Satya Robyn leads a Buddhist practice session featuring readings on Buddha nature, chanting of refuge vows, and reflections on impermanence. A puppy interrupts meditation, a garden Buddha crumbles, and the group considers how climate change mirrors the decay all around us.
Chapters
Good morning, everybody. Welcome. We will begin. And welcome to Mahamudra. I waved at the camera, guys, and everyone looked like— there's probably some devas and dragons, invisible beings over there. Wave at them as well. So we'll begin this morning with a Dharma glimpse by Frankie., and Nikki will very kindly read us.
This is called Does My Dog Have Buddha Nature? One of my perpetual struggles is with posture during sitting meditation. Zen has very precise and detailed instructions about sitting posture that come from the Japanese monastic tradition. And while they aren't meant to create an endurance test of sitting, that's exactly how it can sometimes feel. I can still just about get down onto the floor to sit. Getting up again is another matter. And luckily, I don't have problems with my knees or legs. My nemesis is my lower back, which can be anything from uncomfortable to so painful I can't think of anything else. This is entirely down to me and my lack of core strength, but I've also realized that my trickster mind can play its part. Both in good and bad ways. So I was pleased earlier this week that I was finding daily sitting comfortable enough to maintain posture and the correct position of my hands—left palm up and the right palm with thumbs touching. On Tuesday evening, our 11-month-old pup decided he'd like to join me. At first he sat slightly behind me, but gradually he crept his way around me so that first he was sitting in front of my legs then gradually laying his head across them. We sat like that very briefly, but inevitably he started to push at my hands with his head. He wanted attention. He wanted his ears frundled and his neck rubbed. Ringo knows that if he insists, he usually gets his way. But what about my proper Zen posture? Moving is not allowed unless your leg is about to drop off or some such medical emergency, and even then movement should be swift, subtle, and silent. What to do? Wavering, I wondered, what would Buddha do? Right in front of me was my shrine, Buddha, Kuan Yin looking down benevolently, and between them a small card with the Bright Earth Liturgy's closing verse written on it: Blessed by Amitabha's light, may we care for all living things and the holy earth. All living things. I spend the rest of my sitting time with my hands not in the perfect Zen mudra, but stroking the silky chestnut ears of my little pup, both of us blessed by Amitabha's light. Of course my dog has Buddha nature. How can he not have when he's such a great Dharma teacher?
Namaste. Thank you. Thank you, Nikki. Thank you. Thank you. So we'll sit quietly together. I'm afraid I haven't got any 11-month-old pups to provide you right now, though those of us who've been in the garden have already had a little dose of, uh, ear stroking. Um, and as we sit, maybe this morning You might want to repeat a word internally, the word Amitābha, the Buddha of infinite light. And when I do this, I like the word to just kind of follow my breath. So, Ami, as the breath goes in, and then Tābha the breath goes out, and then a pause. So just imagine the word almost as if it's bobbing on your breath. Don't change your breath, just allow it to be as it is. And when your mind wanders, just bring it back to repeating that word silently, 'Amitābha.' And then after some silence, we will chant We're going to do a tiny tarot break together and have a bit more silence after this.
Amita, Amita, Amita, Amita.
Amita. Amita.
Amita. Ari Chava. Ari Chava. Amisha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh, Amitabh, Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh, Amitabh, Amitabh. Amitabh, Amitabh, Amitabh. Ameesha. Ameesha. Ameesha. Amee cha. Amee cha. Amee cha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha.
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.
Dharma will die.
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.
Nam-mo Dharmaya. Nam-mo 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. Nam-mo Sanghaya.
With faith in the Three Jewels—
With faith in the Three Jewels—
I pray that I may not take life.
I pray this time they're not taking my—
With faith in the Three Jewels— Faith in the Three Jewels— I pray that I may not steal.
All right, great!
It's like very much here.
With faith in the Three Jewels—
In three jewels— I pray that I may not fall into sexual misconduct.
I pray that I may not fall into sexual misconduct—
With faith in The Three Jewels... —With Faith In The Three Jewels, 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—
...and for instance they're avoiding intoxication—
No blame! Be kind! Love everything!
