AZC Weekly talks

Roshi Amala Wrightson on how to work with suffering.

In this talk Roshi explores some highs and lows: Getting stuck in pleasant, "heavenly" states, and mistaking them for awakening -- and the pain of falling back to earth, plus some common misconceptions about spiritual practice.

Sources: Turning Suffering Inside Out -- a Zen approach to living with physical and emotional pain by Darlene Cohen Shambhala 2002

Automated transcript

https://otter.ai/u/LxashxNPdSEiSV_eK_qEdoP-M4E

Roshi Amala Wrightson on how to work with suffering.

In this talk Roshi explores the ever-turning wheel of grasping and aversion, and the nature of dukkha (unsatisfactoriness) in the ups and downs of our everyday lives.

Sources: Turning Suffering Inside Out -- a Zen approach to living with physical and emotional pain by Darlene Cohen Shambhala 2002

Automated transcript

https://otter.ai/u/ezQ7u6x6Gqkzu3WPwbvQWDJZH6g

An exploration of happiness by Roshi Amala Wrightson, touching on some aspects of the psychology of Alfred Adler, who is considered one of the three fathers of depth psychology, along with Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.

Source(s): The Courage to Be Happy: True contentment is within your power, by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga, Allen and Unwin 2016

Automated transcript

https://otter.ai/u/jHe5q-QrDI84neYX5Yb_1Me6GDo

An exploration of happiness by Roshi Amala Wrightson, touching on some aspects of the psychology of Alfred Adler, who is considered one of the three fathers of depth psychology, along with Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.

Source(s): The Courage to Be Happy: True contentment is within your power, by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga, Allen and Unwin 2016

Automated Transcript

https://otter.ai/u/T41TDJKC1vc6kLb8-ts31H2A_1k

A teisho by Roshi Amala Wrightson.

When people hear of the 9th precept, "Not to indulge in anger but to practice forbearance" they often ask, "But what about injustice? There is so much to be angry about." The late Rita Gross, feminist scholar and activist, writes about how her response to injustice became clearer and more skilful after she took up meditation.

Source(s): article "Meditation and Anger" in Being Bodies, Buddhist Women on the paradox of embodiment ed. Lenore Friedman and Susan Moon, Shambhala 1997.

Automated transcript

https://otter.ai/u/SVsLrD96vG_XkBTL2_wmEQyS9Ks

A teisho by Roshi Amala Wrightson.

Comments on an introductory lecture to a group of lay practitioners by Rindo Fujimoto (1894-1974), a Sōtō Zen teacher who trained under Sogaku Harada (Rōshi Kapleau's first main teacher) and Tōin Iida.

Source: The Way of Zazen by Rindo Fujimoto, translated by Tetsuya Inoue and Joshihiku Tanigawa, Cambridge Buddhist Association, 1961.

Automated transcript

https://otter.ai/u/ipz3LtXVUNSyfJ7W_jebPvn9nCU

A teisho by Roshi Amala Wrightson.

Comments on an introductory lecture to a group of lay practitioners by Rindo Fujimoto (1894-1974), a Sōtō Zen teacher who trained under Sogaku Harada (Rōshi Kapleau's first main teacher) and Tōin Iida.

Source: The Way of Zazen by Rindo Fujimoto, translated by Tetsuya Inoue and Joshihiku Tanigawa, Cambridge Buddhist Association, 1961.

Automated transcript

https://otter.ai/u/u7d3txnE38sJIHbv-S9nmWpVVkI

Each year AZC joins the global Earth Day celebrations, often marking the day with a one-day-sit. In this teisho Roshi Amala Wrightson introduces some prompts for sangha discussion of our thoughts and feelings about the state of the Earth in the light of the latest IPCC report, the wars in Ukraine and elsewhere, and other crises. (Discussion not recorded).

Automated transcript

https://otter.ai/u/V3of-qrsUhOCaP09w-AANfe_spk

How Zen masters approach death and how their dying can act as their final teaching. Shortly before his death, Master Mazu (Ma) and his attendant had this famous exchange, recorded in the Blue Cliff Record:

Blue Cliff Record, Case 3

Great Master Ma was unwell. The temple superintendent asked him, “Teacher, how has your venerable health been in recent days?” The Great Master said, “Sun Face Buddha, Moon Face Buddha.”

In this Dharma talk given at the Auckland Zen Centre, Richard von Sturmer explores this exchange and what we can learn from it.

Automated transcript

https://otter.ai/u/dLq33lJrz09DGO_OCI6BP4KCCWc