In this talk we take up the sutra “Liberation Within Obstruction” and explore the words “I choose”. What does it mean to choose this moment, whatever it is? Is “I choose” a passive act, or a radically creative one? And what does this practice teach us about navigating even the most perilous moments of our lives? This talk was given as part of Zen Open Circle’s “Taking Part on the Gathering”, Term 1, 2025.
Read morePlayfulness
In this talk offered to the Contemplative Studies Centre at The University of Melbourne we explore the vitality of playfulness with the help of Keizan, Ryokan and Petrus Spronk.
Read moreRed Earth Zen
In this talk offered to the Contemplative Studies Centre at The University of Melbourne we explore the affinities between Zen and Indigenous Australian forms of wisdom.
Read moreMe and You
We’re living in a time of great change. So much of what we’ve taken for granted has been rattled, both nationally and internationally. So what does this moment want us to see? What does it want us to realise? And what can sangha teach us about what is most important?
Read moreZen Fundamentals
In this talk offered to the Contemplative Studies Centre at The University of Melbourne we explore the fundamentals of Zen, beginning with Nanquan’s “Ordinary Mind is the Way.” We then examine how “Ordinary Mind” illuminates our daily lives with an emphasis on care and attendance to the sufferings of others.
Read moreBlack Lacquer Buckets
Zen is a steady, patient practice that does not seek to attain anything. It can sometimes feel like nothing is happening, but as the nun Chiyono realised when she was walking with a water bucket, sometimes the bottom can fall out to reveal a gleaming truth that was right before our eyes all along. In this talk we meet some of the great women of our tradition to discover what it’s like to fall right past ourselves into the Way.
The Dragon King's Daughter
In this talk, we darken our minds to see the stars, asking if it’s possible to see in dark times. We also pay homage to our own self nature, which, like a dragon, is ready to soar and rest with circumstances, no matter what they are. “The Dragon King’s Daughter paid her personal homage to the buddha from her heart. It was a completely natural act,” said Zhaozhou. So what was her personal homage? And how might this reveal our own capacity for revealing our own buddha nature? Let’s jump on the dragon and find out.
Read moreManjusri and the Young Woman in Samadhi
In this talk, we slip into ancient time with a story of buddhas, bodhisattvas and a mysterious young woman in deepest samadhi. Who are these characters? And what does their mysterious story reveal about our practice both on and off the cushion?
Read moreFoxes, Wolves and Jackals
How does the "ordinary mind" of Zen meditation relate to our churning world of wars, rising autocracies and environmental catastrophe? When Zhaozhou was asked, “What is ordinary mind?” he responded, “Foxes, wolves and jackals.” Is this acquiescence to greed, hatred and ignorance? Or something far more insightful and challenging?
Let’s take a look. There are foxes, wolves and jackals in this life, to be sure. But what is their true nature? And if foxes, wolves and jackals are seen right through, might they enlarge our sense of what it is to be human, rather than diminish it?
Read moreNanquan's Flower Plant
As spring flowers begin to bloom around town, we gather with the old teacher Nanquan to look at a flower plant in the front garden. “People of the present day see this one flower plant as though they were in a dream,” he sighs. So what kind of a dream is this? And how might we wake up from the small dream of alienation into the great dream of seamless belonging?
Compassion
In this talk we meet Guanyin, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. She is often depicted with many hands and eyes, ready to respond to the sufferings of the world. How does she use these many hands and eyes? What does her compassion look like in a world as violated and deranged as ours? And how might we embody the care of Kuanyin, not in an effort to be good, but as an ongoing expression of wholeness?
Read moreThe Leisurely One
The Shodoka (Song of the True Way) opens with an image of the Leisurely One. Who is this Leisurely One? Have you met them? And how might you embody the Leisurely One, even in old age, sickness and death? This talk was given on day two of the Castlemaine Zen Winter Sesshin.
Read moreMu
There is a powerful longing to be here completely. When we step into the dojo and settle into zazen we honour this longing. In Zen, we study the self to forget the self to be actualised by the myriad beings. The most time-tested way of realising this matter is with the koan “Mu.”
Read moreWavering
We often think of spiritual equanimity as a static, unwavering state. But what if the true nature of equanimity is wavering itself? In this talk we explore the dynamic of moving with circumstances, toggling between mistakes and miracles, with a compassionate eye to being truly awake and truly human.
Read moreJinniu’s Rice Bucket
In the Blue Cliff Record we meet a mysterious teacher called Jinniu, who each day served rice to his students with a little dance and the words, “Little bodhisattvas! Little bodhisattvas! Come and eat your rice!” What was he doing? And why did Changqing, in response to a monk’s question, say, “That was a kind of grace before the meal”? Join us for an exploration of how to we might share the fragrance of our life with others.
Read moreRipeness
In this talk we take up a poem by Jane Hirshfield called “Ripeness” and ask how ripeness, ease, harvest and the clean knife might relate to one another. Are these different things or not, and how might they open the way for each other? We look at how the sharpest moments of our lives cut us into what is most spacious and unbounded, and examine Shatideva’s invitation to “Let all sorrows ripen in me.”
Buddha World, Demon World
Throughout this year we have been exploring the koan, “Without leaving the Buddha World, Walk in the Demon world.” But how do we do this? And where is the line between these worlds? We explore all this with the help of some pesky Japanese demons and an exacting pitchfork held by Master Mimoyan.
Open Response
In Torei Zenji’s Bodhisattva Vow he calls for an “open response” to challenging situations. What is an open response? And how might it help us to navigate the challenges of our time with something like equanimity and skilfulness? Let’s fall down the embankment of each other and find out.
Love, and be Silent
We live in a torn and divided world, so it is impossible not to ask, “What should a Zen student do?” In Shakespeare’s King Lear Cordelia asks herself a similar question in the face of a great crisis: “What should Cordelia do?” Her answer comes as swiftly as a natural event: “Love, and be silent.” So what is love? What is silence? And how might these two illuminate each other and express themselves clearly?
Practicing in the Forest
In this talk, offered at the conclusion of an extensive summer period of online practice, we explore the (possibly apocryphal) origin story of the metta sutta (The Buddha’s Words of Loving Kindness) and examine what it’s like to take up the koan, “You are welcome here”.