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[Spiritual] practices are not for know-it-alls. Practices are for those who feel the need for change, growth, development, learning. Practices are for disciples. We could say that rituals are practices of learners, and ritualism is the continuation of the practice by people who have stopped learning. Similarly, we could say that traditions are the heritage of a community of learners, and traditionalism is the continuation of the heritage by people who have stopped learning.
Finding our way again - Brian McLaren
On Saturday a small number of us met up for a day retreat at 118. This is something we occasionally do, believing that it is important in the business of everyday life, to create a little space for a little practice and reflection.
Sundari had suggested that we could explore the subject of devotion; what it means to us; who or what are we devoted to? What have been our experiences of devotional practices? It was also an opportunity to have a little more time to sit together and and chant nembutsu.
We began at ten with a morning service and followed this with some discussion and sharing on devotion. After a delicious lunch we looked at ritual, both within our Buddhist practice and in our everyday lives. We finished the day with some more nembutsu and a closing service and prostrations.
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Bhaktika has been using some of his mediating skills and experience to help out in his local community where there have been some recent trouble on the streets between youths from different communities. This has involved a lot of talking and listening to local people. Sundari noted that it is disturbing to find that they have such conflict right on their doorstep. Bhaktika has lived there for 30 years and so is well placed to be involved. Sundari commented that -
The need for us all to talk to each other is enormous. Occasionally now we go on an evening walkabout and just chat to people.
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The third edition of Sundari’s book has arrived from the publisher! Nice green cover. History made in a small way - it is the first time ever that a textbook on immigration and asylum law has gone to a third edition in the UK. (There was a book that went to a second edition in 1983)
We continue to meet most monday evenings. Give us a call if you are interested in coming along. We usually have a service at 6 p.m. which involves chanting nembutsu, meditation/reflection and a service adapted from the Amida-shu Nien Fo book. We then have a shared meal and a chat/discussion. Its all very informal!
When Death Comes
When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snaps his purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle pox;
when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering;
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,
and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,
and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,
and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.
When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened
or full of argument.
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.
~Mary Oliver
Our service this week took the form of a memorial and celebration of the life of Saille, our Amida-shu friend from Canada, whose dance with cancer came to a rest recently. Memories were shared, a few syncopated jazz nembutsu were chanted among the homages to Quan Shi Yin. A lot of people will carry her in their hearts.
From Saille: “— and so my dear friends, I hope you will each choose to journey with me on your own ride, walk, jump, dance, skip of this one wild and precious life that we have each been given. I will meet you there —“
I arrive with the debris of the day on my mind. It’s sunny, so I make my way round the back of the house to find Sundari sitting in the sheltered garden. A cup of tea and a piece of cake helps to put the day in some kind of perspective. This may be a Buddhist Sangha night but some things are quintessentially English. Amida Buddhists and Quakers in Sheffield , I have found, share a common liking for cake.
Our evening service takes place on the back lawn. We sit with the sound of birdsong and the hum of the traffic leaving the city. The sun is warm on our skin. The first half of the service is taken up with gently chanting Namo Quan Shi Yin Bosat 108 times and then settling into silence… meditation…. prayer.
We finish the service by chanting the refuges, precepts, bodhisattva vows and invocations and close with prostrations. Right at the end of service, we become aware that we are being watched by some children from next door who are clambering on the adjoining wall. “Why are you praying?” they ask.
Because prayer is good for the soul.
We had a day of Pureland Practice at 118 today. We were joined by Marie, Mark and Paul and the day included a shared lunch and a discussion around nembutsu practice. It was a relaxed time and we are hoping that we will be able to to offer further weekend events in the coming months. Do let us know if you would be interested in attending!
Meanwhile, our regular monday evening services continue. See the diary page.
