This content was created by Satya Robyn. This content was uploaded by Satya Robyn. This is a YouTube video titled "Practice - smiled at by the Buddha" (recorded 2022-02-16) containing an English guided Pure Land Buddhist practice session led by Satya Robyn. Satya welcomes participants in a shrine room and on Zoom (names heard include Chris, Charles, Philip, Fi/Dhyāmae Dunsby, Jeremy, Phoebe, Angela, Casper and others). The session includes a Dharma glimpse reading, instruction for a short silent practice using the name Amitābha, group chanting of Amitābha, recitation of the refuges and lay precepts, Bodhisattva vows, prostrations, dedication of merits and a closing verse. Satya also shares a personal reflection about involvement in an activist project called "Beyond Fossil Fuels Together" and her feelings of panic, limitation and compassion—framing how the practice helps. Metadata: YouTube content, created 2022-02-16, title as above.
Chapters
It's a little mute. Let's begin again. Welcome everybody. Thank you, Chris. Um, hopefully you can hear me now, uh, welcoming everyone in the shrine room and welcoming Charles, Chris, and Philip on Zoom. And we have a few people here tonight who haven't been before, so extra welcome. We always begin practice with something called a Dharma glimpse, and a Dharma glimpse is just a little story from our everyday lives where we get a little tiny glimpse of the truth, that something occurs to us, or some wisdom slips in from somewhere. And today's Dharma glimpse will be read by Fi. Over to you, Fi. Ah, let me remember to do this, and then let me remember to take it back off.
Dharma glimpse by Dhyāmae Dunsby. Watching the news recently, the tensions between Russia and the West, the bickering in Parliament over corruption and immoral conduct and other equally contentious issues made me think about how all of these problems that we face originate within us, the human race, in our deeply wounded and fragmented hearts and minds. The television is merely showing us how our traumas, both individual and collective, are playing out in the world. If Buddhist doctrine is to be believed, we have all been traversing the minefield of samsara for eternity, and none of us have escaped unscathed. We carry with us the scars of many battles great personal loss, failure, and violence. This deep karma colors our experience and drives our desires. It is both the fuel for suffering and the seed of enlightenment. It occurred to me, as it has many times, that it would be better to occasionally spend 5 minutes noticing what is happening within me what feelings, fears, hopes, and dreams are arising and circulating, than to watch in horror and disbelief at the seeming deterioration of our planet and our species on the TV screen. For all I know, the fact of taking time to make peace with these internal struggles may well be a contribution towards the counterbalance of of peace and sanity in a desperately troubled world. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
Thank you, Phoebe.
Thank you, Jeremy.
Thank you.
Okay, so now we will sit quietly together for a little while, and in the silence, you can either just pay attention to your breath as it comes and goes, Don't worry about changing it, just notice the breath as it goes in and out. Or you might want to use a word, and the word that we'll use this evening is Amitābha. Amitābha is the Buddha of infinite light, the Buddha of infinite compassion, and As you breathe in, you might just want to imagine the word Ami, and then as you breathe out, Taba. Ami, Taba. And just let the word follow your breath as if it's a word kind of bobbing on the water, rather than trying to change your breath. Just allow it to accompany you. And then after some time in silence, we will chant together, and we will chant the word Amitābha. And we've got our mālā here now by the Buddha, so we'll do 54 recitations of Amitābha. Do join in when you've got the tune, and do join in from home even though we need to keep you muted. And then we'll sit again for a little while and just let the echo of that sound sit with us, and then we'll move on to do some other things. So, namo amida but.
Ame taba. Ame itaba.
Ame taba.
Amitabha.
Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha.
Amitabha.
Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha.
Amitabha.
Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha.
Amitabha. Amitabha.
Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh.
Amitabh.
Amitabh. Amitabh.
Amitabh.
Amitabha. Amitabha.
Amitabha. Aba, ami taba, ami taba, ami taba.
Amitabha.
Amitabha.
Amitabha.
Amitabh.
Amitabh.
Amitabh.
Amitabh. Amitabha.
Amitabha. Amitabha.
Amitabha. Amitabha.
Amitabha. Aami taba.
Aami taba.
Aami taba.
Amitabha. Amitabha.
Amitabha. Amitabha.
Amitabha. Amitabha.
Amitabha. Amitabha.
Amitabha. Amitabh. Amitabh.
So next we will recite the refuges together. All Buddhists take refuge in the Three Jewels, which is the Buddha, the Buddha's teaching, and the community of followers of the Buddha. And I was reading a book by G. Kenneth yesterday, and she described them as taking refuge in the Eternal, taking refuge in the Eternal's teachings, and taking refuge in followers of the Eternal. Well, that was a really nice way of putting it. So you can repeat after me. I take refuge in the Buddha.
I take refuge in the Buddha.
Namo Buddhaya.
Namo Buddhaya.
I take refuge in the Dharma.
I take refuge in the Dharma.
Namo Dharmaya.
Namo Dharmaya.
I take refuge in the Sangha.
I take refuge in the Sangha.
Namo Sanghaya.
Namo Sanghaya.
Supported by the Three Jewels, we now recite the Precepts for Lay Followers. So these are the, the, uh, the aspirations that we kind of head towards And rather than knowing that we'll keep them perfectly, we lean into refuge, and that makes it more likely that we'll be able to manage heading at least in that direction. So please repeat after me. With faith in the Three Jewels, with faith in the Three Jewels, I pray that I may not take life.
I pray that I may not take life.
