Satya Robyn leads a Pure Land Buddhist evening service with mokugyo chanting, recitation of Amitabha, and prostrations. The leader offers a Dharma reflection and dedicates the service's merit to George Floyd and those suffering oppression.
Chapters
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. So we begin as we always do with some mokugyo chanting. Mokugyo is the temple drum. This is a very small personal version that I've got. The one in the main shrine room upstairs is much bigger. This is used to let people know that it's time to start the service. I think a few weeks ago I talked about, in Japan, the monastics often have a practice session before the public service. So in the public hall, the mokugyo chanting will begin as the monastics come process from their hall into the public hall before the session starts. It's a way of letting people know that public practice is imminent. You're all here and you know that already, but we still keep the tradition. And any invisible beings that Buddhism— you know, in all the sutras there's all these mythical beings— they can also know that the service is starting. So the words are 'Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.' I take refuge in Amida Buddha.
In gratitude, I offer this incense to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space. Space and time.
May it be as fragrant as Earth herself, reflecting our careful efforts, our wholehearted awareness, and the fruits of understanding slowly ripening. May we and all beings be companions of Buddhas and bodhisattvas. May we awaken from forgetfulness and realize the Pure Land. That chanting with the mokugyo, we just do for a couple of minutes at the beginning of service, but when we do our continuous Nembutsu practice, sometimes a few hours, sometimes 24 hours, it's the chant that we use then. And towards the end of this month, we have got a continuous chanting practice for a couple of hours that you can join via Zoom. The details are on the Amida Mandala website. Now we'll chant Amida's name together, this time in Sanskrit. So chanting Amitābha, the spirit of this is just recognizing ourselves as an ordinary foolish being. When we look inside our heart, we find all sorts of limitations and incapacities, and, and of course, the possibility of compassion, bringing all of that into relationship with the infinite light that is the Buddha's love. So again, please do join in with the chanting from your own homes.
Ame taba, ame taba, ame taba. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha.
Amitabha.
Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha.
Amitabha.
Amitabha. Amitabha! Amitabha! Amitabha! Amitabha! Amitabha! Amitaba— Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha.
Amitabh.
Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh.
Amitabha.
Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha! Amitabha! Amitabha! Amitaba—
Ami-ta-bah?
A-mee-taa-baaa- Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha.
Amitabha.
Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha! Amitaba— A-mi-ta-bah?
Am-i-taa-baaa...
Ahh-meet-aaaa-bahhh?!
Anniit-a-baaaaaaaaahhhh!
Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha.
Amitabha.
Amitabha! Amitabha! Amitabha!
Amitabha!
Amitaba— Ameeta ba? Amitabha. Amitabha.
Amitabha. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
When we chant that, when we're not in lockdown, it's usually a practice that we do whilst we're walking walking around the shrine room, circumambulating the main shrine. We've got a big standing Buddha that sits in a big window, and as we chant, we approach the Buddha, we go behind the back of the Buddha, we come out the other side, walking around the edge, other edge of the shrine room, and in this way There's this dance or movement between coming close to the Buddha and coming further away from the Buddha. We can see that as coming close to the Buddha, giving our attention to the Buddha, and then carrying our practice into the world, giving our attention to the world. The same rhythm happens across the week. We come together as a group, say an Embutsu together, give our attention to the Buddha, experience that feeling of being held by something bigger than us, or trust that we're being held by that even if we're not feeling it. And then we go back into our lives trying to do the best that we can. And today I'm thinking about that In relationship to the killing of George Floyd and the protests that followed in the United States that have been, um, shared widely— videos, images, news has been shared widely— quite disturbing images but important to pay attention to. I read a really nice analogy today. I can't remember where I read it, otherwise I'd like to give the person credit, but it invited us to think of each person being given a pack of cards when they come into life. And on that pack of cards is all the different experiences that you might have during your life— good experiences, and bad experiences. And as you go through life at various times, the card gets pulled. It might be something tragic, or it might be something positive. And there's some cards that we would all have in our deck. The Buddha talked about sickness, old age, and death. We all have those cards in our decks. But there's some cards that you don't have in your deck unless you're born into a particular country or a particular group of people or into a particular background. If I was in the States and I was stopped by the police, it's very unlikely that I would get into the same kind of trouble that a Black person would get into. Very, very unlikely. That card isn't in my deck. We can think of the same being true for economic groups, for people of indigenous cultures in countries that have been colonized. All these different cards that only appear in certain decks, and some decks have more negative cards than others. And the Buddha invites us to examine the causes and conditions of our life. He's inviting us to look inside our own hearts. Often in a Western context, when we look inside our own heart, what we're paying attention to is our individual greed, our individual hate, our individual ignorance, and that single thread of karma forwards and backwards in our own lives. I think it's really important to To know that groups of people can have different kinds of karma, to know that my life is very different because of the place that I was born into and the time that I was born into compared to Black Americans, for example, or Indigenous