Practice - The Buddha is bigger

Welcome to Wednesday evening practice. I could just see Matsuo-ji wasn't connected, so I paused. To wait to finish my sentence, but it made that sentence sound very odd to everyone that was here already, and will probably look quite strange on the recording as well. Welcome to our Wednesday evening practice session, a special welcome if it's your first time. The Buddha said, 'I teach suffering.' and the end of suffering. You're getting a nice little kiss there. I teach suffering and the end of suffering. And then he spent 50 years, more or less, explaining, teaching, and practicing, living the answer to that. Question, if you like. How do we escape suffering? And we can see through the choices he made in his life, living very simply on the earth, living in community sometimes, living on his own in the woods sometimes. We can see it explicitly in the many different teachings that he gave, the answers to people, the different answers to people that came questioning him. Often he'd roll out the same set of teachings with a slightly different frame around them, like we do in these dharma talks, often find ourselves coming back to the same conclusion even though the sort of opening preamble is different. And sometimes he would say different things, meeting the need of the individual person that was coming with their particular suffering. Because lots of suffering is universal, but we also all suffer in our own particular ways. And I was thinking today of the list the Buddha gave when he was explaining dukkha. Dukkha is the word that's translated as suffering, usually translated as suffering, and lots of translators translate in different ways. Some talk about dissatisfaction. There's an image which is a cart with a bad wheel, so it kind of just doesn't sit right on the road, like a trolley with a wheel that doesn't work in the supermarket. But the list that the Buddha gave was birth, sickness, old age, death, being separated from people that you love, being associated with people that you don't love, not having what you want, having things you do want taken away from you. And you can see it, it's kind of a mix. Some of those things there are practical solutions to. If you're sick, you can take medicine, but there isn't any medicine for dying. Sometimes when we're separated from people we love We can reach them on Zoom or on WhatsApp. We've experienced a lot of that during the pandemic, and sometimes we can't, or sometimes we can reach them on Zoom and it, and it still doesn't satisfy that part of us that wants the connection. Sometimes when we don't get something we want, we can ask somebody else for something a bit the same, or we can get a delivery of something to replace it. And sometimes there's nothing else that will meet that need. I guess I was thinking about this ordinary human experience we have where I want— what one thing and you want something else. And that might be something quite mundane, like, you know, I want to stay in, you want to go out, I want Chinese, you want pizza. Or it might be something more significant— I want to get married, you want to break up, I want to move here, you want to move there. And it's really good to search out those practical solutions. It's really important to see if we can make a difference in the world. This is what compassion is, taking action that reduces the suffering of others. In Buddhism, loving kindness is defined as having a wish for somebody else's well-being, and compassion as taking away action, or a wish for taking away the suffering of others. And we do that in the world. It's a really important part of our practice. And sometimes there's nothing we can do. And a lot of my work as a psychotherapist is supporting people Okay, the dog's really tangled with the microphone lead. This is why you shouldn't have your laptop on a spinning chair with the leads tangled everywhere. It's still around his foot. Sometimes you can do something about things. I've put the lead up. That's a very simple solution. Yeah, a lot of my work as a psychotherapist is listening to people who are getting— who are either in the experience of there being something they can do nothing about, loss for example, or are recollecting those times in their life where they were up against the wall and things just went the wrong way in the world. Sorry, it's a really weird thing happening because the lead was brushing the touchpad, the screen was going crazy for a moment. Technology is really wonderful but also makes life complicated sometimes. When we're in those places, it's faith that makes the difference. It's this sense that there is something that is wise and loving that can be with us and be a friend to us. That our grief can be met by something that is bigger than it. This is what we do when we listen to a friend who is suffering. When there's nothing we can do to fix them, still being a listening ear is really profoundly supportive. And this is what the Buddha does for us, sitting with his legs crossed on a lotus accepting us whatever state we are in. When there's nothing we can do to change the world to the way that we want it, or to change ourselves to the way that we want to be, we can go and sit by the Buddha, or rest against the Buddha, and just be received. And that act of being accepted in that friendly way, in that loving way, is powerful and profound and releases suffering. Being held in that way is what transforms suffering. It's what is the catalyst that changes pain into love. Now, this is the great gift of Pure Land Buddhism. Buddhism as a whole has loads of good advice of how to be in the world and what precepts to follow. Pure Land Buddhism offers us a place to rest when nothing else works, and we just need to be received and loved just as we are. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

So we'll spend some time sitting quietly, and I want you to As we're sitting quietly, bring the Buddha to mind, whatever that means for you. It might mean that you picture in your mind Amitābha Buddha, red gold on a lotus seat. It might mean that you just have a sense of the light of that Buddha. Touching you. It might just be experimenting with the idea that there is something bigger than ourselves that is wise and loving and that we can lean into. And just in the silence, bringing ourselves back into relationship with that. If we're distracted, our thoughts are going Noticing those thoughts and distractions and then bringing ourselves back to this idea or image or felt sense of the presence of the Buddha.

