This content was created by Satya Robyn. This content was uploaded by Satya Robyn. This is a YouTube recording titled "Practice: Presence of the Buddha" (recorded 2023-01-18) of a group Buddhist practice session. Multiple participants (labelled SPEAKER A–E, with individuals named such as Katie Cove, Leon, Beth and Angie mentioned) conduct readings and a 'dharma glimpse', lead chanting and refuge/practice recitations, guide a brief meditation, and include a spoken dharma reflection on leadership, miraculous imagery in sutras, and the felt presence of Buddhas/bodhisattvas. The excerpt also contains ritual dedication of merits, logistical announcements about community maintenance and rota sign-ups, and moments of informal interaction.
Chapters
Welcome everybody. Hi Beth, joining us on Zoom. We'll start with a glimpse that Katie has sent in, kindly being read this evening by Leon.
Dharma glimpse by Katie Cove. What is leadership? As I sit at my desk before the working day begins and look at the Buddha which guides me through each day, I wonder what challenges I will face. There's a new journey and pathway in my life is being built. I find myself managing a very busy and large nursery in Cheltenham. I question what leadership means.
Power?
Authority? Anger? Wealth? No, leadership means compassion, listening, understanding, role modeling, and keeping others safe. A leader guides us in the right directions, keeps us safe, and makes everyone feel valued and part of a team. This is how the Buddha guides me to be a strong leader, to have strength and belief in myself and those around me. At the end of my working day, a little 4-year-old always pops into the office full of awe and wonder at the Buddha on my desk, and each evening we have a little chat about the Buddha and what it means to me. The little boy opens his hand, into which I place the Buddha film to touch and hold. His eyes open wide. He looks at me and smiles. As Buddhists, we are all leaders. Namu Amida Butsu.
So an invitation to anchor your awareness on the breath if that's helpful, and anything that takes your attention away, noticing what it is. Oh, hello sadness. Hello worry. Hello thought about my day tomorrow. Before returning awareness to the breath.
Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amita, Amita, Amita. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. A mi sa ba. A mi sa ba. A mi sa ba. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh.
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 Buddhaya. Namo Buddhaya. 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 Dhamma. Namo Dhamma. 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 Sangha.
Namo Sangha.
With faith in the Three Jewels.
With faith in The Three Jewels—
I pray that may not take life . With Faith In 3 jewels... ...i pray that i may steal! ....wi faith inn three jwuls? ......I pray time fall into sexual misconduct?!
.....mi praai thaas thai mai nought foal inta sexshool miscondakt!?
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. No blame, be kind, Love everything. Innumerable sentient beings, we vow to save them all. Inexhaustible ardorated 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.
No money to burn.
Many years ago, when I first read, uh, I think it was maybe the Heart Sutra, but one of the longer versions of the Prajnaparamita Sutras. I was really taken aback. I hadn't been studying Buddhism very long, and I was, um, I was very skeptical of anything that sounded out of the ordinary. And I really had a reaction to reading about the kind of miraculous beginning that unfolds at the start of the sutra, because the Buddha sends a beam of light out in 10 directions to let everybody know that the talk is about to start. And the Dragon King and his daughters come out from their place under the ocean, and somebody transports to the Buddha in a blink of an eye. And there's all these kind of miraculous things that appear. And I thought, oh, I could hardly read. My way through to get to the good bit in the middle. And then maybe I went through a phase of, well, you know, it's just poetic imagery. They're kind of expressing feelings and things that can't be said in words. And there's something in that, but, and I suspect there has been quite a lot of embellishment to these stories that's been added. But I also suspect that in the time of the Buddha, they were describing very real things that they experienced. Not necessarily that the Buddha shone an actual light that would be measurable with a camera across the 10 directions. But there was something about his quality of presence that drew people to him. And maybe for people who are particularly sensitive, they would have noticed, you know, they would have noticed that particularly about the Buddha. And when the Buddha is described as going into the heavenly realms and teaching the devas. One can't help see parallels to guided shamanic journeys into the upper world, these visualizations where you're guided to go through to this very heavenly place. I suspect Some of those descriptions of the Buddha traveling to other realms in an instant were hinting at practices of that kind, these kind of dreamlike practices where he was visiting maybe his own deep unconscious, maybe the collective unconscious, maybe something beyond even that. There's a sense that the spirits that he meets and teaches in these places, or just in the woods, some of the wood spirits that he bumps into and teaches They're very real. They have their own lives, and they come to the Buddha with real questions. And somehow Occasionally in our practice, we may get the sense of there being things affecting us or things present that we can't see with our ordinary eyes and can't hear with our ordinary ears. The world is full of things that can't quite be explained, and they slip out of sight when we try and explain them. In Zen Buddhism, sometimes these are dismissed as makyo, and teachers will say, like distractions, just ignore them and get on with your practice. Or some teachers will say, well, some of them are distractions and some of them might be the Buddha breaking through. It might be a bodhisattva appearing, but you need a really experienced teacher to tell you so that you don't get confused about the difference and think that you're getting a message or guidance from somewhere that you're not. And it's not spoken about so much in the West. In Tibetan Buddhism, you some of the Tibetan sutras appeared spontaneously, like a Buddha appears and gives this teaching, and suddenly here's a new sutra. So now when I go back and I read those stories with the kind of miracles and things that I was very skeptical of, I don't know exactly what they're describing, but neither do I write them off as either impossible or as simply literary embellishments and poetry. There is something profound being expressed that at the time was felt to be very real and just as real as the physical world that we inhabit. And the reason I'm telling you all this is not to sort of make you feel a bit strange about all this woo-woo nonsense that I'm spouting. That's how I would have felt listening to this many years ago. But because of all of these presences that we might encounter and these things that appear, some of them are Buddhas and bodhisattvas. There is something real that we can tune into. Sometimes just a sense of a presence of loving kindness that isn't self-generated, that isn't our own, occasionally coming with a little bit of guidance for us. Sometimes I don't experience this at all in my practice and I get a bit annoyed. And but now instead of being annoyed, I think, oh well, maybe you don't need that extra reassurance right now. Maybe that's why you're not feeling it. And sometimes that's true, and sometimes it's just because I'm too wound up in my own head. But if those parts are willing to step back occasionally, there is a sense of, oh, There is something here that is loving and kind and wise and real that is nothing to do with me. And all of these things we do in this shrine room, enactment. Are designed to remind us of that. Namamitabhu.
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. Forgetfulness and realize our true home.
Someone start the opening verse. I couldn't quite believe that you'd forgotten it.
Well, I did.
I think it starts, 'Blessed am I, tabas light,' and I thought, 'I don't believe myself.' Suddenly lost confidence in what was in my head. Blessed by Amitabha's light, may we care for all living things and the holy earth. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. So just a quick reminder, if you didn't see the email on Saturday, we've got a maintenance morning that will follow practice, so plenty to do in the garden and inside. All help greatly appreciated. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. So if you want to put your name down to read Atta Glimpse or to help with the tea, making the tea or coffee. The paper sheet is just on the wall outside the door, so that's a good thing to do as well. And Angie's curtain, is that next weekend? 29th, last Sunday night. So is that like 10 days' time? Yeah, 12 days. Yeah, gosh, every time I look at the date in January, I'm like, no, we can't be that far through. Yeah, so a week On Sunday, 7:30, that will be very lovely. Yeah, yeah.
