Buddhist

Let Go, Turn Around, Return Home

I can’t remember enjoying an autumn as much as I have this one. The golden light, the cool freshness of the air, the daily colourful progress of liquid ambers on our street, trees we’d actually never fully taken cognizance of before. The virtue of relative confinement has meant coming to appreciate the vividness of the local geography, what is right

Read More

The Star

Rohatsu means the 8thday of December, the date traditionally commemorated as the day of the Budhha’s awakening. In this talk, Jane Andino looks at different versions of the enlightenment story, the sight of the Morning Star, and the significance for our practice. This talk was given on Day 1 of the Rohatsu sesshin 2019

Read More

Old age, sickness & death

“In all of the worlds, what is most wondrous? That no man, no woman, though they see people dying all around them, believes it will happen to them” King Yudhisthira, Mahabharata, Hindu epic poem. Jill Steverson talks about the privilege and challenges she experienced being with her mother through her journey of frail age and recent death. Also how sharing

Read More

Spring

“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.” Rainer Maria Rilke For the last three months – all of winter – I have been practising in a different dojo, with a different daily routine and a body that must only bear weight on one leg so as not to interfere with its miraculous

Read More

The Creative Dance

Jane Andino, musician and apprentice Zen teacher, delves into our understanding of the creative and expressive world as it relates to our Zen practice. She uses Case 82, Blue Cliff Record as an entry point into this discussion. This talk was given on day 4 of the SZC Winter sesshin 2019

Read More

Immanence

Paul Maloney, roshi, explores what is meant by Buddha Nature. The Zen Buddhist view on the human condition can be summarised by the following proposition of Hakuin Zenji, in the conclusion of his Song of Zazen. “This very place is the Lotus Land, this very body the Buddha.” If this can be believed, then I think it follows that there

Read More

How Can I Help?

Subhana Barzaghi, roshi asks a critical question for Zen practitioners, ‘What should we do in these heart-breaking times with this ecological crisis?’  How can we help our fractured and troubled world?  In challenging times we are called upon to bring as much love, wisdom, courage, compassion and gratitude as we can into the world to alleviate the suffering around us. 

Read More

The Source

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

Read More

post categories

Popular Class