Auckland Zen Centre: Weekly Podcasts

Roshi Amala Wrightson on how to work with suffering. In this talk Roshi explores delusive strategies for getting off the wheel that just make things worse.Sources: Turning Suffering Inside Out -- a Zen approach to living with physical and emotional pain by Darlene Cohen Shambhala 2002Automated transcripthttps://otter.ai/u/2mNdeFQEqJOb2REwEE-s5wLK_No

Roshi Amala Wrightson on how to work with suffering. In this talk Roshi explores the ever-turning wheel of grasping and aversion, and the nature of dukkha (unsatisfactoriness) in the ups and downs of our everyday lives.Sources: Turning Suffering Inside Out -- a Zen approach to living with physical and emotional pain by Darlene Cohen Shambhala 2002Automated transcripthttps://otter.ai/u/ezQ7u6x6Gqkzu3WPwbvQWDJZH6g

An exploration of happiness by Roshi Amala Wrightson, touching on some aspects of the psychology of Alfred Adler, who is considered one of the three fathers of depth psychology, along with Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Source(s): The Courage to Be Happy: True contentment is within your power, by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga, Allen and Unwin 2016Automated transcripthttps://otter.ai/u/jHe5q-QrDI84neYX5Yb_1Me6GDo

An exploration of happiness by Roshi Amala Wrightson, touching on some aspects of the psychology of Alfred Adler, who is considered one of the three fathers of depth psychology, along with Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Source(s): The Courage to Be Happy: True contentment is within your power, by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga, Allen and Unwin 2016Automated Transcripthttps://otter.ai/u/T41TDJKC1vc6kLb8-ts31H2A_1k

A teisho by Roshi Amala Wrightson. When people hear of the 9th precept, "Not to indulge in anger but to practice forbearance" they often ask, "But what about injustice? There is so much to be angry about." The late Rita Gross, feminist scholar and activist, writes about how her response to injustice became clearer and more skilful after she took up meditation.Source(s): article "Meditation and Anger" in Being Bodies, Buddhist Women on the paradox of embodiment ed. Lenore Friedman and Susan Moon, Shambhala 1997.Automated transcripthttps://otter.ai/u/SVsLrD96vG_XkBTL2_wmEQyS9Ks

A teisho by Roshi Amala Wrightson. Comments on an introductory lecture to a group of lay practitioners by Rindo Fujimoto (1894-1974), a Sōtō Zen teacher who trained under Sogaku Harada (Rōshi Kapleau's first main teacher) and Tōin Iida.Source: The Way of Zazen by Rindo Fujimoto, translated by Tetsuya Inoue and Joshihiku Tanigawa, Cambridge Buddhist Association, 1961.Automated transcripthttps://otter.ai/u/ipz3LtXVUNSyfJ7W_jebPvn9nCU

A teisho by Roshi Amala Wrightson. Comments on an introductory lecture to a group of lay practitioners by Rindo Fujimoto (1894-1974), a Sōtō Zen teacher who trained under Sogaku Harada (Rōshi Kapleau's first main teacher) and Tōin Iida.Source: The Way of Zazen by Rindo Fujimoto, translated by Tetsuya Inoue and Joshihiku Tanigawa, Cambridge Buddhist Association, 1961.Automated transcripthttps://otter.ai/u/u7d3txnE38sJIHbv-S9nmWpVVkI

Each year AZC joins the global Earth Day celebrations, often marking the day with a one-day-sit. In this teisho Roshi Amala Wrightson introduces some prompts for sangha discussion of our thoughts and feelings about the state of the Earth in the light of the latest IPCC report, the wars in Ukraine and elsewhere, and other crises. (Discussion not recorded).Automated transcripthttps://otter.ai/u/V3of-qrsUhOCaP09w-AANfe_spk

How Zen masters approach death and how their dying can act as their final teaching. Shortly before his death, Master Mazu (Ma) and his attendant had this famous exchange, recorded in the Blue Cliff Record:Blue Cliff Record, Case 3Great Master Ma was unwell. The temple superintendent asked him, “Teacher, how has your venerable health been in recent days?” The Great Master said, “Sun Face Buddha, Moon Face Buddha.”In this Dharma talk given at the Auckland Zen Centre, Richard von Sturmer explores this exchange and what we can learn from it. Automated transcripthttps://otter.ai/u/dLq33lJrz09DGO_OCI6BP4KCCWc

