Against the background of these turbulent modern times, this workshop will outline the practice of Zen Buddhism -- a practice which has passed through the crucible of centuries of conflict and upheaval. In particular it will focus on the issue of resistance in our lives and the practice of cultivating the wisdom of insecurity. It will include practical demonstration and experience of Zen meditation as well as other skillful mans that teach us how to embody this natural wisdom.

The first day will involve lectures, discussion and practical demonstration. The second day will be a day of silent meditation practice that will include private interviews with the teacher.

The Japanese Zen Master Hakuin says in his poem, Song of Zazen"lost on dark paths of ignorance, we wander through the six worlds, from dark path to dark path, when shall we be free from birth and death?"The six worlds refer to the Buddhist Wheel of Life - the hell realm, animal realm, hungry ghost realm, human realm, jealous gods realm and heaven realm. They don't refer to places we may go after we die, they refer to the neurotic mind states we wander in and out of in everyday life, and also during meditation.This workshop will give a description of these different states and help participants to personally identify them within themselves and work with them in meditation and every day life.

'SEIZI ALONE AND DESTITUTE'
Wisdom and Compassion Conference - 2001
1 tape

This Zen koan is a cry from the heart of Chinese Zen monk that echoes down the centuries. It addresses a spiritual sickness that is known in Christianity as "the dark night of the soul". This lecture will explore the similarities and differences between this condition of the mind, clinical depression and mid-life crisis.

This workshop will focus on applying Zen practice to everyday contemporary life and will look particularly at working with emotions in meditation practice. The first day will involve lectures, discussion and learning the basics of Zen meditation. The second day will be a full day of meditation conducted in a traditional Zen style.

In affluent hi-tech industrial cultures like our own, we are faced with life problems that bring their own peculiar dissatisfactions and anxieties: loss of identity, low self-esteem, loss of a sense of belonging, family breakdown, less certainty about social roles and ethical codes of behaviour. We also face a vast array of therapies and spiritual practices to choose from to find a solution.

What is essential to Zen practice that stays the same is the practice of living in the present. Not living a life through an intellectual lens or through a narrow identification with 'my' emotions, but experiencing life directly and honestly through moment to moment experience without avoiding or clinging to anything. This is at once simple and yet difficult and requires commitment to practice before the fruits of love, joy and peace emerge.

This workshop explores how Zen practice can be applied to modern times with a particular emphasis on exploring mind/body integration.

Sigmund Freud, the father of psychotherapy, declared that successful living means functioning well in love and work. One hundred years on, bookshops, television and radio programs are now overburdened with various recipes for success in love and work to meet an insatiable public demand. The application of Zen Buddhism to these essential human activities is in many ways radically different to most other approaches. In fact it is not even a recipe. It is the application of wisdom and compassion that arises from No-Mind, or No-Self, which functions vividly when we are no longer entangled in success and failure and no longer measure success in terms of what is in it for me

This Zen koan addresses a problem of all spiritual practice in a humourous way. There is a lot of baggage we often carry with us on the way to enlightenment: complicated theology, rules, categorisations, ritual, heavy earnestness, pride in our spiritual progress, pride even in passing koans.

Zen practice is a matter of work and play. The work of Zen, like all Buddhist practice, is to face square on the fears that run our lives, nothing more, nothing less. This is often a difficult and painful psychological process and because it is hard work we often glimpse and turn away, chasing spiritual fantasies instead. But when we can see the empty nature of our fears life becomes lighter and more playful and we can show clearly why the tail cannot pass through the window.

This workshop examines the issues of narcissism and emotional maturity in Buddhism and Psychotherapy and explores these issues theoretically and experientially.

To master the art of dying then, is to master the art of living, the art of just sitting, just walking, just laughing, just weeping, just resting at the steering wheel until the traffic lights turn green. The practice of zazen (sitting meditation) is a direct way of focusing into the present moment and learning to let go and appreciate the richness and mystery of our everyday lives. Through this constant practice there comes at last the "great death", a realisation that there is no substantial self in the midst of all this coming and going - there is nothing to get hung up about in the first place after all!