Samantabhadra – Awakening Activity

From Saturday 15 June to Saturday 27 July, we will meet on a weekly basis to sharpen and deepen our practice together, exploring what it is to realise awakened activity. This might include right livelihood, eco-dharma, relationships and physical activity.

• You will be encouraged to keep a journal to help deepen your practice.
• No pre-reading or preparation is required for the weekly meetings.

Practice Period Teacher – Kirk Fisher Roshi

Questions? Contact Kirk, Kerrin and Tess at mzgbooking@gmail.com

Meeting times and zoom links
Google Group discussion forum
Journaling
Dharma sharing guidelines
Kirk’s recorded talks
Dokusan with Kirk
Other MZG practice opportunities
Dana for Kirk and MZG Bowl Money

Meeting times and zoom links

This practice period has three different venues.

Please use the right Zoom links!

• CERES dojo – how to get to the CERES dojo

• Saturday Zoom Zendo link (password = zazen)

• Sunday Zoom Room link (password = zazen)

15 June – Saturday zazenkai – 10am to 1pm
CERES and Saturday Zoom Zendo – Introduction to our theme

23 June – Sunday evening Zoom – 7pm to 8:30pm
Sunday Zoom Room

29 June – Saturday zazenkai – 10am to 1pm
CERES and Saturday Zoom Zendo

7 July – Sunday evening Zoom – 7pm to 8:30pm
Sunday Zoom Room

14 July – Sunday evening Zoom – 7pm to 8:30pm
Sunday Zoom Room

21 July – Sunday evening Zoom
Sunday Zoom Room

27 July – Saturday zazenkai – 10am to 1pm

CERES and Saturday Zoom Zendo – Conclusion and celebration

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Google Group discussion forum

This forum is a place to share your Awakening Activity explorations outside our scheduled meetings. Participation is optional. Forum participants will automatically receive daily ‘digest’ emails of all posts made to the forum over the past 24 hours. These digests are sent to the email address that you use to login to your Google account. Not receiving the digest emails? Check your spam folder.

Please follow Dharma sharing principles when you post to the forum.

To post to the forum –

• make sure you’re logged in to your Google Account
• go to https://groups.google.com (or click on the link in the daily digest email)
• choose ‘Awakening Activity’
• read and reply to posts
• to start a new thread, click on the big ‘new conversation’ button at the top left of the screen

Tech trouble? Email mzgbooking@gmail.com with ‘Tech Trouble’ in the subject line.

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Journaling

Journaling is a way of using the written word to tap into your thoughts, feelings and reflections. It can bring a sense of enquiry and openness to your practice and deepen your experience.

Some words from Kirk on journaling –

There’s no right way or wrong way to practice journaling. Show up and do this every day for a while and see what happens. When I journal, I often find clarity, new ideas, or terrible ideas that have a spark of light in them. You might write about a new koan, or a question you are holding. I also journal when I am working on a teisho or an article.

You might find it helpful to set a timer at the beginning, as a container. Keep writing. If you don’t know what to write, write that. Gradually move your timer longer and longer as you found the ability to flow and immerse. You can ‘speed write’, or you can remain timeless.

Experiment with this. Sometimes you will find that the first few minutes come from your ‘doing’ mind. There, your previous beliefs and thoughts come out. It takes a few more minutes to get to the point where these are exhausted. Then you start to draw from your well of not-knowing. That’s when the unusual, the creative, the long-buried and forgotten material emerges.

Julia Cameron (The Artist Way) suggests you write three ‘morning pages’ first thing in the morning. This could be any time of day, of course. Just write, write, write, and don’t lift your pen from the paper. It’s stream of consciousness. Don’t hold any expectations. Don’t write for any audience except yourself. You don’t need to keep these pages or show them to anyone else. You can even throw them away. 

Natalie Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones) gave advice about tools. Get a pen with a smooth stream of ink. I use a fountain pen. Barack Obama uses pilot gel fine point. Use a dedicated notebook that you like writing in. Make it enjoyable. 

You may want to look back, every once in a while, and see how your writing style changes. Some words may appear often for a period of time. The feel of writing this may change. Just like zazen! Journaling teaches journaling.

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Dharma sharing

At each of our meetings, there will be opportunities to share our explorations of awakening activity through dharma sharing, a form of mutual deep listening. Kirk will start each dharma sharing period by offering an idea or seed of thought to contemplate from a place of practice. When participating in dharma sharing, please keep these principles in mind –

• Speak from your own experience and from the heart.
• Listen deeply.
• When responding to others, speak from your resonance with what someone said (what it brings up in you) rather than interpreting or analysing their contribution, or giving unsolicited advice.
• Keep what is shared confidential – do not share it outside the time and place in which it is offered. 

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Kirk’s recorded talks

Week one – Samantabhadra: Awakening Activity (32 min)

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Week two – Trusting life (21 min)
If you missed this week’s Zoom meeting, you may also find it helpful to read Kirk’s words on journaling.

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Week three – How can you know the dancer from the dance? (36 min)
Audio recording of Kirk’s talk on 29 June 2024 at CERES during the End of Month Zazenkai.

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Week five – Practicing the Way in times of difficulty (26 mins)

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Week six – Being human is not a problem (18 mins)

Week seven – Becoming Fetchable: What does it mean to live by vow? (30min)

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Dokusan with Kirk

Dokusan is an optional opportunity to speak privately with a Zen teacher about your practice. There will be opportunities, throughout the practice period, to meet with Kirk for dokusan at CERES and also by phone.

More information about dokusan, including available times

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Other MZG practice opportunities

We encourage you to use this Winter Practice Period as a prompt to dive deep into the Melbourne Zen Group’s regular calendar of events.

All Zoom links for our regular events are on the MZG online page.

• Early morning weekday zazen – online only
  • Mon to Fri – 6:25am to 7am
  • Mon, Wed, Fri – 8:25am to 9am

• Saturday morning group zazen – 10am to 12pm – CERES and online

• Tuesday evening group zazen – 6:30pm to 8:30pm – CERES and online

• Friday 19 July Full Moon Precepts zazenkai – 6pm to 8pm – online only

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Dana for Kirk and MZG Bowl Money

There is no fee for the practice period. We invite you, however, to offer dana to Kirk, acknowledging the gift of teaching. We also invite you to make a small contribution to the MZG’s ‘Bowl Money’.

Kirk offers teaching as dana, the practice of giving and mutual generosity. To support Kirk’s teaching, you can offer dana to Kirk’s account –

E. Kirk Fisher
Bendigo Bank
BSB: 633000
Acc: 123399107 

Bowl money helps the MZG cover costs such as our Zoom subscription, CERES fees, and other group overheads. Our usual recommendation for bowl money contributions, for people who attend our weekly sits, is $5 per week or $3 concession. Across the 7 weeks of the Practice Period, this would work out as $35 or $21.

You can offer bowl money in the bowl put out at CERES sits, or EFT it directly to the MZG bank account using the reference bowl money.

Melbourne Zen Group
Westpac Bank
BSB: 033157
Acc: 169905

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