With faith in the Three Jewels— With faith in the three jewels I pray that I may not steal—I pray that I'm able to see—with faith in the Three Jewels—with faith in the 3 Jews I prayed at time may not fall into sexual misconduct—I praise it so much—not for any sexual misconduct—with faith in the Three Jewels—with faith in the three tools 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. And then we say the six words, which are a summary of spiritual life written by my friend Terry: no blame, No blame. Be kind. Be kind.
Love everything. Love everything.
And then Phiu will lead us in the Bodhisattva vows. If you want to look on your bit of paper, you might be able to join in, but don't worry if you can't because there's a tune. And the Bodhisattva vows are again, they're kind of very aspirational. I love the Bodhisattva vows because they're completely impossible within each pair of sentences. It's It's impossible to do these things, and yet we vow to do them anyway. We vow to head towards in that direction.
We vow to save them all. 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 forfeit completely Namomi debu.
So I'm smiling to myself because in the shrine room this evening we have a couple of people who probably know zero things about Amitabha, and we also have someone who knows more than me and Kaspa Casper and Angela and Fee put together.
Well, who knows? Casper's not sure about that.
And so, you know, what will I say? And I thought I'd start with my day, which has been up and down. I'm involved in a new project called Beyond Fossil Fuels Together, which is a group of people who are organizing a vigil in London, outside Parliament, at the beginning of March. And we came together 2 weeks ago, and we have 3 weeks before the start of the vigil. And when the group was formed, I was absolutely full of enthusiasm and excitement about what we could achieve. I had these dreams of hundreds of people outside Parliament, lots of people coming together that didn't usually do activism, all the politicians kind of stopping to talk to us and changing the law and, you know, saving the planet basically. And we got off to a bit of a rocky start because we couldn't agree what we were going to call ourselves for about a week, and that took up a lot of time. And yeah, and there's 3 weeks to go, and we, you know, we've done some work and we've got a website and almost got a leaflet, and we, you know, we've got a Facebook event with some people coming and some rotors, and people have putting their name on the rotors, but we haven't quite dominated the world yet. And I was feeling really panicky today because I feel like it does present an opportunity to connect in with other activist groups who wouldn't usually talk to somebody who does civil disobedience, or, you know, to get everyone together and I know that vigils have a real kind of magical power. The last vigil we organized outside Parliament Square was beautiful, and there were some, some things happened and some relationships that formed that were really, really special. But I live in the real world, and I've also got a full-time job, and this 3 or 4 other people in the group also have all kinds of other responsibilities, and maybe we will be able to reach out to those other groups, and maybe we won't. Maybe we will manage the 24 hours, a fortnight that we're— a vigil that we're hoping for, and maybe there'll be a night somewhere where, you know, the last person slips away at 3 AM and nobody else turns up until breakfast. But what's hard about, about that is, is the, the juxtaposition of the size of the need, the, the urgency of the situation, the suffering that is already happening, mostly in the Global South, but all, you know, all over the world, and the money is still flooding from the government into the fossil fuel companies. And the size of the grief and the helplessness and the despair and the fear I have for my nieces who will be growing up into this fucked up world. And on the other hand, the limited nature of me, the limited nature of the other people in this group. So what is Amitabha? For me, Amitabha is the, is the thing that looks at me in the midst of my panic and despair and smiles and kind of says, 'Oh yeah, Satya, I know you do this. I know you feel like you can— if you work hard enough, you can solve everything.' And I really appreciate that you do that, and the Earth really appreciates it. And you are limited, and I love you, and I really feel that, that really, that really enters me. And it gets right down into all the, the, the parts of me that are most critical of me, or the parts of me that are most overwhelmed. It soaks in. And when we chant Amitabha, when we sit in silence, when we bow to the Buddha, as we will in a minute, We're just pausing and inviting that in. We're just allowing our hearts to, to open a little bit so that love can, can meet us. And there's lots of story around that. There's lots of historical narrative and different, slightly different ways of thinking about the Buddha. And, and, um, and all of that is good and interesting and useful to study, but we don't need to worry about any of that as Pure Land Buddhists. All we have to do is, is, is recognize our limit limited nature and call out to the Buddha for help. So I'm wishing that I had practiced earlier today because it would have really helped me, but I'm glad you're here because I've had an excuse to let that in. So we will now stand and make prostrations to the Buddha. And as we bow, this is a bit difficult to do the first time because there's new words and a new tune and something to do with your body, so don't worry about getting it all at once. The words are Namo Amida Butsu, which means I call out to Amitabha. Namo is kind of me, and Amitabha is Amitabha Buddha. And we do that 3 times. We recite that 3 times and bow to the ground. Angela does a full-on prostration. It's very impressive. If you've got the— if you're young enough, you can do what she's doing. But most of us just kind of, just kind of on our knees, and then we put our hands in the air. So just watch and copy if you can, if your body's happy for you to do it. And as we bow to the Buddha, we're just kind of releasing everything, just putting it all down there. Just letting it all go. And it's another way of letting the love in. Um, okay, namo amida butsu. So I'll come to the— sorry, Faye— I'll come to the front, and if everyone else just faces the Buddha and has some floor in front of them.
Namah Amida Buddha. Namah Amida Buddha. Namah Amida Buddha.
Mamoru Amida.
We dedicate the merits of this instant suffering 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.
Now we will turn to our seats. And we finish by first of all bowing to each other. Tidy our seats and bow to our seats. There's a little verse we finish with. Do unmute if you'd like to join us, and it's on the bit of paper. It's called What's it called? Closing verse.
Closing verse, thank you. That's a handy name for it.
Blessed by Amitabha's light, we care for all living things and the holy earth.
So if you're here in real life to join us for cup of tea, I'm just going to say hello to these guys.
Stop the recording.
