Hiya and thanks for visiting the re-designed Zenways website and thankyou to Becky for the hard work of creating it. If you’re interested in having an ex-BBC web desgner working on your project, get in touch and I’ll pass your details on to Becky. I’d appreciate your comments on the site as there’s still lots of scope to develop, so let me know what works and what doesn’t for you.

     Other news? Zenways Yoga is now registered as a UK yoga school by international standards body, The Yoga Alliance. This means that if you do yoga teacher training with us, your qualification will be recognised in every country in the world – life as an international yoga teacher awaits…

      On the subject of yoga, we have an eight-week yoga course starting on sunday 6th July 3-4.30pm at SOS, 4 Hogarth Road, Earls Court in London. The eight classes cost £72 and there’s still a place or two available. If you’re too late for the first session, it’s still worth getting in touch as it may be possible to join late.

      Also, looking ahead to August, we have a retreat in the stunningly beautiful Scottish Highlands between the 26th and 31st. I’m excited about this retreat for two reasons. Firstly, it’s a golden opportunity to gain kensho – the blissful direct experience of your true nature. Secondly,  on top of our yoga and tai chi work, I’ll be unveiling the entire Rinzai Zen meditation system for the first time ever in Europe (as far as I can tell). The system as a whole develops your entire being – physical, mental, energetic and spiritual – the kind of platform we need to survive and thrive in this crazy world. You can email info@anamcara.orgfor more information. The retreat’s called, “Wake Up and Live”.

     Check back here soon, I’ll be updating regularly. Wishing you a summer full of wonderful things and unexpected joys.

                                                              Daizan

Hiya, hope the summer’s going well and, if you’re in the UK, avoiding this summer’s rain. Right now I’m in Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands and over the last few days the terrain has moved from mountains and trees – alpine style to huge open empty heather-covered open mountainous vistas. Often there’s not a house, not a fence in sight. Although people are pretty thin on the ground (did you know that there are more people in London than in the whole of Scotland?) it’s fantastic to be able to say that Scottish people are if anything even more generous and kind than English. When I get out my alms bowl, after a little bit, the food arrives. Yesterday a very simple girl put a sandwich in my bowl, looked at me and said, “Are you living in faith?”

“Yes,” I said, “I am.” And we smiled together.

More later,

Cheers Daizan

Thu 26 Jul 2007
Hiya and greetings from Scotland. I crossed the border yesterday and it was striking the imediate change in the landscape. I can hardly believe that the people of England have supported me on my journey the entire length of the country, but here we are despite daily rain and, in one place, waist-deep floods (someone was swept away and drowned the day after I came through). It’s hard to explain how much more connected to the land you feel when you’re actually imersed in it every step of the way, but I’m sure you can imagine. It’s even harder to work out how stepping into the place of “no visible means of support”, actually somehow generates a whole new beautiful pattern in your life. All I can really say is, if you have a dream, something you’ve been putting-off doing, something that’s really going to make you come alive – don’t wait too long. It might be more achievable than you think. When you move, the whole universe moves too. Who knows what is really possible.

Wishing you all the goodness of summer. More later.

Cheers Daizan