Practice - surrendering everything

Good morning everybody, welcome to Saturday morning practice. We're recording the meeting, but only Satya and myself will be recorded because I've pinned our video. In the shrine room this morning we've got Day, Jarnay, Pip, Keima, Satya, myself, and I'm soon joined by Mase Mi. I hope I've And is that right, Paul? Welcome, nice to see you again, and Edgar, who was here on Wednesday. And I'll hand over to Satya Robyn.

Hello, mi tobu, lovely to see you, Paul, and everyone else. So about 10 years ago now, Caspar and I went on holiday to France, and we were running a poetry course at this beautiful kind of mansion, crumbling mansion, château, and the woman that cooked for us was a brilliant cook, but she hadn't really encountered vegetarians very often, as is sometimes the case in France, and so we were fed cheese morning, noon, and night for 7 days. It was very nice cheese, but it was quite a lot of cheese. And when we came back to the UK, I remember talking and saying, "Should we maybe just have a break from cheese for a little while?" Something about our systems just feeling completely clogged up. And there were also There was also a question around about animal welfare and the benefits of not eating dairy, of being vegan. That was kind of floating. And I can remember having a few days of not eating any dairy and making a list, and on this list was all the things that I would get to eat if I was vegan and all the things I wouldn't get to eat. And on the side of the things I wouldn't get to eat were lots of my favourite things like Ben Jerry's ice cream, croissants, chocolate, uh, Knoppy pie. Oh, all of those things that I really didn't want to give up. Baked potato with cheese on top. Cheese on toast, all of those things. And I can remember at the time weighing up in my head whether I was ready to let go of all these things. And because we'd already been kind of dairy-free for a few days or a week at that point, and we were quite enjoying our food, realizing how much there was left to eat I happened to have a video from the Vegan Society DVD about veganism and about why people are vegan, and we watched it, and I can remember crying at the end of the video. It was very well done. It wasn't sort of shock horror, it was just some facts. And because I was already eating a vegan diet and it felt doable, that was the moment at which I became vegan, and there was no turning back from that. And since then, the country has changed. It's not that long ago, but I know that I was speaking to some friends who've been vegan for 30 or 40 years, and they used to have to get their soya milk in tins, and it came as like a thick brown sludge that they had to mix with water to get their soya milk. It was not nice tasting at all. These days we get to choose from a million different plant milks and, uh, Haagen-Dazs and Ben Jerry's. And this morning before practice, I went over to the bakery just over the road from here and bought some of the most amazing almond croissants you've ever tasted in your life. So it turned out that I didn't have to give anything up after all, and the benefits have been massive in lots of different ways. I'm thinking of this both because I've just bought the croissants, but also because I was talking last night at dinner about how when we left our Buddhist order, we made that decision based on a willingness to give everything up, that we didn't know for sure at that point whether we'd get to keep the temple or any of our colleagues or anything else that we had at that point. And that's worked out pretty well as well, all things considered. And of course it doesn't always work out that way. Sometimes when we are willing to give everything up We do lose everything, but there is a huge freedom in, in being in those situations where we're really attached to something and we can't imagine life without it, and just beginning to play with the idea of how would it be. How would it be if I didn't have this thing or do this thing? How would I be okay. And this is what Buddhism is asking us to do all the time, to pay attention to those places in which we become attached and the things that we, uh, find ourselves compulsive around or driven or afraid, and just wondering about how it would be if we if we could, if we could just touch the edges of being able to surrender or let go. And there is something about the timing being ripe for us. I think that, like, you know, a scab that's not ready or a plaster, you know, you don't want to rip it off before the time is right. That for me, certainly, that time in my life when I'd come back from France was the right time to make a big diet choice. There were, there was enough stability, I was ready for it. And sometimes we want to do something, we want to change something, the time isn't right and we just have to wait. But even asking the questions can begin that process, and we can ask them in a gentle way, and we can be gentle with ourselves and know that Whatever happens in this life, the Buddha has us. The Buddha is there for us to lean on, and nature is there for us to lean on, and we don't need as much as we think we do. So when I eat my almond croissant in the car tomorrow on the way to London, We're going to a march tomorrow. Don't worry, Jamy, I've got one for you as well. He's been munching that through the whole talk. I will think of you all. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. So we'll now do some quiet sitting together, and as we sit, you can either just pay attention to your breath as it goes in and out without changing it, Or you might want to experiment with listening to imagined chanting in your head as you sit. So we're Pure Land Buddhists, so our main practice is Nembutsu, which is saying the name of Amida Buddha, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, or Amitābha. And something that I've been practicing with recently is just allowing the phrase 'Nam-myoho-renge-kyo' to run through my mind quite quietly and quite quickly. So it's almost like a little murmur, like water or the wind, and just listen to those words over and over. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. And when your mind wanders, as it will very quickly and repeatedly, just bring it gently back to listening to that imagined phrase. And then allow whatever comes to come keep returning, and you may find yourself settling down a little bit. And then after a while, I will start chanting. And, um, what will we chant today? We will chant Amitabha. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha.

Ame taba.

Ame taba. Ame taba. Ame. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Saba. Ami Taba. Ami Taba. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha.

Aba, ami tabas, ami tabas, ami.

Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. For refuge, I go to the Buddha.

For refuge I go to Buddha—

Namo Buddhaya! For refuge I go to Dharma—

for refuge I go to Dharma—

Namo Dharmaya! For refuge I go to Sangha—

for refuge I go to Sangha—

Namo Sanghaya! 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 may not steal—

—with faith in the 3 jewels! —With Faith In The 3 Jewels! I pray that I may fall into sexual misconduct—

I pray this time you're falling to sexually misbehaved there— —with faith in the Three Jewels! —Through your face of the Three Jewels!

I pray that I might 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.

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 walk it completely.

So in a minute we'll stand and do prostrations towards the Buddha. You can— hopefully you've got a Buddha in your room somewhere. If not, you can go shopping later. And the words are Namo Amida Butsu.

Namoh Amida.

Namoh Amida.

Namoh Amida Guru. Namoh Amida Guru. Namoha mi da. Namoha mi da. Namoha mi ho. Namoha mi a.

Then we bow to each other, and then we bow to the Buddha. We tidy our seats and bow to our seats. If you're on Zoom, do unmute if you're able to so we can hear you as we chant the closing verse together. Recite. Kaspa will just write it in. Just while we're waiting, to say about the bowing, the bowing to each other. We only turn to our left and to our right, but it looks a bit confusing because I sometimes bow to the people on Zoom. So don't try and— it's not about trying to bow to everybody, it's just about left and right. And the way you turn first is very complicated, so I won't go into that.

It's not complicated.

The celebrant and the bellmaster will bow towards each other.

You should bow in the direction of the bellmaster, which means that you will bow to me first.

Yes, yeah, between me and the bellmaster.

But if I'm the celebrant, I'll bow to the bellmaster first. You're right, it is complicated.

The celebrant and the bowmaster bow towards each other. There's someone in between, and that's what happens. Anyway, let's not talk about it today. We've got other things to do. So let's all close with the verse. Blessed by Amish Harbors' light, may we care for all living things. Is that Grace or Michael? That's Grace.