Sam shares how preparing a sister's new house became a spiritual practice. By reframing ordinary chores as sacred work, he found joy in the labor itself. The session includes guided sitting, chanting, and recitation with the Buddhist practice group.
Chapters
Good morning everybody. We're blessed to have two ex-housemates in the room today. In real life, welcome on Zoom. And welcome if it's your first time, or your second time, or your 100th time, everyone in between. A very warm welcome to lovely Beth and lovely Matt on Zoom. And we will begin with a Dharma glimpse from Sam. So a Dharma glimpse is just a little story from our everyday life where we notice something different that kind of brings us some new wisdom. So I will hand over.
My sister— and this is a Dharma by me. Did you say that already? My sister has just bought a new house with her partner, and I'm going to be moving in with them. They do not need to move out of the old place for another couple of weeks. The house has been left in a poor state, and lots of cleaning and fixing things needs to be done before the house is fit for moving into. The task has fallen primarily to me. Since I do not work during the summer. It is my turn to write a Dharma glimpse, but I think to myself, I do not feel very Dharma-y. This job is frustrating. There is so much to do and so little time, and the heat wave makes it much less pleasant. I find myself eager to have the work be done and taking no pleasure in completing tasks, and it is difficult at times to feel motivated. Is there a way to change this? I realize that part of what makes me feel this way is that I'm thinking of the task as simply something I have to do, and I do not have clearly in mind the benefits. The work may seem more meaningful if I can visualize living happily in the house afterwards. That's a motivation to get me going. That will still make me want to rush towards the end goal and take no pleasure in the work itself. To find more joy in the work itself, can I think of it as a sacred activity, like cleaning the body of the Buddha? I can try. Namah Amida Buddha.
Namaste.
So we will sit quietly together for a little while. Some of us have just come in from walking in the temple garden, so hopefully you can feel some of the aura of, uh, trees and grass and sky in the room. And as we sit together Just imagine yourself sitting with the Buddha. And when I say imagine, um, my, my immediate thought is you don't have to imagine it because there they are. We are sitting with the Buddha. And of course, this is just a statue, but the statues of the Buddha all stand in for something real, or something that some of us in this room have had a taste of, whether or not we call it Buddha. We might call it the universe, or love. So when I ask you to sit with the Buddha, we're just bringing ourselves into relationship with that whatever it is that is everywhere, if only we look in the right direction or open our eyes or open our heart. So we'll sit quietly for 10-15 minutes and then we'll start chanting together. Once you get the words and the tune, do join in.
Namaste. The phrase that we will now chant together is Om Amideva Hare. It's on your bit of paper if you want to see it written down.
Om Amideva Hare. And the words mean that we call out to this perfect love and ask to receive the blessings of this love. So do join in when you get the idea.
Om Nami Devi. Om Nami Devi.
Om Nami Deva.
Breathe.
Om Amidevare. Om Amidevare. Om Amideva.
So now we'll recite the refuges and precepts together, which are on your bit of paper, but it's repeat after me, so don't worry about it if you just want to listen. For refuge I go to the Buddha.
For refuge I go to the Buddha.
The one who is awake and full of love.
Who are always 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 compassion.
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 Buddha's light—
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. 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.
I pray that I may not fall into sexual misconduct—
With faith in the Three Jewels!
—With Faith In The Three Jewels!
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!
No blame for my mistakes—
no Blame For My Mistakes! 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 way. We vow to fulfill it completely.
