Practice with Khema

Morning everybody, and so morning to everybody here in the shrine room. It's lovely to see everybody, and we've got Rob online. Great to see you. So yes, I was glad that bit's done. I'm going to start this morning. I've started early with my book group, and apologies if this bit, this section's been read before, but it's kind of pertinent to what I'm talking about later. So this comes from Tetsuo Ono's book, which I think we're doing later on, probably in beginning of next year in a book group, Rubble into Gold. And yeah, it's just quite, just quite a poignant piece. The Buddha in the causal stage made the universal vow: when beings hear my name and think on me, I will come to welcome each of them, not discriminating at all between the poor and the rich and well-born, not discriminating between the inferior and highly gifted, not choosing the learned and those upholding pure precepts, nor rejecting those who break precepts and whose evil karma is profound, solely making beings turn about and abundantly say the Nembutsu. I can make bits of rubble change into gold. And I'm sorry, always gets me. And I don't think I could read it again. I can make bits of rubble change into gold. And I was a bit of rubble, and today I've got a bit of gold. So yes, that's why I always loved that piece. So thank you. So now we're going to go into a period of meditation, and we haven't got the sun shining today, but as part of this morning's meditation, I just like us to think about, about the golden light shining upon us., as part of that meditation, and just to be bathed in that beautiful golden light, that, that, that light of Amida as part of this morning's meditation. And then we'll, we'll come out of meditation with, um, Amitabha. So thank you.

Amitabh.

Amitabh.

Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Namita. Namita. Namita.

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, all that guides us to wisdom and compassion.

All that guides us to wisdom and compassion.

Namo Dhamma. 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.

Namo Sanghaya.

With faith in the Three Jewels.

With faith in the Three Jewels.

And in light of my human tendencies.

And in light of my human tendencies.

I pray that I may become aware of when I take life.

I pray that I may become aware of when I take life.

I pray that I may become aware— —of when I take what is not freely given. When I take what is not really given. I pray that I may become aware— of when I fall into sexual misconduct. Of when I fall into sexual misconduct. I pray that I may become aware— I pray that I may become aware— Of when I fall into wrong speech, I pray that I may become aware. I pray that I may become aware of when I become intoxicated. No blame. Be kind. Love everything.

Love everything. Innumerable are 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.

I'm going to refer to my notes.

