lotusinthemud

the latest izt (institute for zen therapy) newsletter - october 2012

You'll find the newsletter by following this link

You can subsribe, share, look at past issues or translate the newsletter from the top bar in the link.

whispers from the bamboo grove - amida newsletter no 5

Uniting Zen and Pureland

'The essence of Zen is big mind and big heart. The essence of Pureland is that there is nowhere where the Light does not shine. These two are sides of a coin. Nothing is outside of the compass of one's spiritual life. There is nowhere where one's spiritual life is not supported.'
~ Dharmavidya

News from Dharmavidya

Dharmavidya was in Seville at the beginning of April taking the first legal steps toward the setting up of the
Instituto Terapia
Zen Internacional

 

Dharmavidya led a
workshop in Milan
13-15 April for the Mindfulness Project and gave a talk to a dance therapy school on the Sunday afternoon. These were well received and he will be going again the same time next year.

 

As part of the setting up of ITZI, Dharmavidya is moving his base of operations to Belgium in early May.

ITZI  already has local reps in UK, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Canada and USA

ITZI facebook group

 

what is the most important thing to do in your life?

.....The most important thing is what you are doing right now. Whatever it is, if you do not live this moment fully, then an opportunity has been lost which will never return.  Lived fully, this is one moment of complete enlightenment. If it is passed by in a haze, then it is just one more moment of fog.

~ David Brazier (Dharmavidya): Zen Therapy

:: Institute for Zen Therapy

empathy

Empathy is the opposite of ego. When I am full of ego, it is my own importance which matters. When I am full of empathy it is the other person who matters. Egotism, self-preoccupation, is the commonest barrier to empathy. Empathy is the most effective remedy for egotism. 

~ David Brazier Empathy

izt - a new logo (and what it means)

What's the new IZT logo all about?

It brings together the traditional Zen enso, or circle, and elements from the logo of Amida Trust (which IZT is part of).

The enso is an image that's become reasonably well known in the West, although perhaps its meaning is less known. It represents the ultimate trancendent reality.

The Amida Trust logo is a sunset: the sun and clouds. The sun here represents Amida, which can be considered that aspect of ultimate reality which comes to us, and which we can relate to.

The clouds in this image represent the kleshas. A klesha is a mental state of mind which clouds judgment (anxiety, fear, anger, jealousy, desire and so on) and prevents us from seeing Amida clearly. This is the ordinary human reality, there is something which is perfect in love and wisdom, but so much of the time it is hidden from us by clouds which rise from our karma.

The new IZT logo introduces this element of humaness to the perfect Zen enso. The two horizontal lines are like the clouds which obscure the bright light of the sun. :: link

:: link to Institute of Zen Therapy website

to grow pearls.......

To grow pearls there has to be some grit in the oyster. Each of us also has our gritty question. All too often, however, we devote our lives to ignoring rather than working on it. According to Zen, it is this ignoring (avidya) which keeps us in the realm of suffering (samsara), but it is the grit (dukkha) which gives us the opportunity to liberate ourselves.......it is this very dukkha which is our best friend. Dukkha shows us that we need to do something about ourselves and shows us where, when and how to do it. By working with our own grit, we become a 'true being', a true pearl. We can be greatly helped in this process by 'good friends' (kalyanamitra).

~ Dharmavidya David Brazier, 'Zen Therapy'

:: link to Institute for Zen Therapy

to take refuge...

"To take refuge is to enter into a relationship with what is beyond the ordinary that opens us to truth and love beyond our personal limited selves."

~ Dharmavidya David Brazier
(from a forthcoming book... watch this space!)

moon at the window - manu bazzano

:: link
Zen – this three letter iconic word includes so many practices and philosophies, often in contradiction with one another. In its origin, it embodies an aspiration to revisit the unfettered teachings of the Dharma as bestowed by Shakyamuni who, unlike Kasyapa and (St) Paul, had no great inclination to big-time politics or to the founding of churches and parishes. Central to the teachings is the realization of the (ultimately) illusory nature the self, the cultivation of friendship, or sangha, the realization that life (ultimately) sucks, especially if one’s ambition is to grab as much as one can and/or hope to hoodwink death.

