lotusinthemud

Paul Francis on Therapeutic Shamanism - a podcast

A fascinating and instructive interview with Therapeutic Shamanism's Paul Francis, with whom I have studied many wonderful courses.

https://shrinkrapradio.com/902-uk-shaman-paul-francis-shares-his-story/

Dharmavidya's Buddhist Podcasts and Zoom groups

Dharmavidya writes, on issuing today's podcast:

A full list of podcasts in June is :: here

To receive the podcasts  :: contact Dharmavidya


GROUPS NEWS

There are  three "friendship, support and learning" zoom groups.. All three meetings are 90 minutes long.  Do come and join in.

Amida Shu Interest Group
On Sunday at 11am Rome time (11.00)
This group is open to anybody, but will be most relevant to people who receive these podcasts.  There is often a talk about a topic related to one of the recent podcasts, plus time for discussion in break-out groups and for questions and sharing in the whole group. This group meets each week at the same time.

Amida Shu Friendship Group
On Sunday at 8pm Rome time (20.00)
A similarly open group with a more conversational style.  Topics include podcast themes, current affairs and Pureland practice. This group meets each week at the same time.

Amida Shu Refuge Group
On alternate Saturdays and Mondays at 2pm Rome time (14.00)
This group is for Amida Shu members and others who have taken refuge and is primarily a sangha building group.  This group meets on Saturdays once per fortnight and on Mondays in the intervening week.

If you would like to attend any of these groups (or to receive the podcasts) :: let Dharmavidya know and he will send you the join code if you don't already have it.

There is now an Amida Interest Group meeting on Thursdays at 6pm (Rome) in Italian!  Contact  Angela Romani or myself for details.  And if you prefer Dutch, do contact Vajrapala, or I can put you in touch.  Also I'm still trying to find a few more people in the east (Asia/Australia) who might be interested in a fortnightly Buddhist Psychology interest group.

OTHER STUFF
On the ecological problem and how to solve the dilemmas that this creates for society, there are some good ideas in this little film from BBC
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p08hppxt/how-the-dutch-are-reshaping-their-post-pandemic-utopia
As she says, the "Doughnut idea" only really defines the problem; it does not, in itself, provide the answers.  Nonetheless, changing goals and changing the way we think about things can yield results eventually and help policy makers.

Namo Amida Bu
Dharmavidya

Echoes of Amida: Podcast by Dharmavidya David Brazier

Dharmavidya's podcast of 22 June 2020 (see below for details of podcasts and how to sign up for them)

Transcription thanks to Tineke Osterloh:

Though others kill, we shall be kind.
And by being kind we shall heal the world.

Though others steal and exploit, we shall be generous and hospitable.
And by doing so, we shall make a refuge for the world.

Though other spit forth hatred and incite to cruelty, we shall speak words of peace and understanding. And by that truth we shall cool the fire that is burning the world down.

Though others cheat and lie, we shall be truthful and honest.
And by doing so there will be an oasis of sanity amidst the madness.

Though there be some who seek to profit from anger and greed, we shall be content with what we have and use it for the greater good of all beings.
And by doing so we shall transmit a lamp in the great darkness.

And we shall do these things and be so, not through our own cleverness or special virtue, but simply by the power of faith.

By the power of faith, we can recognize the darkness that is in ourselves also, and by that modest self-appraisal we shall effortlessly and necessarily become a mirror for the Dharma.

For it’s not the arrogant who cool the fire of the world.

It’s not those who grow fat and rich who feed the hungry.

It is not those greedy for power who bring peace and reconciliation.

Sometimes it is good to shout out loud in the cause of goodness.
But shouting cannot go on all day.

Dukkha is Inevitable ~ Dharmavidya

Podcast 7 April 2020

Amida%20Shu%20Podcast%202020%200407.mp3

On the occasion of Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, being admitted to intensive care with COVID19

:: link

Sound of Silence ~ Satya

Satya says:

I got to do this very cool thing....

"Sound of Silence #podcast episode 49 is out now featuring special guest Satyavani Robyn, an author, psychotherapist & Buddhist Priest who runs the Amida Mandala temple. Recorded in Malvern, UK. Listen via (link: http://www.soundofsilence.org.uk) soundofsilence.org.uk (link in biog) or on itunes."

 

 

 

 

The Litany of the Great Compassionate One

12 The Litany Of The Great Compassionate One

 

The Amida Nien Fo Book Audio Recordings ~ Satyavani

Huge thanks to Satya for these:

Nien Fo Book: The service book of the Amida Order

• Summary of Faith and Practice p1
• The Scripture of Quan Shi Yin p2
• Offering Verse p3
• Dawn Prayers p4
• Prayer of all Lineages p4
• Buddha Chant (morning service) p6
• Confirmation of Great Vows p9
• Eihi Koso Hotsugan Mon p10
• Sukhavati Prayer p10
• Afternoon service p11
• Ippens Hymn p12
• Nargajuna’s Hymn p12
• Evening Service p13
• Sandokai p15
• The Most Excellent Mirror Samadhi p16
• Tai Shi Chih Prayer p18
• Quan Shi Yin Litany p19
• Prajnaparamita Hridaya Sutra p20
• Quan Shi Yin Sadhana p21
• The Heart Sutra (Japanese) p22
• The Eight Verses p23
• Guru Lama Prayer p24
• Enlightened Compassionate p25
• Hymn of Homage p25
• Great Mangala Sutta p26
• Live in Peace p26
• Infinite Light (Hymn) p26
• Maitreya Buddha p24
• One Family p24
• Vulture Peak p24
• Soar Heart Soar p25
• Mandala p25
• Gate Gate p25
• Who Shall Conquer p26
• Awaken Bodhichitta p26
• Perfect Refuge p27
• Right Meditation p27
• Waking Bell Verse p28
• Mealtime Verses p28
• Nyorai Do Closing Ceremony p29
• Sange Mon p30
• Vajrasattva Dharani p30

