Sydney Zen Centre

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...

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...