Satya Robyn's Blog

For a year from Sep 1st 2023, Rev. Satya Robyn will say a daily prayer for the Earth in a public place.

Why?

As more and species slide into extinction, as we lose rainforest and coral reef, and as the Earth’s temperature keeps on rising, the impact of human exploitation on our eco-systems is now impossible to deny or ignore. Prayer can act as an inoculation against the despair that leads to inaction. It connects us back into the Earth’s beauty, and it gives us the courage to take compassionate action and to face whatever is coming.

What prayers will be used? Does prayer have to be spiritual or religious?

The prayer book Satya will use for the daily prayer contains texts from many different religions and traditions. Satya is Buddhist but she also draws inspiration from Rumi, from mystical Christian texts, from indigenous wisdom and from secular poetry – there are many places to find wisdom. The short answer: no!

What and where?

Satya will both read a prayer online every day at 8am UK time, and read a prayer out loud at the top of her local town of Great Malvern at 8.30am every day. After each prayer there will be ten minutes of silence for people who wish to stay and contemplate or pray in their own way.

She hopes that others will join her on Zoom or in her local town, and that maybe they’ll even commit to reading a prayer in a public place in their own town too.

How can I get involved?

If your time zone allows, you can join Satya on Zoom at 8am any day of the week – the Zoom details are here. We will begin at a few minutes past 8am by Satya or someone else reading a prayer, and then there will be ten minutes of silence so people can contemplate or pray in a way that makes sense to them.

If you live near Great Malvern in the UK, join her at the top of town at 8.30am (when she’s not travelling).

If you are interested in reading a prayer out in your own city, town or village, do get in touch.

Will this project make any difference?

Maybe, maybe not. Our financial, governmental and corporate systems wield huge power, and this is a very small project in a very big world.

That’s okay. Even if it didn’t make any difference at all, Satya would still like to complete a year of daily prayers, as a way of saying thank you to the Earth, as a way of connecting her to wisdom, inspiration and beauty, and as a reminder to keep performing the small compassionate acts that help our Earth.

Satya also trusts that, as Kennedy says in the quote below, each tiny ripple of hope counts.

“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” 

~ Robert F. Kennedy, from the Day of Affirmation Address, University of Capetown, June 6th 1966 

What else can I do to help the planet?

Here’s some information about what you can do to help.

System change is by far the most important thing, and so do focus your efforts on changing our political, financial and governmental structures and influencing big corporations, religious institutions and any systems that hold power. This might include thinking about how we vote, speaking to our local MPs, joining environmental action groups like Greenpeace, getting involved in protest like marches, actions or non-violent civil disobedience… or maybe even joining this project and reading a prayer to the Earth out in your own town. We all have a part to play.

Personal change is also important and can help us to feel that we are doing things that are within our control. Eating more plant-based foods and flying less are the biggest wins. You can also think about how much you drive (either giving up your car, driving less or getting an electric car), recycling, eating local food, using less plastic…

Resources

Satya has compiled a collection of Earth prayers here, or do feel free to use your own prayers if you are taking part. These booklets are not for sale but for your personal use only.

Satya is giving these leaflets out to people who are interested in the project – do feel free to adapt them and use a version if you are saying daily prayers in your own location.

Sign up for more information

If you’d like to receive Satya’s occasional email with information about how the project’s going, subscribe below.

Who is Satya?

Satya is a Buddhist priest who runs the Bright Earth Buddhist temple with her spouse Kaspa. She is also a psychotherapist using Internal Family Systems, and a writer at Going Gently and Gentle Buddhism. She has been involved in eco-activism since 2019.

Here’s more information about the Daily Prayer for the Earth project. The meetings will take place from 8am til 8.15am UK time from the 1st of September 2023 and then daily for a year. The meeting will be hosted by Satya and will begin with a prayer read by Satya or someone else. There will then be ten minutes of silence for people to contemplate or pray in their own way.

As a way of respecting the other attendees, please remain muted during the meeting. You are welcome to have your video on or off. If you have any questions you can send a direct message to Satya on the chat. We look forward to seeing you there.

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Hello friends.

Ralph doesn’t want to curl up in the comfy grey bed right next to my desk today. He wants to sit on my lap.

He’s a hefty boy, and I can’t really type with him there. I lifted him up anyway, and we sat for a while together until he told me he was ready for a nap in his bed.

Some days, we just need a little comfort.

