The OzZen Podcast

In this talk I am going to share some self-reflections on the metaphor of awakening from the self-centred dream. Self-reflection means I simply ask myself a question to investigate and reflect upon my own experience. I am not suggesting that the understanding that I develop is necessarily the same as what you would come up with. But if we all participate in self-reflection we can then engage in di...

This talk is about working with Right Effort in everyday life and noticing the tendency to want to control and force outcomes. Seeing how this strategy of our core beliefs to control life, is a form of clinging and creates resistance and suffering. We explore the possibility of moving towards flow states where we pause and check in with our inner wisdom and trust and not take everything so persona...

On receiving transmission of the precepts in the denkai ceremony, it is customary in our tradition, that the recipient gives a dharma talk acknowledging their teachers and the teaching path they feel called towards.

On receiving transmission of the precepts in the denkai ceremony, it is customary in our tradition, that the recipient gives a dharma talk acknowledging their teachers and the teaching path they feel called towards.

This dharma talk reflects on the meaning of denkai transmission as a deep commitment to receive, embody, and pass on the Zen precepts within sangha life. It explores transmission not simply as ceremonial authority, but as the living expression of compassion, responsibility, and relationship in everyday life, while honouring both continuity with tradition and the unique ways each practitioner expre...

This dharma talk explores how the Zen teaching of “not two, not one” offers a middle way for relationships by holding together intimacy and difference, love and fear, and oneness and individuality. It suggests that spiritual practice and honest relationship both invite us to become intimate with the protective patterns that arise from fear, while trusting that love, grounded in safety, awareness,...

This talk explores how Zen practice is supported by a felt sense of safety in three interconnected ways: having a secure home or practice environment, learning to feel safe within one’s own body and mind, and co-creating a trustworthy relational community. Drawing on attachment theory and polyvagal theory, it suggests that spiritual practice is not separate from our human vulnerability, but depend...

This nondual wisdom is the realisation that this is it. To me this is the meaning of realisation, awakening and enlightenment. To be enlightened is to love what is unconditionally. To say yes to everything. It’s all okay. But as human beings we struggle to say yes to everything. And this is it too!

I take refuge in Buddha. I take refuge in Dharma. I take refuge in Sangha. In this talk invite you all to contemplate what the three Buddhist refuges mean to you on a personal level. To do this, I present three different perspectives on how the refuges (and the other precepts) have been understood from the Zen Buddhist tradition I belong to: 1. The Literal Perspective. 2. The Relative or Relationa...

In this talk, we explore dependent arising: our deep interconnections in time and space with all existence. Deeply realising this, brings us to see the emptiness of self and to lose our fear of loss and even death. We look at engaged Buddhism and through poetic verse practice kinship and kindness in a novel way.

In this dharma talk Sono explores the question, what does practice mean to you? He begins by discussing his own understanding of what practice is and is not. Sono then asks the question, is it possible to evaluate our progress in zen practice. He concludes that key indicators of progress from the perspective of Ordinary Mind Zen are not special mystical experience but rather a gradual , subtle shi...

I have become more aware of the presence of anxiety in my life over the past six months. Perhaps triggered by my health (heart); my precarious financial situation; anxiety about my performance as a psychotherapist or zen teacher; my anxiety about old age; and the world situation (wars; climate change; cost of living). I have also noticed how my practice has been helping me manage my anxiety. So to...

In exploring the Koan : Zen master Jui Yen talks to himself, we came to see the mundane and the supramundane in our lives and the importance of right view. Who are the others we need to not be deceived by? Questions and answers lead us into deep insights. ‘Know yourself, notice your feelings’ speaks to our need to recognise, allow and investigate our feelings as a means to nurturing oneself. Then...

“Each moment, as it is, is complete and full in itself. Seeing this no matter what arises in each moment, we can let it be.” – Joko Beck. In this guided meditation, Sono invites us to trust our body and our breath to allow each moment to be exactly as it is.

When Joko Beck broke away from the White Plum Asanga to form her own sangha which she named the Ordinary Mind Zen School, she also stopped wearing a robe and also dropped the Koan curriculum and the Jukai ceremony. Barry Magid reintroduced the Jukai ceremony (minus the Buddhist names) and also reintroduced the study of koans. Barry reintroduced the study of koans in the spirit of Soto Zen – using...

A hospice nurse discusses some Zen practices and perspectives around death and asks – Can we get used to the idea of dying?

Zen practice is premised on the identity of the Absolute and the Relative. They are both the same and different. Which is why in Zen we say, “not one, not two”! The Absolute is expressed in our Practice Principles as being just this moment – and the identity of the Absolute with the Relative is expressed as Compassion’s Way. If we see that our home is just this moment, then there is nothing else w...

Meditation: I – Here – Now, by Elisabeth Barrett by

Genjokoan, by Larry Kodo Hancock by

'Enlightenment,' says Joko Beck 'is the ability to give totally in every moment. In this guided meditation we explore what it is to give and what it feels like to give and to receive. We also investigate gratitude, forgiveness and what we may be avoiding right now, what we are not giving attention to. As we give, our hearts open, and we begin to see that giving feels good and can be a path, a way...

We often view life as a problem to be solved – we are either living a successful life, a good life, or we feel we are a failure at living. We might try one self-improvement project after another, and they can work for a certain period of time. But in the end, we cannot escape the inevitable – impermanence and interdependence. Impermanence and interdependence are experienced often as suffering – an...

In this guided meditation we explore the distinction between awareness and mindfulness – with awareness being described as effortless presence and mindfulness being described as remembering to be aware of a particular object or to be aware of awareness itself (objectless meditation).

In this dharma talk OzZEN Facilitator Phil Genkai explores consciousness through the lens of the Buddhist teaching of the five aggregates of no-self and through the lens of contemporary scientific theories. The talk concludes with a discussion about the practical implications of these teachings.

In this guided meditation Sono recites Torei Zenji’s Bodhisattvas’ Vow to open the heart to practice loving kindness towards those who have hurt us or done us harm.

Make room for space. Todays guided meditation is about making space in our life for life. We all know what a cluttered house feels like. Stressful, busy. noisy. Everything seems to be calling for our attention. Have you too much stuff in your inner world? Is your life too busy? It’s not about what you feel cluttered by, it’s about what you value deeply and what serves a useful purpose. What brings...