This content was created by Satya Robyn. This content was uploaded by Satya Robyn. This is a YouTube video titled "Practice - trousers soaked in dew" (posted 2021-09-18) containing an English Buddhist group practice and dharma talk held in a shrine with participants joining both in-person and on Zoom. The excerpt includes a teacher's short dharma reflection using wet trousers/dew as a metaphor for being affected by the world, references to walking meditation and Bright Dawn training, mentions of participants (e.g., Casper, David, Dharmé, Terry Keenan) and several speakers leading communal chanting (Amitabha mantra), refuges, vows, and closing recitations (including Om Mani Padme Hum). The setting is a communal morning practice with multiple speakers and call-and-response chanting.
Chapters
Good morning everybody, welcome to Saturday morning practice.
There are 7 of us in the shrine this morning. It's just nice to say for the people joining us on Zoom so they can— they have some sense that there's a room beyond Satya Robyn.
Say whatever you like. There's 50 of us this morning in the shrine.
And, um, Phipps here on Zoom, and Paul as well.
Welcome everybody. So this morning I started with nice dry trousers and walked down to check the shrine out this morning before we did our walking meditation. And when I came back in, the bottom of my trousers had acted as a wick and soaked water up several inches, and they were kind of flapping around my ankles, cold and wet. And I was thinking, hmm, I wonder if I could use this as a dharma talk. What's the meaning here? We've just started some Buddhist training, Casper and myself, with Bright Dawn, an organization from America, and there's a real emphasis in the training on being able to find Dharma everywhere. So whatever we're doing, whatever we're encountering, we try to listen for the Dharma message in it. And I was thinking about how the world affects us. When we walk out into the world, we act as a wick, and some of what is out there ends up in us. And I'm thinking particularly of suffering. I've been very conscious all week of the Insulate Britain protesters, who— some of whom we know and many of whom are being supported by friends of ours. Who have been doing some very radical things to try to wake the government up, and how it might be to sit there on the motorway and be dragged off by angry motorists, or to read the, uh, what people are saying in the papers, and I've been affected by that all week. It's been with me, kind of the various arguments for and against and the polarization that happens, and of course the broader crisis that we're in as a world. And there's also been personal things going on that have affected me in that way. I've kind of carried them with me. I've carried that sort of like the dew. It's been, it's been with me, it's been around me, in me. The alternative to getting wet trousers is not going into the garden. And we could do that. We could just stay in this room as we used to and be dry and warm. And I hope that the people who came walking around the garden with me this morning will agree that that would be a shame, because there were some very beautiful things in the garden this morning. I noticed that for the first time our fig tree has produced a lot of figs, so that maybe next year we'll be able to eat those. And this is how it is to be human. We can't go out into the world without getting wet trousers. I was I'd already had the idea to talk about this, and then I sat down ready for meditation, and first Aiko jumped on me with her dewy feet, and then Ralph, and the whole of my trousers were then quite wet. And that's how it is to be in contact with living beings. That's how it is to be in relationship with living beings, is that they also make us wet. And dirty. I'm sure mothers will appreciate— will especially appreciate that. And of course, that also comes with many joys and much suffering. So if we want to engage with the world, we need to get our trousers wet, and we also need to know that we are being held in a container that makes all that possible. We need to know that the Buddha is here, just sitting quietly, commiserating with us about our wet trousers. Consoling us and reminding us of the bigger picture, reminding us that we don't know what the bigger picture is, that all we can do is do our little bit, the bit that we're sort of asked to do or shown how to do. This morning for David was putting beautiful flowers on the shrines before he went on holiday. Yesterday for Dharmé, it was mowing the lawn so we could have less dew on our trousers as we walked around, and David was preparing the paths for us. So we all have our little jobs to do, and we can do them and not really know what's going to happen tomorrow or in 10 years' time or even later today. And more and more recently, the Buddha is reminding me to enjoy my life, to enjoy the anemones in the vases there against the ferns, to enjoy the expression on the Buddha's face as he sits there. So as we sit in silence this morning, you might just want to bring gentle awareness to the dew that you are carrying with you, the suffering that has stuck to you. The response that you've had to that suffering. And if it feels okay, just allow the Buddha to warm you and gently release some of that back into the earth. If that's not happening, that's fine. Just notice that. And just sit with the Buddha, the glow of the Buddha just warming you and consoling you. And then we will chant something, I don't know what yet, together. And as we chant, you can, you can stay with that image. I'm only to be The chant that we will chant together this morning is chant for Amitabha, and the words are the Tibetan form, so it's Om Ami Dewa Gyi. Om Ami Dewa Gyi.
Om Ami Dewa Gyi.
Om Ami Dewa Gyi.
Oh, Mami de Wari. Oh, Mami de Wari.
Oh, Mami de Wari.
Omami de wa ri.
Omami de wa ri. Omami de wa ri.
Omami de wa ri.
Omami de wa ri. Omami de wa ri.
Om Mani Deva Hari.
Om Mani Deva Hari. Om Mani Deva Hari.
Omami de wa ri. Omami de wa ri.
Omami de wa ri.
Oh, Mami de Wari.
Oh, Mami de Wari. Oh, Mami de Wari.
Om Amidevare.
Om Amidevare. Om Amidevare.
Omami de wa ri.
Omami de wa ri. Omami de wa ri.
Omami de waris!
Omami de waris! Omami de warim! Om Mani Devi, Om Mani Devi, Om Mani Devi. Oh my dear Lord.
For refuge, I go to the Buddha.
For refuge I go to the Buddha.
Namo Buddhaya. For refuge I go to the Dharma. Namodarmaya. For refuge I go to the Sangha. Namosangayen. 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!
—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 avoid 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 sentient beings, we vow to save them all. Inexhaustible ardent compassion, 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 cultivate We have a new part to practice this morning suggested by Casper and Arago, which is that we finish this little round of refuges, vows, and precepts with 6 words that my dear friend Terry Keenan has mantra for his life. Terry Keenan is a Zen teacher who lives in Ireland, and he has embodied these words and lives these words, and they felt like they would be nice to include. So I will repeat them, two words at a time.
You'll say it.
I will say them and you will repeat them. I'll repeat them from Terry.
No blame.
No blame. Be kind. Be kind. Love everything.
Love everything.
Is she going to do another one? So we'll finish by bowing to each other. And then if people want to unmute on Zoom, we'll recite the closing verse together, which is on your bit of paper if you need it. Blessed is the child who follows the light.
May he care for all living things. Om Mani Padme Hum.