At the moment I am holding a study group on Takamaru Shigaraki's book Heart of the Shin Buddhist Path. I think that's what it's called, something like that. And in the chapter we're just studying, he speaks about three kinds of, um, faith or trusting. And he says that the first two are what, what's kind of commonly mistaken for the Buddhist, the Buddhist faith that he goes on to speak about. And they are secular belief And secular belief is where we only believe in something so far as we have experience of it and can trust it. Um, so it's based on a kind of a real, uh, input, tangible input from the world, and then we either believe something or we don't. And the second is religious faith. Where we are asked to believe in, uh, supernatural being or some kind of, um, ineffable something without any evidence at all. And he says he doesn't think that either of these are what's meant by awakening in the Buddhist practice that we do here. The word is shinjin, and he says that shinjin is an experience of something. And he talks about the experience as including a kind of knowing, a sort of a wisdom and joy. And I'm aware as I'm talking about these things that they are almost impossible to talk about, but I'm trying anyway. And what I like about what he says is that what we're doing as we come together here in this shrine room is opening ourselves up to an experience of perfect love. And that we know when we're kind of moving in the right direction, not because we just do what we're told to do or that we build up evidence, but that we experience something. And we might just have a tiny little glimpse of that, or it might be a little bit more sustained, but it involves a knowing and joy. And I especially want to speak up for joy this morning. Um, the chant that we chanted today always brings me joy. It was gifted to me by a Buddhist friend from another tradition, and so I always think about her when I chant it, and I think it's very beautiful melody. Walking around the garden this morning brought me joy, and the fact that you are all here brings me joy. Of all the things you could be doing on a Saturday morning with the sun out, you've chosen to be here. It's still stuns me, really. Some people have even driven all the way from Morecambe. Morecambe on the train. And maybe we lose sight of joy sometimes when we think about doing spiritual practice. Often people come to spiritual practice because they're struggling with their suffering or they don't have any meaning, enough meaning in their lives, or there's something— often the thing that sort of prods us here is a bit of pain. So it feels really important to really relish those moments of joy that we receive and know that they are what we're aiming for. If we're feeling some joy in our practice, that's a very good sign. And I, when I read the chapter by Shigeraki, I kind of think that, that all three of the, the things that he's described have a place. I think that there is something important about bringing our skeptical parts with us when we enter into spaces like this and just, you know, keeping one eye on whether we agree with what's being said or not, or how how we're being taught or what, what happens in the group. It's really helpful to, to stay aware of, of, um, of those kind of real practical things. And I also, I'm a big fan of the kind of the religious faith that he speaks of, where we just, we just trust. We don't really know why, but we just lean into something without having very much evidence of anything at all. Um, and it's all a bit mysterious anyway. How do we, how do we get there? How do we know when we're there? There's lots of questions. I still have questions 15, 20 years on. And maybe we can have some joy in that too, that, that it's always unfolding and we can just not really know, but there's enough here to just keep us coming back for more. Namomi to be. So we'll now do prostrations to the shrine, and if your body is willing for you to copy what we're doing, then please copy us. The chant that we use is Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, so don't worry about doing that at the same time if you haven't done them before.
And that's it.
Namoh Amida Bu. Namoh Amida Bu. Namoh Amida Bu. Namoh Amida Bu.
We dedicate the merits of this incense offering to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Throughout space and time. May it be fragrant as Earth herself, reflecting our careful efforts, our wholehearted awareness, and the fruit of understanding slowly ripening. May we and all beings be companions of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. May we awaken from forgetfulness and realize our true home.
So we always finish by bowing to the people on either side of us. So I will begin by bowing to Caspar, and Sam will bow to Keima, and then turn around and do the opposite.
Beautiful.
And then we bow to the Buddha, and then we tidy our seats and bow to our seats. And then we'll finish with the closing verse, which is on your bit of paper. Blessed by Anatharva's light, may we care for all living things and the mother earth. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Short announcement: next Saturday— can you believe it is September? No. Oh, isn't it? It is.
I can't believe it though.
It is September next Saturday, which means we have our retreat day, um, which is a kind of a drop-in and out thing. You can either come to the whole thing or bits.
We do practice and then we have a dharma talk, and then we go and sit in town with Extinction Rebellion for an hour, and then we, in the afternoon, we do a nice slow walk on the hills and finish with a circle. So you'd all be very welcome to come.
Um, maybe that's it actually for now. Um, donation bowl in the hallway. Toilet at the top of the stairs. Stay for a cup of tea if you are free.
If anyone wants to come and say hello to Matt or Beth, then do come now.
And me too.
