Canberra Soto Zen Group - CSZG

08/02/2026

An important feature of our Meditation community practice (Zazen-kai) is the chants, which reflect Soto Zen's wisdom and perspective. In particular, we chant the Lineage Chant to honour the 'Buddhas and Ancestors' and to acknowledge their continuing influence on our practice.

This aspect is beautifully explored by Shunryu Suzuki in his talk "The Great Sages are you yourself" (from Becoming Yourself), this week's reading. A sage is a phenomenon happening in this world, manifested as the Truth embodied or expressed in a person. A Great Sage refers to the Truth manifested as an Original Teacher (also Awakened, Anointed, Enlightened, God-realized, etc.), typically a founder of the world's Great Religions.

Their lives can be a source of great inspiration for those of us interested in realizing our true nature; however, as Shunryu Suzuki tells us, the Great Sages can also be an inherent dimension of what we are.

When we sit in Zazen "without dreaming of anything, that is the actual practice that includes everything". There is no distinction between the present and the past, nor living and non-living. Everything is included. If the Buddha is to exist anywhere at this place and time, the Buddha must exist in us. Therefore, there is no distinction between us and the Great Sages.

"At that time, who is Christ, who is Buddha, who is Bodhidharma, who is Dogen?... they are you yourself... If you understand the great sages in this way, you cannot just be Buddhist or just be Christian."

When you realize your innate Buddha Nature, then life takes on new colour, meaning and depth. You can transcend the "shallow, materialistic understanding" of small mind and fully exist as You Yourself.

Zazen-kai offers an opportunity to hear and contemplate these truths, and experience their meaning in community practice.

Link to this week's reading:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11dQwq3Cbt3qZfeh8xJ5Ec1zw8powJbV3zVQhgxgHml8/edit?usp=drivesdk

22/01/2026

Canberra Soto Zen Group

Dear Canberra Soto Zen Members and Friends near and afar,

Sunday Zazenkai 2:00 - 4:00 pm

(Han struck at 1:55pm)

Sakyamuni Buddhist Centre

32 Archibald St., Lyneham

and online via Zoom link below


Just to be yourself is what is meant by ‘just to sit’

In the new collection of talks by Shunryu Suzuki, Becoming Yourself, the essential message is the connection between the practice of Zen (Meditation) and our original nature, our true self.

That connection is the topic of this week's reading: Including Everything.

"You may think that after practising for a long time you will attain enlightenment, and that then your practice will include everything and everyone. But actually your practice already includes everything."

That message echoes the Heart Sutra's "no path, no knowledge and no attainment". The path is you yourself, the knowledge is you yourself and the attainment is you yourself. Enlightenment is already here for you yourself to realize it!

The effort in returning to that original self is 'just to sit' (shikantaza), letting go of extra things, even the idea of "my practice" at a certain place and certain time. That is what we endeavour to practice at Zazen-kai.

P.S. The Canberra Soto Zen Group plans to hold three weekend retreats this year to allow deeper experience of this practice. The retreat dates for 2026 are now confirmed and given below. Please make a note in your diary.

13-15 March

12-14 June

11-13 September

07/01/2026

Just to be yourself is what is meant by ‘just to sit’

We begin this 2026 practice year on Sunday 18 January with a reading from "Becoming Yourself", a new collection of talks by Shunryu Suzuki.

When we hear terms like "Buddha nature" or "non-duality" or "oneness with the Truth", our small mind is inclined to start searching for something outside our normal, everyday experience. The searching is an important step in the awakening process, but setting goals that we try to achieve at a future time can be a distraction from seeing the Truth that exists right here and now.

This week's talk, Sharing the Feeling, gives us a fresh perspective on what non-duality means. In describing Buddha's moment of enlightenment, we hear how the Buddha saw the morning star, not as a sign or symbol, but just as it was, in the Here and Now. "In other words, he shared his feeling with the morning star’s feeling... When he saw the morning star rising up from the east, it was the first thing he saw coming out of his empty mind."

We need to understand that an 'empty mind' is not one without thoughts, rather a whole mind that can experience every particular moment. That mind is 'Big Mind', an expansive or open mind, ready for change. "But just to open is not enough; the spirit of repetition is also necessary. If you do not have this kind of spirit—if your everyday life is not based on this kind of spirit—you cannot cope with the problems you have day after day."

This spirit of repetition, an activity done in each moment, is what we cultivate through our commitment to Zen practice at Zazen-kai.

22/12/2025

22/11/2025

In Zen, it is very common to think that our practice is going wrong when we run into difficulties, have intrusive thoughts, or make mistakes. But in this week's talk, Mind Weeds, Suzuki Roshi reassures us that these difficulties can be the very things that enrich our practice.

"If you have some experience of how the weeds in your mind change into mental nourishment, your practice will make remarkable progress. You will feel the progress. You will feel how they change into self-nourishment."

Zen practice is all inclusive. When we run into doubts, that is Zen. When we make mistakes despite our best efforts, that is Zen. There's no secret to success in Zen. Everything in your life is an opportunity to return to your original nature. Just to sit is enough. It's that simple!