Amida Buddhism is a religion of light and love. It is life affirming without being complacent about basic human nature; respectful of universal spirituality but not dependent upon ideas of divine creation or divine judgement. It honours and appreciates the bitter-sweetness of the spiritual struggles of ordinary folk who are attempting to be truly human. It allows for a life of full time devotion without setting up an over-privileged priestly class. It is an engaged spirituality, centred on the prospect of the Pure Land paradise. It is suitable for all people, having a basic practice that is accessible to anybody. It is a path of sudden awakening centred uncompromisingly upon faith. It derives from the very earliest Buddhism and from a direct encounter with the Buddha of all time. It is grounded in the doctrines common to all Buddhist schools, yet offers a unique perspective on them, and, furthermore, does not require the mastery of those doctrines as a condition of awakening. It emphatically asserts that the practice that matters is the utterance of nembutsu in simple faith and that alone. Understanding of the doctrinal framework and support may be satisfying, but it is ancillary to the main spiritual project, which is eminently simple. It does not stand in opposition to other faiths, but reveals the generic nature of faith itself as the wellspring of eternal life. It holds that no religion can be ultimate since even revelation must pass through the medium of human nature. We are foolish beings of blind passion, living, knowingly or unknowingly, in the presence of infinite light, that reflects in us as faith. That gift of faith we either squander or gather in. We express it through ceaseless nembutsu expressing a contrite heart and a mind that is sincere, deep and unconditional. Such is Pureland.
Who loves dies well - Dharmavidya
Ray writes -
Through January we have been meeting regularly on monday evenings for a meal and practice together. Tonight though, instead of a service, we chose to attend the candlelit memorial ceremony held at the Winter Garden as part of Holocaust Memorial Day.
I was conscious of just how busy we all are. Sundari with a deadline for the completion of her book manuscript; Bhaktika not present because he was working late; Stuart about to begin a night shift at the hospital; Sally just starting a new job; Sue also in the early days of her new career as a housing officer; and me, with a head full of planning for people’s alcohol detoxifications! The line of our liturgy that reads “Wishing to practise a religious life in truly simple faith” has become almost a koan for us as we explore what it means to live a buddhist life very much amidst life in the world.
The memorial was moving. There were some readings given by students from the King Edward VII Secondary School, including Benjamin Zephaniah’s powerful poem - We Refugees
Khun Saing spoke of his experiences fleeing from Burma and the home he has found in the UK.
But it was the words of Dr Otto Jakubovic that will stay with me. He started by saying he had been asked to speak for five or six minutes about his experiences as a child in the concentration camps during WWII. An impossible task and he spoke for much longer. He spoke with great dignity and the image that remains is that of a 14 year old boy, arriving at a death camp after an unimaginable train journey in a cramped carriage, walking in a line that seemed to be being segregated into two streams. Puffing out his chest, saying he was 18 and a gardener rather than a just a school boy, he was thus spared the wavering of a thumb that meant he avoided being immediately sent to to the gas chambers and instead was led to the camp. ”You had to have luck to survive” he said.
The event ended with the lighting of candles and affirmations about what people could do right now to address discrimination in our own city and how we can all be a part of being a welcoming, inclusive community.
Ray writes -
Last night, rather than having a sangha evening at 118, we met at the Sheffield Faiths Forum/City of Sanctuary event Sanctuary, Hospitality & Refuge - Sharing our stories - an event for faith communities, held at the Methodist Victoria Hall in the city centre. It was a bitterly cold night but there were fifty plus people in attendance.
Bhaktika helped to facitate the evening which began with some personal reflections from two asylum seekers. Levan, from Chechnya (which he described as “the dark side of Russia”) said that he arrived in Barnsley about five years ago. He is a Christian who found support from a local church. He described how life was initially very difficult, feeling isolated, spending time between college and church. But eventually things began to improve, he began to ply the piano again, he made contacts in Sheffield and improved his English in the supportive environment of conversation clubs. He spoke warmly of the work of ASSIST who he said supported up to 800 destitute asylum seekers in the area. He closed by recounting how he’d attended a carol service recently at Christ Church were there were many faiths gathered together singing. “Many faiths, but One World”.
