Podcasts

Below is a selection of the Sydney Zen Centre podcasts published on Soundcloud.
If you are interested in listening to more, click here for access to all of SZC podcasts.

Where did you go?

Last February Will and his family began their journey to the Kimberley, after an internet search back in 2022 revealed a job advertised in Derby. There was a sort of half-hearted application for the job but when the phone call came that offered it, there was, strangely, absolutely no doubt he should accept.  It is mysterious...

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Trust in the Way

Be faithful! Be faithful! Trust and faith are almost synonyms, with slightly different shadings. However you language it, this quality, this mind, is essential to our Zen Buddhist practice. Core. It is indeed the last word that Zen Master Raven offers to his community. Where do you place your trust? How does it support you...

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Shame & blame

There are koan stories that obliquely look at blame, shame, getting it wrong, embarrassment and a host of other possible difficulties that every human being, perfectly imperfect, experiences every single day, that reveal how a Zen person is with this stuff.  Does a Zen person blush with shame?  Quake with anxiety?  Flutter with insecurity?  If not, why not?   Gillian Coote,...

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The Great Way Opens

In his 'Song of Realising the Way', Yungchia says: It speaks in silence In speech you hear its silence The Great Way has opened and there are no obstacles. It’s difficult to practise listening unless our minds become quiet and our thoughts aren’t clamouring for attention, or for expression in speech. We practise noticing thoughts...

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This very mind is Buddha

Ta-mei asked Ma-tsu, “What is Buddha?” Ma-tsu said, “This very mind is Buddha.” In this talk, Peter takes up the well-known case 30 of the Mumonkan. Shibayama Roshi said that “This very mind is Buddha’ is a very important philosophical saying which concisely depicts the essence of zen” yet any philosophical expositions on “This very mind is Buddha”,...

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