Category Archives: Beginning Zen

My (Two) Journeys into Zen

On the theme of Beginnings, here Clive Lindley-Jones takes us on a fascinating journey from Japan, through the Buddhist Society in London and the early years of the White Plum Sanga in the UK to StoneWater today. One of my early Zen teachers, Soko Morinaga Roshi, in his book, ‘Novice to Master: The Extent of […]

‘How I got into practice’ by Jez Lovekin

I am a twin, I shared a womb with someone else. Something inside me stirs when I write these words. So my sense of incompleteness didn’t show early and not until I gained my teen years. This search for identity, once established but not recognised, led me to leave a comfortable environment and end up […]

‘Beginnings’ by Alan Bell

My path to Zen practice probably started in 2001, which was when I was first introduced to meditation via the practice of Yoga. After a 15 year career both practicing and teaching martial arts I wanted to find a practice that would help me ‘slow down’. I thoroughly enjoyed the physical practice of yoga, that […]

The Grand and the Squalid

An article by Jez Yushin Lovekin

The beginnings of my practice by Keith Shingo Parr

Beginning Zen practice can seem daunting. Beginning anything new is a little scary, but after some time we become more familiar and more at ease with what we are doing. When I first began, my attempts at Zen practice amounted to nothing more than sitting in a chair – a swivel one at that – […]