Zenways

Zenways facilitates activities and practices that enhance wellbeing, balance and awakening in the mo

Zen meditation and teaching, retreats and workshops
200 hour intensive Zen Yoga teacher training
Meditation & mindfulness teacher training

29/12/2025

When we receive the precepts (Jukai) we make a vow to live with more awareness, compassion and honesty.

They’re not judgments on your behaviour, or standards given externally, not is it ab out joining some kind of club. They’re invitations, questions, living koans that we meet freshly in every moment of our life.

The ceremony involves taking refuge, acknowledging past mistakes and receiving the 16 bodhisattva precepts. It’s just a milestone on your journey, not a finish line.

Some feel the ceremony isn’t important, some find it deeply meaningful. Either way, the real practice is how we show up moment by moment: living in a way that reduces harm, brings more kindness and compassion and living in a clearer, more wise way.

If you feel moved to take the precepts, we offer this both in-person and online. Get in touch.

21/12/2025

Precepts ceremony on the very auspicious night of toji (winter solstice) - the turning around of the year.

Symbolically toji represents the moment of kensho - the turning around of realising your true nature. In the deepest, darkest part of the year, or our life or our spiritual practice, there lies the potential of awakening, of realising the light of Buddha.

Happy toji!

12/12/2025

A flavour of our Zen sesshin retreat a few weeks ago.

Next year we’ll be offering shorter 3-day Breakthrough to Zen retreats throughout the year, both in-person and online. We’re running a trip to Japan in May, including a Zen sesshin and sightseeing. We’ve also got a weekend Zen retreat looking at money and finances in July, and our UK 5-day sesshin in November.

Details all on Zenways.org

08/12/2025

Happy Rohatsu! It’s enlightenment day today 8th Dec. We held our Rohatsu retreat last night where we meditated through the night until dawn in remembrance of the Buddha’s night of practice and great awakening 2500 yrs ago under the Bodhi Tree.

This is a photo of us in the dojo and those joining online at the end of the retreat this morning. Thanks all those who joined as part of the retreat or in spirit.

01/12/2025

Master Ummon said, “The world is vast and wide. Why do you put on your seven-piece robe at the sound of the bell?”

Ummon (Ch. Yunmen Wenyan, 864-949) was a Chinese Ch’an master of the Tang dynasty. He turned into one of the towering giants of Zen in that early medieval time. Possibly the most eloquent of the old Ch’an masters, he became renowned for his strong and direct, yet often quite subtle and difficult to understand, teachings - of which this is one. We study it as a koan.

The seven-piece robe refers to the traditional outer robe, known as kesa (sewn together from seven pieces of cloth) that monks wear. So when the bell goes, why put on your robes and go to meditate? In this vast world, surely there’s so much else to do...?

Why do *you* meditate? Drop us a comment.

ummon koan

27/11/2025

What a wonderful sesshin retreat! 40+ people in-person and 8 people online (a first for this year) diving into Master Dogen’s teaching of “dropping off body and mind”.

Guided by Daizan Roshi’s talks and guidance through Master Keizan’s ‘Zazen Yojinki’ (practice manual).

Deep bows to all for your sincere practice. May our practice be of benefit to all beings.

17/11/2025

In Japan they love to miniaturise! The rakusu is is a mini-version of the robe worn by all Buddhist monks and worn by those (monks or laypeople) that have taken the precepts.

It is thought to have originated in a time when Buddhists were persecuted and weren’t allowed to wear their robes. The rakusu was discreet enough to be worn underneath other clothes so couldn’t be seen.

It retains the leftovers of the robe’s clasp on the left side. The rectangular front surface is made of a series of patches representing the “all is different” perspective, contained within the “all is one” border.

Black is the colour of fertile soil - potential, emptiness - from which our practice comes and returns.

Often teachers or senior monks have other colour rakusus.

11/11/2025

Over the years, thousands of students have reported life-changing shifts in awareness by following the dyad enquiry method of American teacher, Charles Berner. Our Breakthrough to Zen retreats take his work one step further, stabilising and grounding the practice through the “naikan” practices of Zen.

Our next Breakthrough to Zen retreat, run by Zen master Daizan Skinner, will be 4-7 Dec at the Noddfa centre in north Wales.

See Zenways.org/bzr for more details

09/11/2025

We’re just coming to the end of another Breakthrough to Zen retreat - this one was online with participants joining from all over the world.

These retreats focus specifically on looking into who you are. You spend three intense days questioning deeply “who am I?”and what people find through this process if utterly life changing.

There’s no “teaching” per se, just guidance on the retreat process. All the insights come from within you. In a sense, you wake up to what you’ve always known deep down. You realise your true nature.

Sound up your street? We’ve got two more coming up before the year’s end. Both in-person in the UK.

05/11/2025

Are you looking for a professional training that enables you to share the authenticated benefits of meditation and mindfulness practice, while at the same time supporting your own journey of development? Here’s a breakdown of how our mindfulness teacher training pathway works, and how our courses can help you develop as a teacher.

Our training path comprises a core foundation module plus two optional extension modules. Module 1 is stand-alone, and modules 2 & 3 are optional extension courses that will ultimately allow you to become an certified teacher with the International Mindfulness Teachers Association (IMTA).

We also offer an adjunct Zen Compassion Plus Teacher Training course open to any certified mindfulness teacher (from any school). This qualifies you to teach a stand-alone four-week course that introduces, shares and guides students through the four boundless meditations of loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity.

Sound up your street? Find out more on www.zenways.org.

Find your truth, teach your truth, embody your Zen Way.

01/11/2025

The sign that hangs above the front door of our dojo in Camberwell, London.

It says Yugagyo Dojo 瑜伽行道場 its meaning yoga practice training hall.

Which has multiple meanings. It’s a yoga studio, but the broader meaning of yoga includes meditation, insight and wisdom. You could say the Buddha was really a yogi. Also, Yugagyo is the Japanese name of a central philosophy that underpins Zen, otherwise known as Yogacara or the Mind-only school.

Come along some time if you’re in the area. We’d love to meet you.

Sign carved by based on a calligraphy by the late Shinzan Roshi.

Address

London
SE58RE

Telephone

+441698542677

Website

http://www.zenways.org/

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