Monthly ZP Upaya Workshop Begins

 

This evening we held the first of our new monthly Zen Peacemakers Upaya Workshops, in the beautiful old Bishop Lloyd's Palace building in Chester City Centre.  "Upaya" is a word meaning something like "effective method" or "tool" in the Buddhist tradition.  These evenings will be a way to explore together the variety of practices and tools that are coming to us through the existing Zen Peacemakers tradition, and also to develop new upayas in response to challenges and opportunities arising for us now.

Tonight we opened with a discussion about "what we each think is NOT Zen" - looking at our preconceptions, right or wrong, so we can begin training with and open mind and an awareness of our ideas.  Next we explored shikantaza instructions together, and a little mindfulness practice.  We had another discussion, on the Three Tenets of the Zen Peacemakers - Not Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Loving Action.  We finished with Council Circle training, using a quote from the late Shunryu Suzuki Roshi as a theme for Council:

"Each one of you is perfect the way you are and you can use a little improvement."

The next Upaya Workshop will be Tues 10th December from 7pm-10pm in the same venue.

Street Circle for Jennie

 

We held a wee Street Zen circle yesterday to welcome back Jennie from her new home in Belfast (she's back for her graduation from Chester Uni this week.)  Here she is sitting in one of the alcoves of the ruined Norman Cathedral, about 6 feet up in the air!  It's good that we have this street practice now as a way of linking in to each other and welcoming someone back.  There's almost a kind of shamanic feel about it, sitting outdoors in all weathers with the energy of the city going on all around us...

Rumi Reflection Group back for the Autumn...

 

Andy (left) from our Zen Peacemaker Circle has offered to start hosting a regular "Rumi Reflection Group" like we offered earlier in the year. He began yesterday evening, meeting in Starbuck's in Chester, and I think it'll be nearly every week. Like before, he'll bring along a poem by the Persian Sufi poet Rumi, and we'll read it together and use it as a starting point for reflecting on our own lives and their value, challenges and inspirations...

He began with a poem "Love is the Master":

Love is the One who masters all things;
I am mastered totally by Love.
By my passion of love for Love
I have ground sweet as sugar.
O furious Wind, I am only a straw before you;
How could I know where I will be blown next?
Whoever claims to have made a pact with Destiny
Reveals himself a liar and a fool;
What is any of us but a straw in a storm?
How could anyone make a pact with a hurricane?
God is working everywhere his massive Resurrection;
How can we pretend to act on our own?
In the hand of Love I am like a cat in a sack;
Sometimes Love hoists me into the air,
Sometimes Love flings me into the air,
Love swings me round and round His head;
I have no peace, in this world or any other.
The lovers of God have fallen in a furious river;
They have surrendered themselves to Love's commands.
Like mill wheels they turn, day and night, day and night,
Constantly turning and turning, and crying out.