Relying on the infinite

Good morning everyone. Lovely to have a nice full shrine room this morning, and our good friends Rob and Matt joining us from other parts of the country. So this morning we will begin with a short reading from a Buddhist called Kiyosawa Manji. Some of you have studied his slim book with us, December Fan, which is very difficult to get hold of, but we do have precious copies in the temple library. And, um, Manshi Kiyosawa lived from 1863 to 1903 in Japan, and he was a Shin Buddhist, which is the kind of Buddhist we are here, broadly. And this is from his first essay, which is quite short, but I won't read the whole thing, I'll just read the first section. And in this book, it's called 'Spiritual Awareness,' the essay, but the title that I know it by, which I prefer I think, is My Faith. Spiritual Awareness. It is important to establish our lives upon perfectly firm ground. Without a firm basis, all of our efforts will be in vain. It is like doing acrobatics atop a cloud. An impossible feat. The performers are sure to fall. How can one attain that perfectly firm ground? In my opinion, we arrive at it only through an encounter with the infinite or the absolute. It is unnecessary to speculate whether the infinite is within or without, because the infinite is where the seeker finds it. We cannot define the infinite as internal or external. We cannot stand on firm ground except by encountering the infinite. This is what we call spiritual awareness, the process of inner development through which we gain that perfectly firm ground. Spiritual awareness refers to finding contentment wholly within the realm of the spirit. A person who has spiritual awareness does not become a victim of distress or frustration caused by his pursuit of things or people. Although he may pursue external objectives, he does not do so out of a sense of lack. How could a spiritually awakened person feel discontent? He finds his contentment in the infinite, not in the finite. Limited realm of things and people. It would be a mistake, however, to say that having spiritual awareness renders us indifferent to the world around us. On the contrary, as we deepen our spiritual awareness, not only can we deal with people without frustration and distress, but also we can transform such activities into a meaningful part of our lives. The following passage aptly describes how we deal with external phenomena on the basis of spiritual awareness. And this is a little quote from the Vimalakirti Sutra: As one's mind grows purer, the Buddha land grows purer. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Enjoying having the spirit of Kiyosawa with us here this morning. Um, we'll sit quietly together for a while, and after some silence, we'll chant together, and then we'll have some more silence. This morning we will chant to Medicine Buddha, and as we chant, if there's anything in you physical, emotional, spiritual that needs healing. Allow Medicine Buddha's attention to fall on those places. Or if you'd like to offer healing to anyone else, or any animals, or countries, or groups And the, the words are a little bit more complicated, so if you're not familiar with the chant, I'd suggest that you pick up your liturgy sheet. And the chant starts, 'Thayatha, Thayatha Om Bhagavan Jai, Bhagavan Jai, Maha Bhagavan Jai, Radhasamudgati Soha.' So it's on the list of chants which is on the bottom of one of the sides. So that's Thai.

Maha vekhange sa samudhate soha. Taiyatsa oom vekhange, vekhange. Maha vekhange sa samudhate soha. Taiyatsa oom vekhange, vekhange. Mahabekinje ratsasamudrati suha. Satya Robyn, bekinje, bekinje. Mahabekinje ratsasamudrati suha. Satya Robyn, bekinje, bekinje. Mahabekinje Maha vekhange rat sasam mudrati suha. Tayatha om vekhange vekhange. Maha vekhange rat sasam mudrati suha. Tayatha om vekhange vekhange. Maha Bekinje Ratsas Samudgatse Soha. Tayata Om Bekinje Bekinje. Maha Bekinje Ratsas Samudgatse Soha. Tayata Om Bekinje Bekinje. Bacon J, Maha Bacon J, ratsa samudgat te soha, taiyata, oh bacon J, bacon J, Maha Bacon J, ratsa samudgat te soha, taiyata, oh bacon J, bacon 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.

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 Dharmaya.

Namo 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.

Namo Sanghaya.

Namo Sanghaya.

With faith in the Three Jewels.

With faith in the Three Jewels.

And in light of our human tendencies.

And in light of our human tendencies.

I pray that I may become aware I pray that I may become aware of when I take life—of when I take my—I pray that I may become aware—I pray this time they come away—of when I take what is not freely given—and then taking what is not really good. And I pray that I may become aware—I pray it's all made me unaware—when I fall into sexual misconduct—or for our own sexual misconduct—I pray that I may become aware I pray that I may become aware of when I fall into wrong speech.

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. Of when I become intoxicated.

No blame. No blame. Be kind. 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.

