(upbeat music) This podcast is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for Your Life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. Thank you and happy listening. - So this weekend we're looking at what's so special about the Western Buddhist order. What are its distinctive features and characteristics? We're trying to see what in the approach of the order, the movement, what in its emphases might make it a particularly appropriate vehicle for the transmission of the Dharma, the practice of the Dharma in our increasingly westernized world of today in this remarkable world we find ourselves in at the start of the 21st century. And with Padmavadra, we've looked at how Banti, Ergy and Sankarakshita, has sought to get back to the fundamentals of Buddhism, to the heart of the matter, and of the significance he's given to the act of going for refuge in his teaching. And with Ratna Prabha, we look at our system of practice, the system of practice we follow, and took an overview of the method of spiritual development. We heard about the five great stages of the path and their connection with the five spiritual faculties, the five jinnas and so on. So I'm gonna continue today by speaking on creating spiritual community and transforming the world. I'm gonna be talking about Sankar, spiritual friendship, Kalyana Mitratar, familiar words, familiar territory. But it's a matter with which we really can't be too familiar, because to really know them, to have penetrated behind the words, to have really entered deeply into the teachings these words indicated would be indicated, would be to be a Bodhisattva, would be to live from, live in the Bodhichitta. So Banti's teachings on spiritual friendships, spiritual community, as unfolded by him over the years, and now being further explored by subooting and other of his most experienced disciples, these teachings are easily, well, not so much misunderstood, though that is possible and does happen. Not so much misunderstood, the superficially understood, understood in a limited way, which is fair enough. The teaching, if you remember what we heard read out this morning, by Gunapala before we chanted the tear at Navandana, the teachings are progressive, to be understood individually by the wise, so progressive. And we've probably all had the experience of thinking we've understood something, you know, like the five precepts, we've understood what ethics is all about, but then a year or two later, having studied and practiced a bit more fully, a bit more deeply, it's now as if we really understood, before we didn't understand at all, but now we do understand what ethics is really all about. This is another dimension of understanding opens up. But then another year or two later, it is if now, now we really do understand. And so it can go on. I am reminded here of Benti's aphorism, there are no higher teachings, just deeper understandings. So inevitably our understanding of Adana is initially superficial, but that superficial understanding suffices for a while. It's enough to get us moving, practicing, changing, up to the point where we come up against the limits of our present understanding. And then we need to go deeper if we're gonna continue to progress on the path. The important thing is perhaps just not to think we know, to think we've understood, just to realize our present understandings, however useful are provisional. So bearing that in mind initially, we might see Sanga as being all about being friendly, about our centers being welcoming, inviting places where people can contact the Dharma in spite of the nervousness, fear that might have held them back. We can see Sanga as being about creating a positive context for our spiritual practice, about mixing with a bunch of people who are very friendly, all encouraging, supportive, of course sometimes challenging, but often stimulating and inspiring. Well, that's fine, as far as it goes. Others might see Sanga as a sort of spiritual support group. So there's always a friendly ear to bend when you're in difficulties, a sort of safety net. There's always a spiritual friend there to pick you up and dust you down, put you back on your feet when you take a tumble. Well, again, fair enough as far as it goes. And it might even be, even at this level, there's something fairly distinctive in the FWBO. I mean, I wouldn't like to say, I haven't enough experience of other Buddhist organizations and movements, but there's certainly more emphasis than most placed on friendship creating community within our order and movement, even at this level, you could say, of a positive group. But we need to go a lot further, a lot deeper to really begin to understand what we're trying to do however inadequate our efforts might often be in creating the Sanga of the Western Buddhist order. And what you, therefore, are engaging with in moving towards the order. So in a number of talks that we study here on going for refuge retreats, Sabouti goes into the idea of the order as a spiritual practice, the idea of the creation of Sanga as a spiritual practice. So we're now not just talking about Sanga as a context for practice, not just about establishing a very positive and supportive environment in which to deepen our Buddhist practice to study, meditate, and so on, much more than that. We're talking about creating Sanga as a practice in its own right. So creating Sanga, creating the order, is an integral part of our practice. Part of the process of self-transformation, of bringing about that fundamental shift in our being that sees us living more in accord with the way things really are. To join the Western Buddhist order means entering into helping create an ever-expanding network of trust and friendship built around shared ideals, a shared vision of what we can be as human beings, and transforming ourselves as part of the very process of creating Sanga. So you won't find other Buddhist speaking in this way. You know, here we are now in the distinctive approach of the Western Buddhist order of Sanga Rakshita, and it's worth remembering this. If you start chatting with, speaking with other Buddhists, they may not understand what you're talking about. If you start straightaway speaking in this