Practice - remembering Amitabha's love

Good morning everyone. Morning to Claire on Zoom and welcome to the sacred space which we will carve out from the troubles of the week and the annoyances of the morning and hopefully find our way towards some ease and some peace. Or maybe even it's a place to, to kind of meet some of that stuff that stirs us up. But either way, we draw a sacred circle around this time. And I'm conscious this morning that, that there's not many people in the shrine room, and next Saturday it will be very busy because we have our Confirmation of Ordination ceremony. So hopefully everyone here, most people here, will be able to make it. 3 of us will be taking part. So we will begin this morning with a Dharma glimpse written by Angie, which Kusuma will kindly read for us.

Namamidabutu. So this is Holly Leaves, and it's a Dharma glimpse by Angie. Apologies if I sneeze, I've got shocking hay fever. For the last 2 spring seasons, I have watched with intrigue as new holly leaves form on my walks around Malvern. They emerge small, waxy, and surprisingly soft to the touch. Over the course of a few weeks, they harden up, gradually lose their softness, and their edges turn from soft points to the prickly spikes iconic of the holly plant. If I look down whilst stood by the holly, I can often see a few fallen old holly leaves on the floor. Their hardened adult bodies now skeleton, withered, dried, and crumbly. Their prickles that were once painful to stand on barefoot now crumbling grains of leaf matter. The whole life cycle present in one moment. Individual holly leaves and branches forming and dying whilst the plant as a whole persists. This reminds me how often So this reminds me how soft and vulnerable we are when we emerge from the womb, and how over time our many edges harden to form the necessary protections and defenses against the world. Sometimes those barriers soften with age, sometimes they become more deeply entrenched as they continue to be needed, and the value of getting close enough to others to be vulnerable and connected is weighed up against the cost of getting hurt. I found that over time, spiritual and therapeutic practice has profoundly altered my prickles. Some edges and defenses have melted or fallen away entirely. Others have become like an adult cat's claws, able to stay contracted or to extend, dependent on the situation. My fluid sense of self persisting as the many strands that make it up rise and fall, solidify and wither. Each move towards openness allows me to feel more intimately in touch with love and presence, with interconnectedness and the ultimate. As I experience this more frequently and come to trust their existence, in the times when my protections extend and I feel more distant from them, I can still know that they're there.

Namaste. Thank you so much. Thank you, Angie. Welcome, Philip. So we will sit quietly together. Um, I think before we sit, I'll go and open the door so we can let some birdsong in, and Maybe as we sit today, you can just enjoy hearing the sounds of outside and know that outside is also inside, that it's all permeable. All the membranes are permeable, both your skin and the skin of the temple and the skin of the, the earth. The atmosphere is all— everything's all, um, impermanent and shifting and moving. And if you need some blessings from the Earth this morning, you can allow those blessings in. Namaste. This morning we will chant to the Medicine Buddha, and the chant— the words of the chant are on the liturgy sheet. You haven't got a liturgy sheet on Zoom, let me know and I'll get you an updated one. And the words are: Tayatar Om Begun Jai, Begun Jai, Maha Begun Jai, Radha Samudgati Soha. So do join in when you get the hang of it.

Thai Atta, Om Bekken Je, Bekken Je, Maha Bekken Je, Ratsasammutkattisuha. Thai Atta, Om Bekken Je, Bekken Je, Maha Bhekenje Ratsasambhukate Soha. Taya Tsa Om Bhekenje, Bhekenje. Maha Bhekenje Ratsasambhukate Soha. Thai, Thai, oh bacon, jay bacon, jay, maha bacon, jay, ratsa sammut kati soha. Thai, Thai, oh bacon, jay bacon, jay, maha bacon, jay, ratsa sammut kati Maha Bekenje Ratsasamurkatesoha. Satya Robyn, Bekenje, Bekenje, Maha Bekenje Ratsasamurkatesoha. Satya Robyn, bacon J, bacon J, maha bacon J, ratsa samukatesu. Satya Robyn, bacon J, bacon J, maha bacon J, ratsa samukatesu. Maha Bakenje Ratsasambur Katse Soha. Taya Taa Om Bakenje, Bakenje Maha Bakenje Ratsasambur Katse Soha. Taya Taa Om Bakenje, Bakenje, Maha Bakenje, Rasa Samudgatse Soha. Satya Robyn, Bakenje, Bakenje, Maha Bakenje, Rasa Samudgatse Soha. Satya Robyn, bacon, bacon, maha bacon, rat, samutka, te, soha.

