Satya Robyn leads a guided Buddhist practice with group readings of the Heart Sutra, meditation on Amitabha's light, and chanting. The session explores śūnyatā, or boundlessness, and how mental fabrication creates suffering.
Chapters
Welcome everybody. Hi, Steph joining us on Zoom. We're going to begin practice tonight by reading the Heart Sutra together, this translation by Kazuaki Tanahashi and Roshi Joan Halifax. This, um, they translate the Sanskrit word śūnyatā as boundlessness. Here it's usually translated as emptiness, which some of you may have heard of, um, and it's a pretty dense text. I'll speak more about what it means later. For now, it's fine just to let it flow over you. So its original context is it's spoken by the Buddha to Shariputra, who's asked a question, I believe.
The Sutra on the Heart of Realizing wisdom beyond wisdom.
Avalokiteshvara, who helps all to awaken, moves in the deep course of realizing wisdom beyond wisdom, sees that all five streams of body, heart, and mind are without boundary, and frees all from anguish. O Shariputra, form is not separate from boundlessness. Boundlessness is not separate from form. Form is boundlessness. Boundlessness is form. Feelings, perceptions, inclinations, and discernment are also like this. O Shariputra, boundlessness is the nature of all things. It neither arises nor perishes, neither stains nor purifies, neither increases nor decreases. Boundlessness is not limited by form, nor by feelings, perceptions, inclinations, or discernment. It is free of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind. Free of sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, and any object of mind. Free of sensory realms, including the realm of mind. It is free of ignorance and the end of ignorance. Boundlessness is free of old age and death and free of the end of old age and death. It is free of suffering, arising, cessation, and path, and free of wisdom and attainment. Being free of attainment, those who help all to awaken abide in the realization of wisdom beyond wisdom and live with an unhindered mind. Without hindrance, the mind has no fear. Free from confusion, those who lead all to liberation embody profound serenity. All those in the past, present, and future who realize wisdom beyond wisdom manifest unsurpassable and thorough awakening. Know that realizing wisdom beyond wisdom is no other than this wondrous mantra Luminous, unequaled, and supreme, it relieves all suffering. It is genuine, not illusory. So set forth this mantra of realizing wisdom beyond wisdom. Set forth this mantra that says: Gate, gate, paragate, parasangate, bodhisvaha.
So we move into a period, short period of meditation, followed by a period of chanting. We'll chant the name of Amitabha Buddha tonight. For the meditation, you may want to imagine the light of that Buddha's wisdom entering into you as you breathe in. And sinking down into your body as you breathe out. Not forcing the light anywhere, just noticing as it sinks deeper and deeper with each out breath. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. We'll now recite the refuges and precepts and bodhisattva vows. I ask you to repeat after me, but you can find them on your liturgy sheet if you would like to see them written down. We have 4 refuges in this tradition: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, and also the Earth, honoring the place where we become awakened and also the Earth as an awakened being. 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 Buddhaya.
Namo Buddhaya.
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 Sangha. Namo Sangha. For refuge I go to the Earth. Refuge I go to now, the holy ground of awakening.
The holy ground of awakening.
Namobunyay. Namobunyay. 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, I pray that I may become aware, of when I take life, I pray that I may become aware of 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 I pray that I may become aware of when I fall into wrong speech.
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. Intoxicated.
No blame.
No blame.
Be kind. Be kind. Love everything.
Love everything.
Innumerable sentient beings, we vow to save them all. Inexhaustible arduous passions, we vow to transform them all. Immeasurable Abhidharma teachings, we vow to fully master them all. Infinite is the Buddha's way, we vow to fulfill it completely. Everything is boundless, but the ordinary human mind creates fixed, boundaried things out of boundlessness. We decide what something is. A person, an object, a way of seeing, and we close it down. We create something that is fixed and limited. I've been reading Rob Bivier's book, uh, whose title I've forgotten, but it's something like The Freedom of Seeing or The Seeing That Leads to Freedom. And he calls this process of the mind fabricating. That's what the human mind does, it creates fabrications. So I have an idea of who Satya Robyn is— my wife, my friend, person I live with. Person I ran the temple with. But none of those ideas capture the truth.