Australians, Indigenous Canadians. And so on. And as a Buddhist, what is my response to finding that out? As a Pure Land Buddhist, two different responses. The first, in that movement towards the Buddha that I described at the beginning of this talk, is to know that whoever comes towards the Buddha Regardless of their karma, their personal karma, their collective karma, regardless of what is in their deck of cards, the Buddha accepts them just as they are. The Buddha's light is for everybody from anywhere, everybody from everywhere. We are all loved unconditionally by the Buddha. And the second is that movement into the world, that I can use this investigation into my own condition and into the condition of other human beings to enable my compassion to become wiser, so that I can make better choices in my life. Wisdom is understanding. The Prajna means to see beneath the surface of things. The Chinese character for Prajna is a heron, because a heron can see beneath the surface of the water, make the correct calculation, and pick the fish from the right place, even just despite that refraction. In the water. So the Buddha invites us to see beneath the surface, and this kind of investigation into what it's like to be me compared to what it's like to be somebody else is part of seeing beneath the surface and can inform the choices that I make and the words that I use. So both of these things together— unconditional love for every— for me, with all the prejudice that I discover in my own heart. I'm not free of that, you know. My roots are in society, so of course some of those prejudices move through me, through my heart. 'And yet the Buddha accepts me just as I am, and the Buddha accepts everybody just as they are.' And on the other hand, that deep investigation that allows for wise compassion in the world. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. So now we have a period of quiet sitting, and in this practice you can make that same movement, noticing what is in your heart right now, what thoughts and feelings are stirred into in relationship to what I've been talking about. 'Oh, this is the sort of person that I am in this moment. This is how I'm feeling in this moment.' And then bringing that into relationship with the Buddha, trusting that, 'Oh, this person I am, with these things in my heart and these thoughts, the Buddha's light is shining on me.' So at this point in the service, it's time for making prostrations to the Buddha, which we do accompanied by chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. I don't think I know how to adjust the video so that you can see what I'm doing, so if you don't know how we do make prostrations in this tradition, you can just bow as the bell rings. At a certain point during the chanting, but if you'd like to make the full prostration from chanting to the Buddha, then do feel free to join. So, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
Namah Amitabh. Namah Amitabh. Namah Amitabh.
Namah Amitabh.
Namah Amitabha. Namah Amitabha. Namah Amitabha. Namoh Amitabh. Abo Amita.
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
So we're now going to recite evening service together, which is on page 13 in the service book. If you haven't done this before, you won't be able to tell this evening because you can't hear anybody else, but The words in italics I will chant on my own, and then you join in with everybody else in the responses. But of course, that will just be me as well, or you'll just be able to hear me, but you can join in with me for the responses. Usually somebody else— Satya Robyn is here next to me, which makes that more obvious, but she's running another meeting, or she's a guest at another meeting this evening.
With body, speech, and mind, humbly I prostrate and make offerings both set out and imagined. I confess my wrong deeds from all time and rejoice in the virtues of all. Please stay until samsara ceases and turn the wheel of Dharma for us. I dedicate all virtues to Great Enlightenment. The ground sprinkled with perfume and spread with flowers, the great mountain for land, sun, and moon. Seen as a Buddha land and offered thus. May I enjoy, may all beings enjoy such pure lands. Hirdam guru ratna mandala kam nirvayatayami. By the grace that I receive through Amitabha's vows, May I be moved to deeds for the benefit of all. By the grace that I receive through Amitābha's vows, may I be moved to deeds for the benefit of all. By the grace that I receive through Amitābha's vows, may I be moved to deeds for the benefit of all. The purpose of our practice is to be a pure container wherein the common passions mature as higher wisdom. The preliminary outlook comes with bowing and contrition, facing up to my obstructions and seizing life's first essence. Devotion to my teacher ends my smugness and dejection. Helped by his compassion, I will find a straight direction. By refuge vows and precepts, recitation of the sutras, I grow through every challenge. In Bodhisattva aspiration, cooperation in a sangha brings so many joys and freedoms. Through gentle words and gestures come collective transformation. Settled faith and inner cleansing brings us home to life's great meaning. In the Four Divine Abidings, Buddha's light is always with us. Multitudes are disconcerted by impermanence and difference. With Dharma as true refuge, we dwell within the pure land. Now gratitude is overflowing, going forth, returning richly. I offer gifts of Dharma Buddha's path bliss bestowing. 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. Invocation of Akalanatha. Hail to the mandala! Let us so be engulfed within its praises evermore, that by our own wills and vigilance may we our fetters cut away. May we within the temple of our own hearts dwell amidst the myriad mountains.
Hail Heil, heil.
Invocation of Maha Kala. Let us be engulfed within the mandala of the Sangha of Buddha. Heil, the arrow of emptiness.
Heil, heil.
Invocation of Vairochana Buddha. Hail the beneficent mystic, the treasure. Hail the golden bell that rings but once.
Peace upon the pilgrim.
Makura on. Makura on. Makura on.
So we dedicate the merit of this evening's service to George Floyd and to all those who have died and are suffering at the hands of oppression.
By your vows and through your grace, A pure land appears.
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
So now I will ring a bell and we'll bow to each other. Say thank you. And I will ring two bells and we'll bow to the Buddha.
Namami Tepe.
