Satya Robyn leads a retreat talk on taking refuge in the Earth, drawing on Pure Land Buddhist ideas and ecotherapy. The group sings Celtic songs, shares nature stories from Malham Cove in Yorkshire, and discusses embodied connection to elements and practical care for nature.
Chapters
about, about taking refuge, taking refuge, and receiving refuge, and going for refuge. So these are kind of terms that are like pretty much used interchangeably. So originally, I think the taking and receiving would have been someone would go to a monk, they would tell them what to say, what to recite in order to officially take refuge. They would give them that, and they would receive that and they would have taken refuge from that monk. So within that context, that kind of makes sense. But one of the problems I think with the phrase taking refuge is it really implies that it's something that we can reach out, that we can grasp, that we can hold, that we can possess, that we can have. And I'd don't necessarily really feel like that really can ever encapsulate something as transcendental as refuge, and also has a certain quality of like grabbing and holding and taking and acquiring, which doesn't necessarily— it doesn't have to have that kind of tone, but I think it can imply that this idea that it is something we can reach out and take and have. And then there's going for refuge. So going for refuge, I feel like it's a bit closer. I feel like it's a bit closer. Like, so going for refuge for me, you know, very much evokes this sense of moving towards the refuge, the source of shelter, support, stability, and that kind of, you know, fully embodied motion of like moving out and beyond myself towards something. I definitely feel like that is more in touch with refuge, or going for refuge, that kind of quality that has for me. And at the same time, it also kind of implies that I'm never really going to get there either. I'm never actually going to, you know, experience refuge, because I'm just always going to be going for something outside of myself that isn't here. And on one level, that could be a way to think about it, you know. Do we ever truly, truly, truly arrive at a final destination? No, probably not, um, because it's always, you know, it's always flow, it's always process. But at the same time, how can I be experiencing it in the here and now if I'm never actually going to get there? So there's, you know, I feel like going for refuge is closer, it's closer, but it's also not quite there. So thinking specifically about going for refuge to the Earth, so what are some of the ways that immediately come to mind for going for refuge to the Earth? So what comes to mind for me is like immersing myself in the natural world and receiving inspiration in all sorts of ways. Like, I am inspired daily, multiple times in the day, just by really little things like the way a leaf is decaying, or the way the light is just kind of glowing behind the hills, or the kind of footprints in the mud. So inspiration is one of the ways that we can often feel we can go for refuge to the Earth, or receive that refuge, is through inspiration. And also by, by becoming more settled you know, going out into nature or connecting with the earth, which we can do right now. We don't have to actually be barefoot on the earth to do that. It's very grounding. Yeah. So some people may be going for refuge or connecting with the natural world for that really deep settling, grounding stability that comes when we connect with something much faster than ourselves. And wonder, close to inspiration, but maybe a little bit, a little different in flavor. Wonder is one of the things that we can receive from the natural world, whether that's like the wonder of the vastness of space and the stars and the sense of perspective that that can give, or it's the wonder of like a little caterpillar transforming into a moth or butterfly, or the wonder of the vastness and power of the ocean, or the experience that some people have when they're on a mountainside. This real kind of mystical, spiritual experience of wonder that can come through. And there's also lots of other ways that we can be resourced and expanded and connected by the earth, by the natural world. So those are all things we can, and that there is a reality behind, that we can actually experience and receive. And yet I feel like full going for refuge is really a relational process. It's not just something we can receive. We just— we could, like, similarly to— we can't just take it and hold it and be like, oh, this is mine, I've got this now. Yeah, so the ecotherapist Linda Buzzle defined two levels of ecotherapy. So with the first level is human-centered, and it's very much about being able to experience and be nourished by all those kind of things that I've just mentioned. And she says this is really valuable, and for a lot of people it's their way in, you know, being able to go out in nature and feel calm, I feel better on some way, and that is really valuable. So she's not discrediting that level, but she's saying it is still narcissistic, it's still egocentric, it's still human-centered. So what she defined is also a Level 2 of ecotherapy, which is where there's a mutually beneficial relational, uh, relationship with the Earth and with the natural world. And she says when people move— and this can happen quite organically— into this kind of Level 2, ecotherapy, then quite naturally and organically, a sense of respect and responsibility arises. And that might include doing grief work around the impacts that humans are having on the natural world, engaging in environmental practices. Mourning, being in touch with the rage, eco-anxiety, all of those kind of things, and doing like consciously and deliberately and often collectively engaging in practices which reflect those natural feelings, those natural responses that arise when we come into a truly respectful and mutual relationship with the natural world.. And this is very much how many indigenous peoples relate to their environment and relate to the natural world in that it is imbued with consciousness. And