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Core Beliefs and the Self-Centred Dream by Andrew Tootell

We can only truly be open and loving when we are truly kind to ourselves. Here we explore some ways of bringing an inner smile into our lives and to observe how being compassionate brings happiness to both ourselves and others.

In this talk I return to the question, what is enlightenment? I begin with a working definition of enlightenment as a developmental process rather than a one-off event (or series of events). I then explore two primary lines of development: “know thyself” and “returning home” or “original OK-ness”.

In this meditation Rhys leads us through an exploration of sitting with suffering because, as Rhys states, this is a lot of what sitting is. For all of us, for a fair bit of the time, this is what we’ll be doing when we practice Zazen: we’ll be sitting with some form of suffering, of discomfort, of dis-ease. Sometimes this suffering will be gross and obvious, like physical pain or emotional upset. At other times, perhaps a lot of the time, we’ll experience more subtle forms of suffering, like dissatisfaction, or striving, or boredom, or a sense of lack, or simply just discomfort in our bodies. Sometimes this can be very subtle; so subtle that it can take us a long time to even recognise that we’re experiencing it.

This meditation focuses on the dance between being a separate self, bounded by the body, occupying a particular space-time point, and a self completely interdependent, depending on our environment, and our relationships. Dancing between the two, we hold these two seemingly paradoxical positions with love and compassion.

In this second enchanting, guided meditation, Pingala explores again the mysterious heights and depths of the presence of mountains.

This meditation starts with a reading of the Wild Swans at Coole by WB Yeats as an introduction to the contemplation of “mujo” or impermanence. We then segue into a contemplation of finding our way home in the world.

In this talk I share some understandings of enlightenment that have in the context ongoing dialogue with Joko Beck through her books and Barry Magid as my teacher. I begin my discussing two common curative fantasies of what enlightenment is. I then share one understanding of enlightenment that is found in both Joko Beck and Barry Magid - what I will call our Original OK-ness – the sense of being at home in our world and being at home with others harmoniously. I finish with discussing enlightenment as a life-time journey that we are all on.

In this talk I introduce the proposal that we all must discover what enlightenment means to us. Like the historical Buddha, we must be a lamp unto ourselves, not accepting any authority other than the authority of our own experience refined in the context of dialogue with dharma friends.

This guided meditation directs our attention to the quality of our attention to our experience. How our attention is uncovering reality. Zazen is a kind of experiential research into our experience of self and world that can be shared with others to arrive at common understandings. Attention can be understood as a form of taking care of ourselves and our world.

In this enchanting guided meditation, Pingala invites us to experience ourselves as a Mountain.

Most people, whether long-term meditators or not, engage in some kind of judgemental, negative, self-talk. We may not even be fully conscious of how we criticise ourselves and reject certain parts of ourselves. We are so used to doing it that we may not even know we are doing it. Sometimes it can be loud and sometimes very quiet and ubiquitous in the background of our psyche. This meditation is an invitation to notice this and to come to terms with and include all aspects of ourselves. Self-acceptance is the doorway to healing and to a full and rich life. When we can accept ourselves, we accept others, and the world opens its doors to us. We can discover that it is only we who deny ourselves our heart’s greatest desire: connection and love with others.

Whatever you experience may be looked at more deeply by acknowledging the feeling tone. Is it pleasant, unpleasant or neutral? Contact with the world through our senses generates a sensation. Just noticing without judging, this tonality really influences our life. Can we feel both pleasant and unpleasant at the same time? Does Neutral have a negative bias? Do feeling tones linger after the experience that triggered them? Being interested in the neutral, the non-eventful , the ordinary experiences, opens them up. Neutral is really interesting! It can provide entry into stillness.

Outside the worldly winds are raging. Inside is peaceful and calm. Where are you when the winds blow? When we accept life as it is, right now, without complaining or trying to grasp for more, we come to peace and spaciousness. We come to a freedom, where we are more capable of both inner and outer change. Seeing the 8 worldly winds of the human condition, helps access this letting go of resistance to the present moment.

No longer caught in the self-centred dream. I have given up seeking, Content just to be With whatever this moment brings. This guided meditation is a contemplation on the alternative practice principles. A common error is often to take up practice as a means to an end, we often fall into the trap of thinking we practice in order to obtain enlightenment. This is the activity of the ego-self. Rather we sit zazen to express our already enlightened buddha mind. To be Buddha is to sit with this moment exactly as-it-is and to leave everything exactly as-it-is. We even need to drop the goal of having no goal. To completely let go of seeking. As our Master Dogen said: “To study the way is to study the self; to study the self is to forget the ego-self; to forget the ego-self is to be actualized by the myriad forms”.

This guided meditation continues our contemplation on the unity of boundlessness (Buddha) and form (Dharma) and the harmonising of this unity (Sangha).

In this guided meditation I explore the three phases of zen meditation practice. Moving from focusing on an object, through to open awareness and finally objectless meditation (or shikantaza or silent illumination) or what Dogen called “taking the backward step” where all duality between observer and observed dissovlnes completely.

In this talk I focus on the three treasures and the three pure precepts and how an understanding of these precepts are essential to applying the ten grave precepts within the context of the koans of everyday life. The three treasures are the expression of the intrinsic nature or essential nature that the ten grave precepts are expressions of.

We are always in the middle of life. Cultivating awareness of this most basic of facts can help to heal the damage that often arises from judging parts of our selves and our experiences. For example, every human has a desire for pleasantness and a desire to be free from pain. Judging this basic desire can do subtle violence to ourselves, banishing the parts of ourselves that we don't like or want. The alternative is an open-hearted, open-armed embrace of all parts of ourselves, and of life.

In this guided meditation, Jack Wicks, an OzZen facilitator, takes us on a journey through the practice of not-knowing. Not-knowing is a zen approach to seeing our lives more clearly and liberating us from suffering. Not-knowing means seeing through our tendency to believe that our thoughts are always an accurate and helpful description of reality. This practice can help lead us to the realisation of emptiness of all phenomena and spiritual awakening.