Zen

Can do it, Can’t do it

As students of the way, if we are serious about awakening to our true nature, or Buddha nature, we need to believe that from the beginning we are Buddhas and the realisation of our true nature is our birth right. The following is a koan called ‘Nan-chuan’s Stone Buddha’, and it is case 3 from the Iron Flute collection of

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Where did you go?

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 he should accept.It is mysterious how our life unfolds.We step

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Shame & blame

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 insecurity?  If not, why not?   Gillian Coote, roshi looks into a couple

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The Great Way Opens

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 speech. We practise noticing thoughts and returning to the count

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The Way Practices Us

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 herald in the New Year, we kick start our practice

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