Satya Robyn leads a group meditation practice outdoors with housemates and remote participants. The session explores practicing with physical discomfort like cold, connects this to the Buddhist concept of dukkha, and includes chanting Om Mani Padme Hum, refuge vows, and precepts.
Chapters
Good morning everybody, welcome to our Saturday morning practice together in the shrine room. This morning we're joined by our housemates David, Jare, and on Zoom at the moment we've got Matt. Welcome, apologies for not sending you the right link the last 2 weeks. Good that you made it today. Now we've got Taylor and Tony. Other people may join as we go along. This morning Satya will be leading the practice.
Namaste. Thank you. Welcome everybody. Just before we started this morning, Jāmai asked if we should open the door because it was feeling a bit hot in here, and as I speak there's a beautiful, a delicious cool breeze coming from the door behind the main shrine, and it's reminding me of the daily vigil that I'm doing in the local town for the earth, which I started in November last year, and I'm doing for an hour a day until this November when COP26 is happening in Glasgow, hopefully in Glasgow and not online, because we've all booked our tickets to go to Glasgow. And that vigil means that I sit on my bench opposite the post office in town for an hour a day, and I have an hourglass that's got half an hour's worth of sand in it, so I turn it once at the beginning and then once in the middle. And I, when I first had the idea of doing this vigil, I set myself certain rules for what I was going to do. I thought, shall I have my eyes open open and talk to people, or shall I keep my eyes shut? Various kind of, various rules, so I knew what I was doing, and one of the rules I set for myself was that I have, in the winter certainly, I had a rucksack with various mittens and extra bed socks and all kinds of things to warm me up. And I had the rule that I could choose what I was wearing at the beginning and then put the rucksack away and I just sit for an hour. And I've set this rule because I know what I'm like, and I think that if I hadn't have set the rule, I'd be up and down every 10 minutes taking a mitten off, putting a mitten on. So that's part of my practice, is sitting in the weather still and not having any control over how I regulate my body temperature, which most of us do most of the time, even if it's just being able to move around a bit or rub our hands together. And this has been quite an interesting practice. Something that I've really been struck by is that I will have the thought or the feeling, I'm really cold and I don't like it. And with that feeling goes almost a panic, a mild panic, which is a sort of a, oh, I'm stuck here in this cold and I'm going to get colder and colder and I don't know, I guess there's maybe something primal in it. I guess that human beings, if they got colder and colder and couldn't get away, they would have died. And that I have those thoughts, and then I have to carry on sitting there. And more often than not, 5 minutes goes past, or a minute, or 10 minutes, and I'm not cold at all anymore. The cold just sort of passes, and it isn't necessarily to do with the weather outside. I think there's something about the, the weather inside as well, not just how I'm feeling, but I think that— I don't know how it works, but I guess that the body can create a bit of extra heat. It's like there's a sign that goes off and extra fuel's burned and and I feel perfectly okay again. And I don't often get a chance to experience that because I am usually regulating my body temperature through manipulation, through things that I do for myself.. And I think that this little analogy could be expanded to other areas of life. I can remember when I was doing fasting a little bit, just a little bit of fasting, kind of having dinner one night and then nothing until dinner the next night. I managed it maybe 3 times, and I can remember feeling hungry, really hungry, like I had to eat something, and then half an hour later I wasn't hungry. I think this is one of the things that Buddhism speaks to us about, this idea that we can't avoid dukkha, that suffering or discomfort is inherent in life, however hard we work at making ourselves comfortable. We might try and make ourselves comfortable physically, or financially, or socially, or spiritually, aesthetically. And most of us, it's very human, we spend quite a lot of time and energy doing that. And then when we do have an experience, or we're forced into an experience of not being able to take all those steps to, um, to mitigate or to buffer ourselves, or to push things away, or pull things towards us. This different sort of space opens up. When I'm sitting and I'm cold, I know that I'm not allowed to go and get the hat in my bag, because I've told myself I'm not allowed. So I don't have to worry about it. I just sit and my head's cold, um, and maybe that preoccupies me for a little while, but then I hear the blackbird singing, or Somebody comes over and says, "Good morning, Satya Robyn." I can't see who it is because I've got my eyes shut, but that makes me smile. So I remain present to what is there without, without taking myself off into a place that we imagine is safer and more comfortable, but actually often keeps us away from the aliveness and the freshness and the surprisingness of the world. The world— that's probably a better word than surprisingness, but I think you get my meaning. So as we sit in silence, you might just want to notice the various discomforts and comforts that come and go. They might be physical, they might be emotional, they might be your brain whirring, they might be the cool air becoming a bit chilly, they might be the, the sun on your face. And just, just allow them to be there and notice how without you having to do anything, things change by themselves, and that there are always moments of grace being offered to us all the time, like the beautiful flowers on the shrine and the candle flame and that view, which I'm very sorry that the people on Zoom get to see our faces rather than that beautiful misty Bluey view. Yeah, namo me to be.
