The title of today’s contemplation “our original face is always changing” comes from the story of the sixth ancestor, Eno, retold in case 23 of The Gateless Barrier collection of koans: “Don’t think good, don’t think evil. At this very moment, what is the original face of Ming the head monk?”“What is your original face before your parents were born…

Yogacara part four by Andrew TootellOleh Andrew Tootell

This guided meditation explores our personal relationship with mistakes. Mistakes are a fertile ground for learning. Dogen says ‘Life is one continuous mistake.’ Changing our attitude to our mistakes can change our life. Mistakes are exactly the path.Oleh Andrew Tootell

In this guided meditation we explore what is it to do zen practice together and to wake up together. in supporting each others practice, we support our own; in practicing together we discover our uniqueness within the simultaneous discovery of how important we are to each other.Oleh Andrew Tootell

Denkai Talk: New York, Nov 15 2014 by Andrew TootellOleh Andrew Tootell

In this lecture/discussion, Sono gives some background detail on the “three turnings of the wheel”, culminating in Yogacara. He also comments on the meaning of three natures and compares it with western phenomenology.Oleh Andrew Tootell

This morning, we will be contemplating our finitude and how by facing and embracing our finitude, we can learn to live a life full of appreciation and meaning.Oleh Andrew Tootell

Nonkilling: Life is nonkilling. The seed of buddha grows continuously.Maintain the wisdom-life of buddha and do not kill life – Dogen ZenjiAppreciate your life – Maezumi RoshiOleh Andrew Tootell

In this lecture today, we will first review the discussion about the “three natures” that I introduced last month from the work of the Yogacara philosopher, Vasubandhu. Then we will begin to discuss a contemporary philosophical school called Phenomenology and its similarities to Yogacara. We will then finish today’s lecture by reading and discussin…

Shinsho directs us home in this beautifully crafted guided meditation: A magnificent round full moon is rising before you and the path ahead is well lit.You have arrived home.‘Walk as if you are kissing the earth with your feet’ says Thich.We have caused a lot of damage to the earth. Now is time to walk home with love. It is only possible if we do …

THE CASE: The priest Jui-yen called “Master!” to himself every day and answered himself “Yes!” Then he would say “Be aware!” and reply “Yes!” “Don’t be deceived by others!” “No, no!”" (from "The Gateless Barrier: The Wu-Men Kuan (Mumonkan)" by Robert Aitken) This is good practice for everyday life. He is basically calling out the name Master! And t…

In this lecture we sample the Yogacara teachings of Vasubandhu called the Treatise on the Three Natures, which form the philosophical backbone of Yogacara. So, what are the three natures? They are three interrelated aspects of our experience: the imaginary, dependent and complete or realised nature. In a nutshell they are:The imaginary nature of th…

Leave Everything Alone is a guided meditation on our core practice – the simple art of “just sitting”. I will leave lots of space and silence in-between my words. Just-sitting is the practice of non-doing – Wu Wei in Chinese. Effortless. No need to cultivate. If you are efforting you are straying away from the way. It is simply surrendering to the …

This is the first of a series of talks on precept practice given by OzZen teachers and facilitators. This talk focuses on how to practice a nondual psychologically minded approach to the precepts influenced by the teaching of Bernie Glassman, Nancy Mujo Baker and Barry Magid.Oleh Andrew Tootell

In this sixth episode in the series Indian Buddhist Philosophy: Progressive Stages of Insight into Emptiness, Sono discusses the Two Truths of Nagarjuna, the important insight into the “emptiness” of emptiness and how these philosophical insights shape how we practice.Oleh Andrew Tootell

Meditation: A Still Forest Pool, by Shinsho by Andrew TootellOleh Andrew Tootell

Zen Buddhism can be understood as a form of performance art.In this recording, Sono performs the song by the 17th century monk Hakuin, called “Song of Zazen”.Oleh Andrew Tootell

How does our practice help with this work?When we come from love rather than anger and fear, without creating enemies, we avoid anxiety and burnout. We can rely on our zazen practice to step back and see clearly with a compassionate lens. Together with the fundamental truths of Buddhism, this allows us then to step up and into wise action as is req…

In this talk I discuss socially engaged Buddhism and how the paths of personal and social transformation are interdependent.As David Loy states: ‘Engagement in the world is how our individual awakening blossoms, and how contemplative practices such as meditation ground our activism, transforming it into a spiritual path”.…

In this meditation we contemplate the question: Why do you sit?Like a Koan there is no right answer. Are we “Performing our vows”?“Renewing our commitment”? “Embodying the practice principles?” What kind of engagement with life is Zazen? The practice of nonseparation?The practice of leaving everything alone? Nonthinking is a kind of letting be – le…

In this lecture/discussion, Sono explains the concept of dependent arising in Buddhism, emphasizing that things only exist conventionally and do not have inherent existence. This idea, also known as emptiness, was clarified as the absence of something rather than the presence of something else. Sono further discussed how this concept relates to the…

In our Indian Buddhist Philosophy course, we have been discussing various ways of understanding the Buddhist concept of anatman, “no-self” using philosophical analysis. According to this analysis emptiness is defined as the lack of an inherent, independently existing permanent self. Even though we may understand intellectually that the self does no…

From the Buddhist perspective, the understanding and realisation of emptiness is the key to liberation from suffering – because the roots of suffering stem from primordial confusion as to the nature of reality – to be free from suffering we need to eliminate ignorance – to eliminate ignorance is to understand emptiness – hence the realisation of em…

The divine abodes are loving kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. These are both fruits of a practice of meditation and can be doorways to the deepening of that practice. In this guided meditation we explore the connection between romantic love and loving kindness. Romantic love hints at the universal love we can experience and embody whether …