Amitabh, Amitabh. Aani thapa. Aani thapa. Aani thapa. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Aami taba. Aami taba. Aami taba. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha.

Amitabha.

Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Ameen. Ta'aba. Bless you.

Thank you.

Sometimes in our lives as Buddhists, or as people, I guess, we're the person solid in our faith, and whether we're literally sitting in a meditation position and feeling grounded, um, or just emotionally feeling grounded. And other people come to us to be held and supported. And sometimes we're in the position of the one needing support, either going to real life spiritual friends or going to the Buddha in the way that I described earlier. We're about to do some prostrations together, some bows to the Buddha. So this is another practice where we are the ones making ourselves humble and inviting that relationship with the Buddha, with something bigger than our small minds, with that unconditional love that flows towards us. And we, in a moment, Satya will ring a bell, we'll stand. You're welcome to join us to stand, and when we prostrate, we do that from standing to kneeling in front of the Buddha. It's hard to see on Zoom, so don't worry too much about it. The main thing is that we're making a bow to the Buddha, and we'll do that chanting Namo Amida Butsu 3 times.

Namoh Amida Butsu. Namoh Amida. Namoh Amida. Namoh Amida Butsu. Namoh Amitabha. Namoh Amitabha. Namoh Amita. Namoh Amita. Namoha Amitabhu. Namoha Amitabhu. Namoha Amitabhu. Namoha Amitabhu. Namoh Amida. Namoh Amida Bu. Namoh Amida Bu. Namoh Amida Bu. Namo Amida.

I didn't do the things.

I'm going to do them now.

Okay.

Apparently we usually do the things in the other order, but I forgot about that. I just felt like we were doing prostrations then, and then we were going to do the liturgy now, so that's what we will do. So we'll recite the refuges and precepts together. Well, I will say them first, so please repeat after me. For refuge I go to the Buddha.

For refuge I go to the Buddha.

Namo Buddhaya.

Namo Buddhaya.

For refuge I go to the Sangha.

For refuge I go to the Sangha.

Namo Sanghaya.

Namo Sanghaya.

For refuge I go to the Dharma.

For refuge I go to the Dharma.

Before we started, I said to Satya, do you need the piece of paper? Because I really like to get things in the right order. And now, of course, I've said from my own mind, I've said things in the wrong order. That's why Satya's chuckling to herself. Let's start again. Maybe we could just edit that out of the YouTube. For refuge I go to the Buddha.

For refuge I go to the Buddha.

Namo Buddhaya.

Namo Buddhaya.

For refuge I go to the Dharma.

For refuge I go to the Dharma.

Namo Dharmaya. Mamo Dharmaya—

for refuge I go to the Sangha— Nammo Sangaia—

With faith in the Three Jewels—I pray that I may not take life—

With faith in the Three Jewels—I pray that I may not steal—

With faith in the Three Jewels—with faith in the Three Jewels—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 3 jewels' —'I Pray That I May Not Fall Into Sexual Misconduct,' 'With Faith In The Three Jewels—I Pray That I Avoid Intoxication'.

I know there're many sentient beings who suffer from illness; but they do their best to be happy for all of us while suffering through this sickness! They make offerings so we can become free again because you have taught them how much more important it's being healthy than having wealth or fame!' Numerable our 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 fulfill it completely.

So we'll have a bell to bow to each other. And two bells to bow to the Buddha. And then to close the formal part of the practice, we'll all read the verse together that I've just put in the chat box. Do unmute so that we can hear your voices. It means we'll all be out of sync with each other, that's the nature of Zoom, but it's nice to read at least one thing.

Together.

Blessed by Amitabha's light, may I care for all living things and the Mummy to Boo. Thank you, everybody. Stop the recording.