Too scattered to meditate?

Good morning, everybody. See a mix of faces, familiar, unfamiliar. So we're going to start today's practice with a Philip Larkin poem, 'The Trees.' It's going to be read by Angela.

'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 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.

Thank you very much.

We're going to move into a short period of meditation, so just have a little wiggle, have a little adjust of the body, and just see if you can make your body even a tiny bit more comfortable, maybe finding where your center of gravity is, noticing the contact between the floor or the chair and the body. Maybe seeing how much you can receive the contact, the support of the chair or the cushion. As it receives your weight. Orientate to some of the sounds that are around you. Sounds further away, sounds closer. The sound of the breath. The movement of the breath through the body, this constant flow, constant exchange between the outer world and the inner world. We're going to move into some chanting, and we're simply going to chant name Amitābha. The name of Amitābha, the Buddha of infinite light and life, who we connect with here in that bright Earth. And as the central Buddha within Pure Land Buddhism, Amitābha, Amita. We're just going to be chanting the word Amitabha.

Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh.

Amitabh.

Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Me taba. Ma me taba. Ma me taba. Amitabh! Amitabh! Amitabha! Amita— Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Ramita bha. Ramita bha. Ramita bha.

We're going to chant the refuges and precepts now. That's the invitation. They are written down on the little liturgy sheet next to your cushion or underneath your chair. And the refuges are the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. And here, the Earth. And they are exactly what they say they are—refuges. They are teachings and presence that we can keep coming back to and returning to. And anchoring into amidst the delightful chaos of our lives. And the precepts are ethical, ethical ideals the Buddha gave, with a sense— there's a sense that these ideals are— if we were enlightened, these ideals are how we naturally are, how we naturally kind of express ourselves in the world and interact with each other. Um, we're not, and that's okay. So we recognize that we are constantly falling short of these ideals in obvious ways and in subtler and subtler ways, and that's okay. And it's thought that it's helpful to remind ourselves of these ideals as well. That's call and response. And then we go into the Bodhisattva vows, which are like even more unbelievably far out and apparently paradoxical and unattainable. 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.

The holy ground of awakening.

Namo Bhumiye. 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 I pray that I may become aware of when I take what is not freely given—of when I say what is not free here—I pray that I may become aware—and praise our Lady from away—when I fall into sexual misconduct—or do we now fall into sexual misconduct? And I pray that I may become aware—that right inside me come over there—when I've fallen to wrong speech—but when I'd call it your own 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 sentient beings, we vow to save them all.

Inexhaustible are the needed 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 perfect it completely.