Ibtisam spoke of how she had grown up in Yemen, a muslim country and had never met people of other faiths whilst there. She spoke of the difficulties of being a young woman and a muslim, travelling alone and becoming a refugee.
She came to this country in 2004. She was fortunate in that she did not have some of the difficulties other people have experienced in obtaining refugee status. Her english was poor, and she initially lived in an arabic community in the Pitsmoor area. it was only when she began venturing further afield, eg attending Castle college did she begin to really meet other people of different faiths. She recounted how when she was initially doing some voluntary work for ASSIST she was reluctant and embarrassed to tell people where she was working, because it was situated in an office in an christian church! She is currently studying for a degree, and despite her protestations, her English is wonderful!
There were then several readings from various faith communities. Sundari spoke of the Second Mindfulness Training of the Community of Interbeing and then quoted Dharmakara’s fourth vow, from the Larger Pure Land Sutra.
There was a musical interlude from the Zeela Liberian Gospel Choir - which had everyone tapping and swaying!
Food was provided and people then gathered around tables to discuss a broad range of topics, including some questions identified by the organisers. There was then feedback to the larger group.
There were also contributions from Inderjit, Craig and Gordon concerning the roles of the Faith Forum, City of Sanctuary and Sheffield Interfaith, respectively.
The Menu of conversation provided is worth further reflection -
- What do sanctuary/hospitality/refuge mean to me/my faith?
- When have I felt welcome/unwelcome in community?
- What relationships do I and my faith community have with asylum seekers/refugees/migrants?
Sundari, Bhaktika and Ray were able to attend Gareth’s ordination during the Bodhi Retreat. Gareth received the Buddhist name - Kaspalita and becomes a novice amitarya. The picture above shows - Susthama, Prasada, Modgala, Dharmavidya & Kaspalita. It is lovely to be a part of these ceremonies that take place during this winter retreat. It is very moving to hear the vows taken by the amitaryas.
Ray writes -
The world has been watching as Buddhist monks took to the streets in Burma, and we have held those caught up in the military clampdown in our thoughts, meditations & prayers. We wait, we hope.
What to do? You want to do something but what will help the situation? Make it worse? Have no effect whatsoever?
Sujatin has been blogging informative news articles, whilst the Narborough community organised a vigil in Leicester.
Monday evening, we sat around the table at 118 for our shared meal prior to our pureland service. Sally noted that there had been a small demonstration that evening in front of the Town Hall. With the aid of Sally’s laptop we discovered that the Karen community within Sheffield had organised the vigil. Bhaktika went on to make a few phonecalls and some links have now been made and we will be attending next week’s vigil. We are hoping other local buddhists and faith groups will be in attendance too.
Will such a demonstration make any real difference? I don’t know, but it feels right that next monday we will stand alongside a small community of people within Sheffield who may have friends and family caught up in this tense situation so many miles away. It feels good to be making new links and friendships. It is the least one can do if one is moved by the plight of the Burmese people.
Namo Quan Shi Yin Bosat
Links
The Burma protests: What are they all about?
The Burma Campaign UK
Sheffield protest
Amnesty International
Sundari & Bhaktika write -
It seems a while since we wrote from here - not since the floods in fact. The effects here for us in Broomspring Lane are now in the past, though not so for other people in the region as there are still people out of their homes and dealing with loss.
It is nearly three months since Sally moved here, and we are enjoying both the challenges and the ‘joys and freedoms’ of living as a community of three at 118.
Sue has taken over prime responsibility for the Monday evening meal, which is a really good development all round - and much appreciated by the inhabitants of 118.
We have changed the form of the Monday evening to have the meal first, then the service followed by cup of tea and chat for those that want to stay. This followed some conversations about our accessibility and the form of the evening. We have been joined by a couple of new people, and there is a gentle sense of development and growth.
We had a Saturday study morning open to all which we spent exploring our vision of sangha. What does it mean to live a religious life of truly simple faith as a householder? and together? Why is this a collective practice? What does it mean to take refuge in the sangha?
Our Sheffield vow 22 group has also met twice and had lively conversations.