way, you may actually need to take a few steps back, establish a more obvious common ground and start from there. So the order as a practice. Put simply, the spiritual life in Buddhism is about overcoming the illusion of self, of a me, a big me, standing at the center of the universe, surrounded by a myriad of other. So if we're working to overcome self, it stands to reason the spiritual life can't be pursued, lived out selfishly. That would be only to reinforce however subtly that sense of self. To practice a spiritual life just for yourself is a contradiction in terms. So when we actually join with others in creating Sanga, we actually try quite deliberately to put aside self interest and enter into a process of mutual self-transcendence. And there's many levels and dimensions to this work of mutual self-transcendence. And I'm gonna note and comment just very briefly on a few. So creating Sanga, creating the order means learning to be a friend. It means cultivating the art of friendship. Again, this has a number of sides. It means learning to value vertical friendship in the sense of learning to be able to appreciate the qualities of those who have a deeper understanding and experience of the path than ourselves. It means being able to put aside pride, arrogance, and so on, to develop receptivity, appreciation, gratitude, a readiness to learn. Not thinking we already know it all already, but quite the opposite, just an open-heartedness towards others and their qualities. On the level of horizontal friendship, it means just being learning to value and engage with all sorts of different people, not just those who look like, dress like, the sort of people that we naturally, instinctively like, but just actually learning to be able to appreciate value, people who at first sight would be the last sort of people. We'd want to have anything to do with, just really learning again to be open to the deeper qualities, the truer qualities in all sorts of people. And then vertical friendship again, in the sense of learning to be friend, offer encouragement, help to others who are coming into the Dharma, who have less experience than us. Again, really learning to be able to put our own interest aside, go out to others. And all of this involves much more than just walk and talk, and earn his chats over cups of coffee, despite appearances at times to the contrary. There's a lot to learn. Initially, I remember having very much the sense of, everybody else has got something and I haven't. All these people giving each other hugs and going off the walks, and not me. What's wrong with me? How come I'm missing out? But I realised too, as time went on, it's not quite like that. It's not something you can just sort of grab and have, that others have got it, and you can have your sort of share immediately. It's something we have to work at. It takes patience, perseverance, care, a readiness to learn from our mistakes, and clumsinesses and so on. And it happens. You work at friendship, it grows, it deepens. I've got friendships in the order of movement now that go back over 20 years, and they're gonna be there for the rest of my life. But they haven't just happened. It's taken time, it's taken patience, it's taken effort at just working at those friendships. You know, again, do the vertical, those I look up to, my friends and peers, those who I've befriended, and shared my experience with. So then, creating Sanger, creating the order means learning to live with an awareness of others. Learning to be kind and selfish, ethical. And again, this is a very practical matter. You know, it's not a sort of abstract sort of quality that you sort of polish up and carry around in your briefcase. It's actually something very practical. Down to things like, you know, doing your share of the washing up and shopping in the community, flat where you live. You're just responding to what's going on around you, what needs to be done. You know, a weekend like this, you know, just noticing the cups and rubbish that get left around the retreat centre. And not having the attitude that somebody else has problem. You know, there's something that needs to be done. Well, one can do it. That's sort of very practical sense of other people, their needs, a readiness to respond, you know, in a very down to earth way. It means learning to give what we can give. You know, it might be money, possessions, time, energy of ourselves. You know, and just here, you know, we can just ask ourselves just a simple question, you know, how much easier do we find it to buy, you know, to bring out a £5 note and buy ourselves and a friend coffee and cakes than to put £5 in the dana bowl? You know, it's just a sort of simple question like that. I think it's worth sort of mirroring back and just looking at how are we getting on in developing that sort of open-handed ability to give? It means going beyond a protective, precious, self-centred way of being. It means putting ourselves out when it's not most convenient. You know, when we get a phone call from a friend who's ill and we've got a busy day planned and we just really don't want to have to go and, you know, look after them and do some shopping for them or whatever. And it would be very easy to sort of say, oh, well, hope you get better soon and not make that offer to put ourselves out. You know, it means actually putting ourselves out when it's not what we feel like, not what we really want to do, but, you know, it's clear it needs to be done. It means learning to confess, not hiding our shortcomings and trying to keep up a convincing spiritual front. But, you know, just really acknowledging our faults, quite honestly, opening, making amends, moving on. Again, this is something we need to learn, to the art of confession, the spiritual practice of confession. It is something to practice. You know, initially we might be quite clumsy, reticent, but it's something we can learn by just doing and in that way discover, you know, again, the difference it makes both to us and to our connection with others. Creating sanger means learning, open, honest communication, becoming more and more transparent to our brothers. It means no longer having a secret life. Again, we can ask ourselves, are