Ameedaboo. So I'm carrying on the tree theme in my little talk. For today. Of course, I love trees because they have endless wisdom, uh, as far as I'm concerned. So sometimes I can feel like I'm putting my energy out in so many different directions Like I have my therapy work and I have the various things I do at the temple and I have, you know, other things like, you know, all the other things I wanna put my energy into, like music and creativity and nature and my dog and my friends and all the people who are close to me. And each of those things. Is complex and pulls on me in different ways and is full of different types of communication. And so sometimes I can feel like I'm just going over here and I'm dying over there, and then I'm, I'm, I'm running over here to to catch this thing. And, and I can feel like sometimes, you know, I'm like judgmental of that in myself. And I think, oh, you know, I really, it, it, I really need to hone in and just only put my energy into like one thing, have that simplicity. And I do crave simplicity and I was walking the other day and I was thinking about this, and I was thinking about, was there— I mean, is there any way of, of not having my energy dying over here and to these people and that project, you know? And, and, and I stopped by, um, by the little stream in Happy Valley, for those of you who know this area. And I stopped by the stream and I listened to the water, and I looked up at this beautiful grape tree, and I noticed all of the branches, the thicker branches and the thinner branches, and the, the buds and the leaves, and how they were all spreading out in all different directions. That the energy from the tree, you know, spreading out in all these different directions as expressed through the branches and the leaves and the buds. And I thought, oh, I mean, maybe that's just what's happening. Maybe that's just what's happening. And the tree doesn't worry about, have I got my energy spread too thinly between this branch and this branch, and maybe I should let this one go. Unless it's actually ready to go and it's, you know, dead. Tree doesn't worry about this. The tree is doing a perfectly good job of being a tree. And then of course all these branches come into the trunk, on the central trunk. Obviously some trees have many trunks, but this one just had one. And when I focused on the trunk, it had a completely different quality, a very, very solid, completely weighty, united, that central pillar of presence. That was allowing all of the energy that was drawing up and the water and the nutrients and everything that was drawing up from the roots, obviously protecting it through the central trunk and out into the branches and the leaves and the buds. So I was like, okay, so How can that— how is that mirrored? How is that mirrored in my experience? And I was like, well, when I am simply— when I can be with myself, when I can bring my presence to myself, like connect in, there is completely this central trunk core which isn't scattered and divided and spread out like the leaves and the branches and all the projects and things that I put my energy into. When I come back to my core on a deeply embodied way, there is that simplicity and stability. And then we, of course, we have the roots. And the roots spread out again, mirroring the branches, spreading out, drawing nutrients, seeking moisture, interrelating, interacting through the mycelium network with all the other trees and plants. And everything else that's around, that dynamic communication, dynamic exchange with the space around it, drawing from many different points. And that again related, because people who know me will know that obviously I have a strong Pure Land Buddhism influence alignment, and I'm also influenced strongly by animism, by bhakti yoga, inspired by Sufi poetry and my time practicing, um, with Sufis abroad. And sometimes, you know, sometimes people say to me, oh, you know, if you try and dig a well in too many places, you're never going to get to the water. I mean, the tree doesn't worry about that. The tree doesn't have one root. Sure, may have stronger taproots, well, is not afraid to seek out the nourishment where it is, where it can. So I was really grateful of the tree, of providing this beautiful metaphor for me. And sometimes when people come here, they think, oh, you know, they have similar kind of things that they say to me, like, you know, you know, I'd feel like I'm just here, there, and everywhere in my, in my day-to-day life, and I just— wouldn't it be great to just only be you know, here doing this, or, you know, be meditate— I can't meditate because my energy is too scattered and, and my life isn't suited well to spiritual practice, you know, with a very similar thing, this idea that, that it's not okay to need to put our energy into lots of different directions. And yet actually that's, that's life for, for pretty much all of us here in, in the West, and, you know, and in the East, is that there will always be many demands on our time and on our energy, except for, you know, sometimes there's little unusual times in our life when that's not the case, or times of illness or that kind of thing. But I'm really inviting here, if you resonate with that tool, I'm really inviting and hoping that there's some kind of meaning and helpfulness or usefulness that comes in with the image of the tree with its branches spreading in all directions, completely accepting that that is what it needs to do to survive. It needs to have deep roots drawing nourishment where it can, strong core, and branches that reach out and take in leaves that take in the light that they need. And so the tree helped me be more accepting of me and my situation. And acceptance is also something that we find here coming from Amida, Amitābha Buddha, a central Buddha in Pure Land Buddhism here, who offers us radical acceptance, complete and total acceptance of ourselves, absolutely and exactly as we are in any given moment. And I think it's possible to tap into that acceptance in many ways, in so many ways— in a tree, in a conversation with a good friend, in infinite, infinite ways that we might experience that radical acceptance.

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

So we're going to move into chanting, and if you like, some more prostrations. Um, prostrations are a way of using our whole body-mind to express our connectedness really to the infinite, to the Buddha, our way of appreciating, of lowering the head below the heart, you know, surrendering to that heart wisdom. And so if it's your first time here, you can just swatch if you like. Or you can join in and do as much roll it as your body is up for today.

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. Till we are emancipated from the sea of affliction, how can we rest in peace? Should we not be afraid? While still young and strong, let us each hear the Dharma. Let us strive and diligently seek the path to eternity.

And we're gonna bow one way and then the next when the bell dings. And then we're gonna bow to the main shrine over there. We bow to our seats and we tidy our seats. Next Saturday, there will be a work hour for an hour after practice. So if you want to come and do a bit of gardening or anything like that, then you're welcome to join us. There is a golden bowl in the hallway there that is for donations. So if you're able to give a donation, that's always greatly appreciated and helps us carry on doing what we do here. Or you can also donate, donate online there's a QR code by the bowl, or you can just donate at brightearth.org/donate. Thank you very much. We're going to close by closing this. Let's— let's—