Additional chants

• Evening Walking Nembutsu
• In the Tathagatha
• Namo Amida Bu (Prostrations chant)
• Namo Omito Fo
• Namo Quan Shi Yin Bosat
• Om Ami Dewa Hrih
• Om Mani Padme Hum Hrih
• Om Shakyamuni Buddha
• Sunset Chant

:: link

Dharmavidya: Larger Pureland Sutra Talks ~ Summer 2006

There is a series of  audio recordings of talks that Dharmavidya gave in the summer of 2006 during a retreat in France

:: here

audio talk: a buddhist approach to living in harmony

Here is a link to a Dharma Talk, given by Reverend Kaspalita, Amida Minster from Malvern:

:: link

Kaspa writes:

Last Saturday I presented a talk on A Buddhist Approach to Living in Harmony. I wanted to share some advice the Buddha gave to those living in lay communities, and in spiritual communities. This advice comes from the Mahaparanibanna Sutta, and as with much of the Buddha's teaching appears as lists of virtues.

In the first part of the talk I made some preliminary remarks about how as Pureland Buddhists we can relate to these lists of virtues, and then went on to share the Buddha's advice for successful communities.

You can listen to the talk below, and I have also copied and pasted some of my notes here as well.

Listen/download (mp3)

Notes

Primary practice: Nembutsu
Auxiliary practices: Other spiritual practices which support the nembutsu & our spiritual life.

Secondary facilities: “Your knowledge and skills and accumulated experience, as tools for helping all sentient beings.”

• The gap between the ideal and the actual can be understood as a measure of complete faith. Faith and selfishness are at opposite ends of the spectrum.
• Two different ways of working with the gap between the ideal and the actual:
  • Positive: practice the ideal, fake it until you make it. Either our minds are conditioned by conscious practice, or the resistance to practicing the ideal shows us our rough edges (selfishness) more clearly.
  • Negative: Investigate the specific nature of our selfishness and defensiveness, expose them to Amida, we feel accepted and our faith increases.

As we continually bring ourselves closer to the Buddha the process of our faith increasing will happen naturally and somewhat unconsciously; our lived life will become closer to the preceptual life. At the same time secondary practices can help deepen our experience of nembutsu (showing our bonbu nature, for example).

Whilst the Buddha is the best dance partner in town, and can make us better dance partners just through spending time on the dance-floor with him, I believe we can also make some effort to be a better dance partner.

Precepts are a specific manifestation of love. Different objects of love require loving differently therefore we have many different sets of precepts.

The lists below can be considered precepts in this way, they are given in a specific context, but all in the spirit of love. The spirit of love is always worth cultivating, and the specific way in which these lists below suggest we manifest that love has relevance to how we build community today.

Conditions of a nation’s welfare

From the Maha-paranibanna Sutta 4.

• Do the Vajjis have frequent gatherings, and are their meetings well attended?
• Do the Vajjis assemble and disperse peacefully and attend to their affairs in concord?
• Do the Vajjis neither enact new decrees nor abolish existing ones, but proceed in accordance with their ancient constitutions?
• Do the Vajjis show respect, honor, esteem, and veneration towards their elders and think it worthwhile to listen to them?
• Do the Vajjis refrain from abducting women and maidens of good families and from detaining them?
• Do the Vajjis show respect, honor, esteem, and veneration towards their shrines, both those within the city and those outside it, and do not deprive them of the due offerings as given and made to them formerly?"
• Do the Vajjis duly protect and guard the arahats, so that those who have not come to the realm yet might do so, and those who have already come might live there in peace?

"So long, Ananda, as these are the case, the growth of the Vajjis is to be expected, not their decline."

Welfare of the Bikkhus (MPNS. 6)

The growth of the bhikkhus is to be expected, not their decline, bhikkhus, so long as they:

1. Assemble frequently and in large numbers.
2. Meet and disperse peacefully and attend to the affairs of the Sangha in concord.
3. Appoint no new rules, and do not abolish the existing ones, but proceed in accordance with the code of training laid down.
4. Show respect, honor, esteem, and veneration towards the elder bhikkhus, those of long standing, long gone forth, the fathers and leaders of the Sangha, and think it worthwhile to listen to them.
5. Do not come under the power of the craving that leads to fresh becoming;.
6. Cherish the forest depths for their dwellings.
7. Establish themselves in mindfulness, so that virtuous brethren of the Order who have not come yet might do so, and those already come might live in peace.

Being a Sangha member

From ‘Being a Sangha member’ in Not Everything Is Impermanent, page 269:

The goal is to be able to live a fully human life in a noble manner.

• A Sangha member holds practice dear.
• A Sangha member is a disciple.
• A Sangha member values, celebrates and contributes to the life of the Sangha.

From ‘Getting Real as A Sanga’ Ibid pg 304:

1. face up to and admit one’s bonbu nature – and feel the relief in doing so;
2. start to think of the collective good rather than merely individual interest;
3. take refuge; and
4. do the practice

olympic bells and pureland chanting

My first audioboo (rather quiet and rather wobbly) - ringing my Tibetan bell at 8.02 am, as Church bells are being rung around the UK, to celebrate the start of the 2012 Olympics - combined with two different Pureland Buddhist chants.

listen to ‘Olympic bells and Pureland chanting’ on Audioboo