Andrew Tootell's OzZen Podcast
280 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 months ago - ★★★★ - 2 ratingsFrom Australian Zen teacher Dr Andrew Tootell.
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Episodes
Meditation: Opening To Love, by Jack Wicks
March 05, 2024 00:00 - 43 minutes - 69.2 MBMeditation: Opening To Love, by Jack Wicks by Andrew Tootell
Meditation: Simple Mind
March 03, 2024 00:00 - 41 minutes - 65.8 MBAwakened awareness is not about special experiences – it is about recognising the simplest form of conscious experience that is available to everyone. Joko called it “Simple Mind”, Shunryu Suzuki called it “Beginners Mind” or we could simply call it awareness of awareness or “Pure Awareness”. We could say that the purpose of meditation, both silent and guided, is the process of dis-identifying from the suffering that is generated by identifying as a personal separate self with the flow of im...
Naming our experiences by Louise Shinsho
February 20, 2024 00:00 - 31 minutes - 50.3 MBThis guided meditation offers a chance to gain clarity around our thoughts and emotions. Taking a few deep breaths, we can name our experiences. Then we gain an opportunity to fully experience them without being overwhelmed by them. We can then move on the investigate them if it feels safe to do so. Remembering to nurture ourselves by coming back to the awareness of the breath.
2: The empty self
February 18, 2024 00:00 - 41 minutes - 66.6 MBThis session gives an introduction to the Buddha’s first discourse on Turning the Wheel of the Dharma. In this discussion we focus on the four truths or practices.
Meditation: Three Types Of Zazen
January 23, 2024 00:00 - 28 minutes - 46 MBIn this guided meditation Sono introduces three types of Zazen: Mindfulness of a mental object; Mindfulness of the field of all objects; and Just-Sitting
Indian Buddhist Philosophy: Progressive stages of insight into emptiness. 1: Philosophy as practice
January 21, 2024 00:00 - 44 minutes - 71 MBThis session gives an introduction to why it is important to study philosophy and an overview of the course.
1: Philosophy as practice
January 21, 2024 00:00 - 44 minutes - 71 MBThis session gives an introduction to why it is important to study philosophy and an overview of the course.
The Voice From The Heart, and the backlash to reconciliation
October 22, 2023 00:00 - 36 minutes - 58.4 MBIn this talk I reflect on the “Voice from the Heart”, why the referendum lost and what has to happen next. It provides a brief historical background to the Voice and it includes some reflections on the One and the Many from a Zen perspective and applies the concept of “spiritual bypassing” at the collective level when a nation denies the truth of its history. It concludes with the following quote from James Baldwin: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed un...
Meditation: Joyful Equanimity
October 08, 2023 00:00 - 42 minutes - 67.6 MBOur original nature can be described as Awareness or Heart-Mind. This Awareness that we are, which ultimately constitutes our original nature, has a number of essential qualities. As an introduction to this guided meditation, I discuss the four faces of Universal Love. In Buddhism they are called the Four Brahma Viharas (divine dwellings): In the language of the Buddha, these are metta, karuna, mudita, and upekkha. In English they are commonly known as loving-kindness, compassion or care, ...
Meditation: Deep Listening, by Louise Cranny
October 03, 2023 00:00 - 31 minutes - 50.4 MBThis talk guides us through a journey of embodying the connections we have with our place here …the earth, the elements, and the beings we share life energy with. Exploring the fundamental Buddhist truths that everything is connected and everything is impermanent. Being present with the emotions that arise and coming to the spaciousness that allows anything to be possible.
Meditation: Meeting The Way, by Jack Wicks
October 03, 2023 00:00 - 28 minutes - 45.3 MBThis meditation guides you from the experience of your breath to some old zen parables. The first story is a re-telling of “A Parable” from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki. Two koans are featured, both are from The Gateless Gate by Koun Yamada. These are, Case 30 “Mind is Buddha”, and Case 36 “Meeting a Man Who Has Accomplished the Way”. Influences for this talk are also SN Goenka and Paul McKenna.
Meditation: I Am, by Elisabeth
August 22, 2023 00:00 - 36 minutes - 58.4 MBThis guided meditation was taught by Gurdjieff to his students. Through each round of body sensing we are guided into self-remembering – the “I am” of awareness.
