Castlemaine Zen Podcast

Great Master Ma was unwell. The accountant monk came up to him and asked, “How is your Reverence feeling these days?” The Master responded, “Sun Face Buddha, Moon Face Buddha.” What are these mysterious words pointing to? And how might we realise them in our own lives? This talk was given on the second day of the Great Ocean Sesshin 2025.

We can travel a long way to discover ourselves right where we are. That’s one of the strange realities of Zen practice. The koan Mu, offered to us by Zhaozhou in 8th-9th Century, is an invitation to come home with every step, with every breath. This talk was given on the first day of the Great Ocean Sesshin 2025.

In this talk we take up a story from the Nipata Sutta, which follows a group of monks looking for the perfect place to sit over the summer. Where is the perfect place to sit? And what happens when it turns out to be less perfect than we imagined? Instead of running away from such a place, the buddha says, why not turn towards it? Why not learn to be a good friend, even to those beings you don’t qu...

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...

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.

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.

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?

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.

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 righ...

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? A...

In this talk, we slip into ancient time with the help 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?

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,...

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?

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?

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.

There is a powerful longing to be here, exactly as we are. By stepping into the dojo and settling into zazen we honour this longing. This is studying the self to forget the self and being actualised by the myriad beings. To realise this, we take up the koan “Mu” and step beyond ourselves into not-knowing. This talk was given on the first day of the Castlemaine Zen Winter Sesshin.

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.

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 fragra...

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...

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.

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.

We live n 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...

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”.

In this talk, we take up the koan “Xitang’s More” from the Record of Empty Hall. When the old teacher Xitang asks, “Strive, but for what?” we are invited to consider just why and how we practice in a fractured world. In response to Xitang’s question, a monk steps forward and places both hands on the earth, saying “We save each other.” What does it mean to save? What does it mean to be saved? And h...

On the occasion of our Castlemaine Zen Sangha Transmission Ceremony for Kynan Sutherland, Susan Murphy Roshi gave this Teisho on zazen, practice and the importance of sangha in our troubled world.