Satya Robyn leads a Buddhist practice session with meditation, chanting, and recitation of precepts. A teaching explores the ethics of taking life through a story about algae on a car during an MOT inspection, connecting everyday choices to Buddhist values.
Chapters
Welcome everybody. Accompanied by birdsong tonight. And, uh, Patti joining online, hopefully you can, you can hear some birdsong where you are as well. So we're going to start today's practice with a poem, and the poem is The Trees by Philip Larkin. The trees are coming into leaf like something almost being said. The recent buds relax and spread. Their greenness is a kind of grief. Is it that they are born again as we grow old? No, they die too. Their yearly trick of looking new is written down in rings of grain. Yet still the unresting castles thresh in full-grown thickness every May. Last year is dead, they seem to say. Begin afresh, afresh, afresh. I'm gonna read it a second time. The trees are coming into leaf like something almost being said. The recent buds relax and spread. Their greenness is a kind of grief. Is it that they are born again and we grow old? No, they die too. Their yearly trick of looking new is written down in rings of grain. Yet still the unresting castles thresh in full-grown thickness every May. Last year is dead, they seem to say. Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.
Namaste.
So accompanied by the poem, we're going to move into a period of quiet meditation. So making any little adjustments that you need to make so that you can feel even a little bit more comfortable. Noticing the sounds around, maybe sounds outside the room, the sounds inside the room. The sound of your own breath. And the invitation is simply to sit at the center of your experience.
Oh!
We're going to move into a period of chanting, and we're simply going to chant the name of Amitabha Buddha. I'm gonna chant Amitabha.
Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh.
So we're going to move into saying the Four Refuges and the Ethical Precepts, which are written down on the little liturgy sheet, which are those that are either underneath your seat or next to your chair, next to your cushion. Most of it is call and response, Well, it's not call and response actually. Most of it is I say and then you repeat it. Yeah, the only bit which is call and response is the Bodhisattvas. For refuge I go to the Buddha.
For refuge I go to the Buddha.
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. 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 Sangha.
Namo Sangha.
For refuge I go to the Earth.
For refuge I go to the Earth.
The holy ground of awakening. Namobuddhaya. With faith in the Four Refuges, 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— when I take what is not freely given. I pray that I may become aware of when I fall into sexual misconduct. I pray that I may become aware— when I fall into wrong speech. I pray that I may become aware. When I become intoxicated, no blame. Be kind. 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 bow to master them all.
Infinite is the Buddha's way.
We vow to fulfill it completely. Amen it be.
So last time I held practice, I talked about intensive many hours of chanting and fire ceremonies and meditative states. Um, and this time I'm going to talk about algae growing on my car, my MOT. So the first precept that we say here is, pray that I may become aware of when I take life. And so that's exactly what happened a week or two ago. So the car that I youth. I inherited, kind of, not indirectly inherited, and so it's a much used, much well-loved car. And over the last year, I'd really been enjoying watching different types of algae grow on it. Started off as the tiny little specks of green on the— around the boot area and in the little ledges. And then, and then I looked and it was like in the little dips in the wing mirrors, just like a few little specks. And then I carried on watching and it slowly, very slowly over the year, it grew a little bit bigger. And then different types started to grow and there was ones with like big kind of leaf— not leaves because they don't have leaves, but it kind of looked like, like big green, like, petally things. And, and, you know, I really felt like when I was driving around, I was there with my mates, you know, my little, my little algae companions. And then came the, came the date of the MOT. And I never did this with my motorbike, but people told me that with a car 'If you make it look like you take good care of it, it's more likely to pass the MOT.' So I thought, 'It's just gonna have to go through the car wash.' So initially I just focused on the less painful bit of going to 3 different garages to hoover the inside. And then I went to the place in Worcester and I got them to hose it down. And then I drove through the drive-through car wash. That was even more of a bizarre experience than the one time I'd been in through a drive-through one as a child. And I knew that as that was happening, the algae was dying. It was being obliterated. It was being shot off with water and soap and, you know, big wiper things. So it was a sad day for the algae. Well, I don't know if the algae was sad. I was sad. And it felt like a, a big responsibility, a big You know, I'd made a decision that cost things their life just so that I might possibly have a better chance of getting through my MOT. It didn't really seem very fair. It did get through its MOT, whether it's because I got— I went through the car wash or not, I don't know. And there was also something that happened was that It came to me thirdhand, and the original owner was the granddad of my partner. And as, as, and when I saw it after it being cleaned and vacuumed it and everything, I saw his face and he was smiling, you know, in my mind. And I was like, I'm honoring an ancestor, you know, he's pleased because his car has had a bit of TLC. So this whole complex experience came about just through going through the car wash. On the one hand, I put my fairly insignificant thing in front of the lives of the algae, and taken the life of the algae. So I was aware, I was aware that I'd taken the life of the algae in the decision to get it car washed, and I knew that that was going to happen. I mean, thankfully the COVID of my— one of my wing mirrors was lost with it as well, so it wasn't completely at no loss there. And I imagine the energy of the algae, you know, being obliterated and transforming into something else, because we know that energy doesn't go anywhere. It can't be destroyed, just becomes something else as the whole sea of impermanence and interconnectedness continues to move through us and through everything. And all of this was another reminder of how intimately connected I am to everything else. And the heaviness that I always feel when I make a choice that I know will take life, whether it's weeding in the garden or going through a car wash. So I thank the algae for that little, little lesson. I hope that it's growing in the Pure Land. Namaste.
In gratitude, we make this offering to all Buddhas and bodhisattvas throughout space and time. May it be as fragrant as Earth herself, 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.
Turning to stand at our seats. When she dings the bell, we're going to bow in one direction and then in the other. We're going to bow to the main shrine. We tidy our seats and we bow to our seats. Satya Robyn and Caspar are continuing to hold talks on a regular basis. You can see on the calendar outside or on the website. I don't know the dates off the top of my head. Jarno is running a book group from the 20th of June till 8th of—
it is the 8th of August, so that's about 7 weeks. And it's on a book called Seeing Through the Eyes of a Buddha, about the Four Noble Truths, which are the center of the Buddha's teachings. So which should be nice.
It's the 4 Spaces and it's an online course, so just speak to me if you're interested.
Thanks.
I think that's us going outwards. Yeah, so we'll close with the closing verse. Bless, shine, and help this light May we care for all living things. Om Mani Padme Hum.
