This is where we invite you, the Sangha members, to contribute your short articles on your experiences, ideas
or readings that you feel will interest others. Send these direct to the webmaster, Andy Scott, or via the
contact page. Posts will be linked and publicised in general mailings, Facebook and Twitter. Comments may
be made on the StoneWater Zen Facebook page or via Sarah Thwaites if you don't use social media.
After an extended period of zazen such as a one or two day zazenkai or a full week sesshin, a familiar question often pops up: How do I bring this experience and state of mind into my everyday life? We may have experienced a sense of wellbeing, peace, oneness, stillness during our sitting. We may […]
I’ve found it quite difficult to think of a response to this question; how life and practice interplay isn’t something I spend time thinking about. It wasn’t until I sat down to write this that I realised that I don’t see daily life and practice life as clearly defined. In previous years I would have […]
“The Dharma, incomparably profound and infinitely subtle, is rarely encountered even in millions of ages.”- from the Sutra Opening Gatha “The Buddha’s Dharma has this good reputation; it is well expounded by the Blessed One, visible here and now, inviting one to come and inspect it, applicable, to be personally experienced by sensible people.” – from […]
Dear Folk, The Zoom schedule will no longer include joining in the live session at the Liverpool Zendo on Wednesday nights. After a trial we realised it didn’t work very well for either the Zoom participants or folk in the Zendo. The Wednesday nights on zoom will be suspended for the time being. Instead each Thursday […]
Once or twice in his Dharma talks throughout the pandemic Roshi has said that on Zoom there’s no edge to our practice. Many mornings I have crawled out of bed five minutes before a sitting and sat in my pyjamas. Many evenings I have declined an interview with a teacher because I told myself I […]
Zoom keeps me sitting regular You’ve seen and been the proof Without you I would not have done it My virtual inos in shashu Off the Way I had completely fallen Broadoak bedlam bound was I Then years it took to get back seated This is the truth and not a lie But […]
Scanning the green slopes below, I discuss the profound principle with the white cloud. Though the feeling of the wild is in mountains and waters, truly, I long for company of the way. (Hanshan) Driving past the fields turning yellow, What principle is this? The roadkill understands. Let go to hold on to heart. It […]
I was a bit slow joining the Zoom sessions. My first encounter with the platform was an Angulimala meeting (the Buddhist prison chaplaincy organisation which holds four meetings a year at the Forest Hermitage in Warwickshire under normal conditions). But I held back from the StoneWater sessions for a while for some reason. I’m reasonably […]
Six months before the pandemic, I attended a conference of the European Buddhist Union. It included a workshop about online dharma led by an American who worked with the youth network of Thich Nhat Hahn’s Plum Village sangha. I think he despaired at the lack of tech experience of our mostly middle-aged/older gathering of well-meaning […]
In the first year I came to StoneWater, I attended a couple of Jukai ceremonies. I found them quite beautiful and a bit strange, and I guess it opened up a small part of my curiosity. Like the form of Zen, it was a bit of mystery that I allowed to soak into me over […]