Satya Robyn reads from the Lotus Sutra's rain metaphor, explaining how the Buddha's teachings nourish people differently based on their capacity. The talk encourages spiritual growth through community practice and ends with the chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
Chapters
So welcome everybody, lovely to see you all. What a rainstorm we had this morning. The Buddha spoke about rain a few times in the sutras, and it made me think of a time. He talks about it in the Lotus Sutra, so I went— I just imagined sitting here and reading you the Buddha talking about rain with the rain coming down outside, and I thought, oh, that'd be a nice Nice synchronicity, but of course, as soon as I found the book, the sun came out. Before service, we were watching the sheets of water vapor rising up from the valley as the sun burned off the moisture. Anyway, I'm still going to read a little bit from the Lotus Sutra. This is traditionally said to be a teaching that was given towards the end of the Buddha's life. Although some scholars think it was actually composed after he died by other people, but it's certainly in the spirit of what he taught, and that's the main thing. So I'll read you a bit, and then I'll probably summarize a bit because it's quite long, but it's nice. Some of you will know it already. So the Buddha said, suppose in the 3,000 great thousandfold world there are growing on the mountains, along the rivers and streams, in the valleys and on the land, plants, trees, thickets, forests, and medicinal herbs of various and numerous kinds, with names and colors all different. A dense cloud spreading over and everywhere, covering the whole 3,000 great The great thousandfold world pours down its rain equally at the same time. Its moisture universally fertilizes the plants, trees, thickets, forests, and medicinal herbs with their tiny roots, tiny stalks, tiny twigs, tiny leaves, their medium roots, medium stalks, medium twigs, medium leaves, their big roots, big stalks, big twigs, big leaves, and every tree, big or little, according its to its superior, middle, or lower capacity receives its share. From the rain of that one cloud, each according to the nature of its kind acquires its development, opening its blossoms and bearing its fruit. Though produced in one soil and moistened by the same rain, these plants and trees are all different. The Tathāgata, the Buddha, is also like this. He appears in the world like the rising of that great cloud. Universally he extends his great call over the world of gods, men, and asuras, who are the warring gods. Just as that great cloud everywhere covers the 3,000, great thousandfold region, in the great assembly he sounds forth these words: I am the Tathagata, the worshipful, the wise, the perfectly enlightened, in conduct, the well-departed, the understander of the world, the peerless leader, the controller, the teacher of gods and men, the Buddha, the World-Honored One. Those who have not yet been saved, I shall cause to be saved. Those who have not yet been set free, I will set free. Those who have not yet been comforted will be comforted. Those who have not attained to Nibbāna will attain Nibbāna. He goes on to say, therefore the Buddha, observing the natural powers of each being, keen or dull, zealous or indifferent, according to their capacity, preached to them the Dhamma in various and unstinting ways, causing them all to rejoice and joyfully obtain much profit. All these living beings, having heard the Dhamma, are comforted in the present life, afterwards will be born in happy states where they will be made joyful by the truth and also hear the Dhamma. Just as that great cloud raining on all the plants, trees, thickets, forests, and medicinal herbs according to the nature of their seed, perfectly fertilizing them so that each grows and develops, so the Dhamma taught by the Buddha is of one form and flavor. 'And finally, the attained—' Oh, missed a bit, but don't worry about it. 'If there be living beings who hear the Dhamma of the Buddha and keep, read, and recite, and practice it as preached, their achievements will not enable them to understand their own nature. Why? Because only the Buddha, who knows the seed, the form, the embodiment, and the nature of all these living beings, what things they are reflecting over, what things they are thinking, what things practicing, and how reflecting, how thinking, and what laws, attaining to what laws. Only the Buddha in reality sees clearly and without hindrance the stages in which all living beings are. Just as those trees, thickets, forests, and medicinal herbs do not know their own natures,— I'm pausing there because it's easier for me to just tell you the rest, and maybe even some of that. So what the Buddha's saying is the Dharma, which is the teaching of the Buddha, but you could also say the spirit in which the Buddha lived his life: kindness, compassion, wisdom, empathy. Emotional balance. When a Buddha appears, when that spirit appears, whether it's in a place like this or in a great teacher or just when we encounter it in the world, it gives itself freely to everybody. It's only our own inclinations that affect how we receive the teaching. It's nothing— it's not the spirit. The spirit of the Buddha is different. And yet, even though the spirit of the teachings is the same, the form is slightly different. So when the Buddha was alive, he changed how he spoke to people depending on who they were. They would come and ask a specific question, and he would give them the answer for that person. If someone else came and asked the same question, they might get a different answer because maybe they needed something different to allow them to open their hearts. So it's the same spirit, but sometimes the form is different. But perhaps what's crucial about this teaching is that what it enables us to do is each flower in our own way. The Buddha's disciples were all different to each other. To one another. He wasn't producing a factory of clones. Each person who hears the Dharma comes to flourish in their own way, the way that you will be wise, or you will be compassionate, or you will be kind in your own life. If you perfect that in your own life, it will be different to the way that your neighbor perfects their kindness and compassion and wisdom, in the way that a A tree is perfect and a flower is perfect, but they're both quite different. I really like this idea of there being lots of different ways of being kind and compassionate, and it really allows us to sort of completely be ourselves and be individual, and yet at the same time be kind, allow this kindness, loving kindness, to flow out into the world from us. And the second bit, the final bit of that teaching, which I was sort of stumbling over because there's lots of words, I was trying to see which bits to skip and which bits to read. But what the final bit is saying is actually, from our own side, when we're just a seed, and we are mostly just seeds at the moment, maybe we've got a few little shoots, we don't know if we're going to become a tree or a sunflower or a gerbera or a thicket or a medicinal herb. We just grow towards the light as the rain nourishes us and the soil nourishes us. The gardener knows when he puts the seed in what we're going to become, but we don't get to know. And there's something quite relieving about this in the sense of, well, you don't need to worry too much about, should I do this or should I do that, or should I become this sort of person or that sort of person. Person, as long as you keep exposing yourself to good conditions, in this case the plants to the light and the rain and the soil, in the case of disciples of the Buddha coming to places like this, or the temples, receiving teachings, or going to places where you can receive love, essentially. And as long as you put yourselves in a place where you can receive love, you will begin to flower into a particular shape. And actually you discover discover that shape through the act of flowering. And that's nice because it takes away a whole layer of worry and it just allows us to enjoy the process of our branches growing or our petals opening or, you know, whatever it is that we happen to be growing into. So what we do when we come to a place like this, when we say the Buddha's name, when we doing the prostrations when we listen to the talk. These are all different ways of allowing ourself to be rained on, of connecting with the sunlight, with the soil, whatever metaphor you want to use. Putting your seed in good conditions. And sometimes we're sort of conscious and we think, "Oh yeah, that's a good teaching, I'll take that into my life." But often actually We just absorb something about the atmosphere. We absorb something from being around teachers, from being in temples, from being around Sangha. And it sinks into us, and it nurtures us, and we become something beautiful in this lifetime or the next. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