Om Mani Padme Hum Hri. Om Mani Padme Hum Hri. Om Mani Padme Hum Hri. Om Mani Padme Hum Hri! Oh mané padmé hum hrih! Ooh ma nee pa me hoong rehreeeh? Oh mah né pa mé hom hrreeh— oh mā nē pahmêhom rīyih... om mannay pawmmeehoom rhiiiii— Om mani padme hum ri om mane padme hunri—
Oh!
Mané Padmé Hum Ri... Hommane pa me hom rie. Homanepa mé oum ri. Om mani padme humbri! Oh my name Padme Humbley— oh Mané Pâmê Hungry... om mane pa me hungre? Omae Pa Me Homerye?! Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mane Padme Hum. Om Mane Padme Hum. Om Mane Padme Hum. Om Mane Padme Hum. Om Ale Padme Humri! Om Ale Padme Humri! Om Mane Padme Umbri! Om Mane Padme Umri! Om mani padme hum ri om mani padme hum ri—
oh!
Mani Padme Hum Ri... Oh! Mane Pame Umri?
Oohh!
Monee Pa Me Wum Ree?! Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Humri! Oh mané pa mé hum ri... oh mané pa mé hom bri... om mane pa me hong brie— umane pa mem hun rii... Ummane Pa Me Hung Rie? Om Mani Padme Hum Brih! Om Manee Pahmee Hoombreeeh! Oh manne pa me hooumbriih? Ooh mah nee pah mee hoom bree— oh ma neh pam mee hom brieem... Om mani padme hum ri om mane pame hun bri— Oh my name Padmé Humri! Om mané pa me humpri... Um Mane Pa Me Hombre? O Manepa Mehombry?! Om mani padme hum ri om mane padme hom bri— Oh! Mané Padmé Hom Bri... Oumane Padmé Hom Brie? Om Mane Padmé Hum Ri... Om Mane Padmé Hom Rie... Ummane Pabmehomri... Om mani padme hum ri om mani padme hum ri—om na ne pa me hungri—Om ma ne pa me hungru?
Oh!
Ma ne pa me hungry...Oh! Ma ne pa me hungerie! Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Humri! Om Mani Padme Umri! Oh manne padme om ri— oh manné pa me ombre... Om Mani Padme Humri! Om Mani Padme Umri! Om Mane Padme Hungry! Oh manne padme hungreee? Ooh mannay paad me hoongreee— Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum.
For refuge I go to Buddha . For refuge I go to Sanga , Namo Sanghaya! Nam-myoho-renge-kyo—
for refuge I go to Dharma —Namo Dharmayana.
With faith in Three Jewels we offer our prayers; We pray that we may not take life—
We pray that we will not take life—
With faith in the Three Jewels—
Faithful to three jewels—
We pray that we may not steal—
Pray you might not see him—
With faith in the Three Jewels of Satan's free tools— We pray that we may not fall into sexual misconduct— You can't even believe I'm falling for this conduct? —With faith in their 3 Jews! The thing was, he told us we pray that we may not fall into wrong speech—
He prayed at me when I thought all about it—
with faith in the Three Jewels, we pray that we may avoid intoxication. We pray that we may avoid intoxication.
Innumerable lives set in being, we vow to save them all.
Inexhaustible attitude of passion, 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. We'll now bow to each other to thank each other for practicing here together. If you're on the screen, you can turn left and then right. Tidy our seats and bow to our seats. It doesn't take long to tidy a bench. And then Casper is unmuting you so we can all recite the closing verse together.
Oh yeah, please do unmute yourself. Sorry. And join the closing verse, which is in the chat box.
Blessed by our Father's light, may we care for all living creatures under the earth. Now, Moomi Dabu, would you mind pressing stop, and then I'll just do a couple of announcements.
