Satya Robyn leads a Buddhist practice group including Kasper, Philip, Paul, and others. Kasper shares a hazelnut anecdote and a Shantideva metaphor about putting on shoes versus clearing the path for others, followed by chanting the refuge lines and Bodhisattva vow, incense offering, and meditation.
Chapters
Satya Robyn. This morning we have almost full house of housemates. Krizi, Sam, Gelmae, me, and Kasper. And joining us on Zoom so far, we have Philip and Paul and Kusuma. I'm going to hand it over to Kasper.
Thank you, welcome everybody. While I was away for a few days this week camping in a field in Herefordshire— glamping is a horrible word, I think, but there was like an actual bed in the bell tent. There was a huge tree by the cottage of the people who owned the site. I looked at the leaves and got very— I could not work out what sort of tree it was, but there were lots of hazelnuts on the ground, so I'm pretty sure it was a hazel tree. Process of elimination. And all through the few days that I was there, there was a sort of steady background noise of the nuts coming down and plinking onto the slate tiles of the cottage, or landing with a crunch in the gravel. And then a couple of nights ago, the last evening there, I knew that the forecast was for rain in the morning, so I thought, oh, I better go and get my coat out of the back of the car so it's in the tent with me for the morning. I hadn't been wearing any shoes all weekend, so I wandered over to the car in my bare feet, and I had to walk 6 or 7 meters across this field of quite sharp hazel. It was like a carpet of very sharply shelled hazelnuts. And I remembered it like walking over shingles and things as a kid and not having much problems. I was like, oh, this will be fine. And every time I put my foot down, I was like, why don't you go and get your shoes? Why don't you go and get your shoes? And eventually I was at the car. And I've got a spare pair of shoes in the car, luckily, so I put those on for the walk back. And I couldn't help thinking of this really famous quote by Shantideva that it's sort of been paraphrased by various people throughout history. And he says, I can't remember the exact words, but he says, there's not enough leather to cover the whole world, but there's enough to cover my feet. And what he means is just put your shoes on before you walk across a field of sharp shells. You can't solve all the problems in the world, but you can steady your mind, and from that place of steadiness, you can walk through the world without being too disturbed by it. That's what the Buddha— that was the fourth sight in the Buddha's story, in the Buddha's life story, when he saw the sick person, the old person, the dying person. The fourth thing he saw that inspired him to leave home was a holy person who was steady and unaffected and graceful and had something about them. That's the kind of quality that Shantideva is talking about. If we can develop this, we don't need to worry about what state the world's in. But there's also something to be said for raking up all of the nuts and shells so that the person who comes after you doesn't have to worry about whether they're wearing shoes or not. They can just walk across the field in their bare feet in a really comfortable way. And the Buddha demonstrated this in his life through kindness, through tending to the sick, through creating community spaces where people could flourish. He didn't just give people a practice and throw them out into the world. He created a community where it was safe for people to practice, created good conditions. Later on, we're going to recite the Bodhisattva vow. Innumerable sentient beings, I vow to save them all, and so on. And the Bodhisattva vow is taken by people who make a promise to keep being reborn As many times as it takes until everybody else is enlightened, and that they will go into nirvana last after everybody else. So coming back to this field with all these sharp things in The bodhisattva action is to, rather than developing, rather than putting on your own shoes, rather than doing all the practices that lead to you being steady in the world, is to do the practice of clearing all the shelves out of the way. And you might not develop your own shoes, you might not develop your own steadiness of mind, but you're clearing the way so that other people can walk. I think the metaphor's run away with me. The point is both of these— what I want to get across is that both of these things are good to do. It's good to put shoes on sometimes, and it's good to clear the area of sharp things as well. And what that means in real life is that it's important to do your own practice, come back to your place of steadiness, resource yourself, find your own center. And it's important to act in compassionate ways in the world that make life easier for others, that increase well-being in the world. To look after other people. Both of these are important aspects of the spiritual path. And I'll go away and think about that, feels, and see if I can get the parallel straightened out a bit more before I talk about it again. Namaste. So we'll chant the Chinese form of Nembutsu together. The words are Namo Amitofo.
Namo Amitofo. A— Mammy. Om namo mi to fo namo mi. Namah Mitoh Om Namaha Shivaya!
Let's just share some silence for a few minutes. For refuge I go to the Buddha. For refuge I go to the Buddha. Namo Buddha.
Namo Buddha.
For refuge I go to the Dharma— for refuge I go to the Dharma— Namo Dharmaya! For refuge I go to the Sangha— for refuge I go to the Sangha— Nammo Sanghaya! With faith in the Three Jewels I pray that I may not take life; 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. With faith in the Three Jewels— I pray that I may not fall into sexual misconduct. 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. I pray that I may avoid intoxication.
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 it completely.
Amo Amiga. Amo Amiga. Amo Amiga. Amo Amiga.
In gratitude, we offer this incense to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space and time. May it be as fragrant as Earth herself, reflecting our care for others, our wholehearted awareness, and the fruits of understanding slowly ripening. May we and all beings be companions of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. May we awaken from forgetfulness, realize that truth. We'll finish with the closing verse. Do unmute if you want to join us from Zoom. Blessed by Amma Sahaja's light. May we care for all living things and the holy earth. Then Mummy, to move on to announce the talks/workshops.
On 2nd of November, Saturday the 2nd and Saturday the 13th or something, 6 o'clock till 7:15, we're going to have an introduction to Buddhist ideas and an introduction to Buddhist practice. So That's on Facebook or our website if you want to sign up. You have to pay money, uh, it'll be worth it. And I— just a reminder that I do sit in town every Saturday from midday to 1. If you want to come with the XR Northern group, so if you want to come and join us for a little bit of time or the whole hour, just come along and bring something to sit on, or you can sit on the bench at the top of the steps or whatever.
Do some outside meditation.
Yeah, to do some outside meditation, vigil, vigil for the Earth. And we're probably going to stop before COP26 for a while, so there's 6 weeks to go if you want to come for a break. Namaste.
Namaste, thank you everybody.