Satya Robyn, bacon, bacon, maha bacon, rat, 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. 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 the Buddha's light. Namo Sanghaya. Namo Sanghaya. With faith in the Three Jewels. With faith in the Three Jewels. And in light of our human tendencies. And in light of our human tendencies. I pray that I may become aware— of when I take life. I pray that I may become aware— of when I take what is not freely given. I pray that I may become aware— of when I fall into sexual misconduct. I pray that I make become aware I pray that I may become aware of when I fall into wrong speech. I pray that I may become aware of when I become intoxicated. No blame. 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.

So one of the tasks for the Seven Ministers next Saturday is to write a personal vow. And a personal vow is something that reminds us of our particular needs or our particular hopes. Our particular relationship with Amida. And I first wrote my personal vow when I got ordained, I don't know, 8 years ago, 10 years ago, I can't really remember. And I was trying to remember it recently, and I kind of got close. It was something like, um, there was something to do with following Amida with humility and with courage and with love. And, um, kind of doing what Amida wanted me to do. And I was going to look it up and see if it still felt like the right vow for me. And then we were on a walk, a dog walk yesterday, and a new vow just sort of floated out of the universe into my brain. Um, and I wasn't sure about it to start with because it's very short and very simple, but I've been sitting with it and I think that it is the right thing for me, and it is, may I remember Amitābha's love. And I think that it reflects, uh, a bit of a shift in me over the past decade. The first vow, I was really wanting to be a good Buddhist, be a good person, to, um, keep working on myself. I thought if I aspire to these qualities, then that'll be a really good thing to do. And that's all good stuff. There's nothing wrong with that. But I think that, that my vow now is maybe more realistic in terms of what's actually possible. That, that we have precepts, we, we've just recited the precepts, and as Buddhists, it's a good thing to work with the precepts and to measure ourselves against the various ideals. But as we have reflected in the changed wording of the precepts, our human tendencies make it difficult to completely avoid wrong speech or taking what isn't freely given. Any of the precepts, when you really dig into them and examine all the different ways in which we can abide by them or not, we're breaking probably thousands of precepts every hour. And so the new form of words for the precepts invites us to notice when that is happening. And in that moment of noticing, there is an opportunity for something to relax or to shift or to— for a different choice to be made. But that isn't a guarantee. There's, there's things that we are in control of, and there's things that we're just really not for now. Maybe we will be next week or next year, but for now we really just need to watch Netflix all night, or we really just need to eat that chocolate brownie, or the third chocolate brownie, because being human is complicated and difficult. And we are all carrying our own karma from our lifetime and from our parents' lifetimes and back and back and back. So my hope with my personal vow is that if I can remember that the love is already beaming at me with all of my flaws and my failures and my limitations. Then again, that allows a little softening, a little relaxing, some gentleness that then opens up space. And that maybe that space means that something different is possible, maybe it's not. Either way, I am love. And I'm particularly feeling that love this morning. I don't know why, but maybe it's because there's not many people here, and there was sort of, you know, a couple of people talked to me before practice about how things were difficult. I'm just like, yeah, it's really hard life. It's really hard sometimes, and that's why we really need spaces like this where we can just be messy and grumpy and tired, snotty.

Anything else?

Disappointed. All of that stuff, it's all very welcome. It's all welcomed by the Buddha. May we remember Amitabha's love. Namomi debi. Namomi debi. We dedicate the merits of this incense offering to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space and time. May it be as fragrant as Earth herself, reflecting our careful efforts, our wholehearted awareness, and the fruits of understanding slowly ripening. May we and all beings be companions of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas Maybe we awaken from forgetfulness and realize our true home. Blessed by Amitabha's light, may we care for all living things and the holy earth. Namomita boo. I'm just going to stop the recording and then