we are, because we are so, so infinitely inseparable from it. There naturally arises this sense of responsibility to care, to steward, to be guardians, to take as much care and responsibility in a positive sense as we can of our environment and of our world around us, recognizing that we are constantly receiving, and therefore we have a very healthy natural desire to also give back at the same time. And I feel like there's a really lovely Shinran quote— Shinran being medieval Pure Land Buddhist who we take a lot of inspiration from here. That bright air. That really is actually very in keeping with that sense as well, which goes: This Tathāgata pervades the countless worlds. It fills the hearts and minds of the ocean of all beings. Thus plants, trees, and land all attain Buddhahood. This Tathagata pervades the countless worlds. It fills the hearts and minds of the ocean of all beings. Thus plants, trees, and land all attain Buddhahood. And I really feel like that evokes really beautifully and expresses really beautifully so many of the things that I've just been mentioning. And it reminds me of a conversation that I was having the other day with my very first meditation teacher, and, um, who I've known for 20 years, which seems crazy, um, And he was talking about this sense of all life reaching beyond itself, of all life going for refuge. And that can be invoked, you know, in a similar way to the quote that I mentioned and to that sense of everything being imbued with consciousness. And it can also be looked at as quite— on quite a practical scientific level. If you just actually look at evolution and, and the way that, you know, over millennia things have been evolving beyond themselves and developing to, to a more and more evolved I'm not totally sure about humans, but a more and more evolved version of themselves. And I kind of appreciated that little aspect as well, because that's not what I would automatically think of when I would think of all life going for refuge, or life reaching beyond itself. But it is quite a you know, helpful little like, oh, that's actually true on a practical level as well as on a level, a metaphorical level, or a level of which we can experience on an embodied felt sense kind of spiritual kind of level. So I was reflecting or being with this sense of all life all life reaching beyond itself, all life going for refuge, and the kind of cycle that, that, that kind of evokes. And I was reminded of this saying that you, we hear sometimes, which is that Amida goes for refuge through us. That Amida goes for refuge through us as we go for refuge. So then there's lots of different ways that that could be interpreted. One way that it could be interpreted is that the, the wish, the volition to go for refuge comes from other power through us. And so when we go for refuge, when we say Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, that is other power speaking through us. Or this sense that Amida Buddha's primal vow that everybody who says the Nembutsu can be reborn in the Pure Land, that the energy of that is reverberating and comes through us, so that when we say Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, it is the energy of that reverberating through us. So that transcendental power of Amida Buddha going for refuge through us as we go for refuge. And I thought about how— what happens if I take out the word Amida and I put in the word nature? So what happens when I think about nature going for refuge through me as I go for refuge to nature? And immediately for me, that very much again evokes this sense of mutual benefit and of organic action, which is like going to be supportive. So I kind of thought, okay, so what might that look like on a really practical level of little actions? What might it look like for nature to be going for refuge through me? And, and I, and I thought about really little things like tending to a pot plant. Noticing when it's looking a bit thirsty and giving it water again, giving it elemental nature back to itself. Is that, you know, nature going for refuge through me as I go for refuge to this little pot plant? Could it look like Moving snails and slugs off the road so that they don't get crushed by the cars. Could that, could that be what nature going for refuge through me as I go for refuge to nature look like? Could it be witnessing, like really being in myself and fully connected to the dynamic flow of the whole universe flowing through me and around me as I witness sufferings happening within the world around me, which is all nature ultimately. You know, we're not— human beings aren't separate from nature. So if that's suffering in the human realm, suffering on the animal realm, suffering on the the plant level, on the mineral level? Could it be witnessing? Could that be an expression of nature going for refuge through me as I go for refuge to nature? And I thought about how because we're made up of all of the natural elements and we're constantly interacting with the world which is made up of the elements. Really being aware of those interactions could also be a way of going for refuge, like really feeling the earth element in my muscles, my bones connecting with the fire in my heart, the fire of my digestive system, the waters in my body, my tears, lymphatic system, and how that is being reflected in the waters of the natural world. The— obviously the infinitely inspiring process of breathing where the air element is constantly moving through us. And connecting us with everything else. And so how on that real, just basic elemental level can I be in touch with Earth as refuge and taking refuge through me? So I guess all of these things are very much like inviting or evoking this fully embodied sense of a dynamic relationship and a relationship which is sacred because it's rooted in the sacred natural world which we are inseparable from. So an invitation to go for refuge to the Earth as the Earth goes for refuge through us. Namaste. Okay, so we're going to move into a little musical interval in the middle. We've probably got time for 2 Celtic songs. Who wants some words?
