lotusinthemud

Talks from the Bodhi Retreat, December 2019

Here are the links to the audio and video recordings of talks from our recent Bodhi gathering in Malvern. The theme for the retreat was In Less Than a Day

1. Rev Master Dharmavidya: Post-Mappo and Innocence of Heart
   audio link – YouTube link
2. Acharya Susthama: Queen Vaidehi’s Vision of the Pureland
   audio link – YouTube link
3. Acharya Kaspalita: Outside Practice and Just as You Are
   audio link – YouTube link
4. Rev Master Dharmavidya: Regaining Innocence
   audio link – YouTube link

Rev Master Dharmavidya: Regaining Innocence

audio link

The final talk of our Bodhi gathering 2019. In this talk Dharmvidya speaks about how the path to innocence is through the nembutsu and reflection on the precepts. He also answers a question about the language of Buddhism, and one on dealing with trauma.

 

 

Acharya Kaspalita: Just As You Are & Outside Practice

Acharya Kaspalita:

Here’s my talk from the Bodhi gathering 2019. I talk about outside practice, and of receiving particular insight whilst chanting the Tai Shih Chi (Mahastamapratpa) mantra.

Listen/download audio (mp3) or watch below:

 

 

Acharya Susthama's Bodhi Gathering Talk: Queen Vaidehi, guilt, shame and the bramha viharas

Acharya Susthama recounts the story of Queen Vaidehi’s vision of the Pure Land. She tells of the difficult circumstances that befell the queen, and how her acknowledgement of past heavy karma leads to her receiving a vision from the Buddha.

Listen/download the audio (mp3) or watch below:

 

 

Video of Post-Mappo and the Innocent Heart by Dharmavidya David Brazier

Bodhi gathering 2019 - talk one. Rev Master Dharmavidya David Brazier gives the first talk of our Bodhi gathering.

"In this time of materialism it is not even possible for people to follow the path of faith with any ease. In fact, many people have become inoculated against faith by exposure to its degenerate forms. What can possibly avail us in these latter days? Life has become immensely complicated. People are under pressure from all sides to conform to the path of worldly success." "The innocent heart is unselfconscious. Through innocence one can find faith renewed. Through faith renewed one can find the real meaning of the practices. In these real forms one can meet the Tathagata. Meeting the Tathagata one can receive the transmission. It all unfords naturally. We are in the fourth age, the Post-Mappo, and a return to the simplicity of innocence is now the only gate that is not locked."

:: audio link

 

 

Post-Mappo Rediscover Innocence ~ Dharmavidya

The first Dharma talk of the 2019 Bodhi Retreat at Amida Mandala. Dharmavidya writes:

In my Dharma talk today I suggested that we are now in the fourth age of the Dharma. In the first age of the Dharma Buddha Shakyamuni was still in this world or had recently passed away and people became enlightened by direct encounter with him or with one of his great disciples. This was the age of direct inspiration.

In the second age of the Dharma, people were able to become enlightened and enter nirvana by means of self-power practices. It was not that these rituals had an intrinsic power, but they were what still connected practitioners with the original source. By doing what Buddha did, people received the transmission. This continued for eight hundred years or so.

By the third age of the Dharma, called Mappo, things had deteriorated. Although the self-power practices remained a shining example, there were few or no people capable of actually realising them. The times were degenerate. At this time there arose teachers who showed the path of faith as the only available possibility for deluded beings to reach the Buddha and receive the transmission, if not in this life, then in the next.

Now we are in the fourth age, the Post-Mappo. In this time of materialism it is not even possible for people to follow the path of faith with any ease. In fact, many people have become inoculated against faith by exposure to its degenerate forms. What can possibly avail us in these latter days? Life has become immensely complicated. People are under pressure from all sides to conform to the path of worldly success.

Those who still attempt self-power practices do so mostly for the sake of this-worldly benefit. We do not have Shakyamuni nor Shariputra, Kashyapa nor Ananda to show us the way. We are more sophisticated than the people of old, but this very sophistication blocks our way back to the source. What is needed now? What is needed now is a return to innocence.