I used come down hard on the parts of me that sought comfort. The parts that take a second slice of cake, or make me watch Selling Sunset, or encourage me to indulge in a little gossip.

I’m more fond of them these days. We are all a mix of parts that push us forwards and parts that cushion us or distract us or seek ease. The pushing ones are more socially acceptable, but a balanced eco-system needs both.

I appreciate the comfort-seeking parts of me that manage to keep me on an even keel without resorting to hard drugs or raging or sex addition or self-harm. Even these more extreme comfort-seeking parts are doing the best they can to stabilise us.

I appreciate the parts of Ralph that get him extra lap-time. I appreciate the parts of me that read trashy novels and get caught scrolling on Twitter. We all need comfort, especially when things outside us or inside us are tough. Here’s to furry blankets, and flannel pyjamas, and good hot chocolate, and to whatever does it for you.

Satya <3

(This is my second ‘Letter from Satya’ – sign up on the right to receive them every week or so in your inbox.)

Now my vigil is over, I’m going to write my Letters from Satya more frequently again. The first is below. If you’d like to sign up for them, click here.

I’ve been tying myself in knots.

I want to start writing to you all again, now my year-long vigil is over. I want to offer you comfort, the hindsight of my stumbles, a giggle, spiritual nourishment, flashes of beauty.

I decided that I would start these new letters once I’d found the perfect name for them. Possible titles started pouring into my brain. ‘Written in Dew’, to remind me of how ephemeral my words are? No – worried it sounds a bit pretensious. Something with ‘mud’ in the title, to keep my feet on the ground? Nah – too, um, muddy. ‘Glimpses of Light’? But I don’t want to focus on the good light and miss out the good dark…

Words swirled all week, and I was lost in their snow-storm. Eventually, I started to get the message. What was my learning here? Why was I pushing so hard against a door that wasn’t opening?

‘Don’t worry about it so much. You don’t have to be perfect, or try really hard to impress people or get them to like you. Just be you.’

And so this is where we will begin. By acknowledging that I am a being with many parts, most of which work hard to influence the world in various ways. By appreciating the sterling job they do. By remembering that there is something underneath or beyond all these parts of me, bigger and wiser and brimming with compassion, and that I can relax into it whenever I choose. That IT knows what these letters should be called – the same thing they were called when I used to write them – Letters from Satya.

Just Satya.

Aaaaahhh. What a relief.

I’m really looking forward to writing to you. Do feel free to reply to any of the letters. If you’d like a friend to receive them too, you can send them here. And the photo is Aiko dog, with a reminder: don’t forget to play!

Satya <3

PS I originally said I’d send these letters out a few times a year so if you’d rather not get them more frequently do press unsubscribe below. If you have any problems with that let me know

I’ve neglected this blog as I’ve been writing my letters to the Earth on Facebook – here. I might start my Letters from Satya again at some point – maybe when my vigil is over! Come join me during October if you can…

Last Friday I left social media. That’s a sentence I never thought I’d write – and before I even reach the full stop the doubts crowd in. ‘You’re weak – you’ll be back within a month.’ ‘You’ve shot yourself in the foot – your career as a writer is over.’ ‘There’s so much good stuff on Facebook – just re-activate your account, you could handle it!’

There is lots of good stuff there. I love maintaining connections with hundreds of diverse people, finding out about local food markets and receiving appreciation for my writing. And, my experience shows me that I can’t handle it. I get caught again and again by the Endless Scroll, the Refresh for New Notifications, and the Poking My Nose Into Stranger’s Lives.

One of the things that held me back from leaving for so long is that I was terrified of becoming a nobody. Young parts of me hold experiences of needing to work really hard to receive attention, and so I believed that unless I ploughed energy and effort into remaining visible in the world, I would completely disappear from people’s minds. Social media is a perfect antidote for this fear – each post becomes a receptacle of ‘likes’, even if only a few. This reassured these needy young parts that they would be loved and looked after, until the effects wore quickly off. Red notifications are like sugar to me – they leave me jittery and fractured, and wanting more.

Shortly before leaving I did some work in therapy which healed these young parts. These parts of me showed me how awful it was for them to feel so unworthy, and I saw and understood. They realised that their having to strive and sweat to get attention was never about me in the first place. They saw that my friends offer me kind texts and home-baked scones not because they’re impressed by who I am or what I give them, but simply because they like me.