Yes, yes, they will be.
We're going to get the drum, which is warming up really. So we're going to start with I Honour the Flow, which is on page 7. I honor the flow that fills me so my cup is full. My cup is full. Is it page 7? I was— page 6, sorry. Page 6. How confusing. Okay, so I'm just gonna start. And when you get— start to get a feel from it, you can join in.
I honor the flow that fills me so my cup is full, my cup is full. I honor the flow that fills me so my cup My cup— my cup is full! I honor The Flow that fills me so... My Cup Is Full! May all beings be happy forevermore. ...my cup—is fuller than ever before; may we share it together always more?
Hihihii!!! Oh noooooo!!!! Hahaha!! "Hi-hi." Oohhhhhh?! Yeah!? Mmm-mm-mm— mmhm! Hmm. Okayyayyyyyyyyyy..... ummmm.... okay-yai-yeah-heyaaaah!
Ummaaam-a-the flow—that feels these souls ;...) Mi-Kau-u-i-s F-U-L-L-E-R-T-O-M-N-A-B-Y-I-S T-H-R-O-W THAT FILLS ME SO MY CUP IS FULL !!! Thank you for watching this video of 5 minutes some change long time ago when she was learning Chinese from Mary Beth Templeman's book 'The Power Of Prayer'. Love to everyone who watched till here on YouTube too. Bye bye now— hi there again soon !! Thanks very much! <LYRICS>Mycupisfull-mycoupissful—Ihonnertheflowthatfillsmesoul.</LYRIC> My cuuup iiii-is fullll, my cuaap iiispulldd—I honnerrr thflow tha fillzz mesouw. Mycuuuup iiiisz fuhllll, my caaaapp iss fuulllldt, I hoonorrr thefloh tha fillez misow. Mycopishfall—" My cup— my cup—is full! I honor The Flow that fills me so... My cup—is full! My cop-is-full—I honour—the flow—that-fills-me-so... My cup—is full! My coppisfull-I honner-the-flow! Wowwwwww!!! That's beautiful guys. Thank you for watching That this video until here today! If it helped to learn something new about yourself or others please subscribe our channel fills now by clicking on red button below right corner of your screen if not yet done.... See ya next time everybody! me Bye-bye! Namaste from Sadhguru TV Channel so my cup is full! My cup is full of water flow that fills me so— I come to school by car it's fall over though no one feels this oh like how they're supposed right now? My cup is full! I honor The Flow that fills me so my cup is full— My cup is full! I order The Flow That Fills Me So my cup Is Full! My Cup Is Full! I Honor The Flow That Fills Me So my cup Is Full! My Cup... Is full! I honor the flow that fills me so my cup is full—my cup is full—I order the flow that fills me so my cup is full—my cup is full—I honor the flow that fills me so my cup My cup is full, my cup is full. I honor the flow that fills me so. My cup is full, my cup is full.