Kamomi tabu. So some of you will be aware that Casper and I have been in selling and buying a house land for a few months now. Which has rendered me certainly quite incapable of thinking about anything else. And so the lines that really leapt out of me from Kiyosawa's reading this morning were about the things that we try to use to steady ourselves. A person who has spiritual awareness does not become a victim of distress or frustration caused by his pursuit of things or people. So, um, by that reckoning, I'm definitely not a person who has spiritual awareness because I have been a victim of distress and frustration quite a lot over the past couple of months. And there are lots of good reasons for that. The— there's something about this process that almost seems to have been designed to prod my, my, my buttons, uh, that, that we're engaged in the biggest financial commitment of our lives. Um, we are choosing potentially somewhere to work and live because we both work from home, uh, for the rest of our lives potentially. Um, the whole thing will cost— I was saying to Angie yesterday, I think it's about 10 grand on average to move. So if we get it wrong, uh, we could do it again, but it's, it's quite an expensive mistake. And home has all kinds of resonances for, for many of us, most of us. I think it's the place where we go to rejuvenate. It's where we feel safe. It's, um, I'm hoping that it will be the base from which I can come and serve in the temple, which will feel really amazing. And serve my clients, my therapy clients, and, um, do my writing. And then there are the various kind of, uh, complications that have come up along the way. We've both— we've, we've got, uh, two little dogs that are quite triggered by noise, so we've been worried that we'll become bad neighbors to whoever we move in next door to, and how are we going to train them when we move in, and The house that, that we've fallen in love with at the moment has a golf course basically through the bottom of the garden, so will they see people golfing and shout at them all day long? We both need to see clients at home, so we've needed 3 bedrooms that have been big enough for 2 people to sit in without feeling like we're on top of each other. Um, I've had 10 years in a flat without a bath, and I would really dearly love to have a bath in the new house. So there's all these things on the list that kind of add up, and, uh, location and cost and what can we afford. And that's without the story of trying to sell our house, which has been complicated in ways that I, I can't even begin to tell you about. Plus lots and lots of not being in control, lots and lots of waiting by the phone for a call that will tell us that we have the house we want or that we haven't got it, which so far it's been that we haven't. And then we did get one and then we decided we didn't want it. Lots and lots of not knowing how long things will take or what other people are doing or what that means for the decisions that we need to make. And in combination, all of that has made it really clear to me how, how I haven't been finding a steady ground underneath me that isn't dependent on people or things. And this is what Kiyosawa is writing about, is that we can find that steady ground. That's why we're all here. I mean, I don't know why you're all here, but that's why I'm here this morning, is to find that ground, is to remind myself that that ground is already there, regardless of whether we get our dream house on Tuesday or Wednesday or not. Um, because that's how life is. Sometimes we get the dream house and sometimes we don't. Sometimes our close relatives have a health scare and sometimes they're actually really ill. Sometimes We mess up in ways that, that really cause harm to others. We're living in a world of climate crisis and instability, and maybe we'll get our dream house and then 10 years along the road we'll all be melting anyway. I'm laughing because it's kind of potentially true. I don't think we'll actually be melting, but you know, there's going to be difficult stuff. So we can't depend on those things. We can't depend on the house. We can't depend on people. We can only depend on the Buddha. And we remain bambu beings. We remain beings that become swept to the left or the right by our greed and our hate and our delusion. I feel like this house buying process has been like a sort of— I've been a little boat on a stormy ocean that, that I haven't been very much in control of. Of a lot of the emotion that's kind of rolled through me despite decades of Buddhist practice. Um, and I kind of know that the Buddha's got my back, even in the, the midst of the, the, the kind of the anguish. I know that things will be okay, even if they're not okay, even if they're not what I want. I know that I can't rely on anything to be permanent, even this temple, although I'm hoping it's going to be pretty permanent, give it a couple of hundred years at least. But I can rely on the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. And just reminding myself of that just eases everything a little bit and creates some space around it all. So I guess what I'm wanting to share is both the reality that we are humans and that we will continue to, uh, get anxious. Barbara told me a little story just before she came in about a woman who'd asked for directions and was full of anxiety and worry. That's, that's, that happens to us. We're human. That will, that will continue to happen to us. And in various ways, we can reconnect with that ground underneath us, even if we're not very familiar with it. We can hang out with people who have a sense of that ground. We can come to places like this. We can be in nature. We can find little pockets of silence. We can read Dharma books. We can join book groups. All sorts of things that we can do to just remind us that, that, that, that solidity is already there. Namaramita bhai.

Namoh Amida. Namoh Amida. Namoh Amida. Namoh Amida. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

Gratitude we offer this incense to all Buddhas and bodhisattvas throughout space and time. May it be fragrant As the Earth herself reflecting our careful efforts, our wholehearted mindfulness, and the fruits of understanding. So you write, may we and all beings be companions, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. May we awaken from forgetfulness and realize Acho— you'd like to come back to stand at your seats. So in a minute we'll exit, and then I will come back. Robert, Matt, if you want to say hello, I won't be disappearing forever. Um, after practice, do join us for a cup of tea. Donation bowl is in the hallway, or, um, it is possible to set up monthly direct debits. Even when people set up small or monthly direct debits. It really helps the temple finances. So that's all online. Um, we will be doing some gardening after tea. There will be light duties and packing big things down duties, depending on what you prefer. So if you'd like to join us for an hour, you'd be very welcome. Um, or if you want to do gardening another time, let us know. We always need people to I think that's everything. I may need to do— so finish with closing verse. Blessed by Amitabha's light, may we care for all living things and the holy earth. So this is the bit where somebody near the door opens the door for me and everyone else. Oh, where is he? Izzy was on the way. And everyone else just stays where they are and doesn't gather anything until the celebrant is gone, and then you can gather away and leave. Namaste.