Practice - Terry's dog

Welcome everybody. Welcome in the shrine room to Sam and G. Philip, Phi and Jahmei. And Philip's come from the screen into real life, just like magic. And welcome to Beth and Chris, and a special hello to Claire, who hasn't been for a while. Welcome back, Claire, good to see you. So I will hand straight over to Gyame, who will read today's Dharma Glimpse by Wendy Shinyo Haylett.

So this is called, uh, Where's Waldo? I remember thinking about the first few Dharma glimpses I was assigned to in my first year in the Bright Dawn Lay Ministry training program. I would feel anxious in a search to find the perfect something that was appropriate as a subject for a Dharma glimpse, but that is the point of glimpses— not to search but to keep our eyes open. The Dharma is teaching every minute, everywhere, but we're too busy reading or looking for it to see it. Like the Where's Waldo books, or those Facebook posts that ask whether you see two faces or a vase, things are the way they are to us based on what we're looking for and how open we are to seeing what's there. That reminds me of a crow experience I had. I was sitting on the porch working on my laptop, not paying attention to what was happening in the yard. Some movement caught my eye as it interrupted the beam of sunlight. I quickly glanced, then went into alarm mode when my brain interpreted that what were 4 or 5 crows walking in the yard as 2 black dogs running towards me. For a few seconds, the crows were black dogs running towards me. That was my experience. It was as real as the crows— the dogs became. When I really focused on them. Like dreams, the stuff in our world is up for interpretation, and each individual's interpretation is colored by a complex web of causes and conditions that we cannot know about in the other or about ourselves. As the Buddhism boot camp author Taiba Hawkeye says, the opposite of what you know is also true. Which is another way of saying things are not as they seem, nor are they otherwise, which is an email signature line I use from the Lanka— Lanka Avatara Sutra. If you only see a crow walking, then you are trapped in the linear conceptual dual perspective of the world as either/or. And the non-dual perspective of mystics, believers in a spiritual or transcendent realm, artists poets, writers, engineers, inventors, scientists, and mathematicians will be blocked to you. You will miss the actual door to heaven while you are attending the lecture on how to get there. So where can we glimpse the Dharma, and where do we find Buddha or God? We could find the Dharma in a book or the Buddha in a temple, or God in a church. But it's more possible that we will find whatever it is we're looking for right where we are, in our own minds, hearts, yards, and neighborhoods. We can see Buddha or God in the faces of our family, dogs, cats, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. But if your head is full of concepts of what the Dharma is, who Buddha is, who God is, or what is the absolute transcendent divine or boundless infinite light of great compassion wisdom, then remember, not this, not this. It is not this, nor is it that. It is only when you realize your life and the people in it and the world around you from the shackle— sorry, it's only when you release your life and the people in it and the world around you from the shackles of what they have already been labeled that you will see the Dharma. If you could see everything from that space, For even 10 minutes everything around you will sing the Dharma. Happy Father's Day! And as Rev Koyo says, have a Buddha-full day.

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. So we'll sit quietly together and then we'll do some chanting. I know me too.

Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om mani padme hum hri! Oh my name Padme Hum Hrye... oh my name Padme Hung Re— om mane pa me hung rey... umane pab me hun rui? Om mani padme hum hri! Humane Padmé Hungry— Homané Paamée Oumgree... Ohm-man-eh-paap-me-hoom-greem? Hommane paad-mee hoong-reem?! Home money pop me hungry? Om mani padme hum hri! Oh mah nee paab me hunh ri... Ooh maah née paaap mee hoong reee— oh maaaaneepaabh mey honbreeeh?

Hooommaaaneee papmey hommreeyy?!

I can't say it right now but that's what we're saying here at home on our YouTube channel so if you guys want to follow along go ahead or just listen for fun because this video will be up later tonight anyway when my kids get out of school from their day care center; they love singing these songs too by the way. Um-hmm um-hmmm yeah hey yo let us know how your children feel about them down below cuz those were Om pretty good ones actually wow okay see ya all soon bye-bye everyone Om Mané Padmé Hum Rihi Aum Anandamayi Ma Maharishi Namaskar Thank You Babaji Jai Guruji Shiva Ramana Maheshwari Sathyananda Sri Yukteswar Hari Bhagavan Namo Buddhaya Om Mane Paav Me Ho'ng Reehii mani padme hum ri om mani padme hum ri— oh! Mani Padme Hum Ri... Oh! Mane Pa Me Hungry? Omae pa me hungri?! Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum Hri! Om Manee Pame Hoong Reee! Oh manne pah me hoom hree— oh mane pa mee hum reem... ommaneee pammmeh ooommreem? Om mani padme hum ri om mane padme rumri omane pame um re oma nepa me room free oh mana pa mi homey Om mani padme hum ri om mani padme hum ri—

oh!

Mani Padme Hum Ri... Oh! Mane Pa Me Hungry?

Oohh! Monee Pah Meh Hoong Ree?!

Ohm-ma-ne-pah-me-ho-om-breeee. Om Mani Padme Hum. 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 Mane Padme Hum. Om Mane Padme Hum. Om Mane Padme Hum. Om Mane Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum.