Amen. Innumerable sentient beings, we vow to save them all.
Exhaustible love and compassion, we vow to transform them all. We vow to master the world.
Infinite is the Buddha's way.
We vow to follow faithfully. Namomi dabu.
So when we walked around the garden this morning, I found myself walking towards a gray Buddha sitting in a little kind of alcove of stones, and then walking out again, which isn't something that I usually do, but I really wanted to be close to that Buddha this morning. And as I passed him, I noticed how he is crumbling. Um, his hands and his knees and the bottom half of him are kind of shattered, shattering, fragmenting. I remember when me and Casper bought him in, uh, TK Maxx, if I remember correctly. HomeSense, very sacred shop. Um, and it seemed like the right place for him down there. I'm not sure whether he was meant to be outside or not, but we put him outside. And, and then after maybe a couple of years, I think his hand started to break. One of his hands started to break. And at that moment, I can remember thinking, oh, he's broken. Maybe we should change him for a different Buddha. Maybe we should, you know, send him back into the earth and, and get a new Buddha that's going to be whole. Um, and I didn't, and he continues to fragment. And this morning I looked at his face and his face is really steady and beautiful and content. And I thought, I'm really glad I didn't send you to the, to the rubbish tip, because he's had all these years of enjoying that space in the garden. And I also wondered what lesson he had for me this morning, because Buddhas are, as I said on Wednesday night, Buddhas are always appearing to us all the time in disguise. He's not in disguise cuz he's actually a Buddha, but what lesson is there? So the other thing that I did in the garden this morning before anybody arrived was listen to a little, uh, kind of 7-minute, uh, sound clip of King Charles speaking in 2019. And the interviewer was asking him, of all the difficult kind of, you know, he was saying to, to the King, oh, there's so many difficult things happening and there's lots of things that you're passionate about. If you could choose one thing, what would be the thing that you would say is the most important thing for us to attend to? And King Charles said climate change, that the— his, his, his, his experience is that what's already happening is that we are suffering various effects of climate change that have already come to be, and that those are kind of compounding each other and then causing other issues to be more severe. And it brought me hope that there is somebody with some power who will be maybe balancing out Liz Truss a bit. We'll see. I won't go into that. But, but, but it was very clear to him. He spoke very clearly and it was very clear to him that that is the greatest challenge we are facing as a human race. Um, and then it also led me to reflect on the situation that we're in at the moment in the world, which is that parts of the world are crumbling and fragmenting. We listened to something on the radio yesterday and it said that, that the floods in Pakistan probably, probably haven't covered a third of the country. It's probably more like 10% 10% of a country is a lot of country to be covered in water. I read this morning that there are heat waves in California at the moment, causing untold suffering to many people. So the world is fragmenting, the world is crumbling, just like our garden Buddha. And so what can we do? We can look at the Buddha's face. We can see that even though maybe the Buddha's aware that he's only got so long left before he sort of crumbles completely, but right now he's sitting steady enjoying the garden. As we walked around this morning, there were, um, 2 or 3 really big fat bumblebees on the, um, the passion flower. And, uh, there was a— our cat greeted us as we turned a corner, and our dogs were with us, and The anemones, which I have here next to me as well, are just beautiful at the moment. They're crumbling, some of the petals are, are going, but they're absolutely gorgeous. So we can enjoy what is here as other things crumble away. And that is how it is to be in this world of samsara, that, that there is always something being born and something crumbling away. And often it's the same thing. It's, uh, you know, our, our own systems have new things arising and old things falling away and decaying and, and being released. Breaking. And taking refuge in the Three Jewels, as we did just now, reminds us that in amongst all of this decay and all of this change, there is something solid that we can lean on— the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. However we conceptualize of these things, they are there and reliable. And when we feel sad, when we feel afraid, we can lean into them. So thank you to the Crumbling Garden Buddha for this morning's Dharma talk.
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
Do turn to your seats, and then we finish as always by bowing to each other.
Sorry, sorry. And to the Buddha. Find your seats, back to your seats.
And the closing verse is on the little bits of paper.
Blessed by Amma Harbha's light, may we care for all living things and the whole earth. Namomi Tabu, join us for a cup of tea.