Only by cutting through the interminable woes and worries of our age can we hope to find the light and this cutting through involves a great simplification and lightening. Lighten your life! Reclaim the innocent eye of the child without letting go of the knowledge gained by maturity. Learn once again to play and skip. Life has become too heavy.

We are all weighed down by possessions and responsibilities, deadlines and protocols, debt and work. Riding the Dharma, leap free. Break out of the prison. Embrace nature. Let the mind expand in wonderment. Talk to the stars and bathe in the light of the moon.

The innocent heart is unselfconscious. Through innocence one can find faith renewed. Through faith renewed one can find the real meaning of the practices. In these real forms one can meet the Tathagata. Meeting the Tathagata one can receive the transmission. It all unfords naturally.

We are in the fourth age, the Post-Mappo, and a return to the simplicity of innocence is now the only gate that is not locked.

:: link

Amida Newsletter #43, announcing a retreat in the UK

Summer Retreat - Dwelling in Entrustment

13th - 18th August in Holland House, Worcestershire, UK



A residential retreat

Spend a week learning to trust, 'lean in' and be held on this Pureland Buddhist retreat led by priests with the Amida Order:
 Rev. Kaspalita, Rev. Jnanamati and Rev. Satyavani.

The perfect opportunity to deepen your connection the sacred. Dharmavidya is not running any retreats in France this year, so come and join us at this beautiful location in the UK. 

This retreat will include silent contemplation, chanting, personal enquiry through the creative process (including writing, poetry and visual art), group sharing and dharma talks. The retreat is open to all - Pure Land Buddhists, Buddhists from other traditions or other spiritual practitioners interested in learning experientially about the Pure Land way and a more faith-based tradition of Buddhism. 

This retreat is an opportunity to enter more deeply into the Pure Land practices. Dharmavidya has referred to Pure Land Buddhism as refuge Buddhism, and explains that rather than being a tradition that encourages the cultivation of practice Pure Land invites us, over time, to deepen our refuge. The various practices we engage in are devotional and are in this context ways of deepening our refuge in Amida Buddha. They are also ways of opening to the grace of tariki or Other Power of the Buddhas.

Venue: The retreat will be held at Holland House near Evesham in Worcestershire, a beautiful retreat centre with lovely gardens with a great kitchen. The cost includes all accomodation, delicious food and dana for the retreat leaders.

Cost: A £40 deposit is required to book your space - this deposit is non-refundable. The earlybird fee (until end Feb 2017) is £365, after this the fee £395. Unwaged fee £345. Payment by installments is also an option. For details of how to pay your deposit and secure your place, contact Satya: [email protected] 
Phone 01684 572444. 

You can read more about the retreat leaders below, read more about the Amida-Shu school of Buddhism at www.amidashu.org, or more about the Amida Mandala temple at www.amidamandala.com. 

Namo Amida Bu

The Retreat Leaders
Rev. Kaspalita runs the Amida Mandala Buddhist Temple in Malvern with his wife Satya. He is a practising psychotherapist and offers mindfulness classes as a part of Mindfully Whole. He co-runs Writing Our Way Home, a mindful writing company, with Satya. 

Rev. Jnanamati is a Pureland Buddhist Priest with the Amida Order. He works as an art therapist and also does chaplaincy work in health care settings. He is the Amida-Shu representative for the Worcestershire Interfaith Network. 

Rev. Satyavani is a Pureland Buddhist Priest, psychotherapist in private practice and a writer. She co-authored 'Just As You Are: Buddhism for Foolish Beings' with Kaspa and has written several novels.

See the Facebook event or get in touch for more information.

:: link

How it is to be alone

QUESTION: Dear Dharmavidya,… As you were used to travel a lot, to go where you're asked, to be in groups, to give workshops and talks...what is it to have to stay on the same place, in a little community or alone, as now? What is it for you to 'miss' (?) all this activities? Eleusis is isolated. I think that I would be scared of this isolation, although I know that we're never isolated, but the feeling can be there!

SHORT ANSWER: Intensely peaceful.

