Sesshin teishos

Walking the Way

Maggie Gluek, roshi, while wandering with Henry David Thoreau, wonders how we can open the Dharma gates of ease and joy? Caught in ideas of the importance of self, isolated from the world, and following a stream of self centred conditioned thoughts, we fail to be aware of the world

Read More

Bodhisattva Vows

Maggie Gluek, roshi helps us understand and experience what it means to be a Bodhisattva and connect deeply with the vows: The many beings are numberless, I vow to save them; greed, hatred, and ignorance rise endlessly, I vow to abandon them;dharma gates are countless, I vow to wake to

Read More

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

Read More

Entangling Vines

Maggie Gluek, roshi discusses the challenges that teachers face in having to open their mouths in order to teach in the face of a subject that seems to elude description or comprehension through logical means. She takes up Case 19 – Xiangyan’s ‘Up a Tree’ – from the Entangling Vines

Read More

Build a Seamless Tomb

On the occasion of Robert Aitken Roshi’s centenary, Maggie Gluek, Roshi asks how each of us can uphold his legacy – the timeless teaching of the Buddha Dharma – in the context of Case 18 of the Blue Cliff Record (National Teacher Chung’s Seamless Tomb). And makes an excursion into the relevance of poetry

Read More

The Beardless Barbarian

Allan Marett explores Case 4 of the Wumenguan (The Gateless Barrier), Huo-an’s Beardless Barbarian. The Barbarian in this case is, of course, Bodhidharma, the fifth century monk who brought Zen Buddhism from India to China. He is usually depicted with a flourishing beard, and his beard is also referred to in

Read More

An Appropriate Response

‘What is the work of the Buddha’s whole life? An appropriate response.’ Gillian Coote, roshi explores Case 14 of the Blue Cliff Record. Day 5, Spring Sesshin 2017

Read More

Why Are We Here?

Gillian Coote, roshi explores the first koan in ‘The Gateless Barrier’ of the Wu-Men Kuan – Mu. Day 1, Spring Sesshin 2017

Read More