there secret areas in our life? Are there things going on in our life? We just don't talk to others about, that we don't talk about in our going for refuge group, to our friends. Again, a question to hold up as a mirror. It means learning appropriateness, when to speak, when to keep our counsel. It means learning how to deal with difficulties and conflicts, learning how to contain our reactions and anger, so they're not destructive. But, yeah, to be able to say what needs to be said at the right time when it's gonna be really useful and helpful. It means letting go of hurt and resentment, learning how to forgive. You know, remembering that forgiveness isn't sort of conditional on other people admitting their fault. You know, it's actually to do with something that comes from us. And again, it's something to learn. I remember some years back having a difficulty with another order member and someone in my chapter, just saying, "You've just got to forgive them. "You've just got to sort of forgive them and let it go." And actually realizing it's not as simple as that. Yes, well, makes a decision to forgive and to try and change things. But it's not as if you flick a switch and that's it. You know, there's all sorts of situations when we've had difficulties with somebody where our buttons are pressed, the old hurts, the old feelings come up again. And we just have to learn how to work with them creatively, again and again, when they come up, so that they don't take us over, but we don't feed them. So again, forgiveness is something we have to learn. You know, we have to learn how to forgive, how to keep on forgiving. It's not something we can just sort of say, "Okay, I do it." There's something again, in so many of these things that we have to discover the real art of. And together with all these, there's just an ongoing working on our mental states, eradicating the unskillful, preventing the arising of the unskillful that haven't already arisen, developing the skillful states of mind that haven't yet arisen, maintaining those that have arisen in and out of meditation. Having a regular meditation practice is a strong element of metabharva in it, strengthening both our own clarity of mind, the equality of our connection with others, and learning how to engage our heart in puja and devotional practice so that opening of the heart again can flow over into our connections with others. Clarifying, thinking, clarifying our thinking, clarifying our views through study and open hearted discussion of the Dharma, all these things feed in to our practice of creating order, creating the Sangha. And look at this way, we can begin to see how the work of self-transcendence and the work of creating the order go hand in hand. And we can perhaps then begin to also see the place of the institutions of the order and the movement. It becomes clear that chapter meetings, or for you at the moment, going for refuge groups, they're not optional extras. They're not just a pleasant way to spend a Sunday evening with like-minded people. Rather, these gatherings are a crucial working ground in our spiritual life where we can focus and intensify so many aspects of our practice. So to living with others in communities, even short term, if you've got a family where you can still share in community on retreats, on cooler gatherings and time on order weekends and just realizing the importance of actually having that sort of experience of community regularly, even if it's only in short term, because you have family or other commitments. Working with others in right livelihood businesses. Again, needing to be clear, it's not just about pleasant working environment and making money to fund the Dharma. There's a vision there in the order, the movement, that goes far beyond that, that again, a very important, significant working ground for the creation of Sanger in all these different dimensions I've been speaking about. It's worth noting as well the fact that our communities, our businesses, our activities, for those more committed a single sex, that just being very clear that this definitely isn't just a quirk of the English. It's not just to do with the public school influence of certain senior order members. It's actually to do with the intensification of our spiritual practice that's possible in an environment free of the sexual and psychological polarization that takes place usually when men and women are together. Again, it's all to do with taking every opportunity to deepen our practice, our connectedness with others. And the best of our communities, in particular, do continue to provide one of the main spiritual cutting edges of the movement. So even if you're not able to live in a community, work in a team-based livelihood business, you should be grateful for them and those who put their lives in them into them. We wouldn't have anything like the order, the movement we have without them. And it is really important to appreciate the crucial part they play in making our order and movement what it is. So in all this, there's something else very important to remember. The order isn't just a fixed, worked out thing that you join. The order is an unfolding organism that you take on to help create and be a part of. So moving towards the order, moving towards ordination, means becoming increasingly a part of it, means becoming increasingly a part of this living network of trust and friendship. And it means taking full responsibility for your part in it, giving of your best, working to unfold the best in yourself. So the order itself is an increasingly effective force for good in the world. And I'm starting to touch here on something of great importance. But before following it through, I want to just backtrack a little bit and take up, again, take a bit further this theme of responsibility. As I said, in moving towards the order, you make it your own. You take a share in your responsibility for it. Initially, your share of the responsibility might seem very small compared to that carried by subroutine, have a vadra, others of the public preceptors, and those at Magimaloka and so on. But it is a real responsibility from the very beginning, even as you move into the order. Even as you train towards