LONGER ANSWER: Being alone here is rather wonderful. I welcome guests when they appear but at present I am alone with the cat and the house and the land and the sky and the deities and Buddhas, the sun when she appears and the equally fickle moon and with my own head and heart, body and breath. And with silence. At this time of year there are not even many birds, just the odd owl call at night.

You mention the possibility of being afraid... My rational mind tells me that there is a small danger in being alone. One could have an injury or a medical emergency and there would be nobody here to pick me up and whisk me off to hospital. However, I do not feel this risk. I suppose that the truth is that one is always in some kind of danger - we are mortal beings - and so one creates a threshold. When threat comes above the threshold one becomes anxious, but the rest of the time one is at peace. And the reality here is that being alone I am less disturbed and more at peace than I would be were there people around.

From time to time I get an urge to get in the car and drive to some far away place or book an airplane, but then I smile at myself and put it aside. I know that there is a fair chance that I will recover sufficiently to travel again so it is a matter of wait and see. If it is so then I have a pleasure to look forward to, seeing my friends in far away places once again. On the other hand, if it turns out that my condition worsens then I can remain here and enjoy this place.

It has been a wonderful thing to be here a complete year. Many times in the past I have said to myself that it would be a good thing to do, so now it is no longer on my to-do-list. It is hard to find words sufficient to say how much I love this piece of ground - the Artemis Wood, beautiful Aphrodite Field, and all the other sacred areas. The planet is over-populated and I have 16 hectare completely to myself - sometimes I am amazed at my good fortune.

The matter of "missing" is interesting. I have sometimes felt grief in my life - terribly when my parents died, sometimes acutely when relationships broke up - but although I am alone physically here I still feel that my heart is thickly populated with good friends, yourself amongst them. Actual physical proximity is good, but only one dimension of being connected. I am sure we shall have plenty to talk about when we meet again, and this will be, in part, precisely because we have been apart.

I have been looking back over my life and the Amida years have had some ups and downs, but, for all the occasional drama, it feels like a supremely good thing to have done and to be part of into the future. I imagine that some people may have been envious of my life, travelling to such amazing places and meeting so many interesting people, yet the same observers would not themselves have been - were not - willing to undertake the challenges and risks involved in casting one’s life upon the wind in such a way.

People would ask me to do things. I would say “Yes!” and then afterwards wonder, how? I learnt a lot that way. Really that is the essence of Zen - not just sitting in rows or putting up with sore knees, not using a technique to eliminate one’s stress - it is much more fundamental than that. If one is willing, then the powers will arrange. Right now they have arranged for me to reside in paradise for a short while accompanied by a rather eccentric cat. The important thing is not to waste it.

Who knows what comes next? As Pureland Buddhists we are supposed to believe that the next life will be in Sukhavati close to Amitabha Buddha. I have some confidence in that - a kind of homecoming - but I am just as willing (and quite curious) to be sent on some other mission - the powers will arrange. However, despite its recent failings, there is probably still quite a bit of use left in my present body so whether it is here or elsewhere or once again roaming I am sure there are many more interesting experiences waiting to be undergone.

The worldly life is shaped by conditions and we all have one. The rigidities in us are given by karma and we can't escape them. However, even if much of a great tree is actually dead wood, new sprigs still appear each spring, looking as though they were the first sign of life in the whole of time.

:: link

Opening Dharma talk - Anshin retreat 28th June 2016 ~ Dharmavidya

 

 

 

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Anshin: Part 2 ~ Domestic Bliss? ~ Dharmavidya

Anshin is a Japanese word, often translated as 'settled faith' as I explained in Anshin Part One yesterday. It is a particularly important term in Pureland Buddhism. However, the theme is of universal implication and relevance.

Bringing Peace to the Heart

The term 'an' means peace and 'shin' means mind or heart. The Chinese character for shin is, in fact, derived from a drawing of a heart. So if we were to write anshin in modern emoticons, it could be...

This, perhaps, gives us a feel for what anshin means. Something that tenderly brings peace to the heart. In this simple idea lies one of the main themes of spiritual practice that transcends differences of creed or community.

