Meditation, Zen and a more Buddhist approach to life.
Meditation and zazen practice has undoubtedly brought me great benefits. I had read around Buddhism and zen for years but only after moving to Edinburgh in 2005 did I begin to think that meditation and Buddhism might be the way I needed to go.
Prior to the move I had been going through a lot of emotional turmoil whilst dealing with my mother’s death, my father’s dementia and his gradual fading, my divorce and the emotional backlash. In 2003 I had had a breakdown mainly over the distresses of all this alongside work issues – I had worked as a teacher in a children’s psychiatric hospital for 15 years, working with children and families going through intense emotional stresses themselves.
In 2005 I began to attend some Friday lunchtime sessions with the Friends of Western Buddhist Order and was led through meditation practice and Talks on the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path…all a bit hard to take in at first. I had,however, found some calm and stability in meditation and I began looking for a form of Buddhism that was socially active or engaged. I was curious about the development of Zen in the USA and in particular the San Francisco Zen Center and its founder Shunryu Suzuki. My path into Zen began with Suzuki and with Thich Nhat Hanh, the esteemed Vietnamese Zen monk and activist. I read, and still often re-read, Suzuki’s now widely read book Zen Mind Beginners Mind and as much else that I could find about him. I must admit that re-reading was necessary in order to gradually understand what he was talking about. These teachings had a great affect on me and to this day a copy of the book is on my small shrine in the hut at the bottom of our garden. As time went on, and I read more of Thich Nhat Hanh’s writing and about Plum Village in France, my interest in socially engaged Buddhism grew. I discovered a Plum Village Group in Edinburgh (The Wild Geese Sangha) and began to attend some meetings. In May 2015 I attended a retreat at Wiston Lodge in the Borders and took the Five Mindfulness Trainings with Brother Phap Vu. What a powerful moment that was.
Along the way American zen was still tugging at me and I discovered the Upaya Zen Center website and the work and writings of Joan Halifax. It seemed to me that this project of finding a way of Zen relevant to our modern western circumstances and to learn from and develop the Soto Zen teachings was more where I might feel at home. In October 2015, whilst visiting relatives in America, we travelled by train from New York to Santa Fe and I attended a short retreat on the Six Paramitas led by Roshi Norman and Sokaku Kathie Fischer. Another great step forward. On return to Scotland I attempted to find a local Soto Zen group and found and joined the sangha of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives at Portobello where we were guided by Brother Favian. I felt I had found a place to rest and be part of. In May 2016 I took jukai at Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey.
I attended the sangha in Portobello up until the first Covid lockdown and then online. I had also been keeping close contact with talks and online meetings with Upaya. During the Covid period I took the Socially Engaged Buddhist Trainings with Upaya online. At the time my focus was on social engagement through voluntary work at Growing Matters – a local project involved in restoring and re purposing a four acre walled garden (part of the Gilmerton Estate) with an emphasis on health and well being, offering support and a form of ‘garden therapy’ to anyone who might need it. For my SEBT project I made a form of scroll using accordion sketchbooks that contained long form flow paintings and hand written texts. It pulled a lot of my thoughts about zen, being present, impermanence and boundlessness (or emptiness) together.
The Covid lockdowns and then being diagnosed with colon cancer and the subsequent surgery put paid to my visits to Portobello and I have lapsed somewhat from that tradition , becoming less aligned. My practice and way of being has now become much more locally orientated. We have a non-aligned village meditation group and sangha, meeting every week. We meditate, talk and discuss whatever comes up. We come from different Buddhist traditions and none.
My personal daily practice includes twice daily meditation and I attempt to follow the precepts in daily life. I often recite the Upaya version of the heart Sutra and also The Metta Sutta as translated by Sojun Mel Weitsman and use them as my guides.
This is a brief overview of my zen and meditation journey. In the passing years I have read widely, attended many talks and been on retreats. I feel I have settled my practice. I have recently been reading and listening to talks in the Tibetan Buddhist traditions. I greatly enjoyed reading Matthieu Ricard’s recent autobiography and I am enjoying listening to Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche’s talks, in particular on Open Awareness, which I feel is akin to zazen meditation.
I hope this piece of writing will give you some idea of where I am at and from time to time I will write on the blog about meditation, zen, Buddhism and link to useful texts or online talks. For me zazen has unlocked a door that has led to a happier life. I am hoping my writings on here will be of use to others.
Links :
San Francisco Zen Center and Roshi Shunryu Suzuki https://www.sfzc.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_Mind,_Beginner%27s_Mind
Uapaya Zen Center https://www.upaya.org/
Upaya Zen Center – Heart Sutra translation – https://www.upaya.org/2019/12/the-heart-sutra-at-upaya-tanahashi-halifax/
Plum Village https://plumvillage.org/#filter=.region-eu
Berkley Zen Center, Metta Sutta chant – https://berkeleyzencenter.org/texts/
Wild geese Edinburgh https://wildgeesezen.org/
Portobello Zen Buddhist Priory https://www.portobellobuddhist.org.uk/
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche https://tergar.org/yongey-mingyur-rinpoche
Matthieu Ricard https://www.matthieuricard.org/en/livres/
Roshi Norman Fischer and Sokaku Kathie Fischer Six Paramittas November 2015
https://www.upaya.org/2015/11/six-perfections-series-all-14-parts/
Meditation and zazen practice has undoubtedly brought me great benefits. I had read around Buddhism and zen for years but only after moving to Edinburgh in 2005 did I begin to think that meditation and Buddhism might be the way I needed to go.
