Last February Will and his family began their journey to the Kimberley, after an internet search back in 2022 revealed a job advertised in Derby. There was a sort of half-hearted application for the job but when the phone call came that offered it, there was, strangely, absolutely no doubt
Elder Ting asked Linji, ‘What is the essence of Buddhism?’ Jane explores this important question by looking at Zen practice and how we integrate it into our daily lives. This talk referring to Case 32 of the Blue Cliff Record was given by Jane Andino, roshi at the Zazenkai in
There are koan stories that obliquely look at blame, shame, getting it wrong, embarrassment and a host of other possible difficulties that every human being, perfectly imperfect, experiences every single day, that reveal how a Zen person is with this stuff. Does a Zen person blush with shame? Quake with anxiety? Flutter with
Zen literature is full of invisible female sages. Here we meet a roadside teacher who gives wise counsel to monks searching for the way to Mt T’ai, the sacred mountain that is home to Manjusri, the bodhisattva of wisdom. Who is visible or invisible after all? Chao chou, acting as
Maggie Gluek, roshi explores Hell. Where is its locus? Why does Chao chou say that are enlightened teachers are the first to go there? How do you support others in the depth of pain? How does suffering transform? This teisho, ‘Enlightened Teachers Fall into Hell’, was given by Maggie Gluek,
Huang-po, instructing the community, said:‘All of you people are gobblers of dregs; if you go on travelling around this way, where will you meet Today? Don’t you know there is no Zen teacher?’ This is the last teisho of sesshin. Later tomorrow when we go forth in the world, the
In his ‘Song of Realising the Way’, Yungchia says: It speaks in silence In speech you hear its silence The Great Way has opened and there are no obstacles. It’s difficult to practise listening unless our minds become quiet and our thoughts aren’t clamouring for attention, or for expression in
On the great road of Buddha ancestors there is always unsurpassable practice, continuous and sustained. It forms the circle of the way and is never cut off. Between aspiration, practice-enlightenment, and nirvana, there is not a moment’s gap. Continuous practice is the circle of the way. —Eihei Dogen As we
Chapter One:Once upon a time, between two hundred and forty-five and sixty-six million years ago, gentle vegan dinosaurs from the Evazoum family were roaming around the vast land mass called Gondwana, foraging on ferns. Their footprints sank into the water-sodden layers of ancient plant debris, their tracks later in-filled by
With the referendum on The Voice to Parliament set for October 14, the discussions about it have naturally been taking centre stage. I would like to present some Buddhist perspectives from my readings about this, aspects of harmony and transformation. In the Uluru Statement from the Heart, it says “We
