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2020 Term 3 Koans Online Zen Group Roshi Susan Murphy Sensei Kynan Sutherland Talks Teachers

‘One appropriate response’

Talk #2 from Term 3 of our Online Zen Group for 2020. Click here for other talks in this series.

Teacher: Roshi Susan Murphy
27 September 2020

Click on the recording below to listen to this talk now. We will upload a transcription when it becomes available. ()

zen open circle · One appropriate response
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Sesshin Uncategorized

Dana

Please use the following details to contribute dana for our teachers.

Roshi Susan Murphy

Dr Susan J Murphy
BSB 062192
AC 00666235

Sensei Kynan Sutherland

Kynan Sutherland
BSB 633000
AC 154909386

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2020 Term 3 Eco-Dharma Koans Online Zen Group Roshi Susan Murphy Talks Teachers

‘All through the body are hands and eyes’

Talk #1 from Term 3 of our Online Zen Group for 2020. Click here for other talks in this series.

Teacher: Roshi Susan Murphy
13 September 2020

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zen open circle · All through the body are hands and eyes
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2020 Term 2 Black Lives Matter Covid-19 Eco-Dharma Online Zen Group Roshi Susan Murphy Sand Talk Talks Teachers

‘Guilty as charged’

Talk #6 from Term 2 of our Online Zen Group for 2020. Click here for other talks in this series.

Teacher: Roshi Susan Murphy
23 August 2020

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zen open circle · Guilty as charged
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Dawn Dojo Koans Roshi Susan Murphy Sensei Kynan Sutherland Talks Teachers

Dawn Dojo #5: Encouraging Words | 108 Bells

Talks and 108 Bells, from our 5th and final fullmoon gathering of the Dawn Dojo for 2020. Click here for other talks in this series.

Teachers: Roshi Susan Murphy (Part 1) & Kynan Sutherland (Part 2)
6am | 4th August 2020

Click on the recordings below to listen to the talks from this gathering. We will upload a transcription when it becomes available. ()

zen open circle · Dawn Dojo #5: Encouraging Words
zen open circle · Dawn Dojo #5: 108 Bells and Concluding Remarks
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Dawn Dojo Social Action Words

Dawn vigils for kunanyi

A report from Ross Coward

A small band of concerned citizens, meeting under the auspices of the community group, Residents Opposed to the Cable Car, ROCC, formulated an action plan in early 2019 to protest against the Cable Car project by holding vigils in the area on the mountain summit where the proponents want to build a pinnacle centre . A number of vigils were held during 2019, some at dawn, some at sunset, one on a Sunday afternoon and one evening on the lawns outside Parliament House. These vigils have been symbolic but powerful statements made by us-two as a protest against the Cable Car project and as a mark of respect for this place that we love. 

We meet on the summit 30 minutes before the scheduled start then clamber down a rocky path to take up our positions. Eight sentinels, mainly women, dressed in red or pink or orange cloaks, stand upright on proposed drill sites (located by GPS). The bell ringers, two mountains & rivers zen practitioners, take up their positions, about 100m apart. A photographer moves around to document each vigil. On one dawn occasion a renowned wilderness photographer used a drone to take aerial shots. Sometimes vigils had to be cancelled when the mountain road was closed due to weather conditions, ice or snow. A few observers watch from a viewing platform above where the vigil takes place.

At the appointed time, the first appearance of the sun disc, three bells are rung. The morning light is spectacular. The proclamation is read aloud, for the mountain to hear us, for us to hear the mountain, to see the mountain, for those whose ears are deaf, we make this statement. Then 108 bells with a call and response dance between the two bell ringers. The bells resonate from bell to bell, from dolerite boulder to dolerite boulder, from me-to-you, and back again. As the final bell fades away we remain in silent repose for two minutes. The sentinels are magnificent, facing towards the east, their powerful silent statement flows down to the city below.

It is exhilarating being here on this high place, alone and with others, feeling the breeze, the cool air, seeing the formations of cloud above, below. Then we pack up, have a short de-brief in the summit shelter, and leave. This was a satisfying thing to have done.

The pic of the dawn vigil on Monday 7 January 2020 was the last vigil we have done and coincided when the proponents were submitting their latest documentation to the Hobart City Council. Covid-19 has been a stopper.

waiting for the bell
the green mountain walks east
a currawong calls

()
Ross

Categories
Eco-Dharma Social Action Words

Proclamation: keep kunanyi wild and natural

This is a proclamation that is read as part of the Dawn Vigils for kunanyi in Tasmania. Click here to read a report from Ross Coward about those vigils...