The sudden death at Findhorn of Andrew Murray, known to a number of people in Sheffield, was a shock to Sundari and Bhaktika. Andrew was the sort of person who made a deep impression on everyone he met. He stayed with us when he came to Sheffield, and we counted him our friend, though we were not as close as many other people. We held a memorial service here for people who knew him, and we were very glad to be able to offer the container of Buddhist practice for a collective expression of grief. It was a very moving occasion. A friend who was very close to Andrew has just been staying with us for a couple of days, and that has been very good too.
A return of the sunshine has meant that we have been able to to much of our morning practice outdoors with our garden Buddha, which has been wonderful. Just sitting with the creatures and all the growing things has been a very sustaining way to start the day. Sally has just cleared round the garden Buddha who was beginning to disappear under foliage.
Sue made a crumble with the first blackberries of the year - and now we have started pcking the ones at the cottage……mmmmmore to come.
We have been discussing what “sangha” means to each of us within our Amida Sheffield congregation. I am interested in what we can learn from other spiritual or faith communities. Faithworks’ Steve Chalke has written a book called Intelligent Church in which he argues that the task of the Church is to be the irrefutable demonstration and proof of the fact that God is love. An intelligent church connects the Bible and its twenty-first-century culture, is authentic and, most importantly, has thought through its practice. In other words, the way it does Church is a reflection of its understanding of who God is.
I wonder what an Intelligent Sangha looks like?
Chalke argues that an Intelligent Church is an inclusive church, it involves itself in the life of the surrounding community, working with and involving others. He then goes on to suggest that an intelligent church is a messy church. Why? Because messiness is the consequence of being inclusive. Whenever a local church chooses to be outward-looking and welcoming of all, it will automatically become messier than it was before - it’s inevitable.
In many senses the church is a hospital - it is a place of spiritual, social, emotional, moral and psychological healing. And just as in a hospital the patients suffer from different conditions, are at different levels of health and are at different stages of the healing process, so it is with the church. Sometimes healing takes weeks or months - sometimes it takes a lifetime. Simply visiting a hospital doesn’t automatically make a sick person well. Some need intensive care, others less intensive but no less important ongoing treatment or rehabilitation. No hospital is a centre of physical perfection, and neither is a church one of spiritual perfection - rather, both are messy environments full of messed-up people striving to be less so.
Intelligent Church - Steve Chalke
Messy Church. I like that. I wonder whether we aspire to have Messy Sangha too? How messy is your spiritual community?
Bhaktika writes:
Last night was our sangha evening with service and meal, this time with the added attraction of forming a chain gang to bale water out of the sump in the cellar before and after the service - it adds that little extra something, recognition of the forces of nature that we can only accept for what they are, though that doesn’t mean being quietist. Indeed by our engaged practice we managed to keep the flooding out of the shrine room until the rain abated and the pump in the sump was able to manage unaided again. At the end of the evening Sundari gave Ray and Sue a lift home to the other side of the city without mishap, having carefully scutinised on the BBC website where the two main rivers in Sheffield had burst their banks, and then finding a route that avoided these areas.
Sundari added that -
As we have only just finished drying out after the flood of ten days ago, it was with a heavy heart that I stacked our meditation stools and zafus above water level yesterday, in preparation for the next ingress of water. You’re right - it’s just stuff, and we really know how lucky we are when we see what has happened to others, especially that three people have died. The other part of it, that feeling of heavy heart, seems to tap into something else. The collective low level trauma is palpable. The conversation club today felt ‘damp’ - in the words of a friend - even though most people present had not been directly affected. Another aspect of the collective though is that it makes a huge difference being in it with others. Ten days ago we were much buoyed up by Shad and her boyfriend helping us to bale out. With five of us in a chain we were pretty cheerful. A memory that will stay with me is of a quiet slooshing in the first few hours as we paddled around, and sotto voce chanting of Namo Amida Bu, as Sally and I mopped and wet vacced in the sodden shrine room and storage cellar. Sally’s journey home yesterday was quite an adventure, and she was lucky to make it back. 1,500 people in Sheffield were stranded over night.
