A Buddhist sangha gathering led by Satya Robyn and others, featuring meditation, teachings on Kwan Shin and Amida, and a reading called Worm Therapy about composting. The group chants mantras, takes refuge vows, and discusses grief and impermanence alongside community announcements about climate justice and upcoming retreats.
Chapters
Welcome everybody. Welcome to Chris and Philip joining us on Zoom. We'll begin with a glimpse that Beth from Ledbury has sent in, and Katie's agreed to read it for us very kindly.
Thank you. Thank you.
The glimpse is called Worm Therapy. Who made the worm? Why make a worm? Gendering is not an issue. When I first decided to start a compost, I knew nothing about worms. In fact, for the first few months, they stayed well clear of my bin. Do you know that in an acre of land there can be over a million earthworms? So where are they? I looked longingly over the fence at my neighbour's sweet-smelling compost, oozing with worms. I had a moment's thought of rummaging with my trowel, but that would be thievery, and I'm not allowed to do that. Worms. How do you get them? Where do they come from? Do they start as fetuses? Long worms, earthworms, flatworms, ringworms, roundworms, tapeworms, computer worm. Which one is best? I Google worms and learn that worms gobble up our leftovers and what comes out, comes out as compost. Wow, that's truly amazing. Is if there is too much leftovers and they overheat, they climb to the top to get some breath before diving back in again. Perhaps they should have snorkels. They work in a clockwise direction and can dig down up to 7 feet. If you don't look after your worms, they pack up their segments and head to your neighbour's home. Oh blimey, I'm hooked. I start to reorganize my diet in order to improve the scrapes in my bin. If worms don't like onions, orange peel, or banana peel, then neither do I. They like to be kept warm and not too wet. They like to be churned so they don't get too bored or overwhelmed. And if you play it right, they have babies, lots and lots of them, until your bin is full to the brim. Worms have a brain. And a nervous system and can feel pain, so we need to care, nurture, and respect them. It claims they have free will. I guess they can choose which bin to frequent. That's why you have to spoil them. 5-star all-inclusive for my invertebrates. It's now a year since I started my compost, and I think I've recognized some of my worms. They can live for up to 4 years. They let me know now, they let me know what mood they're in, or if they require more bedding, food, or water, or just a bit of loving. I love my composting worms. We work as a team. This spring, my flowers will look stunning, and that's thanks to my little squidgey mates. Naomi Dabu.
Thanks, Katie. Thank you, Beth. Quite amusing, but also an incredible amount, a, a credible account of becoming tuned in to another living being and, and really taking care of it and the kind of, uh, mutuality that they're giving and receiving interconnectedness. Yeah, really lovely. When I saw Worms. I was like, is that what I want to— is that the one I want to choose? I was like, somehow that's the one I want to choose. I'm really pleased that that's what jumped out of the drawer. Namaste. So some time in quiet meditation together. If it's helpful, using the breath as an anchor, just noticing how it is moment to moment, not trying to breathe in any particular way, and noticing whatever comes into that space— thoughts, feelings, sensations. Maybe they just come in to your awareness and float out again. Anything that seems to be coming back around or getting stuck, it can be helpful to take a step back from and name, oh, Here's some anxiety about that conversation I've got to have at work tomorrow. And then coming back to the breath. So not pushing anything away, not drawing anything in close, so just sitting. We experience the energy of the Buddha, or enlightenment, in lots of different ways depending on how we are, where we are in our lives, perhaps depending on the mood of the Buddha. Maybe there is some movement from the other side as well. One of the ways that this experience is described is as meeting Kwan Shin, the bodhisattva of compassion. Kwan Shin, the one who hears the cries of the world— that's what their name means. They are often at the side of Amida in Pure Land Buddhist temples. Where Amida is associated with the setting sun, Kuan Yin is associated with the full moon. Amida sits in the meditation position and receives everybody. Kuan Yin reaches out and goes towards And perhaps because of that, or perhaps because moonlight is a bit softer than sunlight, I get the impression that Kuan Yin is the more popular name to call on across Southeast Asia than Amida sometimes. Anyway, was the full moon yesterday, so this evening the chant we will do is to Kwan Shin Bodhisattva, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, invoking or remembering that particular quality of enlightenment. The words are Namo Kwan Shin Bosat.
Namokwan Shin Bosat. Namokwan Shin Bosat. Namokwan Shin Bosat. Satya Robyn. Namah Kwan Shin Bosat. Namah Kwan Shin Bosat. Namah Kwan Shin Bosat. Namah Kwan Shin Bosat. Namah Kwan Shin Bosat. Namah Kwan Shin Bosat. Namah Kwan Shin Bosat. Namah Kwan Shin Bosat. Namah Kwan Shin Bosat. Namah Kwan Shin Bosats. Namah Kwan Shin Bosats. Namah Kwan Shin Bosats. Namah Kwan Shin Bosats. Namah Kwan Shin Bosats. Namah Kwan Shin Bosats. Namokwanji in Bursat. Namokwanji in Bursat. Namokwanji in Bursat. Namah Kwan Shin Bosat. Namah Kwan Shin Bosat. Namah Kwan Shin Bosat. Namah Kwan Shin Bosat. Namah Kwan Shin Bosat. Namah Kwan Shin Bosat. Namah Kwan Shin Bosat. Namah Kwan Shin Bosat. Namah Kwan Shin Bosat. Namah Kwan Shin Bosat. Namah Kwan Shin Bosat. Namah Kwan Shin Bosat. Namah Kwan Shin Bosat. Namah Kwan Shin Bosat. Namah Kwan Shin Bosat. Namokwan Shinbo Satya Robyn. Namokwan Shinbo Satya Robyn. Namokwan Shinbo Satya Robyn. Namah Kwan Chim Vosat. Namah Kwan Chim Vosat. Namah Kwan Chim Vosat.
