Come and simply sit…

I am a practitioner of Zen, the Sōtō Zen tradition of Buddhism, and I carry out weekly zazen sittings at my home on Sunday mornings. I am a novice monk and certainly no teacher but rather a dedicated and passionate student of zen who is more than happy to share in the core of the practice with like minded people.

I will provide zafu's, tea and an hour of meditation broken up into 25 minutes of zazen (seated meditation), 5 minutes of kinhin (walking meditation) and another 25 minutes of zazen. There is no charge for these sessions just let me know anytime if you are interested in coming along and I can add you into the WhatApp group and have a zafu here waiting for you!

My master is called Simone Jikō Wolf and she has her own temple called Kōsetsu-ji based in Switzerland. Her teacher was Taisen Deshimaru who founded the Association Zen Internationale and La Gendronnière Temple - the headquarters of European Zen in France.

The core of Zen practice is zazen. During zazen we do not make attempt to control the mind. We do not engage in visualizations, counting breaths, solving questions or other contemplation, but simply sit facing a blank wall in the Buddha’s posture. Letting go of all concepts, and thoughts without striving we taste the vitality of what it means to return to our original condition - it is a practice of nothing special.

The two characters seen in the beautiful calligraphy painting below 無心 (pronouced mushin in japanese or wuxin in chinese), can be difficult to put into words but they encapsulate the entire spirit of zen practice.

Zen Master Dogen Zenji says,

“To study the Buddha Way is to study the self.
To study the self is to forget the self.
To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things.
When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away.
No trace of realization remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly.” - Genjokoan, Shobogenzo

Zen Master Taisen Deshimaru says,

“Zazen has a simple taste,
Light, almost neutral.
If you season zazen, you cheapen it.
It is like the broad sky
And the endless ocean.” - The Ring of the Way

Alan Watts says,

“That you can’t meditate unless you’re already a Buddha, in which case why would you meditate? Well because sitting in meditation is just the way a Buddha sits. Dogen called this sitting just to sit…

So you realise what a great thing it is to be able to sit and what a great thing it is not to dissect the world with your analytical intellect. To be able to look out onto the water or the trees or the light on the floor in front of you without calling it water or trees or light.” - Eastern Wisdom, Modern Life. Collected Talks: 1960 -1969

Nan Shepard would put it like this,

“They [beginners] want the startling view, the horrid pinnacle - sips of beer and tea instead of milk.
Yet often the mountain gives itself most completely when I have no destination, when I reach nowhere in particular, but have gone out merely to be with the mountain as one visits a friend with no intention but to be with him.” - The Living Mountain

So we are sitting just to sit as a mountain sits, or as a flower blooms just to bloom or a tree stands just to stand.

Lineage