Encouraging Words

The Buddha’s Road to Awakening

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,

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All Moments are the Time Being

‘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

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Coming home

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

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Sickness and medicine

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,

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Who is this ‘I’?

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

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A Blade of Grass

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

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Bridges

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

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No difference

“If there is even a bit of difference, it is the remote distance between heaven and earth.” This is a famous Zen saying that has been used many times by the masters of the past and present, but what does it mean? Difference between what and what? Allan Marett, roshi explores a famous exchange between Fayan and his pilgrimage companion Hiushan

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Not Knowing

Not knowing is central to Zen practice. When Fayan and his companions were on pilgrimage, they ran into a snowstorm and took shelter at the temple of Dizang. Dizang asked him why he was wandering around on pilgrimage (a question that pilgrims frequently encounter) and Fayan replied, “I don’t know.” This story is from the Book of Serenity, Case 20,

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The Heart of Practice

Upon his Awakening, the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni said, “Wonderful, wonderful, now I realize that all beings are buddha, only their ignorance and attachments prevent them from realizing this fact.” The term Buddha means “one who is awake,” and it is this experience that is the very heart of our Zen practice, in fact all Buddhist practice. So, if

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