Practice - warm heartedness

Welcome to our evening practice, everybody. We're joined on Zoom this evening by Chris, Beth, and Claire. In the Shrine Room we have Satya Robyn and myself, Jaramei, with Brian and Fi. Welcome everybody. I'll hand over to Satya, who's leading this evening.

Namaste. So I bought this book from Japan at great expense about 2 months ago, and then I haven't touched it So I thought I'd flick through it this evening before coming upstairs, and it's the collected works of Shinran, Shinran being the Japanese sage, Japanese Buddhist teacher who started the school of Jodo Shinshu Pure Land Buddhism, which is the biggest school of Pure Land Buddhism in Japan, and There was just a very short couple of sentences from one of his letters that I'm going to read out to you. He wrote this letter when he was 88. "Signs of long years of saying the Nembutsu and aspiring for birth can be seen in the change in the heart that that had been bad, and in the deep warmth for friends and fellow practicers. This is the sign of rejecting the world. You should understand this fully. So I like that he's talking about how we can tell that someone's been practicing a long time, and this is something that I've had experience of, not all the time, but there is something about years of practice that seems to soften people and to lead them to have deep warmth for Friends. I really like that phrase, and I was wondering what it was that stops me from being warm to my friends now. Like, what is this thing that gets worn away in us through practice? And the way that he puts it is it's the sign of rejecting the world. That's quite a Pure Land thing to say, that when we truly believe that we will be going to the Pure Land, then we almost, we don't need this world anymore. We reject this world. But I think a different way of putting that might be that we lose our attachment, we lose our unhealthy attachment to, to this world, or to the people in this world, or to the things, or to ourselves, parts of ourselves. I know that when I'm not feeling warm towards my friends or other people, it's always because of something that I'm attached to that gets in the way. So, it may be that I am feeling impatient with somebody because maybe they've told me the same story 3 times. So I'm kind of feeling attached to being entertained or to not having to be patient and listen or to wonder about what's actually going on for that person. Maybe I'm preoccupied with my own troubles, so I'm more attached to trying to sort that out than I am to being present. Present. Maybe I'm judging the other person in some way, which means that I'm attached to, um, not feeling something myself. Usually when I'm judging someone else, it's because I don't want to acknowledge something about myself, or I'm afraid of acknowledging something inside me. And that as we practice very slowly, without us even being aware of it, often there's a relaxing of those attachments. There's a softening, there's a, a wearing down like water on stone of some of our fear-based attachment and protection. As that relaxes, what naturally is available to us is warmth, is warmth towards the person that's boring, because we maybe understand that they are telling the same story because they haven't really properly heard something themselves about what they're trying to to say, or we think about ourselves when we repeat the same story to other people. Rather than judging people, we recognize that they're doing things that we also do, or stop ourselves from doing that we have the impulse to do, or that we see that they're driven by different fears, but that we have them too, and that we're less in need of the other person to be a certain way in order for us to be okay, because we're already okay, we're already settled and secure, and we can just see the other person and all their limitations and fallibility and feel tender towards it. And we can see our own limitations and fallibility and feel tender towards those parts of ourselves. If long practice doesn't lead us to become more warm-hearted towards our friends, my advice would be to pick a different practice. And any practice that opens us up to love, to love coming in and to love coming out is a good practice. That's nenbutsu, sitting quietly, that's walking slowly in the temple garden, it's walking on the hill and looking at the sky, it's reading texts that are inspiring, it's talking with Dharma colleagues, it's coming together in this room where we've been coming together now for 6 and 3/4 years, and knowing that we share an intention, that we share this practice together. Rather than seeing rejecting the world as being a cutting off, if that's what Shinran meant, he wouldn't have also said that we become more warm-hearted towards our friends. There's something about a cutting off from a need to be treated in a certain way or to be given certain things, or for things to go one way or the other, that we just become more relaxed about everything. And of course, um, unless we become enlightened, we don't manage that perfectly. But little bits here and there make a big difference. And it's not really something that we can intentionally do. We can notice when we're not doing it, when we're not feeling warm-hearted. But the way that Shinran's describing it is it's more of a side effect. It's kind of a non— we don't practice in order to become nicer people. We practice to connect with the Buddha, and a side effect of that, a consequence, is that we become easier to be around. So I'll just read it one more time. Signs of long years of saying the Nembutsu and aspiring for birth can be seen in the change in the heart that had been bad, and in the deep warmth for friends and fellow practicers. This is the sign of rejecting the world. You should understand this fully. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. So as we sit silently, maybe you might want to check in with your heart and see how much warmth is flowing in and flowing out. If you can, without any judgment. And also remembering that the Buddha's warmth surrounds us and is just waiting for little gaps where it can come in. Tonight we'll chant together to Satya Muni, and the words are Om Muni Muni, which means sage, Maha Muni, great sage. Shakyamuni, sage of the Shakya. Svaha. Svaha is kind of like, I salute you. And we'll try and ignore Ralph barking downstairs.