This talk explores the benefits of these often tricky challenges and what Buddhism and relational science offer us in dealing with them. Idealised or romantic love is dualistic and relates to the other, Harmonic love relates with the other. Rather than being in love, we become love.Oleh Andrew Tootell

This session focuses on the meaning of Emptiness in the Pali Buddhist sutras and the Abhidharma philosophy school.Oleh Andrew Tootell

Opening To Love, by Jack Wicks by Andrew TootellOleh Andrew Tootell

Awakened awareness is not about special experiences – it is about recognising the simplest form of conscious experience that is available to everyone. Joko called it “Simple Mind”, Shunryu Suzuki called it “Beginners Mind” or we could simply call it awareness of awareness or “Pure Awareness”.We could say that the purpose of meditation, both silent …

This guided meditation offers a chance to gain clarity around our thoughts and emotions. Taking a few deep breaths, we can name our experiences. Then we gain an opportunity to fully experience them without being overwhelmed by them. We can then move on the investigate them if it feels safe to do so. Remembering to nurture ourselves by coming back t…

This session gives an introduction to the Buddha’s first discourse on Turning the Wheel of the Dharma. In this discussion we focus on the four truths or practices.Oleh Andrew Tootell

Sono asked me to talk on Gurdjieff and the zen Buddhist precepts. Gurdjieff didn’t teach on things like the precepts e.g. do not kill, do not steal, do not lie, do not gossip etc. His teaching is about becoming conscious as opposed to the awake-sleep state in which we live almost all the time. Consciousness will, by its very nature include all the …

In this guided meditation Sono introduces three types of Zazen:Mindfulness of a mental object;Mindfulness of the field of all objects; andJust-SittingOleh Andrew Tootell

This session gives an introduction to why it is important to study philosophy and an overview of the course.Oleh Andrew Tootell

In this talk I reflect on the “Voice from the Heart”, why the referendum lost and what has to happen next. It provides a brief historical background to the Voice and it includes some reflections on the One and the Many from a Zen perspective and applies the concept of “spiritual bypassing” at the collective level when a nation denies the truth of i…

Our original nature can be described as Awareness or Heart-Mind. This Awareness that we are, which ultimately constitutes our original nature, has a number of essential qualities. As an introduction to this guided meditation, I discuss the four faces of Universal Love. In Buddhism they are called the Four Brahma Viharas (divine dwellings): In the l…

This talk guides us through a journey of embodying the connections we have with our place here …the earth, the elements, and the beings we share life energy with. Exploring the fundamental Buddhist truths that everything is connected and everything is impermanent. Being present with the emotions that arise and coming to the spaciousness that allows…

This meditation guides you from the experience of your breath to some old zen parables. The first story is a re-telling of “A Parable” from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki. Two koans are featured, both are from The Gateless Gate by Koun Yamada. These are, Case 30 “Mind is Buddha”, and Case 36 “Meeting a Man Who Has Accomplished…

This guided meditation was taught by Gurdjieff to his students. Through each round of body sensing we are guided into self-remembering – the “I am” of awareness.Oleh Andrew Tootell

This guided meditation is all about finding or recognising and then stabilising in your essential nature, your inner “treasury”. I have titled the meditation “Appreciate this Life” after the book by the same title by Maezumi Roshi. Even though we cannot “see” our essential nature we can simply be, knowingly, our essential nature. We need to recogni…

Joshu(Peter Thompson) founder of the Wombat Sangha in Sydney gives a introduction to the importance of Yoga Nidra practice and how it complements our Zen practice.Oleh Andrew Tootell

ZAZEN YOGA NIDRAThis guided meditation integrates zazen and yoga nidra. Both zazen and yoga nidra are gateways into the subjective sense of the body and ultimately the realisation of self as nondual awareness.Oleh Andrew Tootell

Joshu (Peter Thompson) is a founding member of the Sydney Zen Centre and a founder of the Wombat Sangha based in Sydney. In this talk Joshu develops a founding narrative for contemporary Zen practice based upon Evolution. Joshu says, “An important part of the story and mystery of our evolution and being here is the existential reality of alienation…

This talk is continuing our conversation about nonduality. One of the core dualities we are trained into is subject and object duality. The theme of this talk – recognising our essential self as awareness – and some of the experiential exercises are taken from a book called “Standing as Awareness” by the nondual philosopher Greg Goode. Last month I…

This guided meditation leads us into the non-duality of Simply Being through the gateless gate of silence.Oleh Andrew Tootell

This talk, based on an old koan, continues our exploration of psychological or mind-generated suffering and the ending of this suffering through seeing how psychological suffering is always synonymous with getting caught in conventional duality of “me” and “not me” and not seeing from the alternative perspective of unbounded awareness.Here is the o…

This talk continues with the theme suffering and the ending of suffering. It introduces two complementary practices for ending suffering: self-inquiry and nonseparation.Oleh Andrew Tootell

In our OzZen sangha, when receiving the precepts, recipients also give a Jukai talk, reflecting on their experience of studying the precepts in the monthly study group over the past year. Recipients are encouraged to personalise their experiences.Oleh Andrew Tootell

Tonight, we will discuss the practice of “taking refuge” as it relates to the question of suffering and the ending of suffering. During discussion I want us to clarify the difference between psychological suffering and what we might describe as our natural emotional responses that arise from being creatures who become attached to each other. I don’…

How do we find constancy amid constant change? When we let go of attachment to form: attachment and aversion, we find our freedom in the formless field of benefaction.Oleh Andrew Tootell

If we are attached to form: body, feelings, perceptions, personality, as night follows day, we are going to suffer. Liberation from suffering is found through the gateway into the formless.Oleh Andrew Tootell