Namo Amida Bu
South Yorkshire was badly affected by the weather this week, with many areas flooded.
Bhaktika led a short guided mindfulness of breathing exercise and there was a chance to discuss the practice. Mary, with an array of thoughtful quotes and poems (from William Blake to Master Eckhart) spoke of meditation and contemplative prayer within a spiritual or religious practice. Sundari introduced two practices used within Amida-shu, Nei Quan and Chi Quan. there was much open sharing, and a real appetite to discuss how our practice related to each of our differing religious/spiritual backgrounds. It felt quite an honour to be a part of this group and there was plenty of enthusiasm to meet again on a more regular basis, may be every three months.
Sadly, partly due to this prior arrangement and to other circumstances, the Amida Sheffield sangha were not able to get to the wedding celebrations that were, by then, in full swing at the Buddhist house.
Sundari and Bhaktika did manage to get to the registry office wedding earlier that morning, but the buddhist ceremony took place at midday and then the fun really started! Dharmavidya has written a lovely account here
To help others carry their pathologies and to have them help me carry mine
Anthropologists tell us that one of the primary functions of any family is to carry the pathologies of its members. In past times, when families were stronger, there was a lot less need for private therapy. The therapy of public life helped provide what today individuals must seek elsewhere. To go to church is to seek the therapy of a public life and to be part of that therapy for others. Simply put, I go to church so that other people might help me carry what is unhealthy inside of me and that I might help them carry what is unhealthy inside of them. If this is true, and it is, then we should not be surprised that we find every kind of sickness within our churches. But the presence of those pathologies should then not deflect us from going to church but, instead, positively beckon us there.
The Holy Longing - Ronald Rolheiser
To dispel my fantasies about myself
Away from actual, historical church community, whatever its faults, we have an open field to live the unconfronted life, to make religion a private fantasy that we can selectively share with a few like-minded individuals who will never confront us where we most need to challenge. The churches are compromised, dirty, and sinful but, just like our blood families, they are also real. In the presence of people who share life with us regularly, we cannot lie, especially to ourselves, and delude ourselves into thinking we are generous and noble. In community the truth emerges and fantasies are dispelled. Not being involved with the church because of the Church’s faults is often a great rationalisation. What is too painful to deal with is not the Church’s imperfection but my own fantasies about my own goodness which, in the grind of real community, will become painfully obvious. Nobody deflates us more than our own family. The same is true of the Church. Not all of this is bad.
The Holy Longing - Ronald Rolheiser
In my last post I made reference to discussions we had had during several of our sangha nights regarding faith and the religious life. I quoted Dharmavidya as saying that religion is a communal and shared practice and this would reflect his vision that Amida-shu embraces the religious and spiritual dimension of Buddhism.
Amida Buddhism, therefore, is a religious path. Its particular approach is to take refuge, as a deluded and vulnerable being, in the Unborn - in Amida Buddha - through a simple act of prayer called nembutsu. We can say, therefore, that there are three elements to Amida Buddhist belief and practice: the ordinary nature of the devotee, Amida Buddha as the object of devotion, and the nembutsu prayer as the primary form of practice. Amida Buddhism partakes of the Pureland tradition of Buddhism deriving from the Buddha in India via a transmission through China and Japan. It is not a self-improvement technique nor an exotic pastime - it is a deeply personal, yet wholly transcendent, inquiry into the meaning of one’s life.
This post is entitled “So why go to church?” but I could just as well have added “… and/or participate in a spiritual community?” It comes from an enquiry by Ronald Rolheiser in his book “Seeking Spirituality”
So what can be a vision, a reason for going to church and committing ourselves in an irrevocable covenant to a group of very flawed men and women and agreeing to journey with them for the rest of our lives? What are the reasons to go to church?
Some of the reasons he gives could equally apply to why one should join in any faith or spirituality group. I’m going to focus on just four, over a series of posts, and will relate them, in particular, to my experience of the Amida School. I would invite people to comment with reference to their own communities. Does this strike a chord?
