Satya Robyn leads a Pure Land Buddhist practice session with guided meditation, chanting, and refuge vows. Graham reads a dharma glimpse about family life and timelessness, and Satya shares a personal reflection on feeling frazzled amid climate activism and grief.
Chapters
Good evening.
Welcome everybody.
Welcome Philip on Zoom.
Sorry.
Thank you.
Thank you. You've put me off now. I was going to say something, I can't remember what it was.
I'll try not to heckle too much.
Yes, this is what happens when you have your partner in practice with you.
In a mischievous mood. Yes.
Could you maybe go and sit somewhere else? So a special— I've remembered what I was going to say— special welcome if it's your first time tonight.
Or if it's your second time.
And, um, uh, Graham has kindly offered— well, was— said yes when I asked him if he would be willing to read the Dharma glimpse today. Dharma glimpse is just a short bit of writing by somebody who comes and practices with us about something that's happened that gives them a little insight or a little kind of flash of wisdom. So I will hand over to Graham.
Thank you very much.
So, an invitation from the eternal. Dharma glimpse by Helen Dakers. Over the last 2 years, my family life has evolved, and I've reached a stage where I'm now the mother to a teenager and the daughter of an elderly parent. A member of the sandwich generation, as I've discovered this is called. These roles have posed an interesting headspace for me. They bring a sense of richness, an opportunity to give and gain wisdom and resilience. My teen in particular has gone through a lot in their young life, and walking with them through it all has caused me to grapple with my own past and the hopes and fears I have for both of our futures. As a chronic overthinker, I find myself regularly churning over choices made, paths followed and rejected, and asking the Eternal Mother for answers, a chance to peer into the future and at once bring comfort and a guarantee that all our most optimistic dreams have come to fruition without having to endure too much suffering along the way. I know that the Eternal is not some celestial genie. But can't she make an exception, just this once? Then I come to a place of silence and meditation. There the mind is quieted, as if by the thinnest whisper of silk and thread. I'm connected to a soft, creamy, knowing smile. It doesn't bring answers or certainty, no cleverly worded life hack or pithy advice carefully constructed into 140 characters.. It simply is as it has always been, a knowing timelessness. Everything is as it is supposed to be, right here in the silence, inviting me to sit for a while.
Namaste. Thank you so much, Graham, and thank you to Helen, who's not here tonight, but I will send her the, the, uh, recording. Welcome, Beth. Lovely to see you. Long time no see.
Um, so we always begin—
well, we—
what we do after the Dharma glimpse is we have some silence. And there's something about sharing silence with each other that is, uh, different to sitting on your own in your room in silence. And the intention that we, we hold here is also a special intention. And there are lots of different ways of talking about it, and different people will find different framings helpful.
But for me, when it comes down to it, we're, we're sitting with the Buddha.
We're sitting quietly with the Buddha. And we can think of the Buddha as the man who lived in India 2,500 years ago and his kind of legacy, or we can think of the eternal Buddha, something that is present right here, right now, um, kind of And as a reminder, we have many Buddha statues and pictures in this room. So as you sit in silence with everyone here, you can either look at one of the Buddhas or close your eyes and imagine your version of the Buddha. Or just sit with love and wisdom, sit with infinite love and infinite wisdom, and allow it to work on you in whatever way it wants to work on you, whatever way you want it to work on you. After some silence together, we will do some chanting together, and we will chant the word Amitabha. And Amitabha is the Buddha of infinite light. So when you get the hang of the tune, do join in with us.
Namaste.
Amitabh. Amitabh.
Amitabha.
Amitabha.
Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha.
Amitabha.
Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha.
Amitabha.
Amitabha.
Amitabha. Ameen ta'am! Ameen ta'am! Meetaam!
Amitabha.
Amitabha.
Amitabha.
Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha.
Amitabha.
Amitabha.
Amitabha.
A—
mi— ta— ba.
A—
mi— ta—
ba.
Amitabha.
Amitabha. Amitabha. Me taba. Ah, me taba.
Ah, me taba. Amitabha.
Amitabha.
Please repeat after me. For refuge I go to the Buddha.
For refuge I go to the Buddha.
The one who is awake and full of love.
The one who is awake and full of love.
Namo Buddha. For refuge I go to the Dharma.
For refuge I go to the Dharma.
All that guides us to wisdom and compassion.
All that guides us to wisdom and compassion.
Namo Dharmaya. Namo Dharmaya. For refuge I go to the Sangha.
For refuge I go to the Sangha.
Those who live in the Buddha's light.
Those who live in the Buddha's light.
Namo Sanghaya. 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—
I pray that I may not fall into sexual misconduct.
With faith in 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 Three Jewels.