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Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge that every place within this island lutruwita/Tasmania, is not a ‘thing’ but country – a lived mystery of the sentient kinship that creates every detail of place, held in mind and tended by the tens of thousands of generations of people who walk before and with us, the muwinina (moo-we-nin-ah) and pal-a-wa people. We just accept our indebtedness to them, past, present and future, with respect and gratitude for this 40,000-year deep tap-root in time and refined awareness.

———————————

We, as citizens of this city, nipaluna/Hobart, oppose and deplore this proposed cable car development on this mountain by the Mount Wellington Cableway Company.

We deplore this proposed development which is planned to run from South nipaluna/Hobart to the summit of kunanyi/Mt Wellington.

We deplore the loss of the grand and open views to the east from the summit. And we deplore the loss of the uncluttered views from the city to the mountain.

We deplore the gift of public land for this cable car enterprise and pinnacle centre which will destroy this ancient alpine garden and boulder field and subsequent loss of habitat. This mountain and the views to and from the mountain are not to be ‘gifted’ to private entrepreneurs seeking to exploit and profit from its beauty.

This private enterprise is not welcome on the people’s mountain.

This mountain is our home, Palawa and Tasmanian.

This mountain is our place.

This mountain is for all people.

This mountain belongs to everyone.

When Peter Dombrovskis spoke of kunanyi/Mt Wellington, it was that “It’s value is as a place where all people can come and know its wildness.”

We will continue to make our voices heard.

We will defend this mountain, the people’s mountain, our mountain, from this cable car enterprise that has no place on this mountain.

We ask that all citizens respect this mountain.

We ask for kunanyi to be allowed to remain wild and natural and as a place of refuge for plants, animals and humans alike.

We stand here today to bear witness, to hold this vigil, to protest against this proposal that is not wanted on this mountain – kunanyi.

Categories
Images Poetry

Porous

By ~ Warren Summers

Bodies are porous:
Things go in,
Things go out,
Things go through.
Constantly.
Despite our efforts
To block, to pause, to bind, to insulate, to mask, to purify:
Bodies remain porous.

Hearts are porous:
Things go in,
Things go out,
Things go through,
Constantly.
Despite our efforts
To be reasonable, to be rational, to be logical:
Hearts remain porous.

Nations are porous:
Things go in,
Things go out,
Things go through.
Constantly.
Despite our efforts
To draw lines on maps, to police, to punish
To build, to reinforce, to mythologise, to manage, to expand:
Nations remain porous.

Planets are porous:
We go through them,
They go through us.
We go through us,
They go through them.
This going through
neither begins nor ends,
neither starts nor stops,
leaves no trace,
and yet makes all things possible.

The Self is a porous planet:
Heart beating in a failed State
A flimsy body infected with story
A song bordered with a desperate hope.
An unthing undone in the morning,
A mirage of a mystery at midday,
A phantom of darkness at sunset,
And flicker of fury in the evening.

We go in,
We go out,
We go through.
Constantly.
Despite our efforts
To sate, to soothe, to explain, to express,
To imagine, to know, to realise:
The self is a porous planet
Filled with stars.

And the stars are a porous promise:
Of brightness poured forth across a billion billions;
The moon lit with yesterday’s news,
Grown gardens arise from the ashes.
Such is the peculiar invention
The shadows remorseless revision
The fright, the diagnosis, the laughter,
The witness, the dancer,
The end.

Categories
2020 Term 2 Black Lives Matter Covid-19 Eco-Dharma Koans Online Zen Group Roshi Susan Murphy Sand Talk Talks Teachers

‘Tell me, who is that other?’

Talk #5 from Term 2 of our Online Zen Group for 2020. Click here for other talks in this series.

Teacher: Roshi Susan Murphy
8 August 2020

Click on the recording below to listen to this talk now. We will upload a transcription when it becomes available. ()

zen open circle · 'Tell me, who is that other?'
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Dawn Dojo Koans Roshi Susan Murphy Sensei Kynan Sutherland Talks Teachers

Dawn Dojo #4: It’s Alive | Song of Zazen

Talks from our 4th fullmoon gathering of the Dawn Dojo. Click here for other talks in this series.

Teachers: Roshi Susan Murphy (Part 1) & Kynan Sutherland (Part 2)
6am | 4th August 2020

In this talk our teachers both mention Hakuin’s ‘Song of Zazen’. You can read the full text of the Song of Zazen here.

Click on the recordings below to listen to the talks from this gathering. We will upload a transcription when it becomes available. ()

zen open circle · Dawn Dojo #4: It's Alive
zen open circle · Dawn Dojo #4: The Dawn Chorus