Merry, merry!

Just a quick post to wish you and yours all the best for the holidays and for the New Year.

Rohatsu...

I meant to post this yesterday... Just a quick note to acknowledge Rohatsu (8th December), the anniversary of the Buddha's enlightenment - in Japanese Buddhist traditions, in any case. So... Happy Rohatsu!

Teisho (zen talks) on MP3...

I've recently started posting a series of talks by Tenshin Fletcher Roshi and Keizan Scott Sensei on the StoneWater Notes blog (only one up so far). These were recorded at the Autumn sesshin this year at Crosby Hall, and each runs to about an hour. Occasionally it's hard to make out what the retreatants are saying when they ask questions, but the teachers are pretty clear.

Keizan Sensei delivering a teisho at Crosby, 2011

Holiday closing 2011-2012

As promised, here are the details for our Xmas & New Year closing.

• The last meeting of 2011 will be on Monday 12th December

• The first meeting of 2012 will be on Monday 9th January

A reminder that I'll be running the Rohatsu night-sitting event in Liverpool on 10-11 December - details on the SWZ Events Calendar.

[Image nicked from Rob's FB feed!]

Still here...

Nothing much to report, weekly zazen continues.

See the StoneWater events listing for details of a Rohatsu event I'm running in Liverpool. This will be a fairly traditional overnight meditation event, or night sitting (Jp: yaza). Click below for the flyer...

October zazen

Just a quick note to confirm that there will be no cancellations of zazen in October - initially I had thought that our equipment might be needed at Crosby, but it seems this is not the case, so the Monday sessions will continue with no breaks.

No zen holiday for us! :-)

Video: How to meditate

From Yokoji Zen Mountain Center in the US (which whom we are associated) comes a new video on how to do zazen. Good, basic pointers which will really help beginners as well as gently remind more experienced practitioners!