ordination, you're taking up a real responsibility. And one that isn't to be abdicated to any them at Magimaloka or anywhere else. And it's a responsibility that will grow as you grow into the order. And it's one that you really need to accept squarely with ordination. Well, you really need to accept it squarely before ordination, that this is something you're taking on to help create, help build, help make. We speak of the path of responsibility in the order and the movement, in the way that taking on responsibility within the institutions, centers, businesses, taking on responsibility for the spiritual welfare of others, how this can itself be a path of spiritual practice. So again, this is very much to do with putting aside smaller self-interest, going beyond self-concern. It's definitely not a matter of burdening oneself with this great sort of wheelbarrow load of responsibilities, a great rucksack full of responsibility that you sort of then stagger spiritually around under the weight of. I think there is quite an analogy for many people with parenthood, you know, where people become parents. They actually are confronted with a child that isn't going to go away. You know, you can't have sort of days off when you've got children. You've got to keep responding, even, you know, when you don't feel like it. And for many people at least, this can be very maturing. They get away from the sort of danger of eternal adolescence, you know, when you can just always do what you want, when you want. And it's taking on responsibility for others in the institutions of the movement for their welfare in this sort of way, you know, when there's no walking away. You actually take on responsibility in that sort of way that you're not going to put it down, you know, if you've got a sort of a bad day or a bad week, you're going to keep doing what you've said you do. Keep responding to others in the way that you would. And I think in this way, we do discover resources, qualities, strengths in ourselves that weren't previously apparent. So we do at least develop a bigger human basis, you know, from which spiritual qualities can then unfold. So responsibility and the path of responsibility. I want to go back now to that point. I was just starting to touch on earlier how working in the context of the order to unfold the best in us, we make the order itself and increasingly effective force for good in the world. Giving ourselves to the work of the order we collectively become the Bodhisattva. So as Pamavadras spoke a bit about this on Friday evening, we have this bizarre, strangely beautiful image of the 11-headed, thousand-armed Avalokiteshra. And we can become each one of us, one of his arms, one of his hands in each of the hands. There is that eye, the wisdom that informs compassion. And Bandhi has said it, it's probably more useful for us to think of ourselves as collectively becoming the Bodhisattva rather than each of us individually. Becoming sort of Bodhisattva, sort of me becoming a Bodhisattva, you becoming a Bodhisattva. When we think of it as me becoming a Bodhisattva, we can easily fall into the idea of becoming a sort of cosmic social worker and taking on this sort of hopeless task of putting the universe to rights. But altruism, in Buddhism, it's not to do, this isn't what it's about. Altruism, in Buddhism, the altruism that lies behind the Bodhisattva ideal is to do with recognizing the limitedness of our self-view. It's to do with opening our heart in understanding and learning to live more and more from a profound sense of interconnectedness. And it's for this reason that we find, for example, Randy suggesting that we ought to only recite the Bodhisattva precepts collectively. You know, in a way, it doesn't make sense to just to go off and recite them by ourselves. It's when we recite them together that they are likely to unfold most their true meaning. And the emphasis that's placed on the sevenfold puja as a collective practice, a practice that can help bring about the arising of the Bodhicitta when we speak together with the voice of the Bodhisattva, evoke then through that the Bodhisattva in our midst. So it's in entering into, seeking to realize the myth of the Bodhisattva through the work of creating the order in all its nitty, gritty, practical detail that I've touched on, that we collectively might become the Bodhisattva. So I said quite a lot about the teaching practice, approach to Sanga in the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order, the Western Buddhist Order, about our particular, distinctive approach to Sanga. But I still don't feel I've done justice to the subject. Does the matter of love in creating Sanga, in creating the order we learn to love one another? We hopefully become kinder and wiser. And as that love grows in its fullness, it overflows, reaches out, touches the lives of others. And beauty. An afternoon in early summer at Padma Loca, on a mythic context retreat, we're well into the retreat and in silence. I go out into the garden just near the lounge. There's gentle, golden early summer light. People are sitting around, and it's like entering into an atmosphere of liquid matter, like swimming through an atmosphere of liquid matter, an atmosphere of friendliness, brotherhood, and a beauty that opens into a sense that one needs look no further. An order convention at a Victorian Gothic, Gorman-Gast-like Roman Catholic school in seminary. It's the end of an order convention. In the gym, order members, men and women, go up to make offerings year by year. Those ordained first, going first in year by year, as people were ordained. So going up in waves as we chant the Padma Samba Lamentra, a mysterious beauty touches many hearts. And there's a wordless knowing that this is the right way to live. We should live simply, unselfishly. Give ourselves to friendship and the building of Sanga and our Dharma practice in all its many aspects. And let that overflow into the world. So simple. Fast, beautiful, mysterious. (audience applauds) We hope you enjoyed this week's podcast. Please help us keep this free. Make a contribution at freeputus.io.com/donate. And thank you. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) You You
