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May
Schedule
Sunday 3rd
Online dokusan, ZGWA Council Meeting, Sit on Country
Thursday 7th
Zazen (Training in Compassion)
Thursday 14th
Zazen
Sunday 17th
Walking Meditation
Tuesday 19th
Telephone Dokusan
Thursday 21st
Zazen
Thursday 28th
Zazen
Dojo Schedule
We sit Thursday evenings at St Paul's Hall 6:30pm - 8:30pm. If you are new please come at 6:00pm for an orientation.
Telephone Dokusan
Mari Rhydwen Roshi will be offering telephone dokusan from 4.00pm-6.00pm on Tuesday, 19th of May. Please click here to register. Registrations close by 5.00pm Sunday, 17th May.
Zazen and Training in Compassion
On Thursday the 7th of May, Nicholas Arnold will lead us discussion in the wonderful ongoing series "Training in Compassion". We are working through the book "Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong" by Norman Fischer. We are up to Slogan 26 "Don't figure others out" (just click this link to see the excerpt). So please read the slogan and come prepared for the evening discussion.
Sit On Country
Our monthly 'Sit on Country' will be on Sunday, 3rd of May at Kaarta Gar-up (Kings Park) (click here for a map locating where we sit). We will gather at 9.15am for a 9.30am start beneath the Marri trees to the south-west of the war memorial. We will finish by 10.30 am, but feel free to bring along a drink and a snack to enjoy socialising in the shade of the trees afterwards.
Membership and Donations
Support the ZGWA through membership and donation Membership helps towards the support of our practice and the financial viability of ZGWA. If you would like to support ZGWA and become a new member, you can download a membership form by clicking here. Please email the completed form to info@zgwa.org.au. If you would like to support ZGWA by making a donation to The Zen Group of Western Australia, please click here.
Walking Meditation
Come along to a wonderful period of walking meditation along the coastal paths and the coast on Perth's northern beaches. Mark will lead a walking meditation at Whitford Nodes Park on Sunday 17th May, from 8.00am to 9.30am. Click here for a map of our meeting place in the northern carpark. If you are game you can have a swim afterwards.
Zazen
Our normal weekly sitting consists of four periods of Zazen finishing with chanting and dedications.
Zen Library Link
One of the benefits of being a paid up ZGWA member is that you get free access to the ZGWA library which has over 600 volumes in its collection. If you would like to access the catalogue you can do so here.
Wonderful news!
Wonderful news that our senior teacher Mari Rhydwen Roshi is feeling well enough to resume her normal monthly schedule of teaching opportunities for the ZGWA. As many of you know, Roshi Mari was very daring to come across and teach the recent Djeran sesshin at Mt Helena. Although still recovering from her injury, Roshi has now moved back into her home in Sydney and from there can now organize time and space for the regular programme of Zazenkais and online and telephone dokusan. Welcome back Roshi Mari!
Djeran Sesshin
Our Djeran Sesshin was held from April 10th-15th in the beautiful bush of Mt Helena and it was an amazing and very successful event for the whole Sangha. Mari Rhydwen Roshi bravely made her way across the continent to come and be with us and share her powerful teaching. Recordings of her teishos will be made available on the ZGWA website on the "Talks" page (here's the link). Every sesshin is unique and special in its own way, and this one was no exception! A profound meeting of the ordinary and the everyday!
Wobbly Pot Submission Deadline Extended to Wednesday May 20th
The submission deadline for contributions to the next issue of the Wobbly Pot has been extended to Wednesday, May 20th. Please consider contributing to this issue of our wonderful Sangha magazine. We are all beginners on this journey, so don’t hesitate to share your words, poems, drawings, quotes, stories, it’s all appreciated and supports each of us.
Our theme is "Cooking Your Life". In 2025 Mari Rhydwen Roshi led us in a retreat that took this practice of "cooking (refining) our life" as its guiding theme. This theme derives from Dogen’s Tenzo Kyōkun (Instructions to the Tenzo (Cook)) and related commentaries. The theme calls us to explore how we might integrate practice more intensively and intimately into our everyday lives. "Cooking your life", inspired by Dogen's writings, is about how to live our whole lives, not only in the kitchen! How does our practice impact on our lives? How do we live our practice?
Please send articles, recounts, essays, artwork, photographs or poems to ingvaranda@hotmail.com by Wednesday 20th May (sooner much appreciated).
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Quote of the Month
"The continuing challenge of the Zen student is the integration of his or her practice into everyday life. The most profound truths translate out as honesty with one's self and decency toward others. Realization of the Buddha Way is insight into the emptiness of self-concerns and the oneness of all beings. In daily life this is a matter of ordinary morality."
Robert Aitken Roshi
The Zen Group of Western Australia is a lay-Buddhist organisation founded in 1982 and affiliated with the Diamond Sangha. We meet on Thursdays at St Paul's Anglican Church Hall, 162 Hampton Road, Beaconsfield, WA 6162. All are welcome to sit with us.
