The OzZen Podcast

Ordinary mind is the way. How do we understand effort within the context of a just sitting practice which emphasises no goal and no-gain.

This talk is a commentary on the talk given by Joko Beck, published in her first book.

In our Zen practice, we move from a life of upset and drama to a life of clarity and equanimity (most of the time). To do this we need to be at ease with who and what we are.

In our Zen practice, we move from a life of upset and drama to a life of clarity and equanimity (most of the time). To do this we need to be at ease with who and what we are.

This talk focuses on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs within the context of our study of the precepts, doing no harm to self and appreciating the preciousness of life. Mindfulness asks what am I experiencing right now and self-compassion asks what do I need right now?

In Buddhism, there is a ceremony called “Jukai” which means receiving the precepts – where one takes up a public commitment to living our life by the precepts.

How we practice with the precepts. Discussion of Joko’s Beck emphasis on the importance of “experiencing” and “observation” and “labelling”. A Self-compassion approach to the precepts also includes considering our own needs as well as the needs of others.

Clarifying this great matter of life and death. Who dies?

Introduction to the precepts in Zen Buddhism. Dogen’s understanding of the precepts as expressions of our True Nature or Universal Self. In this talk I discuss how precept practice can be understood as the practice of self-compassion.

How to live a life of purpose and meaning? How to become an oasis of sanity and compassion in a crazy and often violent world? A Zen commentary on the myth of Sisyphus.

How to live a life of purpose and meaning? How to become an oasis of sanity and compassion in a crazy and often violent world? A Zen commentary on the myth of Sisyphus.

Ordinary doesn’t mean our normal, delusionary mind, neither does it exclude our normal, delusionary mind.

Begins with a discussion of the uncertainty that is inherent to life. What’s the only thing we can depend upon? Zazen can be seen as a alchemical container transforming our delusions into gold, or our suffering into compassion.

“To carry the self forward and illuminate myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forward and illuminate the self is awakening.” This talk is a commentary on these two lines from Dogen’s Genjokoan.

In zazen, we investigate both the nature of reality and the nature of suffering. However, our investigation is not a thinking activity. We investigate through our awareness of awareness and our ability to be just awareness.

Explores a Zen perspective on domestic violence.

This talk focuses on compassion to others by starting to pay attention to the numerous ways in which we are constantly judging others. Noticing how judgment creates a sense of separation between a “self” and an “other”.

Dukkha can be understood as the suffering that arises when we identify with the self-centred dream and separate ourselves from Reality. When surrender to the Reality of this moment the resistance is let go off and the unnecessary suffering falls away leaving us with the reality of just this moment.

Continues the exploration of the self-centred self and how we make that subtle shift to realising the reality of no-self.

Gives some biographical background to Hakuin and then gives a commentary on his poem about Zazen.

This is a reading of a short story that I wrote to present a metaphor of Zen practice within a unique Australian setting.

The practice of awakening from the illusion of the self-centred self can be described as a gradual process of “decentering”. The self-centred self holds memories of developmental trauma leading to feelings of shame and low self-worth or these memoires are dissociated from consciousness. The ego self is also part of the protective system which seeks to control the environment to ensure that we don’...

Continues to explore the concept of the multiple self as the normal state of self and identification. This helps to explain how continuity of identity is maintained while at the same time we move through different self-states – therefore this capacity enables us to change and stay the same at the same time.

I have always found Joko Beck’s distinction between Necessary and Unnecessary suffering as very helpful. This insight or discernment between these two allows us to suffer intelligently. Accepting pain or change without resistance is a form of intelligent suffering.

This talk explores attachment to the self, or self-clinging. It makes sense to think of the self as a verb rather than a noun. The process of becoming attached is what selves do. This is what I call “selfing”. This talk explores how selfing can be beneficial and how it can be harmful.