Meditation: Appreciate this life, by Sono
August 13, 2023 00:00 - 33 minutes - 54.3 MBThis guided meditation is all about finding or recognising and then stabilising in your essential nature, your inner “treasury”. I have titled the meditation “Appreciate this Life” after the book by the same title by Maezumi Roshi. Even though we cannot “see” our essential nature we can simply be, knowingly, our essential nature. We need to recognize our essential nature in this way. It doesn’t need to be a dramatic event. But it is always deeply wonderous
Yoga Nidra, by Joshu
August 08, 2023 00:00 - 35 minutes - 56.3 MBJoshu(Peter Thompson) founder of the Wombat Sangha in Sydney gives a introduction to the importance of Yoga Nidra practice and how it complements our Zen practice.
Meditation: Zazen Yoga Nidra
July 25, 2023 00:00 - 37 minutes - 59.6 MBZAZEN YOGA NIDRA This guided meditation integrates zazen and yoga nidra. Both zazen and yoga nidra are gateways into the subjective sense of the body and ultimately the realisation of self as nondual awareness.
The Evolution Of Zen, by Joshu
July 16, 2023 00:00 - 24 minutes - 39.2 MBJoshu (Peter Thompson) is a founding member of the Sydney Zen Centre and a founder of the Wombat Sangha based in Sydney. In this talk Joshu develops a founding narrative for contemporary Zen practice based upon Evolution. Joshu says, “An important part of the story and mystery of our evolution and being here is the existential reality of alienation and separation and anxiety seemingly caused by the emergence of the frontal neo cortex, bringing with it the human thinking mind ...This brought...
The view from awareness
June 18, 2023 00:00 - 39 minutes - 63 MBThis talk is continuing our conversation about nonduality. One of the core dualities we are trained into is subject and object duality. The theme of this talk – recognising our essential self as awareness – and some of the experiential exercises are taken from a book called “Standing as Awareness” by the nondual philosopher Greg Goode. Last month I spoke about the Koan of the goose in the bottle. This represents “normal” experience of duality – the goose in the bottle is a description of ...
Meditation: Simply Being
May 30, 2023 00:00 - 29 minutes - 47.6 MBThis guided meditation leads us into the non-duality of Simply Being through the gateless gate of silence.
The goose is out! Suffering and the end of suffering part 3
May 21, 2023 00:00 - 37 minutes - 60.5 MBThis talk, based on an old koan, continues our exploration of psychological or mind-generated suffering and the ending of this suffering through seeing how psychological suffering is always synonymous with getting caught in conventional duality of “me” and “not me” and not seeing from the alternative perspective of unbounded awareness. Here is the old koan. Lu Geng asked Nanquan: If someone puts a gosling into a bottle and feeds it until it is full-grown, how can they get the goose out withou...
Meditation: Zen spells, by Doshin
May 16, 2023 00:00 - 23 minutes - 37 MBIn this guided meditation Doshin leads us on a train ride through the desert and a beautiful rendition of the Heart Sutra – casting her “zen spells for slowing down” and bringing us into the heart of the now.
Two practices for ending suffering
May 06, 2023 00:00 - 43 minutes - 69.8 MBThis talk continues with the theme suffering and the ending of suffering. It introduces two complementary practices for ending suffering: self-inquiry and nonseparation.
Jukai talk, by Louise Cranny
May 05, 2023 00:00 - 18 minutes - 29.5 MBIn our OzZen sangha, when receiving the precepts, recipients also give a Jukai talk, reflecting on their experience of studying the precepts in the monthly study group over the past year. Recipients are encouraged to personalise their experiences.
Taking Refuge
May 04, 2023 00:00 - 28 minutes - 45.9 MBTonight, we will discuss the practice of “taking refuge” as it relates to the question of suffering and the ending of suffering. During discussion I want us to clarify the difference between psychological suffering and what we might describe as our natural emotional responses that arise from being creatures who become attached to each other. I don’t think that grief should necessarily be problematized, however, it can get complicated by the thinking mind. So, in some ways, I want to suggest...
Meditation: Ceaseless change turns the wheel of life
April 04, 2023 00:00 - 36 minutes - 59.2 MBHow do we find constancy amid constant change? When we let go of attachment to form: attachment and aversion, we find our freedom in the formless field of benefaction.
Meditation: Form and The Formless
April 02, 2023 00:00 - 37 minutes - 60 MBIf we are attached to form: body, feelings, perceptions, personality, as night follows day, we are going to suffer. Liberation from suffering is found through the gateway into the formless.
Meditation: Practicing Non-Attachment to Desire
March 31, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutes - 48.6 MBThe middle way practice of non-attachment to desire is not to give-in to desire or to repress desire. We allow desire to naturally arise and pass away, without clinging. Sometimes can do this and sometimes we can’t. Yet this is our practice.