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 Dhamma.
Namo Dhamma.
For refuge I go to the Sangha.
For refuge I go to 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.
I pray that I may not take life.
I pray that I may not take life.
With faith in the Three Jewels.
With faith in the Three Jewels.
I pray that I may not steal.
I pray that I may not steal—
With faith in the Three Jewels .
—with faith in the three jewels.
I pray that I may not fall into sexual misconduct. —With faith in the 3 jewels. I pray that I may not fall into wrong speech. —With faith in the 3 jewels. I pray that I may avoid intoxication. 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 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.
Today my thoughts have been swimming around grief and longing and Buddhist practice. In the book group at lunchtime that I'm leading We've been reading a book called The Wisdom of the Wilderness about Gerald May, um, his experiences back in the 1990s of, of feeling called to go into the national parks, into the wilderness around his home. And it's a kind of cross between a sort of memoir and his thoughts on nature and spirituality. And, and what we've discovered through reading the book together is, is, um, this sense of his longing for some kind of experience of union or oneness. Maybe even speaks to it explicitly, uh, about a feeling of being received, like, uh, being coming back into the womb by the natural world. And occasionally he gets that experience, and sometimes, uh, a bald eagle flies out and, and tries to shit on him, and then he doesn't get that experience because nature is both of these things. And I've also been wondering how I'll be when people leave me. Somehow that's been stirred up. If, if I was gonna say if Satya dies, when, when, hopefully in a long, long, long time. Or if my best friend finds somebody more interesting to talk to, hard to imagine there's somebody more interesting than me, I know, but it is a possibility. Or dies, that second one is a certainty for everybody. Around me, every living thing, the dogs, my nieces and nephews. And it's the, it's the sort of impulse that drove Shakyamuni Buddha to start practicing, noticing the suffering that impermanence brings. These two key things about what it means to be human. This longing to be received by something and, and held and loved just as we are, and, and the kind of, uh, having to come to terms with impermanence and the world as it is. Some of us have read a paper recently called, uh, What Is Amida? by a Japanese American priest, and it, it says very strongly, Amida Buddha is a fiction. Which isn't in, you know, isn't completely my experience. But it goes on to suggest actually Amida Buddha is life itself. It is the kind of positive aspect of impermanence, because without things fading away, there's no space for liveliness, for spontaneity, for something new to appear, for, for life, for this amazing process. So somehow these two things, this longing and, and this fear of impermanence, both point us back to the same thing. Can, can we become connected to the Buddha, to life itself, in a way that we experience as wholesome rather than frightening. It's the invitation of spiritual practice. It's very easy to kind of cleave off the Buddha separate from life. Here is the pure land, completely perfect, and here is the world, defiled. And that is a valid form of spiritual practice. And, you know, I practiced like that for a long time, and It's got a lot of merit to it, but I'm also wondering about going beyond that. And is it possible to be received in the same way as I experienced being received by this archetypal Buddha? Is it possible to be received and connected to life itself in the same way, which includes that experience of oneness in the trees, but also includes the bald eagles coming over and shitting on you. Can we welcome both of these things as the Buddha? And that's easier with some things than with others, and in some places than other places, and with some people than other people. And yet, as the mantra of the Heart Sutra invites us to, we should always be going beyond. What else can we see the Buddha in?
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Thank you.
So as we prostrate this evening, to this form of the Buddha, and you also prostrate to the whole of life itself. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
In gratitude, we offer this incense to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space and time. May it be fragrant as Earth herself, reflecting our careful efforts, our wholehearted awareness, and the fruits of understanding slowly ripening. May we and all beings be companions to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. May we awaken to the excellence and realize much wisdom.
Fighting our seats. Into our seats. Finish with the closing verse. Blessed by Amitabha's light, may we care for all living things and the holy earth. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. So a couple of announcements. On Saturday afternoon, Satya Robyn and a couple of other people See, maybe we're going— yeah, perfect. We're going to Birmingham to join COP27 Make COP Count Climate Justice Coalition. It's Climate Justice UK. Yes, yes, it is. Yeah, I don't know if it's a march or a demonstration, but we're going. You're very welcome to come and join us. We're still waiting to find the exact details. Where to meet? Have we discovered the meeting place is going to be full of tourists and the German Christmas market? So we'll see, it's maybe not the ideal place for demonstration. Uh, following Saturday we've got our maintenance morning here where we do some inside things and some outside things to help with the fabric of the temple.
All hands appreciated. The Bodhi retreat will be on the 3rd of December, which is our big gathering of the year, and we'll have like a bring Chubby and such. And if you're not on the Google group email and you want to be, then let me know, because we won't be sharing it with everybody because we just want that.
I mean, anybody's welcome to come, but we're not going to put a strong effort into it. It's not a benefit.
No, of course, but it would be nice if it's— we've already been, you know, a few times. Yeah. And we've also got a WhatsApp group now, which some people are already— if you don't want to be on it, I understand if you've already got many groups, but if you aren't on it and would like to be added, let me know. Final plug, I've got one space left on December Fun Zoom book group starting next Sunday at 5 o'clock for 5 weeks. Katie's in my group and Jeremy. And 4 or 3 other lovely people. And Casper may have one spot depending whether Barbara does it or not. That's right. We won't know till Saturday. Yeah.
So if you want to— You can register your interest, I suppose. Yeah.
Now let me explain.
Is that the reminder? That's right.