Within Zen one will find a theistic leaning – towards ‘big mind’ i.e. the identification of the self with the entire cosmos. Some would say that ‘big mind’ is a God substitute, or a shadow of God, a bit like saying “Fine, I’ll let go of the self, only if I can exchange it for a cosmic self”. This is bargain-Zen, insurance policy-Zen.

Within Zen one will also find a deconstructive approach, geared towards the experience of groundlessness or relativity or interdependence or emptiness (sunyata), a painstaking process of recognition of the non-substantiality of the self. Meister Eckhart called this ‘intimate poverty’. The Zen tradition calls it ‘grabbing an ordinary person’s nose and twisting it hard’. Or:

The thief left it behind
Moon at the window
(Ryōkan)

What this may awaken is a sense of deep perplexity when faced with the sheer vastness of the phenomenal world. After which one puts the kettle on... Yes, God is dead, but it’s not such a big deal. The shadows of God also vanished - all the assorted religious, psycho-social ideals, from enlightenment to universal solidarity – after which we can have tea with milk, one sugar please. This is not cynicism of course, but rather a form of profound scepticism.

:: continue reading on the Institute for Zen Therapy site

Manu Bazzano is part of the IZT team. You can visit his own website at: www.manubazzano.com.

moon photo by Derek Gavey

zen and pureland

Zen & Pureland by David Brazier (Dharmavidya)

My Zen teacher Kennett Roshi used to say that Zen and Pureland were two entrances to the same tunnel. The implication was that if you went in Zen you came out Pureland and vice versa. I studied under her and then later became Pureland. Now I'm interested in the point where they meet. If we make a quick comparison of the salient features of the two systems we get a chart something like this: 

ZEN	PURELAND
Self power	Other power
Sudden awakening - satori	Awakening of faith - shinjin
Buddha nature	Bombu paradigm
Koan Nembutsu	Zazen Chanting

Zen and Pureland are both expressions of Mahayana Buddhism, both value the bodhisattva ideal, both value the teacher-disciple relationship, both are “practice schools” as distinct from “philosophical schools”. In Chinese Buddhism, Zen and Pureland are often practised together, though it is generally more a matter of Pureland practice within a Zen ethos. My own style is rather the other way around.

Zen means contemplation. Pureland schools have often practised contemplation. Shan Tao was perhaps the most eminent Pureland master in history and he was known for his contemplative practice. Zen, therefore, is not alien to Pureland. Similarly, chanting is not alien to Zen. Many of the benefits that come from one come equally well from the other. Some people think of Zen practice as hard and Pureland as easy, but our recent Ten Day Chanting Intensive was certainly tough and Zen also has an ideal of effortlessness. These observations show us that some of the supposedly sharp differences tend to melt away when one looks closer.

:: continue reading

the institute for zen therapy - an updated list of courses during 2012

Programme of events

The following is the provisional programme of events for 2012. Do click on the title for more the event description. Click here for fees & practicialties.

 

March 24-25: Zen Therapy: Punctuating Dysfunctional Equilibrium

 

April 1: Day Seminar: Holy Fools

 

April 28-29: ZT: Existential Zen

 

May 25 Day Seminar :Immanent Vitality: Therapy & The Actualizing Tendency

 

May 26-27: ZT: The First Five Minutes

 

June 16-17: ZT:Empathy for the devil

 

July 28-29: ZT: The Unconscious In-between

 

September 8-9 ZT: The Buddha as a fully functioning person

 

October 19 Day Seminar: Zen & The Art Of Neurophenomenology

 

October 20-21: ZT: Safety & Danger in the Life Change Process

 

November 17-18: ZT: Great Doubt

 

2013

January dates tbc Bumping against Boundaries

 

February 23-24ZT: When the Heart Boils Over: Jealousy & Envy in Therapy and Life...

::more information here

::IZT staff