Sufficiency - Buddhist Practice

Good morning everyone. Welcome to those of you joining us on Zoom. You're outnumbering us in the shrine room this morning. It's just Dave and myself here. I was saying to Dave before you logged on that when Satya Robyn first set the temple up It was fair— not fairly often, but you know, it was, um, it would happen that there was occasionally just the two of us in the shrine room. These days it doesn't tend to happen very often at all. In fact, I can't remember the last time it happened, but it has today. And we used to say we were being joined by the devas and dragons and invisible beings who'd come to listen to the Dharma and Who knows, maybe they're here today as well. But you're all here on Zoom as well, which I appreciate. And I know some people watch later the recordings on YouTube, so hello if you're watching on YouTube as well. I'm going to begin with the reading from Delving, Reverend Master Daishon Morgan's book, one of his books. He was the abbot of Fossil Hole Zen Monastery in the north of England for many years. He's retired now. And this chapter is called Sufficiency. There is a sufficiency at the heart of life, and when we awaken to it, life is fulfilled. It is not a matter of conditions being sufficient, rather that reality is sufficient and complete in itself. We may be ill, not have enough food or warmth, be alone, and still know sufficiency. It is not in addition to present conditions, nor is it a talisman that will save us. If we are dying, then that reality is sufficient. Not as a pointer to something else, but in the direct experience of the moment. At the most fundamental level, reality does not lack anything. There is a sufficiency that go— goes on unfolding forever. Our access to knowing this is hindered when we try to make reality into something we believe we need rather than letting it reveal itself. To let go may seem demanding, yet such openness is our true state. Sufficient needs to be discovered directly for oneself. To be persuaded of it is little use. There is work to be done, people who need help changes to be made in how we live as a society. All of this rightly calls us according to how we can give, but our worth is not measured by an assessment of our usefulness. Life has a value beyond utility, even though utility cannot be ignored. To realize sufficiency is to realize that life cannot be measured Namaste, Satya Robyn. So we'll go into about 10 or 12 minutes of meditation. If it's helpful, allowing your awareness to rest on the breath Not trying to change the breath, just noticing how it is moment to moment, noticing what else comes in through your sense gates without making stories about them, without pushing things away, and perhaps experimenting with the idea that the present moment is sufficient.

Link. Guides us to wisdom and compassion. For refuge I go to the Sangha, those who live in the Buddha's light.

Namo Sangha.

Namo Sangha.

For refuge I go to the Earth.

For refuge I go to the Earth.

The holy ground of awakening.

The holy ground of awakening.

Namobhumyaye.

Namobhumyaye.

With faith in the Four Refuges.

With faith in the Four Refuges.

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.

Of when I take love.

I pray that I may become aware— —of when I take what is not freely given.

Of when I take what is not freely 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—

but 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. Be kind. Be kind. Love everything.

Love everything. Innumerable are sentient beings.

We vow to save them all. Inexhaustible are the looted 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.

