Hiya, spring’s made it to London. Even though the trees are still leafless, the blossom’s out and the dafodills are trumpeting skywards. I’m getting things a bit more established here and have registered our London Zen meetings with meetup.com. It’s a great website. The way it works is, someone who has an interest sets up a meeting and fellow enthusiasts join up and they all then share their obsessions. If you’re interested in Star Wars or mecano or Brazilian Hiphop, fellow nerds are out there hoping to meet you. It’s fascinating to see what people are up to and you might find all kinds of kindred spirits. Check it out and if you have a moment, join our London Zen Group. It’s easy to do and, the more people who join, the more people want to join. Thanks, it all helps spread the word.

By the way – new email address. I got a bit fed up wading through the tidal wave of spam on Yahoo.

Have a great week,

Cheers Daizan

Hiya,
Hope all’s well with you. I’m still getting used to life after walking. The Isle of Wight to Cape Wrath route, right up the centre of Britain, wearing my monk’s robes and living out of my alms bowl, turned out to be a bit tougher than I expected. The week or so after the walk I felt absolutely feted by the people of Durness, the tiny village closest to my finish point. As I rested up and filled out again on full Scottish breakfasts, I was joined by Trysh, the Canadian writer who is making a book out of the whole event. We spent a week or so together, mapping out a plan for the book. There are various titles knocking about, my current favourite is “Seven Million Steps”. The writing is due to take ten months and a publisher called John Wiley is interested in it. So hopefully before long it’ll be on a bookshelf near you.

As we planned the book, I was very keen that it was your story. What I mean is that my experience of the journey confirmed for me the fact that kindness and generosity and goodwill are alive and well in Britain. Every step of the way was supported by that kindness in the most concrete way possible. So for me the walk was an ongoing good news story and it’s really that story that I want to highlight. In fact I don’t want to wait ten months to thank you for your support on so many levels. The whole experience coninues to be incredibly inspiring.

And now I’m mostly in and around London. I’m looking for a base. I want to make available these wonderful things that I’ve been priviliged to learn over the past sixteen years. I believe that not only can they transform individual lives, but that society as a whole will inevitably benefit from this transformation. If you know of anywhere that might serve as a base – even a little appartment or a room, I’d love to hear from you. I’ll keep you posted on developments.

Wishing you an ongoing experience of that underlying kindness and generosity every single day.

More later, cheers Daizan

Hiya, So – we’re past the solstice already – days getting lighter, spring on the wing and all that stuff. In the temple, it’s been so mild that our two new puppies, Taro and Jiro (half chihuaua and half bulldog) have been able to sleep outside. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been peed on in the last six weeks. As territory goes, I’m well and truly marked!

In the Zen school, December the 8th is when we remember the Buddha realising enlightenment. Have you recently (or ever) sat and watched the dawn. Perhaps you can imagine the wonder he felt as he saw the morning star fading into the sunrise and you can recognise the elation and awe in his saying, ‘I realise enlightenment together with the whole universe!’ The zen master I study with says we all experience these moments when we know that oneness. After all we are like it or not, always one with the universe, so it’s not that surprising. At those times, you can really feel like you’ve come home. And strangely enough, at those times, you don’t really have any problems.

So much of zen training revolves around the impossible problems they throw at you until you know how to handle them, and in the process, how to return home to your true place. Wonderful! Here’s wishing you at least a hundred of those wonderful moments every single day and a new year that just keeps on getting better. Looking forward to seeing you soon.

Cheers Daizan