The Dunedin Zen Group

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Welcome to the web page of the Dunedin Zen Group. The DZG is committed to supporting Zen practice and training in Dunedin, and in NZ/Aoteaora.

We now sit weekly at the Quaker Meeting House at 15 Park Street Dunedin each Thursday evening. Sitting begins at 7pm, so please arrive earlier. If this is your first time please email Dunedinzen@gmail.com to arrange an orientation to meditation practice before we begin at 7pm.

As a Sangha we also gather together remotely through Zoom at the moment once per month on a Wednesday evening for zazen and dharma sharing. If you’d like to join with us please email the address below and ask to be included on our monthly Wednesday evening zoom gathering. You’ll then receive a link invitation to the gathering.

For regular students we also have Dokusan available through Zoom or by phone every two weeks.

E-mail: dunedinzen@gmail.com

The group is a part of the Diamond Sangha, and we are fortunate to have Glenn Wallis Roshi available as a Zen teacher to guide and support practice. While we practice in the Diamond Sangha Zen lineage, everyone is welcome and we regularly have friends from other traditions sit and practice with us.

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Spring Rohatsu Sesshin 2023

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The Dunedin Zen Group’s Spring Sesshin for 2023 will cover the Rohatsu period.

Our Sesshin will be from Saturday December 2nd through to Saturday December 9th 2023.

Spring Rohatsu Sesshin will be held once more on the beautiful Quarantine Island, Kamau Taurua.

As planning progresses there will be further information and the registration form available.

Shitou Xiqian ‘Accord on Investigating Diversity and Wholeness’

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The Accord is attributed to Shitou Xiqian who lived in Tang Dynasty China from 700-790 AD. He was an 8th generation Chinese Ch’an or Zen ancestor and his teaching and dharma heirs spawned the Caodong or Soto school of Zen. Three of the five major ‘houses’ of Ch’an pass through Shitou. The other two passing through Shitou’s contemporary Mazu.

In the Accord Shitou sets out his apprehension of the inherent unity of all things through the complementarity and interplay of wholeness and diversity. Language uses expression to delineate idea, and Shitou uses Wholeness and Diversity to show the territory of where language doesn’t reach, as Dongshan puts it, “baa baa waa waa.”

Shitou Xiqian Accord on Investigating Diversity and Wholeness the text.

The talks are all mp3 recordings except the 7th Talk which is a word doc.

1st Talk on the Accord

2nd Talk on the Accord

3rd Talk on the Accord

4th Talk on the Accord

5th Talk on the Accord

6th Talk on the Accord

7th Talk on the Accord

8th Talk on the Accord

9th Talk on the Accord

10th Talk on the Accord

This set of talks is inspired by a fresh translation of Shitou’s work by Ross Bolleter and Peter Wong.

A deep bow of gratitude in your direction.

2021 Sesshin 1 – 8 October

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This year our residential Sesshin is being held earlier than previous years: from Friday 1st of October through to Friday 8th of October. Once more we do sesshin on the wonderful Kamau Taurua, Quarantine Island in the Otago Harbour. For those wanting a taste of Sesshin without signing up for the full week of practice there is a weekend option that finishes Sunday afternoon on the 3rd.

Sesshin is lead by Glenn Wallis Roshi.

Click here to see registration and information forms to download for Sesshin.

For background information on the Island go to http://quarantineisland.org.nz/

COVID-19: The Sesshin organizers will be monitoring the situation and will follow all governmental recommendations. Please note that the restrictions imposed by management of the spread of COVID-19 will determine whether Sesshin is able to take place.  It is envisaged that Sesshin will take place under level 1 or 2.

The organisers look forward to seeing you on Sesshin and to practising together the Dharma of current moment sitting as one.

with a bow.

2019 Spring Sesshin Teisho and Talks

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Our 2019 Spring Sesshin was rich and nourishing and the largest in numbers we’ve had since Ross Bolleter Roshi used to teach here. The weather was generous with warmth and breezes and the bird life and island presence live and ever perfect for practicing the Way.

 

Teisho during Sesshin:

Wumenkuan Case 1 Zhaozhou’s Dog

Hekiganroku Case 9 Zhaouzhous Four Gates

Hekiganroku Case 4 Deshan Holds His Bundle

Hekiganroku Case 3 Mazu Unwell

Hekiganroku Case 83 Yunmen’s An Old Buddha and a Pillar

 

Encouragement Talk during Sesshin:

Shikantaza talk

Intimacy and Time talk

Living Present Moment

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This is a link to a recorded talk given by Glenn Wallis Roshi at the Dunedin Public Library Thursday March 14.

The theme is our experience of the current, the freedom of Zen practice. The essence of the talk is that when we live fully right now there is fundamentally no one left or required to be separate from the current moment, and when there is no one required to be, then we are at our most free and at our most authentic, as the person we are. When we are able to fully immerse in the current, what is already arisen as this present, now, we begin to recognise that we are are not isolate and separate. That separation is the perception we take on for social reality, but that inherently we are each other, the whole vast un-bordered moment of our life.