AZC Weekly talks

In this teisho Roshi Amala Wrightson explores Buddhist approaches to anxiety and panic. Cutting through our deepest attachments and directly experiencing our inter-being with all phenomena is an antidote to our fears.

Sources: Light Comes Through by Dzigar Kongtrul, Shambhala 2008

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In this teisho Roshi Amala Wrightson explores anxiety and panic.

What about Greta Thunberg's "I want you to panic"? Is there anything beneficial about panic? What are the roots of fear, anxiety and panic?

Sources: Light Comes Through by Dzigar Kongtrul, Shambhala 2008; Pan and the Nightmare by James Hillman and Wilhelm Roscher, Spring 2007

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In this teisho Roshi Amala Wrightson explores four constructive ways of working with panic attacks and acute anxiety so as to avoid falling further into the "fear-adrenalin-fear" vicious cycle.

Sources: How I stopped my panic attacks by Yongey Mingyur Rimpoche in Lion's Roar January 28, 2022 and "I'm extremely controversial": The psychologist rethinking human emotion, by David Shariatmadari in The Guardian September 25, 2020. (The psychologist is Lisa Feldman Barrett.)

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Ceremony of Aid for Ukraine, conducted at the Auckland Zen Centre by Roshi Amala Wrightson.

Roshi Amala Wrightson shares some thoughts on practising with Parkinson's Disease, a neuro-degenerative disorder, and not getting caught up in our notions of "wellness", which always come with "illness"attached.

Text(s): article "The only way I know of alleviating suffering" by Darlene Cohen, in Being Bodies eds Lenore Friedman and Susan Moon 1997.

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In this teisho Roshi takes up a koan from The Blue Cliff Record: "Everyone has their own light" (Hekiganroku # 86). Here is the case: Ummon said, "Everybody has their own light. Though when you try to see it, you cannot, everything is darkness. What is everybody's light?" Later he answered himself saying, "The temple storeroom, the tower gateway". He also said, "A precious thing isn't as good as nothing".

Ummon presents our human predicament: We each have our own light but when we try to see it everything is dark. What is this light, and what is the darkness? How do we find our way?

Source(s): The Golden Age of Zen by John C.H Wu

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The last of seven talks given by Roshi Amala Wrightson at the 2022 Auckland Zen Centre summer sesshin.

In this teisho Roshi takes up a koan from The Blue Cliff Record: "The Hands and Eyes of the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion" (Hekiganroku # 89).

How do we act with wisdom and compassion? Is it possible to grasp the truth 100 per cent?

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The sixth of seven talks given by Roshi Amala Wrightson at the 2022 Auckland Zen Centre summer sesshin.

In this teisho Roshi takes up a koan from The Gateless Gate (Mumonkan # 23).

Myo, an ex-general, is stopped in his tracks by the 6th Ancestor, Huineng. What does he realise?

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The fifth of seven talks given by Roshi Amala Wrightson at the 2022 Auckland Zen Centre summer sesshin.

The inner critic and its disappearance in the face of unconditional love.

Sources: Zen Bow article by Wes Borden, Summer 2018 and The Five Invitations by Frank Ostaseski

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The third in a series of seven talks given by Roshi Amala Wrightson during the 2022 Auckland Zen Centre summer sesshin.

Karma is not a predetermined mold, "rather, by virtue of one's own efforts, it is possible to move, even just a step, closer to one's aim."

Sources: Awaken to the True Self: https://www.rzc.org/news/awaken-to-the-true-self/

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