It might not make much sense. I can—

hopefully this isn't too emotional. I won't turn it over. Note to self: get somebody to read. Oh, um, this actually has quite a lot of facts and figures in it, um, which you may not find useful, but I, you know, when you start reading, when you're doing your piece, I can't pull it out the bag yet, out of thin air, um, and you start going down the rabbit hole of, oh, that's interesting, so I'm throwing it all in. So yes, so, um, Yes, I haven't not washed for a week. I have just been away on holiday, so I have got a bit of a tan, not looking grubby. And I've just returned back from Gozo, which I have to go via Malta. And I don't know if any of you have ever been there, and it's very different from here, and certainly at the moment because it's very hot and dry. And there was no torrential downpours like we had last night, which was quite incredible. But my dad lived there, and he lived there— well, it would have been 30 years now if he was still alive, but he lived there for about 22 years. So I have a kind of— feels like a second home, a connection to a place not of my choosing, but yeah, connection. To, to the place because it's a place I've probably visited more than anywhere else, apart from Wales perhaps. Um, visited Wales a lot. Um, yeah, so it's like a second home. Um, and as you get off the plane, I'm always struck when we're talking about light by this beautiful golden light that they have over there. And last week it was particularly beautiful, the— that period of the day with that golden light and that warmth and sunshine. There's lots of sunshine, um, and I'm missing it a lot. But, you know, um, very different landscape. It's got no trees, no large trees, and no rivers. Sat by the river the other night. I find it strange that I couldn't do that It's an island surrounded by the most incredible blue sea, and it's— yeah, it's beautiful. But it's an island. The two islands together have 359 churches, which for a very small island is a lot. And there are cathedrals and chapels. So that's nearly one for every day of the year. So you could— yeah, I find it amazing. So there's 313 in Malta and 46 in Gozo, and the reason that— for that, most likely, is because in AD 60, Saint Paul was shipwrecked on the island, and he took Christianity to the island, and many religious monuments have been erected in his honor. They have most definitely erected many religious monuments, yeah, and it was the first European nation, and it was the first European nation, and predominantly Roman Catholicism is there, probably about 80%, but maybe even more, and they celebrate feasts of their saint annually, and it's a week-long celebration, and I just missed the village where I stay, celebrate. It was purposeful because I find it quite overwhelming, but it's a week-long celebration of street processions, matching outfits for the children, um, brass bands. It's very noisy. Eating and drinking, lots of that. And fireworks, lots of fireworks, which of course we enjoy at New Year, don't we, here from the balcony. So we— yeah, I looked at a census actually to see how many Buddhists lived on the island out of interest, and the census said there was 2,495 people recognizing themselves as Buddhists on the island, which I thought was quite good. It's 316 kilometers square, and there's one church per square kilometer. So it really is. So it's, um, there's one church for every 1,380 residents, which if you compare to Rome, there's one church for every 4,800 residents. It's very church dense. Um, yeah, we've got about 40,000 churches in the UK, and I couldn't find our dense— our church density, but I'm gonna keep looking. I'm quite interested in this now. I've gone down this rabbit hole. Um, but I haven't looked to see how many Buddhist temples there are in the UK. I'm gonna maybe look at that next. I ran out of time, but I often visit, um, one of these churches, and they are quite magnificent while I, while I visit, because it kind of, it kind of, it would feel kind of rude not to partake in their culture whilst I'm there. Um, and, um, because they're magnificent and they stand out on the landscape And it's hard not to be in awe of these buildings, these buildings that people go to to celebrate their faith, to— well, so much happens, so much happens in these buildings. And there's certainly many to choose from, 359. But the one I chose this time was a dome that had stood out for me. I love the sunsets. I love doing walking meditation to the sunset, and I love watching the sunsets. And actually, as I watched this sunset, there was a young lady in front of me doing meditation in front of me, and then she started doing sun salutations. It was a really special moment, actually, to capture that on these— I say cliffs, it was high up, but they're not really cliffs. And this particular rotunda as it is stood out. So I thought, am I going to go and visit that one tomorrow? And, um, it's, um, it stood out because it had such a large dome. And this is on Gozo. There is one on Malta which is Mosta Dome, which is very famous for a bomb landing in it and not going off. And but, um, I went in, uh, and, um, Yeah, beautiful stained glass, very, very, very ornate, very big, very ornate, lots of pews, and many shrines as you go around, and quite similar but different to many of our churches here in the UK. But what I loved about this one, and I was thinking about Satya Robyn trip to Barcelona, however many years it was, when we went to the Sagrada Familia, which I'm going to do on my 60th birthday to check out if it's finished yet. But where you can go up in an elevator, cost me €3, and you could walk around this magnificent dome and get a view, but you could sort of see the dome, from beneath and then walk around it, which you can't do in many of these places. And it's 85 meters, it's 75 meters high, and the floor beneath is polished marble. And as I say, it's the spiritual seat for the Knights of Malta. So it's— I didn't meet any of those Knights of Malta. But yeah, I walked around, walked the circumference of this massive rotunda, um, in the wind and the sunshine, looking out at the view, um, and this sort of grandeur, thinking about the grandeur and the gold and the vastness, the vastness of it, um, and obviously to the Maltese and the Gozitans, it's community, it's the focal point for their village, and to them it demonstrates the timeliness of the nation's faith. But I was kind of wishing myself back here, really. And not— I wouldn't say simplicity, but yeah, maybe, but you know, but just by the different, the sort of difference and perhaps the simplicity of our own practice. And of course we have our equivalent in grandeur, don't we? I've not yet been, is it the Nanzen-in? Nanzen-in, I probably can't pronounce it right. The statue, which is the lying down statue in Japan, isn't it? Which is about 41 meters long, which demonstrates entering nirvana, 11 meters high, it measures 300 tons. That's very grand. Or we've got the Guinness World Record, and was the tallest Buddha, which is the Yoketsu Daihatsu— terrible at pronunciations. And these vast Buddhas, these vast Buddhist statues, I was wondering why they were so large, but actually they were there to demonstrate that vast knowledge, the vastness. Of Buddha, of the vast knowledge and the vastness of the awakened one, which is why they're so large. And yeah, we've of course got Samye Ling here in a very large monastery here in Scotland. But I'm stuck by the difference, I say, in the beauty of our own practice. And I'm sure some people, particularly a few years ago, thought our services might be a little bit complex. They're a lot simpler these days, even though you might not think they're simpler, but they are a lot simpler than they used to be. And yeah, I was just sat, I was sat up there thinking about, about home and our shrine room and the journey we had. Bringing Buddha back to the temple in my little van when he was waving out the window of my van down the motorway. Yeah, bringing our sort of Buddhist statue down here. And to many, that would seem as very grand and golden. Beautiful. And then many of us will have simple shrines at home, and how we sit, we sit cross-legged, we light incense, we light a candle, and we recite the Nembutsu, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Or like this morning, walking the garden, I love walking the hills and chanting the Nembutsu, particularly in the morning before the early morning dog walkers or the tourists get up there, when I can have the hills to myself before it gets too busy. And I was thinking about the Nembutsu and obviously how Honen taught us about rebirth in the Pure Land and about the simplicity of only having to say Nembutsu once, although I'm sure most of us here in this room have said it just a few times. Um, and that by just saying it, um, that was all that was needed for, for birth in the— for to attain birth in the Pure Land. Um, and I, and I was just feeling so grateful, um, up there in the wind, um, about finding Buddhism, I guess. And about finding our school of Buddhism particularly. Most of us probably lead busy lives, and how the accessibility of this, this sort of school of Buddhism, as in the first reading I read, talking about how it's available to anybody and anyone, whether they're illiterate, working, lots of hours, jobs, homeless, poor, or female, which I particularly like to make a point at because it could have been difficult being female. And that we are accepted just as we are, and I always love those words. And that transforming— oh God, I can't say it— I don't know, the rubble washed down from the mountain into gold because it just gets me every time. And as I stood on the top of that rotunda, um, I took in a deep breath, um, and felt such relief in knowing, um. And I did a few rounds of nenbutsu, and I just sent them out into the warm breeze, out. And they're still out going out there. Ame omi dabu. Namoh Amida.

Namoh Amida Buddha. Namoh Amida Buddha.

In gratitude, we make this offering to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space and time. May it be as fragrant as Earth itself, reflecting our careful efforts, our wholehearted mindfulness, and the fruit 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.

Touching. Do we have any announcements? Two book groups starting in October, one with Anjupamdu, Zenju Earthling Manwak, and one with Dave, Living in a Bookstore by Jeff Wilson, which is about the kind of social context of, um, Pianism, how it's inclusive. It's really good. Angie's book is also really good.

The food's very good. Sign up now.

And they're both 6 weeks long, so if you haven't done a book group before, it might be a nice one to start. And Kirtan, last Sunday of the month, which is next week, 7:30 till 9:00, you and me, chance to sing, will be beautiful. Available online? Yes, I mean, yes. It will be streamed online. Streamed online. The quality will be, you know, we can't make any guarantees of the sound quality, but it will be streamed. Thank you. Bless us, Satya Robyn, and his marvelous lights.

May we care for all living things and the Holy Earth. Come back.