Author Archives: Keizan Roshi

Roshi – A Diary, Zen Mountain Center August 2005

As part of a series of posts about sesshin gathered for the StoneWater Zen newsletter, here Roshi shares a very condensed diary of three weeks spent at Zen Mountain Center, California, August 4th, leave Manchester Airport 12 noon. Arrive Ontario airport, Los Angeles, 8pm, eight hours behind UK time. Tenshin meets me. Drive through desert […]

Roshi’s The Great Outdoors (TGO) crossing of the Highlands

Dear Folks, Thank you for the support and interest some of you have shown in the TGO backpacking challenge I recently undertook crossing the Scottish Highlands from the west to the east coast. And especial thanks for the down jacket I bought with money given to me by the sangha to mark becoming a Roshi. It […]

Keizan Sensei’s Christmas Message 2018 – Practice in Daily Life

Dear Fellow Practitioners, I do hope you find time for celebration and a rest over the coming holiday and that the new year is a good one for you. StoneWater continues to grow and 2018 has been a busy year with a full calendar. 2019 promises to be the same so do please keep an […]

Shikantaza

There are several techniques that we use in our meditation practice, including counting breaths or being with the breath, and koan practice. And a very important practice used in the Soto school is Shikantaza. Here, Keizan Sensei describes Shikantaza and it is is also worth listening to his talk given on 15 November 2017 in […]

Meaning and Existence, and the Fulfilled Life

Dear StoneWater Zen Sangha members and fellow practitioners, For the last few years I have written something to think about and take into the New Year. Here is this year’s offering. I am conscious the second part is quite dense and may take a few readings to understand but hopefully it is finally useful. Apologies […]

What my practice is for me

Recently Sensei asked the group at a Thursday evening sitting in Liverpool: “What would a fulfilled life look like?”. He addressed this again yesterday evening (Weds 11 Feb) and his talk will be posted shortly. Here is Keizan Sensei’s own response to this question: “I thought it would be useful for me to try and […]

Jokai Sensei – A Very, Very Short History

At the end of September Keizan Sensei went to Yokoji Zen Mountain Centre to attend the Shiho (transmission) ceremony for David Jokai Blackwell (above right). Here is a piece that Keizan wrote for the Yokoji Newsletter which describes how Jokai began his training in Liverpool. In 1997 I lived in Liverpool, UK, as I still […]

On becoming a monk 1.

On becoming a monk… The Easter retreat at Crosby will see three new monks being ordained. Suzanne Tsuko Adey, Keith Shingo Parr and Sue Eido King will all receive Shukke Tokudo from Sensei on Thursday 16 April. In the blog pieces that follow I have asked the three new monks to say a little more […]

Here, There, Everywhere and Nowhere. That’s where it’s at (or not….)

Sometimes in my talks I emphasise the no-self especially because most of us are more stuck in the concept of a solid, separate self than vice versa. However, the idea of no self can be easily misconstrued. Shakyamuni Buddha himself commented on this and he described two broad areas of possible misunderstanding. On the one hand there are folk […]

Stepping Out of Self Deception

Dear Fellow Practitioners, Our natural direction is towards unity and harmony with ourselves and the Great Life, however, for many of us our sense of self resists and holds us in familar patterns and restrictions that create a feeling of separation. This practice is about seeing/examining the limitations of our fabricated sense of ‘self’ and […]