Teisho #2 from Term 1 of Taking Part in the Gathering 2021. Click here to listen to other talks from this event.
Teacher: Roshi Susan Murphy
28 March 2021
Click on the recording below to listen to this talk now. We will upload a transcription when it becomes available. ()
Teisho #1 from Term 1 of Taking Part in the Gathering 2021. Click here to listen to other talks from this event.
Teacher: Roshi Susan Murphy
14 March 2021
Click on the recording below to listen to this talk now. We will upload a transcription when it becomes available. ()
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
Click on the recording below to listen to this talk now. We will upload a transcription when it becomes available. ()
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
Click on the recording below to listen to this talk now. We will upload a transcription when it becomes available. ()
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...
————————————
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.
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. ()
By ~ Lizzie Finn | Click here to download this piece as a PDF
When I first started announcing Community Wildlife Corridor hand weeding events last year at the end of our Zen group sits in Western Australia, I felt a little silly. I thought an invitation to hand weed on a relatively small area of land might be considered a little bizarre as an environmental action project for the Zen group, given the huge damage to the global environment and its inhabitants with associated climate change. ‘What difference is that going to make?’ was the question I figured people might be asking in their heads, and this question is the question underpinning this writing.
Like me, everyone in the Zen Open Circle group is likely to have experienced an ongoing sense of grief, distress, worry and powerlessness in the face of endless news about practices such as widespread destruction of rainforests and land clearing. These leave native animals homeless and very possibly facing extinction. The recent fires in the Eastern States of Australia, which devastated the bush and its inhabitants, are a grim reminder of the effects of climate change. Associated climate warming now urgently threatens the biodiversity which sustains all life on our planet with a recent Global Assessment report concluding that 25% of plant and animal species are threatened with extinction as the result of human activity.
These facts are both alarming and overwhelming in the sense of asking the question, ‘What can we do about it? What can I do about it?’ At Zen Open Circle extended practice events and after every Taking Part in the Gathering meeting we sing the Great Vow ‘the many beings are numberless, I vow to save them’, but how on earth do you do that when everything seems to be falling apart?
As you would be aware, a drop in the ocean means ‘a very small amount, or a drop, compared to the amount needed’. The ocean and a drop of water are also metaphors used in Zen teaching as a way of referring to the great mystery which we explore in our practice…
Talk #6 from Term 1 of our Online Zen Group for 2020. Click here for other talks in this series.
Teacher: Roshi Susan Murphy
Click on the recording below to listen to this talk now. We will upload a transcription when it becomes available. ()
by ~ Karen Fermin
Viewing notes: Please watch this with sound on.
We live with a stunning specimen from the plant world who I’ve named Eptasia. Or Epa for short.
Epa is a cactus which belongs to the night-blooming Cereus family.
I’m not sure what their botanical name is… perhaps someone knows and can let me know.
Epa was a gift from the former tenants of our home.
They gifted it to us as they were moving overseas (5 years ago) and couldn’t take it with them. They took a cutting and planned to grow another one in their new home. They had received it as a wedding present a few years earlier. We’re still in touch and I still send photos of Epa to them and we both continue to be nourished by our sweet connection.
Eptasia is a derivative of the greek word for 7 (epta). A cross section of one of Epa’s limbs would reveal a 7 pointed flower-like shape.
Epa is a steadfast companion for me. Along with the sun, the moon, the stars and the breeze.
One morning I wrote this after coming out to witness one of the flowers at dawn.
Night melts into day
Darkness into light
Many buds
Blossoming
From tough skin and prickles
I feel like this. Blossoming, from tough skin and prickles.
I hope you enjoy these recordings.
With love
Karen
by ~ Lizzie Finn
on a day of human crisis
sweeping fallen pollen,
a carpet of yellow
on the ground by the tree
……waking up slow-ly
to the vibrant buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
of hundreds of bees
swept up… swept clean away
in this sound of rapid wingbeats
a doorway to our shared home
where time stands still
just buzzzzzing ….
full and complete
the deep hummmm of the earth
no crisis here for bees
serving the tree that serves them so well
gentle visitors moving deftly
each twig and leaf lightly touched,
each one working with single purpose
no effort or complaint
Just This….. collecting pollen for the queen bee’s nest
obeying the careful law of mother earth
my heart is warmed
….all is well in this endless bee moment
and now as I return,
a great tenderness and curiosity
I wonder where they live….?
….it must be nearby………