2015 07 08
Dear friends –
The sun setting in the west reflects on an open north-facing window. I cannot see the sun and yet I can see the sun! I am so fortunate to have such a lovely home. Sitting four stories up in an old and honourable house with good friends around me, it is often easy to feel that I have found a true home in the material world – a great support for the True Home in my heart.
For the next few months Waves and Water Sangha will be practicing with Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, “Finding our True Home: Living in the Pure Land Here and Now.” Tomorrow, Thursday, we will begin by learning something about the context for Thay’s commentary on the Amitabha Sutra and the practice of Pure Land Buddhism. We will listen to practitioners chanting Amitabha’s name and begin to learn the song, “Here is the Pure Land” based on a poem by Thay and found in the front of the book. We will discuss how we can, every day, find the Pure Land within us and around us.
The Plum Village Dharma Seal is “I have arrived, I am home.” The next Thursday, we will read together Brother Protection’s post on the Deer Park website: How can the practice of Arriving, Home, offer relief to the climate crisis and our collective suffering?” This will build on our practice last month of understanding how our body and the earth’s body are one.
We will then continue with the commentary in Finding our True Home, exploring the practice of Recollection and the levels of Pure Land practice. In our fourth week, we will engage with a Sutra Service that includes the Smaller Amitabha Sutra and ask ourselves “where do we find the precious jewels, the wonderful sounds in our own lives?”
Following our usual schedule, August 6 will be the full Ceremony for the Recitation of the Five Mindfulness Trainings and, as we move into August, we will continue our study and practice based Thay’s commentary – including “beyond the notion of within and without” and “how happiness and suffering inter-are.”
May we all smile in mindfulness and dwell in the present moment,
Bethan
p.s. We have posted “Here is the Pure Land” on our website at RESOURCES > PLUM VILLAGE PRACTICE SONGS: http://wavesandwater.org/site/resources/plum-village-practice-songs2/here-is-the-pure-land/
