“Let it go” is almost a mantra in the dojo, where we are encouraged to abandon discursive thinking and return to our single point of practice. It’s instructive to consider the mental and emotional baggage you bring to zazen and thus discover that it is unnecessary. But what if you see the emptiness of phenomena? What if you and I
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,
Chao Chou’s “Oak Tree in the Garden” is, like MU, a primary koan, a door that focusses into the world of Zen practice. It emerges as a response to perennial questions: “What is Zen?” “What is the one mind?” It would seem that all the richness of life is right here, back in your own backyard, as the old song put
It is as though a water buffalois passing through a lattice window.Its head, horns and four legs have all gone through. Why can’t its tail go through? Case 16 Wu’Men Kuan Koans can truly ring like the theatre of the absurd. Their playful logic challenges us. And vast dimensions revealed in practice resolve in the homely and concrete. This teisho
The Bodhisattva of Compassion is a salient figure in the Mahayana tradition and in our Zen sutra service. She (he!) manifests in different genders and forms which speak to us in slightly different ways. But her means are always generous, whether in pronouncing the deepest wisdom, portraying great action, modelling how to be embodied, showing the way of non-separation. In
Zen practice is not a static affair. Realisation is useless unless it is carried forward and shared. Maggie Gluek, roshi explores the way in which practice can only ever be relational. Like the Hermit of Lotus Flower Peak, we must step out into the world, as the world. And engage in “compassionate conversation” with whatever presents itself. This teisho was
Come on a pilgrimage with Fa-yen and get lost in the mind of not knowing. In this era of Covid 19 the fact of uncertainty has been front and centre. It has become clear that whatever we think, we really don’t (and can’t) know what is going to happen next. “I don’t know” opens the door to powerful field of
Encountering the soundscape at Kodoji is one of the treasures of sitting in the magical valley. Bird songs, rain songs, wind songs, cricket songs, kitchen songs, to name a few—natural and naturally merging with the mind. With the sound of deep silence holding everything there. Only the occasional shrill ring of the telephone can be disturbing, setting up a scurry
What ailment does the Buddha Dharma address? What is it to be healed? Yunmen shares the good news. You might say that the cosmic, blue Medicine Buddha is constantly dispensing spiritual remedy! This talk was given by Maggie Gluek at a zazenkai in February, 2020, when Covid 19 was a vaguely alarming threat but before the virus became a global pandemic
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