To take my rightful place humbly within the family of humanity
There are three major stages to life. Different ages have had different ways of teaching this. Contemporary psychology speaks of the process of individuation and what lies before and beyond that. The ancient biblical sage, Job, spoke of two kinds of nakedness (Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return again Job 1:21) and what lies between them. Essentially what both, new and old, teach is the following:
The first stage of life is birth. We emerge from our mothers, from nature, naked and helpless, more of an acorn than a tree, not very actuated in terms of self and not very differentiated in terms of others. At this stage, smelling of the earth and of the womb, we are primordially linked to the family of humanity. we are humble.
But almost immediately, we begin the second stage - washing the smell of the earth off ourselves, clothing, accumulation, distinction, separation, and actualisation. We spend our early years - and, if we never really grow up, the rest of our lives - trying to distinguish ourselves, to set ourselves apart from others, to accumulate things, to have successes, to create some privacy for ourselves. This stage is characterised by the urge to separate and clothe ourselves (in Job’s terms). For the first half of our lives this is a healthy thing.
But at the point that adulthood is reached, something else is asked of us, not just by God but also by nature. Our task now is no longer to try to emerge, but to merge - to go back into community, to lose our seperateness, to not stand out, to become naked again. This is the real meaning of humility and it describes perfectly what is contained in the great imperative that asks us to take our place within the family of humanity. To be human is, ultimately, to be part of the group, naked and unmarked. But how to achieve this? What concrete community can offer us that place to merge? Our blood families can help, but they are too narrow and exclusive fully to identify us with all of humanity. Humanity as a family is inclusive enough, but is too abstract. The Church gives us the place to die to elitism. To join a church is to give up elitism. That is both perhaps the greatest obstacle to church participation and the greatest benefit of it.
Sue and I attended the Honen Shonin Memorial Retreat at The Buddhist House last weekend. It was a lovely time and I was left to ponder some of the themes raised. We met for our Sheffield sangha night the following tuesday. I had been reading an article from Living in Amida’s Universal Vow and tried to present some of the ideas in an article by Kaneko Daiei, not wholly successfully. I had read this chapter before, when I first bought the book, and there was something about the weekend that had made me look it up again. It was concerned with a discussion about what was meant by “salvation” in Pure Land Buddhism. it was only on this second reading did I notice that it was originally written in the sixties. I love some of the poetic passages in it, which is a compliment to the translator, Sakamoto Hiroshi.
Semantically, the term ’salvation’ means the liberation or emancipation from a predicament into which one has fallen. In other words, ’salvation’ presupposes some kind of predicament, whatever it may be. What, then, is the human situation which Buddhism envisages as the predicament from which man should be liberated?
Last night, the Sheffield group met up and for part of the evening we had planned to look at the “Summary of Faith and Practice” in more detail. We began by reading the Ichimai Kishomon - Honen’s original “One Page Document” that had inspired Dharmavidya’s text. We talked about the times that Honen was living in, what it must have been like living under such a feudal system with an average life expectancy of 30. We looked at how Honen was inspired to take Buddhism to the ordinary people, and not keep it as the special domain of a monastic elite. We touched on the issue of nembutsu not being a form of meditation and what that meant to us. Stuart, a zen buddhist who has been joining us, spoke of his “just sitting” practice and the role of faith.
Always the most important event in the Amida annual calendar, the Bodhi Retreat has grown in significance as the Amida-shu and the Amida Order have developed. It is traditional to hold a retreat at this time of year in memory of the enlightenment of Shakyamuni Buddha celebrated on the 8th December. Last year was the most memorable Bodhi Retreat so far and included the introduction of 24 hours of continuous chanting on the first Saturday-Sunday: an event which had a wonderful effect upon participants and which we plan to repeat this year. The retreat includes teachings, seminars, silent periods, nembutsu practice, Amidist ceremonial, and opportunities for personal sharing.