The next one is going to be— once I found the right notes—
going to be 'deep peace,' which is on the page next to— it's above it! Perfect!
I was obviously looking at totally different words when I was like, 'Oh, that's on that page,' and Peace of the flowing river.
Peace of the quiet afternoon. Peace of the shining stars.
May it be.
May it be. May it be. May peace, may peace, may peace with you. Deep peace of the running waves, dearie. Deep peace of the flowering meadow. Deep peace of the quiet earth, dearie. May peace of the shining stars. May peace, may peace, may peace for your soul. May peace, may peace, may peace, may peace make you whole. Deep peace of the rocking waves to you. Deep peace of the flowing mountain breeze. Deep peace of the quiet earth to you. Deep peace of the shining sun. May peace, may peace, May peace fill your soul. May peace, may peace, may peace bring true harmony. Deep peace of the rising waves to you. Deep peace of the flowing waves. May peace of the quiet of the birch tree, may peace of the shining star, may peace, may peace, may peace fill your soul. May peace, may peace. Peace of the rising crescent. Peace of the flowering grass. Peace of the quiet night. Peace of the shining sun. Maybe, maybe, maybe it's still your soul. Maybe, maybe, maybe it's the spirit of the lost. Maybe Satya Robyn weighs you. Peace of the flowing water. Peace of the quiet earth to you. Peace of the shining sun. May peace, may peace, may peace fill your soul.
Thanks, Ramani. I love that image of the pot plant. Like, I'm going to refuge, the pot plant is going to refuge, we're both going for refuge together. Last week, Satya and I had a few days away in the Yorkshire Dales in Malham, and while we were there, I walked to Malham Cove, which was very close to where we were staying, which is a huge cliff in the hills, curved so it looks like a cove at the beach. There's no sea, it's just a cliff in the Dales formed by a glacier 50,000 years ago. 70 meters high, these cliffs are. Which, um, it looks pretty high when you're at the bottom, and then when you're walking up all the steps, it starts to feel really high. And then you get to the top and you can see how high it really is. It's, it's really quite a mythic landscape. I could imagine some high fantasy film being set there, like, where are the little orcs hiding? And on the top, uh, of these cliffs, there's, there's huge amounts of limestone that were worn away by the glacier and have been worn away by the weather since then, so that it's like rock pools except there, again, there's no sea, but they're smoothed out. All the edges are smoothed out, and it, it's such an unusual landscape to be in. And in a place like that, it's very easy for me to feel connected to the Buddha, to the Earth. It's very easy to fall into a sense of, ah, like there's some meaning in the universe, life has some meaning. It's very easy to— for me to fall into a kind of felt sense of the complexity of life. The stream that runs through the limestone, the different kind of trees and grasses all around. There's human interaction there, you know, the dry stone walls and the steps, the vastness of it all the vastness of the sky above it, you get a real sense for how diverse life is, how complex, and how, as Rav Havani said, each thing is kind of reaching beyond itself. There's a sense of movement everywhere as the wind goes through and the leaves rustle. And a few— it's autumn, so a few leaves drop to the ground and the brook is bubbling. Much easier for me to take refuge, to experience refuge in that spot, than in many of the places of my daily life, whether that's inside or even some of the outside places. That's not true for everybody. Some people will go to those places and be intimidated or not sure what to do, or, you know, that the activity of their minds means that it's harder to take refuge in wild spaces. Particular groups in society, you know, if you're very impoverished from the inner city and have never been into those wild spaces, it can feel really intimidating when a middle-class person with all the kind of, uh, labeled walking gear, you know, the, the, the says hello to you as you're walking past. And some people go to that space with very troubled minds. There are a lot of signs around the COVID um, for the Samaritans. Which shows that for some people going to that place is an expression of the depth of their suffering. But for me, in that moment, in the kind of beautiful late afternoon autumn sunshine, it was very easy to feel at peace and grounded and open to this kind of to the expansiveness of all of life.