"Once you understand our innate power to purify ourselves and our surroundings, you can act properly, and you will learn from those around you, and you will become friendly with others. This is the merit of Zen practice."

Announcements:

Teishin Innes, ordained monk and Assistant Teacher of Jikishoan Zen Buddhist Community, will be visiting us on the 6-7 December. We will have an informal dinner with Teishin on the 6th. Please reply if you are keen to attend.

Also, the end-of-year retreat is coming up on the 12-14 December. Please confirm your attendance by the 8th at the latest. Many thanks!

15/11/2025

Zen points to an understanding of Reality that goes beyond knowledge, thoughts and ideas. In this week's talk, Believing in Nothing, Shunryu Suzuki gives us a clear direction: "it is absolutely necessary for everyone to believe in Nothing [No-thing]."

Our challenge in practising Zen is to let go of self-centred thinking, to expand our consciousness from things to No-thing, from self to no fixed-self.

As Suzuki Roshi says in the Preface, "...Zen is difficult because it is hard to keep our mind pure and our practice pure in its fundamental sense." What is a 'pure' mind and 'fundamental sense' when related to Nothing-ness and Emptiness?

A pure mind is one that accepts everything as it is. No judgement, no expectation. One moment there's this reality, the next moment there's another reality. They all come from the same fundamental Source, which we might call Nothing-ness or Emptiness. The Heart Sutra reminds us that our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind are the mechanisms by which we perceive reality. If we grasp at reality or try to process it, we lose sight of the Source, because everything that comes also goes. We suffer because we become distracted from the Source, which is our true nature.

So the way out of suffering is not to adopt a particular attitude, idea or religion. It is to remain utterly open to Emptiness, as it appears in all its Forms. "If you are always prepared for accepting everything we see as something appearing from Nothing, knowing that there is some reason why a phenomenal existence of such and such form and color appears, then at that moment you will have perfect composure."

Then "you will appreciate yourself as a wonderful part of Buddha's great activity, even in the midst of difficulties." This appreciation is what we embody as a community at Sunday Zazen-kai.

07/11/2025

From the beginning,

all beings are Buddha

When we hear words like 'enlightenment' or 'awakening', we are likely to think of something as far from our daily reality as we can possibly imagine. In this week's talk, Nothing Special, Shunryu Suzuki helps us understand that our everyday reality is enlightenment itself.

"For people who have no experience of enlightenment, enlightenment is something wonderful. But if they attain it, it is nothing."

Only our delusion of being a separate self keeps us from realising this. When we see through the veil of separation, we find our true nature is always there as Awareness.

"Zen practice is the direct expression of our true nature. Of course, whatever we do is the expression of our true nature, but without this practice it is difficult to realize."

The key point is that "Everything is Buddha nature" - this means everything, just as it is right now, is Buddha (Awakened, Enlightened). There are no non-Buddha elements. This applies to humans as much as it does to every other form of existence: "To be a human being is to be a Buddha. Buddha nature is just another name for human nature, our true human nature."

By deepening our practice, little by little we can look beyond the illusion of 'self' and, through this awakening process, appreciate that we are the wonderful unfolding of the universe right before our eyes.

"In Zazen what you are doing is not for the sake of anything. You may feel as if you are doing something special, but actually it is only the expression of your true nature; it is the activity which appeases your inmost desire." It's what we endeavour to do at Zazen-kai as a community of practitioners.

—-

For your diary: Canberra Soto Zen Group will be holding a short retreat at Lake George from Friday 12th to Sunday 14th of December. This will be the formal end to the practice year for our Sangha and will include an exiting ceremony along with oryoki meals, zazen, kinhin and chanting practice.

02/11/2025

To resume our original nature, which is there 'from the beginning'. is to be a Buddha. Although Zen teachings are vast and rich, they are only pointers to the basic truth that in this very moment we are living the life of a Buddha, even though we may not realize it.

This week's talk, Experience, Not Philosophy, tells us that "whether Buddhism is philosophically deep or good or perfect is not the point. To keep our practice in its pure form is our purpose."

Trying to understand what Zen practice is isn't the point either. As Shunryu Suzuki says, "We do not even know what we are doing when we just practise with a pure mind." In Zazen we 'just sit': there is no one sitting!

So to be a Buddha is simply to practise without any agenda. "Those who are attached only to the result of their effort will not have any chance to appreciate it."

Pure practice is simply returning to being Aware (body and mind drop off). All that arises, moment after moment, appears to universal Awareness. This, Zen Master Suzuki tells us, is the key to fully appreciating life:

"When we resume our original nature and to incessantly make our effort from this base, we will appreciate the result of our effort moment after moment, day after day, year after year. This is how we should appreciate our life."

P.S. The Canberra Soto Zen Group is planning a retreat on 12-14 December at the Mirramu Arts Centre (Lake George). The date should be confirmed by next Sunday.