Late on Monday - sorry!

Apologies for a late arrival on Monday - nothing serious, just general 'life stuff' delayed my departure. Unfortunately, apparently this was a week when someone new arrived for the first time, or so one of the regular Music Club folk from downstairs let us know.

If that was you - sorry! I'm usually around by 6.45 or 6.50, and we did eventually get going last Monday, and of course sitting continues next week etc.

In other news - we've finally finished our examination of the Platform Sutra, which has taken us quite a while...! Next up, at Will's suggestion we start to look at some of the work of Huang Po (d.850CE), the influential Tang dynasty Chinese Zen Master. I'm not familiar with this material at all, so looking forward to getting stuck in.

Passing of Nishijima Roshi

I read with sadness today of the passing of Gudo Wafu Nishijima Roshi, a Japanese Soto Zen teacher who has had a wide influence on the landscape of Western Zen practice.

Link: sweepingzen.com/obituary-gudo-wafu-nishijima/

He was an interesting figure, who moved from the centre of the Soto Zen establishment (he received Dharma transmission from the head of the Soto Zen sect) but was also influenced by Kodo Sawaki Roshi and his emphasis on restoring zazen to the heart of Buddhist practice.

Many will know him only though his two successors - Brad Warner and Jundo Cohen. Both Brad and Jundo, though very different, seem to reflect much of their late teacher's characteristics, bridging the conservative and radical tendencies in Soto Zen. Jundo leads a fairly typical existence as an abbot in Japan - but has started a very successful sangha that exists online, the Treeleaf Sangha, while Brad is famous for is iconoclastic approach to Zen practice and literature through books like Hardcore Zen and Sit Down and Shut Up, while at the same time showing a fierce zeal in protecting a pure zazen practice from anything he sees as corrupting it.

With Nishijima Roshi's passing, another line of succession is now firmly in the hands of Western Zen teachers and their students, with less and less institutional or cultural oversight from the Sotoshu.

What will we make of this wonderful gift as our various lineages grow into adulthood?

Gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate: Bodhi svaha!

Emails have gone astray...!

Apologies to everyone that's tried to use the "Northampton@StoneWaterZen.org" email address - turns out it hasn't been working for some time. I'm changed the details now - please in the meantime send any emails directly to me at alasdair@gordon-finlayson.net.

The Sacred & the Mundane - A dharma talk by Keizan Sensei

On the new Youtube channel for SWZ, a dharma talk by Sensei from a couple of weeks ago. Looks like this could develop to become a great resource!

Re-opening January 2014

With attendance down of late and the year grinding to a close, I'm not going to run sessions for the remaining Mondays of 2013. We'll start again on Monday 6th January 2014 - same time, same place - and see what the New Year brings! Wishing you all a wonderful Xmas, season's blessings to you and your families.

"Right Where You Stand" - Keizan Sensei in Northampton

As you may already know, Keizan Sensei will be giving a public talk on Friday 1 November 2013 during a brief visit to the area.

You can download the flyer here - please feel free to forward this to anyone you think might be interested in attending this event.

If you know of a venue that would be willing to put out some printed versions of the flyer, please contact me at northampton@stonewaterzen.org and I'll send a few out (we're not printing many, but there should be plenty to go round!). If you know of any other avenues to promote this event, please contact me to let me know.

Still here!

Gosh haven't posted in a while - I suspect that just means it's been business as usual. We're still at it, keeping those zafus warm on Monday evenings, come along and join us!