Meditation: Activating the seeds of mindfulness, by Louise Cranny
March 28, 2023 00:00 - 33 minutes - 54.1 MBLike a weed, suffering seems to grow regularly and crosses our paths frequently. Often it is mildly annoying and occasionally it becomes troublesome and painful. Although suffering is inevitable, it is possible to activate the seeds of awareness by practicing the first eight of the Buddha’s foundations of mindfulness. Here we prime the ground for suffering to be transformed. Developing the art of suffering we can grow lotus flowers from the mud.
Meditation: Can You Find Yourself?
March 19, 2023 00:00 - 34 minutes - 55.7 MBBodhidarma sat facing the wall. The second patriarch [Shenguang, later called Huike], standing in the snow, cut off his arm and said, “Your disciple’s mind is not yet at peace. I beg you, Master, give it rest.” Bodhidharma said, “Bring your mind to me; I will put it to rest.” The patriarch said, “I have searched for the mind but have never been able to find it.” Bodhidharma said, “I have finished putting it to rest for you. From Case 41 of the Gateless Gate: Bodhidharma Puts the Mind to Rest....
Meditation: Awakening To Life
March 07, 2023 00:00 - 35 minutes - 56.8 MB“Each moment, Life as it is, the only Teacher”. In our tradition, we regularly acknowledge “Life” as it is as being our only teacher, but how often do we really appreciate how astonishing it is to be alive? This guided meditation is all about awakening to this wonder of being alive and truly appreciating our life, just as it is, here and now.
Core Beliefs and the Self-Centred Dream
January 22, 2023 00:00 - 39 minutes - 64 MBCore Beliefs and the Self-Centred Dream by Andrew Tootell
Meditation: Kindness and Self-Compassion, by Louise Cranny
December 23, 2022 00:00 - 39 minutes - 63.9 MBWe can only truly be open and loving when we are truly kind to ourselves. Here we explore some ways of bringing an inner smile into our lives and to observe how being compassionate brings happiness to both ourselves and others.
What is Enlightenment? Part 3
December 04, 2022 00:00 - 24 minutes - 39.6 MBIn this talk I return to the question, what is enlightenment? I begin with a working definition of enlightenment as a developmental process rather than a one-off event (or series of events). I then explore two primary lines of development: “know thyself” and “returning home” or “original OK-ness”.
Meditation: Sitting with Suffering, by Dr Rhys Price-Robertson
November 29, 2022 00:00 - 27 minutes - 44.3 MBIn this meditation Rhys leads us through an exploration of sitting with suffering because, as Rhys states, this is a lot of what sitting is. For all of us, for a fair bit of the time, this is what we’ll be doing when we practice Zazen: we’ll be sitting with some form of suffering, of discomfort, of dis-ease. Sometimes this suffering will be gross and obvious, like physical pain or emotional upset. At other times, perhaps a lot of the time, we’ll experience more subtle forms of suffering, like...
Meditation, Holding the self with love, by Jed Blore
November 15, 2022 00:00 - 36 minutes - 57.9 MBThis meditation focuses on the dance between being a separate self, bounded by the body, occupying a particular space-time point, and a self completely interdependent, depending on our environment, and our relationships. Dancing between the two, we hold these two seemingly paradoxical positions with love and compassion.
Meditation: I Am Mountain Part 2, by Pingala Walsh
October 18, 2022 00:00 - 36 minutes - 58.7 MBIn this second enchanting, guided meditation, Pingala explores again the mysterious heights and depths of the presence of mountains.
Meditation: Wild Swans
October 09, 2022 00:00 - 38 minutes - 61.4 MBThis meditation starts with a reading of the Wild Swans at Coole by WB Yeats as an introduction to the contemplation of “mujo” or impermanence. We then segue into a contemplation of finding our way home in the world.
What is Enlightenment? Part 2
October 08, 2022 00:00 - 31 minutes - 50.4 MBIn this talk I share some understandings of enlightenment that have in the context ongoing dialogue with Joko Beck through her books and Barry Magid as my teacher. I begin my discussing two common curative fantasies of what enlightenment is. I then share one understanding of enlightenment that is found in both Joko Beck and Barry Magid - what I will call our Original OK-ness – the sense of being at home in our world and being at home with others harmoniously. I finish with discussing enlight...
Meditation: Attending to the World
October 07, 2022 00:00 - 37 minutes - 59.4 MBThis guided meditation directs our attention to the quality of our attention to our experience. How our attention is uncovering reality. Zazen is a kind of experiential research into our experience of self and world that can be shared with others to arrive at common understandings. Attention can be understood as a form of taking care of ourselves and our world.
