Maggie Gluek, roshi, while wandering with Henry David Thoreau, wonders how we can open the Dharma gates of ease and joy? Caught in ideas of the importance of self, isolated from the world, and following a stream of self centred conditioned thoughts, we fail to be aware of the world around us – the scent of grasses or the colour
How do we meet the challenges of our times? And how does zazen change or save our world? Subhana Barzaghi, roshi explores the relationship between our inner and outer work in the world and the relationship between our mind and the environment. She draws on Case 32 from the Book of Serenity. This talk was given at Autumn sesshin 2019
Dr Helen Redmond explores how Zen Practice and Environmental Activism spring from the same source. Helen has been involved in Zen for over 30 years, has been a doctor for 25 years, and has been an environmental activist for Doctors for the Environment Australia for 9 years. In this dharma talk Helen explores how how her love of nature brought her
Paul Maloney, roshi explores the central human concern of dying from the point of view of the Buddha Dharma. Old age, sickness and death were everyday realities for people living in the time of the Historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, and they are realities for people in the third world today. But in our modern Western society, this fact that we are
Despite being orthodox Buddhism, albeit present in an unorthodox manner, the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, seldom appears in our koan curriculum. In fact, one can go for years without hearing anything about the Buddha’s life prior to his Awakening. In this talk Paul Maloney, roshi gives a brief overview of the various practices that the Bodhisattva Siddhartha undertook, over several years,
‘The reason you do not clearly understand the time-being is that you think of time only as passing. In essence, all things in the entire world are linked with one another as moments. Because all moments are the time-being, they are your time-being.‘ Dogen Time can measured in seconds, minutes, hours, weeks, months, semesters, years and, more poetically, by the
Gillian Coote, roshi, explores the anguish of Bodhidharma’s student, Huike, standing in the snow, desperate for his mind to be at peace. When resolved, this is an experience that Zen students have described as ‘coming home’ – body and mind and this moment, perfectly at ease, completely present. This teisho based on Case 41 of the Wumen Kuan was
Medicine and sickness cure each other, all the earth is medicine, where do you find your self? Gillian Coote, roshi, examines Yun-men’s words about our own sickness and suffering – as individuals, as family members, in relationships at work or in the sangha, and as members of this society and this vast interdependent mahasangha – the sickness of the air,
The Buddha points to the ground and declares “Here would be a good place to erect a temple.” In this talk, Jane Andino looks at this case from the Book of Serenity and reflects on what that temple might be for us. She also investigates the traditions of our lay practice. This Dharma talk was given at a zazenkai in September 2018
Reading from his book ‘Zen Leopard’ Brendon Stewart reflects upon a recent trip to Japan. Brendon uses the metaphor of a bridge, a very common image in many Japanese wood block prints. His Zen Buddhist practice has been made richer by ideas passing back and forth over the many bridges of history and between his country of birth, Australia and Japan. This