And it—
life is still just as expansive when I'm in my office or in the supermarket or trying to find a parking space. There's no extrinsic reason why I shouldn't feel grounded and open and experiencing refuge in those moments as well. The reason is the activity of my own mind, the color that I place on each of those experiences, the stories that I tell about my daily life, my work, the next person I'm meeting, this email I'm about to send, the feelings I have about all of those things, the anxieties, the insecurities, how it is to be a social person around other human beings. All of those produce activity in the mind, which means I'm more separate from the world and more separate from the Buddha. When I was first thinking of speaking about this, I, I, I didn't use the phrase activity of the mind. I used the phrase stories, the stories we tell about the world and, and the stories we tell about ourselves. And that's true, right? That is the activity of the mind. It's telling stories, but it can sound quite glib to say that because it's not just, oh, I've got a story that my life is hard, or that I'm gonna be upset by the next meeting I go into, or that I'm waiting for a difficult email, but I'm a good person, or I'm, I'm a bad person, or whatever it is that's producing this froth in the mind. They are stories. But the feeling, there is a feeling sense behind each one of anxiety, of greed, ill will, of delusion. There is a weight to them, a significance to them. It's a fear-based response to the world. Because of previous experiences that I've had in my life, or as Dave said this morning, experiences my ancestors have had and passed that fear down to me. That leaves me feeling worried about what's going to happen next. And there's plenty of stuff in the world to worry about. That is true. There is a lot of suffering around. I was listening to a podcast with Tig Notaro, one of my favorite comedians, and she said she often says to herself, 'Am I in immediate danger right now?' She's got overwhelmed reading the news or, you know, doing activism or, you know, whatever it is. 'No, I'm not in immediate danger right now.' That begins to soothe. The nervous system. And what she's doing there is checking the reality, is checking the story that she has— I'm scared, the world is dangerous— against the reality of the present moment. Oh, I'm not actually in danger right now. And that gives us the clue of how we can move from being full of the activity of the mind and unable to experience refuge to in a place where we can experience refuge, which is to check the reality of the stories that we're telling. Like, oh, is this— what belief am I holding about the world right now? And is this actually— is this true in this moment? I feel like the world might end once I press send on this email. Well, actually, it's not going to. Okay, that helps a little. And we begin to find different ways of letting go of all of these stories that we have about the world and bringing them to stories that are more truthful, that stories that help us take refuge rather than separate us from the world. And that's one way of understanding what the Buddha's teachings are. They're stories about ourselves and the world that help us take refuge. The teaching of interconnection is a story about the world that helps us feel into the reality of interconnection, which is an embodied experience that is different from the teaching of interconnection? As Ravana said, it's noticing the solidity of my bones is the same as the solidity of the earth. The heat in me, the movement of my atoms, is the same as the heat in the universe. Or is the story of the Larger Pure Land Sutra that says Every being is worthy of love regardless of their karma, regardless of whether they've broken the precepts or how they've broken the precepts, we could say, for being realistic. In the Large Pure Land Sutra, it says that everyone who's reborn in the Pure Land is given a body of gold like the the statue behind. It sounds like something out of a science fiction movie, right? All just going around with these shiny gold, liquid gold bodies. But what it speaks to is the spiritual equality that each person has in the eyes of the Buddha, that each being is as worthy of love and has as much love to give if only they can open their us. That's a different story about what it means to be human. Rather than being scared, oh, I'm loved. That helps soothe my nervous system, remembering that teaching. It reduces the activity in my mind. It allows me to have an experience of refuge, more like the one I had at the COVID in this moment. And ultimately, Buddhist practice is about letting go of all stories that we have about the world, or at least understanding that none of them are reality itself, that the map is not the territory. The experience of being in Malamkoba, like, it brings me into my body. I notice my myself as an animal creature in the landscape. The mind becomes quiet. My feet are on the ground. I notice my breath, my heartbeat, the sound in the trees, the feel of the wind on my face. Even those words, I'm telling you, they're like— they begin to evoke something, but actually, to— for you to have that experience, I'd have to take you to Mullencove, or I'd have to take you back in time to Mullencove. Because the experience you have if I take you there will be different. And what we're taught