Sydney Zen Centre
Talks from the Sydney Zen Centre about Zen Buddhist practice.
Episodes
Teisho by Subhana Barzaghi, roshi 'Cultivating the immeasurable quality of joy' 2017 Autumn Sesshin
Teisho by Subhana Barzaghi, roshi 'My heart is not yet at peace' 2017 Autumn Sesshin
The most popular SZC podcast ever! This is a talk by Allan Marett Sensei of the Sydney Zen Centre on the third day of Rohatsu Sesshin 2014, discussing the Buddha's enlightenment.
Allan Marett, sensei explores Xuefeng's Turtle-nose Snake, Case 22 Blue Cliff Record. Here we encounter four great Chinese Zen masters, Xuefeng, Changqing, Xuansha and Yunmen doing a little snake dance together. It’s a lovely case because it shows us both the humour and the insight of these old fellas. Look out for that snake! It might bite you … if you’re lucky.
Multitudinous messages coming in from marketers and politicians intensify the sense that the future’s uncertain and potentially disastrous, that though we are all right, it’s the “other” or “others” who are the problem. Our anxiety grows. Our minds already overflow with habits, preconceptions and prejudices, with ideas about self and other, ideas that have me here, and you over there, each of us separate and fearful - fearful tha...
Bodhidharma faced the wall. The Second Ancestor stood in the snow, cut off his arm and said, ‘Your disciple’s mind has no peace as yet. I beg you, Master, please put it to rest.' Mumonkan Case 41: Bodhidharma Pacifies the Mind The words, life and control, cancel each other out - life is just this! Moment by moment, beyond our control and so without peace - yet how we yearn for it. And though we may never be in control of our mi...
“Where have you been?’ is a common opening phrase from the teacher in many koans. In this talk about case 15, Book of Serenity, ‘Yangshan thrusts his hoe in the ground’, Jane discusses aspects of this koan in relation to the story of the Buddha’s awakening and to our own realisation. We can appreciate the dance of words between Guishan and Yangshan as they present to us the spirit of harmony and compassion. This talk was given by J...
Apprentice teacher Will Moon discusses Wumen's comments on how to work with the Koan Mu in today's context. This teisho (Case 1, Chao-chou's Dog, from the Gateless Barrier - Wu-men Kuan) was given on Day 1 of Spring sesshin 2024 at Kodoji.
Will explores how we might view our pain differently. Rather than fleeing and avoiding pain, how we might also awaken to the fact that our pain and struggles are also the true dharma. He refers to Case 3 of the Blue Cliff Record: Sun Faced Buddha, Moon Faced Buddha. This teisho was given by apprentice teacher Will Moon on day 3 of Spring sesshin 2024 at Kodoji
Will considers that Zen cannot be taught. All the ideas we accumulate from listening to talks and reading books are not 'it'. As useful as they are at times, they are the accumulation of just more concepts and ideas. It is only through our great enquiry that we awaken. This teisho, referring to Huang Po and the Brewer’s Lees (Case 53 from the Book of Serenity) was given by apprentice teacher, Will Moon, at Spring sesshin 2024 at Ko...
Whenever a monk came to see him Luzu turned around and sat facing the wall. Full stop, end of story. This was his teaching. He offered no words.
Our core practice is sitting. What does it mean?
This talk by Maggie Gluek, roshi, considers zazen and the fact of a wall, drawing on the wisdom of Dogen and Aitken Roshi too. It meanders into a few thoughts on thoughts, non-thinking and what we call “the mind."
Sydney Zen Centre's Roh...
The Heart Sutra is the essence of the wisdom teachings of liberation. It is a summary of the Buddha’s awakening experience under the Bodhi Tree. The dharma talk explores and clarify the wonderful yet highly misunderstood teachings of emptiness. Empty of what? Emptiness does not mean annihilation or nihilism or that you do not exist. After investigating all 5 skandhas / aggregates – form, feeling, perception, mental formations a...
The ocean of inter-being is our true nature. Can we see a cloud in your cup of tea. Present moment is an open field of benefaction. Our interpersonal and relational field and its correlation with the latest theories of Quantum physics – interactive, dynamic quantum field of probabilities being created and annihilated every moment. Embodying the wonder and joy of Indra’s Web of interconnectedness. How can we enlarge our vision to se...
Will explores our relationship between our problems and our practice, and our attitude to our problems. This teisho draws upon several koan examples that involve problems and our approach to our practice. This includes..The Iron Flute case 33: 'Yueh Shan solves the monk's problem', Blue Cliff Record case 6: 'Every day is a good day', and Case 30 of the Gateless Barrier, Matsu: 'This very mind is Buddha'. This teisho was given by Wi...
This teisho explores how being present in the here and now better enables us to cope and to respond in a world with increasing conflict and increasing ecological collapse, where we can feel like we have less and less control and where there feels like great uncertainty. Will discusses how to live well in today's world by responding from our place of intimacy. This teisho was given by apprentice teacher Will Moon at Autumn 2024...
Suchness is also referred to as Tathagata another name for the Buddha – the one who is thus gone, thus comes, the one who sees reality as-it-really-is. The teachings of suchness are encapsulated in the much-loved succinct Bahiya Sutta. The Sutta instructs us how to practice just seeing, just hearing, just sensing, just cognising, and thus how to realise the end of suffering. This affirms that the Great Way is not difficult it si...
‘The Great Way has no gate” is the beginning of Wu-Men’s verse from his preface to The Gateless Barrier. This talk explores the Preface and the Postscript of Wu-men’s great work. It also raises the deep questions of 'Why am I at sesshin? What is the Barrier for me?' This talk by Jane Andino, roshi, was the first teisho of the Winter Sesshin 2024
‘No-gate is the gate of liberation; no-mind is the mind of the wayfarer’. These are the words of Hsuan-sha, quoted by Wu-men in his postscript to the Wu-Men Kuan. This talk explores the path of the wayfarer, the path of freedom. This talk was given by Jane Andino, roshi on Day 2 of Winter sesshin at the SZC Annandale zendo
In ‘seeing the reflection’ and ‘seeing the portrait’, we find that which we can’t put into words. This teisho looks at Case 98, The Book of Serenity, and also explores the Soto ancestor side of our Zen lineage, Dongshan. This teisho was given by Jane Andino, roshi on day 3 of Winter sesshin 2024 at the Annandale zendo
In Dogen’s ‘Instructions to the Tenzo’, he describes Three Minds, a division which provides a framework for all daily tasks. As well as Joyful Mind, Kind Mind, and Great Mind, we study Dogen’s question ‘What is practice?’. This teisho was given by Jane Andino, roshi on day 4 at Winter sesshin 2024, at the SZC Annandale zendo
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