What is Enlightenment? Part 1
October 07, 2022 00:00 - 25 minutes - 40.1 MBIn this talk I introduce the proposal that we all must discover what enlightenment means to us. Like the historical Buddha, we must be a lamp unto ourselves, not accepting any authority other than the authority of our own experience refined in the context of dialogue with dharma friends.
Meditation: Self-acceptance, by Jack Doshin Wicks
September 13, 2022 00:00 - 42 minutes - 68.8 MBMost people, whether long-term meditators or not, engage in some kind of judgemental, negative, self-talk. We may not even be fully conscious of how we criticise ourselves and reject certain parts of ourselves. We are so used to doing it that we may not even know we are doing it. Sometimes it can be loud and sometimes very quiet and ubiquitous in the background of our psyche. This meditation is an invitation to notice this and to come to terms with and include all aspects of ourselves. ...
Meditation: I Am Mountain, by Pingala Walsh
September 13, 2022 00:00 - 39 minutes - 63.2 MBIn this enchanting guided meditation, Pingala invites us to experience ourselves as a Mountain.
Meditation: I Am Mountain Part 1, by Pingala Walsh
September 13, 2022 00:00 - 39 minutes - 63.2 MBIn this enchanting guided meditation, Pingala invites us to experience ourselves as a Mountain.
Meditation: Knowing How you Feel - The Vedanas or Feeling Tones, by Louise Cranny
September 06, 2022 00:00 - 38 minutes - 62.3 MBWhatever you experience may be looked at more deeply by acknowledging the feeling tone. Is it pleasant, unpleasant or neutral? Contact with the world through our senses generates a sensation. Just noticing without judging, this tonality really influences our life. Can we feel both pleasant and unpleasant at the same time? Does Neutral have a negative bias? Do feeling tones linger after the experience that triggered them? Being interested in the neutral, the non-eventful , the ordinary exper...
Meditation: 8 Wordly Winds, by Louise Cranny
May 31, 2022 00:00 - 39 minutes - 62.6 MBOutside the worldly winds are raging. Inside is peaceful and calm. Where are you when the winds blow? When we accept life as it is, right now, without complaining or trying to grasp for more, we come to peace and spaciousness. We come to a freedom, where we are more capable of both inner and outer change. Seeing the 8 worldly winds of the human condition, helps access this letting go of resistance to the present moment.
Meditation: The alternative practice principles
May 17, 2022 00:00 - 36 minutes - 58.2 MBNo longer caught in the self-centred dream. I have given up seeking, Content just to be With whatever this moment brings. This guided meditation is a contemplation on the alternative practice principles. A common error is often to take up practice as a means to an end, we often fall into the trap of thinking we practice in order to obtain enlightenment. This is the activity of the ego-self. Rather we sit zazen to express our already enlightened buddha mind. To be Buddha is to sit with thi...
Meditation: Sitting As One
May 07, 2022 00:00 - 35 minutes - 57 MBThis guided meditation continues our contemplation on the unity of boundlessness (Buddha) and form (Dharma) and the harmonising of this unity (Sangha).
The three treasures and the precepts
May 05, 2022 00:00 - 26 minutes - 42.6 MBIn this talk I focus on the three treasures and the three pure precepts and how an understanding of these precepts are essential to applying the ten grave precepts within the context of the koans of everyday life. The three treasures are the expression of the intrinsic nature or essential nature that the ten grave precepts are expressions of.
Meditation: Take the backward step
May 05, 2022 00:00 - 34 minutes - 55.8 MBIn this guided meditation I explore the three phases of zen meditation practice. Moving from focusing on an object, through to open awareness and finally objectless meditation (or shikantaza or silent illumination) or what Dogen called “taking the backward step” where all duality between observer and observed dissovlnes completely.
Meditation: Health through welcoming all of our selves, by Dr Jed Blore
May 03, 2022 00:00 - 30 minutes - 49.4 MBWe are always in the middle of life. Cultivating awareness of this most basic of facts can help to heal the damage that often arises from judging parts of our selves and our experiences. For example, every human has a desire for pleasantness and a desire to be free from pain. Judging this basic desire can do subtle violence to ourselves, banishing the parts of ourselves that we don't like or want. The alternative is an open-hearted, open-armed embrace of all parts of ourselves, and of life.
Meditation: Not-knowing, by Jack Wicks
April 19, 2022 00:00 - 36 minutes - 57.9 MBIn this guided meditation, Jack Wicks, an OzZen facilitator, takes us on a journey through the practice of not-knowing. Not-knowing is a zen approach to seeing our lives more clearly and liberating us from suffering. Not-knowing means seeing through our tendency to believe that our thoughts are always an accurate and helpful description of reality. This practice can help lead us to the realisation of emptiness of all phenomena and spiritual awakening.