So in the reading, Reverend Daishon Morgan— Reverend Master Daishon Morgan said, we may be ill, not have enough food or warmth, be alone, and still know sufficiency. Sufficiency lies at the heart of reality, he says, even the reality of our fears and desires, our illusions and anger. I am— I have been ill this week. Satya Robyn, I've been ill this week, and much of the time I was wishing that I wasn't ill, that I didn't have brain fog, which is a little bit around. You may have heard the pausing in the— you may not have done, but I was— my brain was furiously— well, blanked out completely at one moment in leading the liturgy just then, and then sort of furiously the cogs turning to try and catch the next right word. And, um, I've wanted Yeah, I've wanted not to be ill this week. We, um, we were going to have a chanting, extended chanting session after practice this morning that Satya and I were leading, which we've cancelled. Satya, um, is joining us on Zoom this morning, unusually not feeling quite well enough. I mean, a lot better. We're both a lot better than we were, um, And I could have pushed myself to lead a chanting session, but I'm not quite recovered, and there would have been a huge cost to it. So trying to remember, as Daishonin Morgan said, that our value is not to do with how useful we are. Some of that can come up when we have to cancel things, right? Or we aren't able to do the things that we usually do. I don't feel useful, therefore I, I feel like a bad person. I'm ill, therefore I don't want to be ill. It's stopping me from doing the things that I want to do. And yet the suggestion is that it doesn't have to be that way. We can't change the illness, but it is possible to have an experience of sufficiency in the midst of being ill. Ah, this is what's here in this present moment— my illness, my tiredness, my brain fog, my— even my resistance to those things. And somehow experiencing that as enough, that I don't need to take away anything from reality in the present moment, that I don't need to add anything to reality in the present moment to make myself feel better. And actually, when I found this reading in the midst of my, uh, week of being ill It did bring some relief. I was like, oh yes, I don't need to fight this experience. This is just what's happening right now. And in letting go of fighting, there is something— there's a relief in that, and there's also a sort of sense of the present moment being trustworthy. That's what I land in. Oh, this is okay actually. It's not okay, and more fundamentally, it's okay. It's quite, it's quite a leap of faith to let go of trying to change your experience of the present moment and trust that just existing in the present moment will be sufficient? Because often the present moment is unpleasant, right? That's the first noble truth— suffering. The world is shot through with suffering. How can that be sufficient? And yet when we try it out, sometimes we might get a taste of, oh, this is okay. It doesn't need anything adding to it, and it doesn't need anything taking away. From it, which isn't the same as saying reality is pleasant all the time, but it is fundamentally trustworthy. There is something deeply meaningful and steadying about being with what is, but it's a pretty advanced practice. It's really normal to want to run away from difficult things or distract ourselves or look at something else. Those, those three poisons of Buddhism— greed, ill will, ignorance— they are literally responses. Like, those are the common human responses that we have when something difficult or unpleasant happens. Ways of taking us away from the present moment. And what Daishonin Morgan says, and what the Buddha says, is that actually, if you let go of greed, ill will, and delusion and just hang out with what is, there is something deeply meaningful about that. And not just meaningful, but spiritually valuable. As Pure Land Buddhists, we're very fortunate that we don't have to do that on our own. To have a steady, loving presence with you makes it much easier to hang out in a place of difficulty, and we can know this from, uh, real experiences in our own lives. When you're going through something tough, having somebody steady and kind and understanding with you makes a huge difference. It makes it possible to be with what's difficult. Uh, as a psychotherapist, I would say almost everything that brings people into therapy all the childhood trauma. The reason that something is traumatic is not because it's difficult or painful in the moment. It's because it's difficult and painful and we didn't have somebody with us to help us process the experience. That's what child— that's where childhood trauma comes from. If a child goes through something that is awful but has a steady, loving presence with them to help them through the experience, it's much less traumatic. Maybe if that steady, loving presence is really good, it's not traumatic at all. It's still painful, but it's not traumatic. And this is what Amida Buddha offers us. That steady loving presence that allows us to be with what is difficult without trying to run from it, without trying to hide from it. And what we discover, if we can really just be with the present moment, is not that it's a kind of neutral experience of, okay, this is all right, I can do this. But actually, when we really, really let go of trying to change things, there's a tenderness that arises. Oh, there is some suffering here, and here is a loving response to the suffering. And being held by the loving energy of the Buddha allows our own hearts to open so that we can also have that loving response. To the suffering that's in front of us. And we're human beings and we don't do it all the time. And you know, I was trying to run away from being ill this week, and yet being reminded, oh, I don't need to add anything, I don't need to take anything away. Even in this state of illness, reality is sufficient. It just nudged me into that place of like, oh, okay. Reality is sufficient. There is suffering, there's a loving response to suffering. Yeah, it is what it is. Not in a glib way, but in a very deep way that goes right to the heart of the Buddha's teaching. It is what it is. This is what's here in the present moment, and the Buddha's also here in the present moment. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. So now we're going to make prostrations chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. You can make 3 prostrations to the Buddha on the screen, or if you have a Buddha at home You can make a full prostration down to the ground as we chant together.

Alas, people busily engaged in secular matters take no notice of life wearing away. Day by day, night by night, like a lamp in the wind, how long can it last? In the six realms of vast samsara, there is no fixed abode. Until we are emancipated from the sea of affliction, how can we rest in peace? Should we not be afraid? While we are still— while we still have strength, let us each share the Dharma. Let us strive and diligently seek the path No need to boo.

Even our pitchy chanting is sufficient.

By Alice Harbors Light, may we care for all living things and the Holy Earth.