Category Archives: Benefits of practice

‘Changing My Mind’ by Jo O’Riordan and Keith Parr

Here are two short pieces on the theme of ‘Changing My Mind’, the first by Jo Doshin O’Riordan and the second from Keith Shingo Parr, who is currently on Sesshin at Yokoji Zen Mountain Centre: “I found it hard to decipher exactly what David Loy means. Saying that the world changes when one’s mind changes sounds […]

In My World – Woo-Young Tetsugen Yang

Here we have another contribution on the newsletter theme, this time from Woo. ‘When your mind changes, the world changes. And when we respond differently to the world, the world responds differently to us.’ – David Loy In my world, there are many people, many sentient beings. The ones who come to my mind most […]

The benefits of Practice – How differently my life feels

Here Sarah Kokai Thwaites looks at the benefits of practice for her life: How do you measure whether this practice is beneficial for you? It seems that any question can have many ways of looking at it and many possible answers. Here’s one that presents itself to me at the moment – how differently my […]

What are the benefits of practice?

Here we begin a series of posts by sangha members; What are the benefits of practice and how do you know or measure what these are? How do you measure whether this practice is beneficial for you? by Woo Young Yang Measurements are important. Some scientists even suggest that, at least in science, if something is […]

Joanna Lumley and the spiritual life…

We asked two questions recently: what motivated you to follow a spiritual life? And how do you measure the benefits of practice? Here, Celia Bryan responds: What motivated me to follow a spiritual life? My mother….and Joanna Lumley. My mother has been my greatest inspiration and motivation…..because I don’t want to be like her. […]

Practice Layer by Layer

Why do we sit? Tony Doubleday from the London group has written an interesting article in which he examines Dogen’s commentary on the great stupas of India with the effect of sitting in our daily lives, and particularly on the cumulative effects of zen practice. Here’s an extract: The brick courses of the great stūpas […]

“Dog and Cat” Zen, and why we practice (Audio)

In this talk from our regular Wednesday sessions in Liverpool, Keizan Sensei explores why we get involved in spiritual practice at all – but starts off by asking us if we have become “Dog and Cat”-zen practitioners. You’ll have to listen to find out what that means…!

The Beauty of Imperfection

This week, a short but lovely piece from Karen Robbie reflecting on accepting imperfections. It’s great to have a contribution from someone who’s a bit off the beaten track – Jez and Karen’s place in mid Wales doesn’t lend itself to weekly dokusan at The Dojo, and part of the reason for this blog is to help us keep in touch with remote sangha friends.

Fetch water, chop wood, make tea

A story from John Suigen’s life that includes this great paragraph: “Sudden, unwanted and dramatic life events can at times be a real challenge in my zen practice. Being told that such events are “a good life koan,” or that “Now! …is the time to practice” has the same flavour of being reminded that there are people in the world with much bigger problems than you. You know it to be true but it doesn’t seem to take you anywhere at the time.”