Om Mani Padme Hum.

For refuge I go to Buddha .

For refuge I go Dharma , Namo Buddhaya for Refuge I go to the Dharma or Refuges—

Nam-o-dharmayah! For refuge I go to the Sangha .

For refuge I go to the Sangha.

Namo sanghaya . With faith in the Three Jewels— we pray that we may not take life.

We pray that we may not take life.

With faith in the Three Jewels—

Faithful three jewels!

—we pray that we may not steal.

That we might not steal?

With faith in the Three Jewels—

with faithful Three Jewels—

we pray that we may not fall into sexual misconduct.

We pray that we may not fall into sexual misconduct—

With faith in The Three Jewels... We pray that we may not fall into wrong speech—

We pray that we may not fall into wrong speech— With faith in The Three Jewels...

With faith in The Three Jewels— ...we pray that we may avoid intoxication— We pray that we may avoid intoxication— No blame! Be kind! Love everything!

Innumerable sentient beings, we vow to save them all. Inexhaustible 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.

I've been thinking about my friend Terry, and Terry wrote the 'no blame, be kind, love everything' little phrase, and he lives in Ireland and in the country. And a couple of years ago his wife died, and last year his beloved dog Bailey died. And, um, a little while after his dog died— he wasn't with his dog when he, when he died, and he, he felt terrible about that. He felt, um, he couldn't forgive himself for that. It was— there was a lot of grief. He, um, heard about a dog a few hours away that had been in different homes and nobody had been able to kind of handle him. And he just had a feeling that that was the dog for him, that he should go and fetch this dog and that it would be his kind of his, his permanent home. And he made a vow to this dog that he would offer him a permanent home, kind of whatever happened. He called this dog Orna, which is Irish for Bailey, I think, or there was some kind of link with his, his other dog. And the dog came home with him and the dog was very spirited and very difficult to train and kept pulling him over. So he'd go walking and something would happen and the dog would bolt and Terry would almost go over or go over. So he agonized about what to do. He got a trainer involved and the trainer said, look, you're too old for this dog. This dog needs somebody stronger. But they worked on it for a while to try and make it okay because Terry had promised this dog that it was the last home that he would have. And eventually he surrendered and he offered the dog to a nearby family with the one proviso that if it didn't work out, the dog would come back to him. And a few weeks later, the dog came back to Terry. So I heard from him today and he's still struggling on. He knows that he can't keep Orna now. He knows that physically it's just not possible. And they're working with the trainer to try and get him to a state where he can find a permanent home. But this wasn't, this wasn't what was meant to happen. When I heard that Terry was getting a new dog, I was so happy for him because he's all alone. And just the thought of him in his house without another living being didn't feel good. And then this is, this is what happened. This is what happened. And I'm telling this story because it feels like this is how life is, that we, that we think there's going to be some kind of benefit, or that once something happens, things will be okay, it will solve things. We can rest when we finish this bit of work, or when we get past this date in our diary. The future will be better because... And sometimes it is and sometimes it's not. The First Noble Truth is that we can't avoid dukkha, we can't avoid suffering. And The Dharma is everywhere. The Dharma pervades everything. The Dharma is soaked through every object we come into contact with, every plant, every dog, every person, every situation. And all we have to do to find the Dharma is to open our eyes. In the Dharma Glimpse, Wendy spoke about Where's Waldo, which some of you might have recognized as Where's Wally in England, the little book where you have to find the little, the little Wally in amongst all the other things in the picture. And that's a nice analogy, but it's almost as if everything in the picture is Wally. It's like if we look with the right eyes, every single object in the panorama is, is the Dharma. And sometimes it's really hard to remember that when things are tough. Life isn't fair. That's not a part of the deal with Buddhism, unfortunately, that things happen that aren't fair, that bad things happen, that good things happen to bad people, bad things happen to good people. And We can't make things, we can't see things in a way that they, that they become okay or that they become fair, but we can experience things in a way that they are pointing towards the Dharma, pointing towards infinite wisdom and compassion. A way of living that allows us to maintain our nobility, maintain our dignity, and make good choices and be happy, be free. Be calm. Enjoy ourselves. So I'm sitting with those two facts together tonight, the kind of the just how tough it's been for Terry and how I hate that, and how so many things are tough for so many people, and I really hate that. And the Dharma is always available to us. I remember when I went to visit him, going into his little— he's got a little room that's his little zendo, his little meditation room— and being there while he rang, kind of banged his gong and did all the Zen things that he does every morning. And I trust that, that he has that and that he will be okay whatever happens with Orna, whether it's a happy ending or not. He'll be okay. Namo Nidhibhu.

In gratitude, I offer this incense to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space and time. May this fragrance of the self reflecting our careful efforts wholehearted awareness, and the fruits of understanding slowly ripen. May we and all beings be companions of Buddhas and bodhisattvas. May we awaken from forgetfulness and realize the pure land.

Satya Robyn, would you unmute if you'd like to say a closing verse with us?

Blessed by Amitabha's light, may we care for all living things on the holy earth. Namami Guru. Just a reminder