They all create a boundary, they create something smaller.
And in that creation, I also create myself as a fixed being, as well as the opposite, the counterpoint to all of those things that I might believe about Uh, so I'm limiting myself, I'm limiting the way that I see somebody. One of the ways that we do this, it's a really lovely example from the book, I think, um, Rob Babir calls it the dot-to-dot way of thinking. That we just take a couple of things that are true about an experience and then make a story about, about them. So the example he gives is looking forward to lunch and really building it and creating this clear idea, and the longing comes, and I'm really looking forward to it, and it's going to be delicious. And maybe one mouthful is delicious, or two mouthfuls, But there's also other experiences in lunch as well— making it, washing up, maybe neutral mouthfuls, maybe negative mouthfuls if we haven't taken, you know, if we haven't prepared something properly. Sensation of chewing, sensation of swallowing. When we really pay attention, there's, there's a lot more to it than just nice experience. It's more complex. Or going out into the cold. Actually, if you've got the right clothes on, maybe you get one raindrop down your neck that's cold, maybe you shiver once or twice, and you build a story, oh, it's cold, I won't like it. But actually, some of it's neutral, some of it is negative, But it can be beautiful, you know, the mist on the hills, or seeing— we live opposite a graveyard— seeing the graves emerge from the drizzly rain, or a muntjac bounding across the field that nobody else sees because they're all warm inside. The experience is much bigger than the fabrication of our mind. And every time we fix something like that, we create a little bit of suffering. The mind— in the creation of it, the mind contracts. We become a little bit short-sighted, metaphorically.
There is a, there is a feeling of suffering even in that process.
But we also create suffering because we're excluding reality, because we're longing for some things and pushing others away, which inevitably means we'll be disappointed when we actually meet what's real. And the experience of softening fabrication, of beginning to notice, oh, I've made something fixed here, but I wonder what it's really going to be like. Reduces suffering. It produces a softening of that contraction in the mind. Rather than shortsightedness, it, it brings spaciousness, and it reduces craving, it reduces attachment, it reduces pushing things away. So it reduces suffering. And those are quite mundane examples in some ways, but we do it with political views, with countries, with things that are really important about the way that I think about myself or others, about my work. And all of those kind of limitations also produce suffering when we hold on tightly to them. The more we can allow things to be boundless, the less suffering there will be. And what it suggests in the sutra is that at quite subtle level, the more— the closer and closer we investigate everything, we discover its boundlessness. Every sound that comes in through our ears, everything we taste, Every thought that we have, even the one who's noticing boundlessness, um, is boundless, disappears into something without edges. And the experience of letting go of fabrications of views of fixed things. It's not only the way that a Buddha sees, but the more that we can do that, the closer we feel to the Buddha in our hearts, because the Buddha is boundlessness, infinite life, infinite light is the meaning of Amida's name. You could say boundless light, boundless life. And every time you soften a fixed view, you become a little bit closer to the Buddha. And that's what this sutra encourages us to do, to notice that fixed views aren't real. Begin to soften them and to begin to taste a little bit of boundlessness, which is freedom. As it says in the sutra, is freedom from suffering. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. In a moment, Phoebe will ring the bell and we'll stand and make prostrations to the main shrines. We'll do 3 bows onto the ground, which do feel free to join in as much or as little as you're able, and we'll chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, which means I take refuge in or I bow to Amida Buddha. And I, um, I didn't— this bench is a bit low for me, so I'm hoping my legs I haven't gone to sleep.
We'll find out when I stand up.
Namaste.
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 still have strength, let us each hear the Dharma, to strive and diligently seek the path to eternity.
We'll come back to stand in our places. In a moment, the bell master will ring a single bell and we'll bow to the people either side of us, and then on the double bow, we'll bow to the main shrine. Double bell, we'll bow to the main shrine.
Thank you. I do need money to run the temple.
We don't want finances to be a barrier to anyone practicing. There's a donation bowl in the hallway, or you can donate online. All donations gratefully received.
Any other announcements?
No, that's cool. So we'll finish with the closing verse. Blessed by Amitābha's light, may you care for all living things.