There is an enormous sense of freedom in seeing this. I can relax into trusting that some of my connections with people will fade away, and that others will emerge from unlikely places. I can place my attention back onto those closer to me, and onto the dear Earth who supports my every breath. I can trust that, if it’s meant to be, people will find me. I can enjoy the benefits of being a nobody – not having to pause to document my life for the upkeep of my public image, and spending less time online and more time on-earth. I can feel loved without the red notifications.

Of course, I’m not quite fully enlightened. The freed up energy will mostly be redistributed into other favourite compulsions – watching Ru Paul on Netflix, napping, eating caramel brownies. I still want people to read my writing. Maybe I will choose to go back onto Facebook one day, and maybe I’ll fall into the same traps all over again. Nevertheless, I’m glad to be social-media free today. I’m grateful to be released from the work of being popular. I’m happy to receive the spaciousness of this fresh morning, with time to write and time to wash up and time to walk the dogs. I’m sending love out with these words, just because this morning I have some spare. Go gently

You can read those posts at www.dearearth.co.uk. I’ll be back here soon!

To go alongside my new Letters From Satya, I’m creating some little videos – you can watch them here on Youtube. Enjoy!

From Dharmavidya David Brazier’s book Questions in the Sand.

To Err is Human… & We Do Not Stop Being So

Question: After a good few years of working hard towards personal improvement and continually tripping over myself, I’m struggling to see any real change in my propensity for being foolish. Given the depth of my defectiveness, how realistic is it to expect a significant change at the human level?

Short answer: Wrong target.

Longer answer: To err is human. It does not end. Insight might grow, but that is not an end in itself. Insight might give rise to boredom, however, which could be useful. There is an inevitable self-contradiction – and, therefore, self-defeat – in the notion of “self-improvement”. However, while we are “struggling to see”, the Buddhas can see us perfectly well already. We do not need to do their job for them, just play our own part.

Actually, viewing from the outside, an observer might well see great improvement in you at the same time as you yourself find more and more reason to despair. It is not self-improvement that is required, only a diminution in self-concern. From that might well flow various observable virtues, but it is not by directly cultivating them that Dharma arrives. They are symptoms and by-products.

This is why teachers say, “Just do the practice and there will be no need to worry.” Chasing after an improved view of oneself is futile. Sometimes, when we examine ourselves, we see virtues and sometimes vices, but it is all just a hall of mirrors. In the morning I do my work. At lunchtime I prune the roses. In the afternoon I do a different job. In the evening I eat my dinner. Namo Amida Bu. Namo Amida Bu. Have I “improved” in the process? Who knows! It is not my concern.

Chasing after an improved view of oneself is futile. ~ Dharmavidya

Yesterday I finally managed to fill my two little vases with flowers from the temple garden – one for the Buddha, and one for the little table between me and my therapy clients.

It makes me happy looking at them. I also feel a smudge of shame – that it took me until the end of June to perform this simple ten minute task which lightens my whole working week.

I’ve been reading and re-reading a chapter from Questions in the Sand called ‘To Err is Human, and We Do Not Stop Being So’. In it Dharmavidya suggests that, rather than self-improvement, we should be aiming towards ‘a diminution in self-concern’. We may well change in a positive way over time, but we can’t force these changes – they are more a by-product of living in the light of the Buddhas. If we imagine we can perfect ourselves, we are setting ourselves up for a miserable time. To err is human, and we do not stop being so.

I do wish that I was the kind of person who found it easier to look after herself by gathering flowers for her office. I wish I didn’t turn into a frightened child when my pets are ill. I wish I was more patient with people, and had more capacity to welcome them when I feel full of my own concerns. I wish I ate less cake.

I’m not. Sometimes, if I’m lucky, I get tired of tracking what I eat or making judgements about how much television I watch, and my attention drifts back to the world. I get on with stringing words into rows, with slicing avocados for our lunch, and with sweeping the floor. I pay attention to what’s around me. Here is my shrine, with the beautiful icon I brought back from my holitreat. Here is what the garden gifted me for my little vase. Those daisies are so cheerful. I smile at the name of those leaves with delicate pale fur – ‘lamb’s ear’ – and stroke them with my fingers.

The Buddhas can see me just as I am, and they love me. I feel a softening in me, a release, and now I am on the edge of tears.

*

You can read the short chapter from Dharmavidya’s book in its entirety here.