I pray that I may avoid intoxication.
I pray that I may avoid intoxication.
No blame.
No blame.
Be kind.
Be kind.
Love everything. Love everything.
Innumerable sentient beings, we vow to save them all. Inexhaustible unlimited 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 on Friday I went to London for a day of climate activism with other Buddhists and various other few thousand other people. And since then, um, I have been, um, reconnected with my climate grief, and I've quite a good job of disassociating from it for probably 6 months on and off. There's little occasions when it's been there, but I've really just been getting on with my life. And so being around all those people and then getting plugged in when I came back to, uh, the Soup Action and the Bridge Action and the response of the public has really stirred a lot up, and I've been writing about it and being with it. And as I was sitting in meditation, one of the thoughts I had was, I've got to give a really good talk in a minute, so maybe I'll just really let the Buddha kind of shower me with love and, and, uh, and wisdom. And then at the end of meditation, I'll be full of life and ready to dazzle you all with my, my wisdom. And I sat and allowed the compassion to be there, and what kept coming up was two words: I'm frazzled. And I didn't want to be frazzled, but I am. That's, that's where I am right now is I am frazzled, Satya Robyn. And I think today I've kind of come down from some of the, the emotional intensity and I'm, I'm just kind of, yeah, just frazzled. So rather than giving a brilliant talk, I thought that what I would share with you was my frazzledness.
Um, thinking about frazzles. My frazzledness.
One of the really important phrases that we that we— that's a jewel here at this temple for this practice, and kind of Pure Land Buddhist style practice that we do, is the phrase 'just as you are.' And the idea is that Amitabha, Amida Buddha, accepts us just as we are. And so if that's true, then maybe it's okay that I'm frazzled. Maybe it's okay to give a frazzly dharma talk rather than the sort of dharma talk a more awake person would give. So here's my frazzly dharma talk. And what feels really good to remember is that the whole point of coming into this room is to remind myself that I am accepted just as I am. And it's really hard for me to believe that, and lots of different parts of me fight it. And try to improve me just a little bit, because then I will be acceptable. But that's not what the Buddha says. The Buddha says that I accept you just as you are right now. And that brings tears to my eyes because I feel the truth of it. And I know that I am not alone with the feelings that have been roiling around me, because there is something in my experience that is bigger than the suffering. And here we call it Amida Buddha.
There are lots of other words that describe it.
So in a minute, Phi will ring the bell and we will do prostrations to the Buddha. Prostrations are a way of showing our respect, but they're also, for me, um, an opportunity to just let go of everything and lie ourselves down on the ground. I might just stay down there tonight. You can just go next door and have a cup of tea.
I'm still in front of the Buddha. Just leave me there.
And as we do 3 prostrations, we, we chant the words Namo Amida Butsu, which is another way of saying Amitabha. I can kind of connect with the, the wisdom, with the love. Um, and do copy anyone apart from Angie who does a hardcore version of prostrations. You might want to copy Angie. Maybe we'll have some more hardcore prostrators.
Um, and don't worry about getting all the words and tune at the same time. Uh, namo mi tabu. We point towards this Buddha in the front.
Namoh Amida Buddha. Namoh Amida Buddha. Namoh Amida.
In gratitude, we offer this incense to Buddhas and bodhisattvas throughout space and time. It's fragrant to start itself, reflecting our effort. Our whole heart awake, and the fruits 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.
If you'd like to return to stand at your seats. We always finish practice by first bowing to each other to say thank you to each other for practicing with us. Um, and Graham will start by turning to Faye, and I will turn to Casper, and then turn to the other way. The rest of you can work out amongst yourselves. Not bad, not bad. It's always a bit difficult when you're all in different places, isn't it? And then we bow to the Buddha, and then we tidy our seats and bow to our seats. So announcements-wise, there is a golden bowl in the hallway. If you're able to make a donation, please do, or you can do it online. There's a forward slash donate button. Um, we have a cup of tea now, feel free to join us. We have a retreat day on the first Saturday of November, I think the 3rd, 5th, which me and Angie will be running, and, uh, an author called Naga Priya will be coming to talk about his lovely new book about Shinran in the morning. Uh, Saturday we have a massive dead tree in the garden which we need to move from the garden into a skip. So if anyone is willing to come and either do a bit of clipping of the branches or carrying or there'll be many other tasks to do, then we'll do that at 11 o'clock on Saturday after practice. Thank you, Aramandit. Anything else? Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Oh, and we finish with the closing words.
Sorry, which is on your little bit of paper.
It starts with blessed, if you want to say it with us. Blessed by Ani's father's life, may we pray for all living things and the Holy Earth. And I need to breathe.
That's definitely—
The end. The end.