This is also the retreat at which ordinations, commitment ceremonies and renewals of refuge, membership and precepts take place. There will also be school, order and ministry meetings. If you are a present or intending member of Amida-shu, do make every effort to attend. If you are contemplating an advance in your commitment, please arrange to discuss this ahead of the retreat with one of the teachers at The Buddhist House
On sunday 15th October we ran our first introduction to Pureland Buddhism in a public venue. Although only one person came from outside, we had a really delightful day. He was a regular of the White Plum sangha, a Zen practitioner interested in Pureland, so the exchange felt fruitful. Strangely, it felt as though there were far more than five people there. We moved our shrine room into the community centre, Buddha rupa, candles, bell, zafus and all, and this was such a pleasure that if it weren’t for the cost we would like to do it much more often. It was a real step out for the group for us to share our practice in a public place. All four of us contributed to the programme, and we ended with a service. We had some exchange with the life drawing class in the next room, and our cat Bracken attended the whole thing, contributing his own particular form of nembutsu.
This week Sue went into hospital for major surgery. It was wonderful that the night before the operation, after she had been admitted to hospital, they allowed her to come out for an hour and a half so we could have a meal and service together. She has come through it amazingly well, and we have really felt the benefit of two of us living so close to the hospital so we can come and go with soup and newspapers etc. While Sue was having the operation, we began the day with four of us chanting Namo Quan Shi Yin Bosat, and holding her in our hearts. Though it is early days yet, it is really wonderful to see her come through it so well.
Bhaktika and I returned from France more or less straight into a whirl of emails, projects and visits, but now are surfacing and beginning to be able to reflect on our time in France.
It’s lovely to see Ray’s entries on this blog, as it was to speak briefly to Sue on the phone from France and hear that they were holding services here and enjoying the cool of the shrine room at 118!
The time in France certainly advanced our learning as trainee Buddhist ministers. We have learned a lot in terms of conducting liturgy, and enjoyed experimenting with new forms. Dharmavidya’s teaching on the Larger Pureland Sutra was inspiring. This in itself was a revelation to me, as I have never been one for grand and opulent imagery, which of course is prolific in Buddhism. Associating imagery of jewels and pavilions etc with affluence and the sterility of inorganic material, I have found this kind of thing rather more depressing than uplifting. My experience in these three weeks was not like this.
First of all, there was the necessity to separate out different kinds of grand language. Some of it expresses aspirations, particularly in the Larger Pureland Sutra the aspirations of Dharmakara. The fact is that many of us do have great aspirations, and he is inspired by visions that make his aspirations seem - whether achievable or not - worth launching into with all his being. His impossible vows spring from a great movement of the heart. Seeing this grand language as an outpouring of this kind makes it recognisable and something humans like us do rather than something very remote.
In particular Dharmavidya’s teaching, and some experience of the retreat in the services and in community life, has left me with a glimpse of how faith transforms vision at every level.
There was something moving about hearing different people in training giving their dharma talks. In doing this, we heard something about each person’s path of learning and understanding. Each taught us in their own way - and so we had a glimpse of the 84,000 voices…My only regret is that Leo’s was not recorded.
How do we bring these learnings into our life in Sheffield? Since returning we have begun to consider our particular situation here in a city where there are about eight other Buddhist groups. Our particular contribution is our emphasis on faith and social engagement. These will be key themes in our introductory day on Pureland Buddhism on 15th October.
Other personal reflections on France - I loved the work we did together - felling dead trees for firewood for the winter and staking them in logpiles after Dharmavidya had sawed them up with an electric table saw. Order member Madrakara, Buddhist House community member Sally and I spent a happy time learning to work together as we sawed down the trees and dragged them back to the house. Stacking them in the cool of the barn was a work of both art and design, learning by the experience of a log fall what would make the piles more stable.
Swimming in the Allier was another highlight - the rushing weir, fast slip streams and lazy places to drift in the shallows. And to think what people pay for a jacuzzi!
