Join Peter for a talk exploring Zhaozhou’s famous koan, “The Cypress Tree in the Courtyard.” Found in the Wumenguan and Book of Serenity, this koan, often presented in a shorter form, offers profound insights when viewed within its broader dialogue. Peter will delve into the context provided by the Record of Zhaozhou, examining how this seemingly simple response to the
Subhana introduces us to Silent Illumination practice. This guided meditation helps to stabilise just sitting, from breath, expanding to whole body breathing, to letting go of body, just listening, letting go thinking mind, noticing space between the thoughts. Letting go ideas of body and mind. Learning to rest in the silent, open, vast timeless illumination of awareness. Non-doing – letting
In this talk Subhana helps us to work skilfully with both our minds and emotions. The meditation instructions of mindfulness of mind include; thought, cognition, concepts, stories, ideas, perceptions and consciousness itself. The practice is to notice what are the 10 top tunes that go through your mind and how not to get hijacked by those familiar deep-seated patterns of
In Dogen’s ‘Instructions to the Tenzo’, he describes Three Minds, a division which provides a framework for all daily tasks. As well as Joyful Mind, Kind Mind, and Great Mind, we study Dogen’s question ‘What is practice?’. This teisho was given by Jane Andino roshi on Day 4 of Winter sesshin 2024 at the Annandale zendo
Whenever a monk came to see him Luzu turned around and sat facing the wall.Full stop, end of story. This was his teaching. He offered no words. Our core practice is sitting. What does it mean? This talk considers zazen and the fact of a wall, drawing on the wisdom of Dogen and Aitken Roshi too. It meanders into a
Ta-mei asked Ma-tsu, “What is Buddha?” Ma-tsu said, “This very mind is Buddha.” In this talk, Peter takes up the well-known case 30 of the Mumonkan. Shibayama Roshi said that “This very mind is Buddha’ is a very important philosophical saying which concisely depicts the essence of zen” yet any philosophical expositions on “This very mind is Buddha”, whether from Ma-tsu, Bodhidharma or
Not a few of us come to practice to find peace of mind. Just so Huike, the protagonist of this story. Let’s see how determination, faith and surrender help him in his quest and how Bodhidharma turns him upside down. It’s a dramatic tale and one that is foundational to the Zen tradition. This teisho was given by Maggie Gluek,
Subhana explores the deep and profound teachings of ‘emptiness’ the selfless dimension or the self-forgotten and its misunderstandings. What does it mean to cultivate that which is already our inherent true nature, which cannot be cultivated, yet it can be realised. This Dharma talk inquires into the aspects of the liberated nature of mind: of infinite space, unification of mind and body,
‘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
All the harmful karma ever created by me since of old On account of my beginningless greed, hatred and ignorance Born of my body, speech and thought I now acknowledge openly and fully In the Purification gatha which opens our sutra service the “I” is salient and crucial. Let’s get it straight right away, in the first person, this
