Dharmavidya

Taking refuge in Vitoria

This evening we held a Buddhist refuge ceremony in Vitoria in Pais Vasco and some 15 people took refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Prior to the ceremony proper we had an extended session of nembutsu practice. There was an excellent spirit and much sense of joy and celebration. I think this will have been a significant boost for the local sangha and was a very fine event to participate in.

Weekend Workshop "A time to awaken"

This training workshop on Zen Therapy got off to a fairly low key start but built in intensity as the weekend went on. In the end it felt to have been a particularly good one. Achieving the shift away from trying to fix the client (the mechanical model) toward accompanying the growth of the whole person (the organic or holistic model) became an important theme. The motif of the charioteer was much used. The chariot has a charioteer and a number of horses. This is like the rational part of the person and the various emotions, instincts, apetites and unconscious dynamics. However, in the case of the human chariot, sometimes the horses know more than the charioteer. The aim of an Eastern style of psychology is to arrive at a harmonious balance between all the different parts and this involves listening to them all and facilitating them listening to one another.

Day at the seaside before starting work here in Galicia

    

No prize for guessing where I was this weekend

 

Visitor on my windowsill

Teaching the Other Centred Approach

This past Friday and Saturday I was leading a course for a room full of psychotherapists on Zen Therapy and Buddhist Psychology, especially emphasising the non-self nature of Buddhist thinking and object related work as a methodology. It was a group of mostly very experienced therapists and from the very beginning there was a high energy level in the group. It is a joy to work with a group with such enthusiasm for the business of professional growth.

Breakfast conversation number 108

We had an animated breakfast conversation. We started from the film that we watched a few days ago which was about originals and replicas and this led to a discussion of the arts. We talked about the possibility of doing some work toward a course on the history of Buddhist art. We talked about T.S.Eliot and the dialectic between classicism and romanticism, about modernism and post-modernism and about the felt need to make sense of what one is experiencing. This also led us on to talking about differences between cultures, especially those of north and south Europe and this led to some discussion of history, especially in the light of a recent local event to celebrate a historical event in which three young men held up one of the trains upon which the Germans were transporting Jews to Auschwitz. What lead people to collude, to ignore or to act? We talked a good deal about how historical events are perceived, about how the meaning given to something is contextual, about how a consequence of this is that the success of a venture of any kind, artistic, political or commercial, is substantially to do with positioning in relation to larger forces that have their own historical momentum. A wonderful, rich conversation.

Utrecht Weekend Retreat

This weekend past I was the guest teacher at Zentrum in Utrecht. We had a very stimulating time with a some strong dialogue between periods of zazen. What does it mean to be dogmatic? Does rejecting one dogma just throw one into another one? What is the shadow side of the teachings that we commonly encounter about awareness, non-duality, illumination and so on? Is Buddhism really the end of suffering? What sort of end? How is Buddhism different in the West and in the Far East? Why? Does Buddhism provide metaphysical comfort? I was pleased to find that this was a group enthusiastic to take on some of the difficult questions and to reflect constructively. I was also very comfortably hosted by wonderfully hospitable people. Many new friends. 

Forest walk in Flanders

       

Easter Retreat

At Zenshin-In in Oud Turnhout we had what turned out to be a wonderful gathering for our Easter Retreat. This was a Mondo Sesshin. Mondo refers to "question and answer" or to "gate and path". We had much sharing of Dharma in very personal ways and practised the formal ways of Mondo leading to some very touching moment. This is the kind of event that lends energy and momentum to the life of the sangha and this has been evident in the days following. Great to have been there.