As one of Charlotte Joko Beck’s Dharma Successors, Geoff Dawson talks about her background, her teachings, and her founding of the Ordinary Mind School. He describes how she transformed Zen teaching in the West, and explains her methods of Working with emotions as practice, and Working with core beliefs. This talk was given by Geoff Dawson of the Ordinary Mind Zen School
This koan is taken from a Chinese sutra published around AD300 and has a fairytale quality. “Long ago, in the land of Teno Tathagata, which is not in our galaxy, a conference was held and many buddhas gathered to attend. Because this conference was for buddhas, bodhisattvas were not qualilfied to participate. Just as the conference finished, and all the
Before Ma-tsu became a teacher, he was training at Nan-yueh’s monastery, one of several hundred monks lost in the crowd. A senior monk noticed how diligent he was and mentioned him to Nan-yueh, who found him alone in the zendo and asked, ‘What is your purpose in doing zazen?’ When Ma-tsu replied, “I seek to become a Buddha’, Nan-yueh picked up
We can often fall into ideas about getting somewhere in our practice, finding our freedom, always with the idea it is some other place and some other time. This talk explores case 48 of the Gateless Barrier, Kan fangs ‘one straight road to nirvana’. That road is always here, right now, before our eyes. This teisho was given by Will
You are probably familiar with the quote: ‘There is no way to peace; peace is the way.’ I guess after seeing that on so many SZC T-shirts, I had assumed it was a Buddhist quote; but no. The author of that line is A.J. Muste, a Dutch-born U.S. clergyman of the 1920’s who eventually became a Quaker, a pacifist and
This life is a play and we are all the players. In an old story we meet Manjusri, Great Wisdom Bodhisattva as well as the Much Lesser Bodhisattva Delusive Wisdom and A Young Woman Meditating. And in them—as Aitken Roshi points out—we meet dimensions of ourselves. In all of this there’s deep encouragement at hand. This teisho was given by
Dongshan’s question is ‘How will you take your activity of seeing into self-nature into the ups and downs of the grassy world?’ Jane looks at the Way of practice, setting off on the pilgrimage of each day to reach the place of no grass. This teisho by Jane Andino was given on day 4 of Winter sesshin 2025 and explores
In this guided meditation Peter takes us into the silence of mind and body and introduces us to the practice of Silent Illumination (shikintaza) – where we drop away obstructions to perceive reality clearly, transcending noise and separation. He quotes Zen Master Hongzhi, who describes Silent Illumination as the “field of bound less emptiness” where everything functions freely in suchness,
The priest Ruiyan called “Master!” to himself every day and answered himself“Yes!”Then he would say “Be aware!” and reply “Yes!”“Don’t be deceived by others!”“No, no!”Peter delves into the profound meaning behind this seemingly simple practice of Ruiyan Shiyan, moving beyond interpretations of self-affirmation or mere remembrance. Connecting it to Ruiyan’s earlier encounter with Master Yantou, Peter highlights the challenge of
Yun Men said, “See how vast and wide the world is! Why do you put on your seven-piece robe at the sound of the bell?”This talk explores why do we practice? Honouring your longing, the sacred splinter in your heart that brings you in search of the Tao, to alleviate suffering.And it includes four guidelines from the Complete Enlightenment Sutra