Sundari
Sundari and Bhaktika are away at Amida France It sounds like they are having a good time. Dharmavidya has described the beginning of this retreat on his blog Sue has been sharing the cat-sitting duties with Anna. We held a service this week at 118. It seemed strange to do so without Mike and Gina being present, but these services have become an important part of our week for us all. We have now been meeting for a year and Gina has formally written to Dharmavidya and the Amida Order to request that we will be recognised as a congregation in accordance with the Provisions. The response has been very positive.
“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it” Hebrews 13:2
The “Living Ghosts” campaign was publicly launched in Autumn 2005. It aims to build a coalition of churches, asylum projects and individuals committed to changing government policies that currently make asylum seekers homeless, hungry and without financial means.
A “living ghost” is neither asylum seeker nor refugee; they exist without recognition or basic living needs. They are human; need shelter and food and the right to work, until they are ready to return to their home countries through a fair and just asylum system. This campaign is to strongly advocate fundamental human rights.
Saturday. it is a grey, mild morning. Sue and I are planning to attend a demonstration in the middle of Sheffield in support of asylum seekers living in Sheffield. We catch the tram that winds its way through to the city. By the time we alight, just before eleven, the rain has started to come down. After a week of good weather, it is a real shame that the event will be a damp affair.
We proceed to the Town Hall, but then notice that the platform has been erected at the top of Fargate. There is a small crowd. The Bishop of Sheffield gets up and makes a welcoming speech. The are many shoppers about. A handful of people, officials, are handing out yellow leaflets to the public to explain the demonstration. Some shoppers just ignore them and walk by. Some stop, inquisitive. A few are openly hostile - “We should start by helping the English” one gentleman mutters as he declines to take a leaflet. The officials greet all with a smile, with openess. Faith as action. Their equinimity shines through on this wet midday.
Someone from one of the two local cathedrals tries to encourage the crowd to sing along to a Congolese song. There is some enthusiastic vocals from a portion of the crowd, but this feels a false note to me. it may be churlish to criticise a Christian social action group for singing openly about God, but it does not seem an effective way to appeal to the “man in the street”. I find myself edging further away, huddling for shelter under a tree.
There are a few short speeches. A representative from the Muslim Council of Britain takes the stage. I do not get his name because the PA is a little erratic. It is an impassioned speech focussing on ther need for social justice. I move closer to hear better.
The four Sheffield school members met up for our weekly service on monday. We have just finished listening to a series of talks given by Dharmavidya entitled “Characteristics of the Amida School” and are hoping to start the “Lotus Sutra” series soon.
We used this occasion to take stock of how we hoped to develop this sangha. Three months has passed since the previous manifestation of the group came to a close. It is good to see that friendships have been maintained with former members, particularly around the monday cathedral meditations.
Now it felt like a good time to plan to move the group forward. Several issues were discussed. We are hoping to run a Pureland event in the autumn to promote our practice. Both the London and Newcastle groups are in the process of, or have recently done this. We hope to learn from their experiences, but also to be able to develop our own voice.
A common theme was to look at how our faith is expressed in both devotional pureland practices, calling on Amida Buddha, but equally as engaged practice, “going forth”. There is a common interest within the group in how we can support asylum seekers and refugees in Sheffield. As a group we have signed up to The City of Sanctuary movement. Sue has previously volunteered with REEPS. Sundari and Bhaktika are active in several projects including mediation work, whilst Sundari is trying to set up a steering group to help develop a resource centre that can advise asylum seekers on how to collate information to support their claims and appeals. Sue has expressed an interest in being one of the volunteers.
Another area discussed was that around hospital chaplaincy and spirituality & mental health. Ray is currently co-chairing a Care Trust interest group on this theme, which is part of a larger, national project and there are also plans to develop a strategy for spiritual care within the Trust.
We are also looking to set up a website promoting vegetarianism and Buddhism, with Sue providing a recipe blog. It was noted that the value of “shared meals” was treasured within the Sheffield sangha.
On this note, we held our weekly service and then shared a dhal with potatoes & salad,followed by fresh fruit!