Om Muni Muni Maha Muni Shakyamuni Svaha. Om muni muni mahamunishakhyamunisvaha! Om muni muni mahamunishakyamunisvaha! Om munimune mahamunishakyamunis— Om muni muni mahamune shakya munisvaha! Om muni muni mahamune satya muniswaha! Um— um... Muni muni mahamune sakya muniswaha! Om Mune Mune Mahamuni Shakyamunisvaha! Om Mune Mune Mahamuni Shakhyamunisvaha! Om Mune Mune Mahamunei Sakyamunis— sorry... Om Mune mune mahamuni shakya munisha Om Mune mune mahamuni Shakyamuniswaha— Oh my God! Um... um... mm? Hahaha. Yeah mani satyamoni swaha. Hmmmm yeah I get it now. Okay let's do that again. Om Mune mune mahamuni Shakyamunisvaha! Om Mune mune mahamuni Shakya Munishwara! Om Mune mune mahamuni Sakhyamunisha— Om Mune mune mahamune shakya munisvaha! Om Mune mune mahamune satya munisvaha! Om Mune mune mahamune sakhyamunis— Om muni munimaha mini shaktya minisvah! Ohm mune mune mahamunishakyamoonesvaahh— ohmmu nee meene ma ha mu ni sha kye am moonees vaaahhh... om mume meenemaha mushakiyamu neseefaatthaanmaaanomumine mumoomeeshaktiyamoniseevaahahaamaanaamamuna mani makara mamani chakra namaskar saha'hammu nehmeenenmahamaha mudnishakyayo oneezfahaḥ HOM MUNI MEENE MAHA MU NI SHAKTYA MOONEESVAAHAAA OM MUNE MEENE MAHA MU NISHAKTIYA MOMENIESVAAHAAAA HOM MUNE MEENE MAHA MU MI SHA KYAMOONESVAHH Om mune mune mahamune shakya munisha Om mune mune mahamune satya munisha Om mune mune mahamune sakyamunishwa Om Mune mune mahamune shakya munisvaha. Om Mune mune mahamune satya munisvaha. Om Mune mune mahamune shakya munisvaha. Om Mune mune mahamuni shakya munisvaha! Om Mune mune mahamuni satya munisvaha! Om Mune mune mahamuni sakhyamunis— Om Muni mune maham uni shakhya munisvaha! Om Muni mune maham uni satya muniswaha? Hom Munimunima ham unishakyam muniswa— Om muni muni maham uni shakya munisvaha! Om muni muni maham uni satya munishwaha! Om muni muni maham uni shakya munis—

For refuge I go to Buddha . For refuge I go Dharma Namo Buddhaya , for refuge I go to the Dharma— Nam-myoho-renge-kyo— For refuge I go to the Sangha .

For refuge I go to the sangha.

Namo Sangaia With faith in the Three Jewels— With faith in three jewels—I pray that I may not take life. —I pray that we might not save lives—with faith in the Three Jewels—With faith of the Three Jewels—I pray that I may not steal. —I pray it's on me—not still With faith in the Three Jewels— With faith in the three jewels I pray that I may not fall into sexual misconduct—I pray that time they're not falling to sexually mischievous conduct—with faith in the Three Jewels—with faith in the three tools—I pray that I may not fall into wrong speech-I pray this side may not form it around my own speech-with faith in the Three Jewels—with faith in the 3 Jews I pray that I may avoid intoxication.

I pray that I may avoid intoxication.

Innumerable sentient beings, we vow to save them all. Inexhaustible devoted 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 follow it completely. Amita. Namah Amita. Namah Amita. Namah Amita.

So we recite the closing verse together. Blessed by Amma Sahaja's light, may we care for all living things and the Holy Earth.