This meditation focuses on one of the core teachings of the Ordinary Mind Zen School: that there is nothing that is, or can be, broken with you as a person. Thus, there is nothing to be fixed. Often, and understandably, we get caught in concepts and judgements of good/bad. As an example, when experiencing emotional states that are painful or unpleasant, like anger, sadness, agitation, boredom, we want to say (and society/culture often supports us in doing so) that this is bad, and therefore we need to get rid of it. The opposite is also true: when experiencing pleasant states like joy, happiness, excitement, contentment, we want to say these are good, and we want to hold onto them for as long as possible. This leads us down a slippery slope to viewing ourselves as deficient, needing fixing, and thus unacceptable. This is to do violence against the self. We end this suffering by seeing clearly how we lay the concept of good/bad on top of ourselves, and thus seeing clearly, we free ourselves.

In this guided meditation I explore the heart of the Heart Sutra: Boundlessness. The Heart Sutra is the most important teaching in the Zen Buddhist world. I want to emphasise that this sutra is all about enlightenment as a verb – enlightening. The realisation of emptiness or boundlessness is freeing – it lightens us up and fills us with great joy!

In this talk I am going to discuss the Heart Sutra, the most important teaching in the Zen Buddhist world. I want to emphasise that this sutra is all about enlightenment as a verb – enlightening. The realisation of emptiness or boundlessness is freeing – it lightens us up and fills us with great joy! First, I will once again situate ourselves within Modern Buddhism. I will then give some brief historical and philosophical background to the sutra. Then I will give a line-by-line commentary, which is the body of the talk. Then if I have time, I will discuss differing ways of interpreting or understanding the sutra and how to practice the sutra. My main sources for today’s talk are Dogen, Shohaku Okumura, Jay Garfield and Barry Magid.

This guided mediation explores awareness as a central aspect of both Zen and gestalt therapy. Drawing on Fritz Perls’ concept of the “three zones of awareness,” it leads meditators through different aspects of their awareness, encouraging focus on both the content of awareness (e.g., sensations, sounds), as well as the process of awareness itself.

This talk continues the discussion from last fortnight, about moving from traditional Buddhism, what I called the salvation model, to modern Buddhism, or what I called the human flourishing model. In this talk, I will review, how modern Buddhism is reinterpreting some traditional core Buddhist beliefs. Traditional Buddhism was embedded in Indian philosophy and religion. The salvation model was appropriate for the people living in those times. In the same way that we take it for granted, that the earth revolves around the sun, they would have taken rebirth for granted. It would not have been questioned. The following beliefs from the salvation model are therefore given a new interpretation in the modern Buddhist paradigm, developed for people living in our times. We will be revising the following traditional beliefs:

a. Rebirth and Karma.

b. Anatman and Nirvana (Anatman is the negation of atman which means Self; anatman therefore means No-Self).

c. Attitudes towards Impermanence, Beauty and Sensuality.

Zazen can be considered as the practice of ‘being’. Sitting, doing nothing, we reveal ourselves to ourselves. We reveal the no-separation between us and life itself. We reveal the paradox of constant change. We reveal the impossibility of not being this moment, of not being ourselves. Robert Rosenbaum, in ‘Zen and the Heart of Psychotherapy’ puts it this way: “practicing Zazen we practice just being alive and just dying; these are the basic activities of being human, the rest is superstructure. Discovering that ultimately there is nothing between our selves and our experience”.

The topic for this guided meditation is Embracing your Life: Cultivating Joy. It fits withing the Modern Buddhist Ethical framework of cultivating Happiness in This Life. Its okay to enjoy practice! The introduction discusses The Three Gates of Zen Practice – from a dharma talk by Barry Magid on 04/09/2010. The three gates of Zen practice are suffering, joy and compassion. Last weeks guided meditation was on the gateway of suffering, so today we will be entering the gateway of joy. The guided meditation introduces three practices that help us to cultivate joy: savouring positive experiences; gratefulness for the gift of being alive and the “good” life we are already living; and self-appreciation of positive qualities we can identify in ourselves.

In this talk Andrew locates our on-going discussion about Buddhist ethics in the context of Buddhist modernism in the West. He makes a distinction between the traditional salvation model of Buddhism and contrasts that with the eudaimonic or Human Flourishing model, which he argues is more congruent with our culture in this time and place. Andrew also suggests that Zen Buddhism since its beginnings in China has always been a life affirming, emphasising awakening in this life. There is also a discussion how the four noble truths provide the framework for Buddhist ethics and the importance of how the truths are interpreted. We conclude how Buddhist Ethics is about both personal and social transformation.

This guided mediation focuses on embracing dukkha as part of zen practice. Drawing on the “paradoxical theory of change” from gestalt therapy, it explores how growth, healing, and change are possible not when we try to modify ourselves, but rather when we fully become ourselves and our suffering.

This is the first of a series of Guided Meditations on Buddhist Ethics or the Cultivation of Character. It begins with an introduction to the Four Divine Abodes (Immeasurables): Karuna (care), Mudita (sympathetic joy), Metta (Love) and Upekka (Equanimity) followed by a reading of the Metta Sutta. The guided meditation commences with affectionate breathing moving the classic structure of metta practice.