Morning sanzen

The Master is waiting in the garden,

adorned by mischievous snowflakes.

He sits as still as a great mountain:

so his ancestors did,

and his descendants will.

A deep bow –

a swift, ephemeral exchange

and snowflakes stop in midair.

A deep bow –

the immortal ritual is accomplished and gone,

the garden is transformed by the fallen snow.

***

Another winter day

A grey morning mists my eyelashes

Red fruits hanging on bare branches

Glitter festively through droplets

***

New Year’s Eve

Strong wind dispersed the rain clouds

A full moon coasts across clear sky

Tantalisingly high.

***

New Year’s Day

Still winter but pale blue sky

Whispers the promise of spring soon to come,

When I can wander, carefree and light

Hearing the enchanted flute notes

Under familiar stars.

Hope you’re managing to beat this bitter winter. Here are  a couple of firey pictures to help things along. This is Shinzan Roshi conducting a goma, a fire ceremony.

More commonly associated with the esoteric Tendai and Shingon Buddhist schools in Japan, the goma also occurs in Zen.

And this is new year sunrise from Mount Sinai taking on our recent yoga holiday in Egypt.  Keep warm and best wishes  Daizan

Happy New Year! We’re just back from our winter yogabreak in Egypt. Highlights include morning yoga in the sunshine and by candlelight in the evenings. We climbed Mount Sinai in the moonlight and watched the most awe-inspiring new year’s dawn from the peak. And then there was the Indian Ocean snorkling! One of the students compared it to diving into a tropical fishtank. Are we going back next year? You betcha!

With this being the time of new starts, I’ve had a lot of requests for information about Zen Yoga. What actually is it? So here’s a definition. What I teach is primarily based around the yoga I learned during my eighteen or so years of monastery practice. The style emphasises physical alignment, the flow of energy in the body and your quality of awareness. Mindfulness of the body is one of the four practices  taught by the Buddha that lead directly to enlightenment. Each pose brings new parts of the body into focus so that we can become aware of any tightness or restriction. As we bring our awareness to these areas of tension they immediately start to shift and release. The great Zen master ‘Hakuin’ taught that Buddhas are like water and ordinary people are like ice.  Zen yoga practice melts away the tightness and resistance that prevents us from enjoying the flow of liberation. If you’d like to experience Zen Yoga practice, click here http://www.zenways.org/?page_id=15   and if you might be interested in teaching Zen yoga, click here http://www.zenways.org/?page_id=223

Hope that makes sense. Wishing you a truly liberating 2010. Looking forward to seeing you soon.

Daizan