were last year or the year before, that there's this constant process of things growing and dying, of us doing work in places and not managing to do work in other places. So one of the things I really like about the idea of the Nembutsu is that it kind of acknowledges all of that. It takes that all into account and reminds us that The parts of us that we're proud of and the parts of us we're not so proud of are all seen and acknowledged and cared for by the Buddha. That the Buddha sees my dirty bedroom carpet and smiles fondly. Because the Buddha knows why my brain does what it does around that thing and all the other things, that there's no need for me to change in order to be cared for. And that is really difficult for me to I believe there's no need for me to change in order to be cared for. So as we sit and practice together this evening, you might want to hold something similar to those words in your mind. How would it be to imagine that, yes, it's great to make efforts towards changing the bits of us that are looking untidy or unkind, but the Buddha doesn't need us to do that in order for us to be accepted right now, in order for us to be cherished right now. How would it be to really imagine that that were possible? Namomidebe.

Namokwanshi in Bursa. Namokwanshi in Inbosa. Namokwanji inbosa. Namokwanji inbosa. Namokwanji inbosa. Namokwanji in Bosha. Namokwanji in Bosha. Namokwanji in Bosha. Namokwan shi embosa. Namokwan shi embosa. Namokwan shi embosa. Satya Robyn. Namokwan Shri Inbosa. Namokwan Shri Inbosa. Namokwan Shri Inbosa. Namo Kwan Chi Ngo Sat. Namo Kwan Chi Ngo Sat. Namo Kwan Chi Ngo Sat. Namokwan Shri Imbosa. Namokwan Shri Imbosa. Namokwan Shri Imbosa. Namokwan shi in bo sa. Namokwan shi in bo sa. Namokwan shi in bo sa. Namokwanji in Bosa. Namokwanji in Bosa. Namokwanji in Bosa. In Bosa. Namokwan Shi in Bosa. Namokwan Shi in Bosa. Namokwan Shi in Bosa. Namokwanji in Bosa. Namokwanji in Bosa. Namokwanji in Bosa. Namokwan shi en bosai. Namokwan shi en bosai. Namokwan shi en bosai. Namokwanji in Bosa. Namokwanji in Bosa. Namokwanji in Bosa. Namoh Kwan Chi in Bosa. Namoh Kwan Chi in Bosa. Namoh Kwan Chi in Bosa. Namoh Huan Chi in Bosa. Namoh Huan Chi in Bosa. Namoh Huan Chi in Bosa. Namoh Shivayin Bosa. Namoh Shivayin Bosa. Namoh Shivayin Bosa. Namokwanshi mbosa. Namokwanshi mbosa. Namokwanshi.

For refuge I go to Buddha .

For refuge I go to Dharma , Namo Buddhaya!

For refuge I go to the Dharma—

for refuge goes through Dharmāyāna?

Namah Darmaiyya!

Namo Dharmaya—

for refuge I go to the Sangha— Namo Sanghaya— With faith in the Three Jewels I pray that I may not take life!

—I pray that I might 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— With faith of three jewels—I pray that I may not fall into sexual misconduct. And praying this time they're now falling to sexual misconduct—with faith in the Three Jewels—the Faithful Three Jewels—I pray that I may not fall into wrong speech. Pray for something—not fallen so long since—with faith in the Three Jewels, facing the 3 Jews. I pray that I may avoid intoxication.

I pray that I may avoid intoxication. Innumerable are sentient beings.

We vow to save them all.

Inexhaustible are deluded passions.

We vow to transform them all.

Ineasurable are the Dharma teachings.

We vow to master them all. Infinite is the Buddha's way. We vow to fulfill it completely.

Aloha, Mia. Namor, Mia. Namor, Mia.

Namor, Mia. Namor.

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. If people would like to unmute, and we'll say the closing verse together. Just unmute so I can Blessed by Amitabha's light, may we care for all living things. Nice to hear your voice, Claire. I realize I haven't got the lights on in here, so I've gone really dark. Doesn't really matter, does it? You don't need to see me.