in Buddhism and in Pure Land Buddhism is that fundamentally, when you let go of all these stories about the world, whether it's like that the wild places is where I receive refuge— like, that's one story, and it's a great story until something bad happens in a wild wild place and then it's harder to hold on to, or that my daily life is harder to receive refuge in. Can let go of all of those stories. What we discover is there's something— there is something fundamentally safe about existence regardless of the suffering that's going on, and actually regardless of whether something bad happens in a wild place. We, we introduce some species of wild animal that, that causes trouble somewhere, but fundamentally we are spiritually safe because we are loved by the Buddha. And in my experience Being loved by the Buddha is the same as being loved by the Earth, which is the experience I have of the Earth when I'm not telling any stories about it, and I can just allow myself to become intimate with the present moment, with the landscape around me, whether that's like this, a brick, a landscape of bricks and wallpaper and paint, or a landscape of ancient limestone and grasses and Lots of sheep in the Yorkshire Dales. So for me, that going for refuge is, is the practice of letting go of more and more of the stories that I tell about myself and the world. Which is me, which can mean working with deeply held beliefs and deeply held insecurities and coming more and more into relationship with what is true in the present moment. And probably, definitely, like, it's impossible to let go of all stories in one life. Right. But we can work with them and begin to soften them and, and hear better stories about the world. I read an article this week, uh, by a journalist who, who interviewed quite a lot of very wealthy people in the States a few years ago, a lot of tech Gross tech oligarchs. And he said these people might deny climate change. These are some of the people he was talking to that deny climate change or systems collapse. He said, but actually, from my interviews with them, they're, they're acutely aware of those things in the world, as you are, I are. But their response to knowing or worrying about climate change and systems collapse is to gather more and more resources around them, to create a bunker, to secure themselves, but by imagining that they can kind of be an individual who is, who is safe. And over other individuals, employing security forces and so on. Although, as he jokes, you know, when all these economic systems collapse, how are you going to pay your security forces? What, what motivation will they have for sticking with you? This real isolationist policy, this is what they're spending all their money on. And that some of them even are encouraging systems collapse or encouraging economic bubbles to burst because they know they can get wealthier off it, off how that collapse happens, gather more resources for themselves, fill their bunker with even more things. And the journalist then said, okay, so, so here's the bit where, where I suggest there's a different way of doing things, which is about, yes, there's a danger of systems collapse. Yes, climate change is real, but we can still mitigate these things. And the way we do that is by creating communities, by recognizing each other's humanity, by not becoming little islands, but by becoming more and more embedded in our local networks, by looking after each other. And by noticing that there are, there are still, that it is still possible to care for ourselves and each other regardless of whatever state the world is in. Those are two different stories you can tell about the same events that lead, oh, either it's terrible, there's nothing I can do apart from save myself, or Oh, suffering is real, and we have the capacity to look after each other and the planet even in the midst of all of that. And one of those leads to an experience of refuge, and one of them doesn't. One of them involves lots of activity of the mind, which is to say anxiety and fear. Fear and greed and ill will towards others. One of them involves compassion and care and probably also some anxiety as well because we're human beings. But it's about coming back into the reciprocity that Brother Vahini was speaking about, where we land in the earth and trust that we can be fundamentally safe, that we can be spiritually free, that we can be loving, that we can be caring. We're also— we receive care from the present moment. As we drop those stories about the world, we receive care in the present moment, and then we're able to give care in return. So that's my invitation to you. Notice what beliefs I have running about myself. Notice what beliefs I have running about the world. See if there's better versions of those stories I can tell, and ultimately see if I can find the moments where I can practice letting go and just being with the Earth itself and see what that's like.
Thank you so much. Thank you.
So we've got a 10-minute, like, convenience break or something. Before the clay workshop, so feel free to get a drink, go to the toilet, have a move around, whatever you want to do, and the clay workshop will be in the dining room. Thank you people joining us online, sorry you can't join the clay workshop. Maybe you can do something else creative in your hotel room if you wanted to.
No one needs food.
