The OzZen Podcast

Entrustment by

This talk was given during the Autumn 2018 retreat which included Peter Joshu Thompson as a guest teacher. This talk, in contrast to classical Zen teaching, discusses the importance of the inherent value of the personal self and the capacity for intimacy – to awaken the vulnerable open-heart-centred self. It is important that we don’t interpret Buddhist no-self to mean our personal self has no int...

Our practice IS awakening. Awakening to each moment. Hence awakening is endless for as long as we live. Being caught in a emotion-thought reactivity is what constrains us from being awake. When we are awake, we can respond. When we are caught in the dream we react. Practice itself is awakening. We don’t practice to wake up, practice is awakening.

The path of the Bodhisattva is to embrace life. To fully embrace life is to embrace the totality of life just as it is. We don’t get to pick and choose. To fully embrace both the joys and sorrows of life. We can’t have on without the other. To fully embrace life is the taste of nirvana - a life free of emotional reactions – an awakened life. Recorded 07/10/18. If you found Andrew’s talks or medita...

This is a guided meditation on thoughts. Waking up from the dream is never ending. As delusions are inexhaustible, each moment is our opportunity to awake from them. So, don’t be disillusioned by the endless thoughts that arise. This is just the mind doing what minds do. Just let them come and go. And when you do become lost in a thought, notice that as well. And if you can, rest in the space in-b...

This talk reflects on how I position myself (now) as a “Buddhist” and how the Ordinary Mind School fits into Buddhism. Joko never described herself as a secular Buddhist, but she did dispense with several religious aspects of practice such as disrobing. And, although Barry Magid doesn’t describe himself as a secular Buddhist, Barry has dropped non-scientific Buddhist beliefs such as reincarnation...

When we sit together in a group, we all benefit from sharing in our mutual flow of loving energy. This creates a context for deep relaxation and letting go. We discover in our hearts, this here now is the only constant in our lives. This precious moment is who we truly are. If you found Andrew’s talks or meditations helpful, please consider donating to Ordinary Mind Zen Mid North Coast at https://...

Preface by Mumon from Aitken Roshi. Two ways in which the word mind is used: the thinking mind and original mind or ordinary mind unconditioned awareness or just this (suchness). There is no barrier we are already here. The Zen knowing is not conceptual knowing or knowing how to fix something. The great way has no gate A thousand roads enter it There is no path in the sense of getting somewhere. W...

As a child we identify with the image in the mirror and the concept of identity, but we miss the mirror. After many years of conditioning we may become curious about this image and identity. Who are we really? This investigation may make us uncomfortable to begin with, maybe even a little scary. Donald Winnicott came to the conclusion that we all experience two primordial fears: endlessly falling...

This talk introduces the Aboriginal practice of Dadirri. Recognising an indigenous lineage and our indigenous ancestors: “What I want to talk about is another special quality of my people. I believe it is the most important. It is our most unique gift. It is perhaps the greatest gift we can give to our fellow Australians. In our language this quality is called dadirri. It is inner, deep listening...

Part 1. This talk discusses the process of integrating the nondual traditions of Zen and Advaita. We usually start Zen practice with the feeling or belief there is something lacking. But we are already enlightened – so why seek? Why indeed, practice at all? We begin with the path of differentiation, differentiating the universal self from the passing phenomena of the individual self. We then integ...

Part 2. “Neti Neti” – I am not my thoughts, I am not my feelings, I am not my sensations, I am not any particular identity. Awareness has no age or gender – it is like empty space. This process is one of recognition of remembering who we are. The path of love inclusion – where we express or live out our nonduality. The ocean and the waves metaphor. You are that sensation – you are that sound – you...

Emptiness or boundlessness is one way of understanding the teachings of nonduality. All forms are impermanent, they come, and they go, from the source, the formless. The formless is a no-thing. This present moment itself is empty – timeless.

This is a guided meditation on the classic exhortation ‘be here now!” first published as a book title by Ram Das in 1971. The now is not a now in a sequence of other now’s. It’s not a moment in linear time, stretching backwards to the past and forwards to the future. It’s hard to put it into words, but the now is more like the space in which everything appears; or Mind outside of time; timeless or...

Reflections on my teacher, Barry Magid’s teachings. The importance of enjoying practice and adapting practice forms to the limitations of the aging body. Experiencing emotional pain is more important than trying to push through physical pain. The koan “Fireboy seeking fire” is a nice summation of one aspect of Barry’s teaching – dharma is just this – peace and joy OR anxiety and anger!

Atta Dipa Viharatha (Pali) – the Buddha’s parting words are usually translated as “be islands unto yourselves, refuges unto yourselves, seeking no external refuge; with the Dhamma as your island, the Dhamma as your refuge, seeking no other refuge.”. ... but I prefer the metaphor of “light”. Be a light unto yourself - don’t depend on external authorities – verify it for yourself. We cannot see ligh...

This is a guided meditation on the art of “just-sitting”. In just sitting we enter the open awareness of the totality of body sensations, thoughts and the environment. One seamless field of phenomena. Recorded 9/9/18. If you found Andrew’s talks or meditations helpful, please consider donating to Ordinary Mind Zen Mid North Coast at https://www.ordinarymind.com.au/donate

Coming Home by

Inquiry practice has always been part of the classical Zen tradition in the form of Koan practice. There is really only one Koan: Who am I? The rest of the Koans are designed to help us align our everyday lives with this realisation into our True Self.

This is a commentary on the classic 18th century poem “In Praise of Zazen” by the great Zen Master, Hakuin. So, this poem--like all Zen poetry--is inviting us to take the backwards step, to turn inwards, to see how everything we experience is within; that there is no outside. When we practice direct experiencing (non-separation) this very body is experienced as the absolute manifesting as sensatio...

This talk compares and contrasts the teaching of the direct path (as found in Zen and other traditions) and the progressive path as found in both religious mindfulness practice and secular mindfulness. The progressive path is characterised as the realisation of truth through gradual stages culminating in the wisdom that sees the truth of impermanence, suffering and the absence of any substantial s...

This is a guided meditation on the poem The Guest House, a poem by the 13th century Sufi, Rumi. The poem can be used as a guide for meditation. In this poem, Rumi takes quite a familiar metaphor, you find it in various Buddhist stories going back quite a long time before Rumi. You'll find it in the Sufi stories as well, this metaphor of a guest house, or a host, and the notion of visitors or guest...

This meditation guides you into an experience of the body as sensations and perceptions. The body is 99.99% space. My attending carefully to sensations arising within the spaciousness of our awareness we experience liberation from identification with the body as an object. If you found Andrew’s talks or meditations helpful, please consider donating to Ordinary Mind Zen Mid North Coast at https://w...

Bankei, one of my favourite Zen teachers from the 17th seventeenth. Bankei teaches the direct path to enlightenment. Bankei taught a form of Zen that was accessible to people from all walks of life. He spoke of the “unborn” – the treasure that is here all the time – we come home to the unborn – this timeless aware presence that we have always been.

Discussion on the similarities and differences between Advaita and Mahayana Buddhism. Is there one truth or many truths? Emptiness and True Nature? Are they the same or different?