In this teisho Roshi Amala Wrightson explores anxiety and panic. What about Greta Thunberg's "I want you to panic"? Is there anything beneficial about panic? What are the roots of fear, anxiety and panic?Sources: Light Comes Through by Dzigar Kongtrul, Shambhala 2008; Pan and the Nightmare by James Hillman and Wilhelm Roscher, Spring 2007Automated transcripthttps://otter.ai/u/BMNJNP8bGLfqYkdPMHwrZvm9G3E

In this teisho Roshi Amala Wrightson explores Buddhist approaches to anxiety and panic. Cutting through our deepest attachments and directly experiencing our inter-being with all phenomena is an antidote to our fears.Sources: Light Comes Through by Dzigar Kongtrul, Shambhala 2008Automated transcripthttps://otter.ai/u/_UeqhXuKPaEmU6VjZwMrmCSVwpU

In this teisho Roshi Amala Wrightson explores four constructive ways of working with panic attacks and acute anxiety so as to avoid falling further into the "fear-adrenalin-fear" vicious cycle.Sources: How I stopped my panic attacks by Yongey Mingyur Rimpoche in Lion's Roar January 28, 2022 and "I'm extremely controversial": The psychologist rethinking human emotion, by David Shariatmadari in The Guardian September 25, 2020. (The psychologist is Lisa Feldman Barrett.)Automated transcripthttps://otter.ai/u/wK-TQ5acwoxaHJUvPL2z_mygPag

Ceremony of Aid for Ukraine, conducted at the Auckland Zen Centre by Roshi Amala Wrightson.

Roshi Amala Wrightson shares some thoughts on practising with Parkinson's Disease, a neuro-degenerative disorder, and not getting caught up in our notions of "wellness", which always come with "illness"attached.Text(s): article "The only way I know of alleviating suffering" by Darlene Cohen, in Being Bodies eds Lenore Friedman and Susan Moon 1997.Automated transcripthttps://otter.ai/u/Ske7QXLte7FjVoSAyT31UIkFoq0

In this teisho Roshi takes up a koan from The Blue Cliff Record: "Everyone has their own light" (Hekiganroku # 86). Here is the case: Ummon said, "Everybody has their own light. Though when you try to see it, you cannot, everything is darkness. What is everybody's light?" Later he answered himself saying, "The temple storeroom, the tower gateway". He also said, "A precious thing isn't as good as nothing". Ummon presents our human predicament: We each have our own light but when we try to see it everything is dark. What is this light, and what is the darkness? How do we find our way?Source(s): The Golden Age of Zen by John C.H WuAutomated transcripthttps://otter.ai/u/Yn0cUA1CVjt87V_SsUdY4NFU9MU

The last of seven talks given by Roshi Amala Wrightson at the 2022 Auckland Zen Centre summer sesshin. In this teisho Roshi takes up a koan from The Blue Cliff Record: "The Hands and Eyes of the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion" (Hekiganroku # 89).How do we act with wisdom and compassion? Is it possible to grasp the truth 100 per cent?Automated transcripthttps://otter.ai/u/hFqPDZEkMk6QJXpipmyiSzDY9cU

The sixth of seven talks given by Roshi Amala Wrightson at the 2022 Auckland Zen Centre summer sesshin. In this teisho Roshi takes up a koan from The Gateless Gate (Mumonkan # 23).Myo, an ex-general, is stopped in his tracks by the 6th Ancestor, Huineng. What does he realise?Automated transcripthttps://otter.ai/u/sIqPid-iOweSisAHiAKCbuNB0hc

The fifth of seven talks given by Roshi Amala Wrightson at the 2022 Auckland Zen Centre summer sesshin. The inner critic and its disappearance in the face of unconditional love.Sources: Zen Bow article by Wes Borden, Summer 2018 and The Five Invitations by Frank OstaseskiAutomated transcripthttps://otter.ai/u/JEuFooEDCqRUya7RlBIEXCr18iA

The fourth of seven talks given by Roshi Amala Wrightson at the 2022 Auckland Zen Centre summer sesshin. Tangen-roshi's vow to become like a chair.Sources: Awaken to the True Self, https://www.rzc.org/news/awaken-to-the-true-self/Automated transcripthttps://otter.ai/u/Eena83iPhtMxX51ZvDDuNUF_wZw

The third in a series of seven talks given by Roshi Amala Wrightson during the 2022 Auckland Zen Centre summer sesshin. Karma is not a predetermined mold, "rather, by virtue of one's own efforts, it is possible to move, even just a step, closer to one's aim."Sources: Awaken to the True Self: https://www.rzc.org/news/awaken-to-the-true-self/Automated transcripthttps://otter.ai/u/5vjHiGyiDjKUeSQjFflKFI36NSI