The move to Scotland was a big shift in our lives and we had been going through some difficult times…my mother’s death, my father’s dementia and his gradual fading, my divorce and the emotional turmoil of feeling I was losing my son, although seeing him regularly. In 2003 I had had a breakdown mainly over the distresses of all this and work issues – I had worked as a teacher in a children’s psychiatric hospital for 15 years, working with children and families going through intense emotional stresses themselves and trying to manage very confronting and aggressive difficult behaviours.
In 2005 I began to attend some Friday lunchtime sessions with the Friends of Western Buddhist Order and was led through meditation practice and Talks on the Four Nobel Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path…all a bit daunting at the time. But my path in meditation was begun and I began looking for a form of Buddhism that was socially active or engaged, I was also curious about the development of Zen in the USA and in particular the San Francisco Zen Center and its founder Shunryu Suzuki. My journey into Zen began with Suzuki and with Thich Nhat Hanh…the esteemed Vietnamese zen monk and activist. I read and still often re-read Suzuki’s now widely read book Zen Mind Beginners Mind and as much else that I could find about him. I must admit that re-reading was very necessary in order to gradually understand what he was talking about. These teachings had a great affect on me and to this day a copy of the book is on my small shrine in the hut at the bottom of our garden. As time went on and I read more of Thich Nhat Hanh’s writing and about Plum Village in France, my interest in socially engaged Buddhism grew and I discovered a Plum Village Group in Edinburgh (The Wild Geese Sangha) and began to attend some meetings. In May 2015 I attended a retreat at Wiston Lodge in the Borders and took the Five Mindfulness Trainings with Brother Phap Vu. What a powerful moment that was.
Along the way American zen was still tugging at me and I discovered the Upaya Zen Center website and the work and writings of Joan Halifax. It seemed to me that this project of finding a way relevant to our modern western circumstances to learn from and develop the Soto Zen teachings was more where I might feel at home. In October 2015, whilst visiting relatives in America, we travelled from New York to Santa Fe by train and I attended a short retreat led by Roshi Norman and Sokaku Kathie Fischer on the Six Paramitas . Another great step forward. On return to Scotland I attempted to find a local Soto Zen group and found and joined the sangha of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives at Portobello where we were guided by Brother Favian. I felt I had found a place to rest and be part of. In May 2016 I took jukai at Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey.
I attended the sangha in Portobello up until the first Covid lockdown and then online. I had also been keeping close contact with talks and online meetings with Upaya. During the Covid period I took the Socially Engaged Buddhist Trainings with Upaya online. At the time my focus was on social engagement through voluntary work at Growing Matters – a local project involved in restoring and re purposing a four acre walled garden (part of the Gilmerton Estate) with an emphasis on health and well being, offering support and a form of ‘garden therapy’ to anyone who might need it. For my SEBT project I made a form of scroll using accordion sketchbooks that contained long form flow paintings and hand written texts. It pulled a lot of my thoughts about zen, being present, impermanence and boundlessness (or emptiness) together ( photo below).
Lockdowns and then being diagnosed with colon cancer and the subsequent surgery put paid to my visits to Portobello and I have lapsed somewhat from that tradition , becoming more non-aligned. My practice and way of being has now become much more locally orientated. We now have a non-aligned village meditation group and sangha, meeting every week. We meditate, talk and discuss whatever comes up. We come from different Buddhist traditions and none.
My personal daily practice includes twice daily meditation and I attempt to follow the precepts in daily life. I often recite the Upaya version of the heart Sutra and also The Metta Sutta as translated by Sojun Mel Weitsman
This is only a brief overview of my zen and meditation journey. In the passing years I have read widely, attended many talks and been on retreats. I feel fairly comfortable in my practice. I have recently been reading and listening to talks in the Tibetan Buddhist traditions…I greatly enjoyed reading Matthieu Ricard’s recent autobiography and I am enjoying listening to Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche’s talks, in particular on Open Awareness, which I feel is akin to zazen meditation. I hope this piece of writing will give you some idea of where I am at and from time to time I will write on the blog about meditation, zen, Buddhism and link to useful texts or online talks. For me zazen has unlocked a door and led to a happier life, I am hoping my writings on here will assist others who want to take this path.
Links :
San Francisco Zen Center and Roshi Shunryu Suzuki https://www.sfzc.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_Mind,_Beginner%27s_Mind
Uapaya Zen Center https://www.upaya.org/
Upaya Zen Center – Heart Sutra translation – https://www.upaya.org/2019/12/the-heart-sutra-at-upaya-tanahashi-halifax/
Plum Village https://plumvillage.org/#filter=.region-eu
Berkley Zen Center, Metta Sutta chant – https://berkeleyzencenter.org/texts/
Wild geese Edinburgh https://wildgeesezen.org/
Portobello Zen Buddhist Priory https://www.portobellobuddhist.org.uk/
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche https://tergar.org/yongey-mingyur-rinpoche
Matthieu Ricard https://www.matthieuricard.org/en/livres/
Roshi Norman Fischer and Sokaku Kathie Fischer Six Paramittas November 2015
https://www.upaya.org/2015/11/six-perfections-series-all-14-parts/
