Sydney Zen Centre

Facing the wall

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 Rohatsu sesshin 2023
 
 
 
 

The Heart Sutra

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 and consciousness we find them empty of a permanent, enduring, separate, self. Yet this emptiness is full of life overflowing with inter-being, the birds, trees, sky, forest and all beings inter-are woven into a seamless totality.This teisho was given by Subhana Barzaghi, roshi at 2024 Autumn sesshin at Kodoji
 
 
 

The ocean of inter-being

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 see our shared world more spaciously and more compassionately.This teisho was given by Subhana Barzaghi, roshi at 2024 Autumn sesshin at Kodoji

Having problems

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 Will Moon, apprentice SZC teacher, at Autumn sesshin 2024 at Kodoji.

Losing control

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 sesshin at Kodoji
 
 
 
 

The suchness of things

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 simply avoids picking and choosing.This teisho was given by Subhana Barzaghi, roshi at 2024 Autumn sesshin at Kodoji
 
 
 

No gate

‘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

The Wayfarer

‘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
 
 
 
 
 

Intimate with it

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

Three minds of the kitchen

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