Love is Both Culprit & Cure

This wish for peace of heart finds a rather mundane, utilitarian expression in the current craze for a certain kind of 'mindfulness'. People want 'relief from stress', stress being disturbance of the heart, and in our modern way we look for a technique. However, such heart stress cannot really be cured by a distractive technique, that only gives temporary respite, welcome as such respite may be. It behoves us to look at our lives in a more fundamental way if we wish to eliminate the roots of the problem rather than simply abate the symptoms for a while.

Of course, we all know instinctively - and it is apparent to us as soon as we look at the emoticons - that this all has something to do with love. It is love that can both stress and smooth the heart. In this sense, we are talking about the yoga of the heart chakra. Anshin, therefore, is about soothing the heart and mending broken ones. It is love that can most disrupt our lives and it is also love that brings great bliss. However, there are many varieties of love, many objects of love and many ways in which love can be expressed or hidden.

Symbols of Innocence

The dove symbolises innocence and simplicity so the peace that it brings is unsullied by hidden corruptions. Doves have sybolised peace in cultures as diverse as ancient Egypt and classical China and in the Bible the dove represents the Holy Spirit that descended upon Jesus at his baptism by John in the River Jordan. Also, earlier in the Bible, at the end of the flood, a dove brings an olive branch to Noah signalling the the waters are going down and there is land. The troubles are coming to an end. So this is a rather universal symbol of the restoration of calm.

The Chinese character for 'an', however, is not a picture of a dove, it is a picture of a woman in a house. This was a very practical matter. In ancient China where these symbols originated there was often local warfare and at such times the women and children would take to the hills and hide. When peace came they returned to the villages and homes. So when the women were in their houses, there was peace.

Peace Beneath One's Own Roof

This brings home to us the fact that while the issue of war and peace is of immense importance, the peace that matters most frequently to most people is the one that they try to achieve under their own roof. Peace, therefore, in most cultures, is also closely linked with domesticity. In some religions, however - Buddhism, for example - while this association exists, the greatest peace is said to lie in going forth out of domesticity into the 'homeless life'. We shall see how this works in a future teaching.

Peace of mind, therefore, has a macro and a micro level socially. The little wars that we fight with our nearest and dearest can be just as bitter and taxing as the big wars that go on between nations and ideologies, and there is a good deal of parallelism between the two. Warfare only occurs in a few species such as humans and ants, but domestic squabbling is evident in every sparrow nest in our barn and the bird flying home with some titbit in his/her beak in an effort to restore calm is by no means a species specific gesture.

The Romantic Ideal

In fact, probably most people think that the way to establish peace of heart and mind is to find the right partner and establish the right kind of relationship - whatever that may be. The fact that the key to success in a popular novel is so often that it depicts such a conclusion following after difficulties illustrates the fact that this is a common archetype.It is surely the basis of the 'serial monogamy' that is increasingly the pattern in our contemporary society, as people reiteratively seek happiness by what they believe is the only promise available.

The Complementarity of Inner & Outer

The spiritual paths, however, tend to suggest that the path to bliss is not through finding the right other, but through changing the self in some crucial way so that one can or could be at peace with a diversity of others - ultimately that one can be a bringer of peace to the whole world. Perhaps the ideal relationship is actually one in which those partnered together are held so by common commitment to such a noble ideal.

Nonetheless, even in those paths that take such a view, it is generally through a crucially important relationship that such a personal change takes place. It is in the encounter with a significant other who disturbs our conceit that we can find liberation from it. We thus come full circle. Release from addiction to seeking the right other comes as a result of an encounter with the right other. However, the 'right' other may not be the one we expect. Furthermore, such an encounter disturbs the foundations. Thus we see two different types of crucially important relations - that between similars and that between opposites.

The term anshin implies trust. For us to benefit from either type of relationship, there has to be a lot of trust and that trust, to work, really has to transcend the relationship itself. So here is the contrary cycle: arriving at the right quality in oneself depends upon the right relationship, but forming the right relationship depends upon a right quality already established in ourselves.

So we go round these circles, now this way, now that, seeking peace, fleeing it, receiving it, bringing it, disturbing it, losing it, finding it, bestowing and redeeming it, and if our faith can endure through all of this, well, that is anshin.

:: link to original on La Ville au Roi (Eleusis)