We hold sitting meditation or 'Zazen' sessions every week on Thursday evenings in Bristol and London. Everyone is welcome.

Dogen Sangha Bristol The sittings in Bristol are held at 21 Melbourne Road, Bishopston.Click here for a map of how to get there

Dogen Sangha London The sittings in London are held at Bloomsbury Gallery.Click here for information

The session starts at 6:30pm with 25 minutes of sitting. Then we do 10 minutes of kinhin (slow walking) followed by another 25 minutes of Zazen. A talk and open discussion takes us to around 8pm.

If you have not practiced Zazen before, please come at 6:10pm for a short introduction to the practice.

Please wear loose, comfortable clothing. We ask people to contribute £5 (£3 for unwaged/students) per visit towards the cost of running the group

Zazen is the simplest form of action, when we are practicing Zazen we do not intentionally think about anything or concentrate on our feelings and perceptions. We sit in a simple non-discriminating state where our body-and-mind is balanced and undivided.

You will also find a detailed explanation of how to practice Zazen and kinhin in our online electronic booklet (Adobe Acrobat pdf format) “Introduction to Buddhism and the Practice of Zazen” that you can download by clicking on this link.

Talks

Talks cover the main principles of Buddhist philosophy and the place of Buddhism in the modern world. You can download transcripts of some of these talks, and some other articles (in Adobe Acrobat pdf format) from this page:

• Modern Interpretation of the Heart Sutra
• Sanskrit Translation of the Heart Sutra
• What did Gautama Buddha discover?
• Oneness and Mindfulness in the Teachings of Zen Master Dogen
• Buddhism and the Theory of No-Self
• Lectures on the Nature of Experience
• Understanding the Shobogenzo
• The Four Views in Buddhism
• Action as the Centre of Buddhism
• Right and Wrong: A Talk on Buddhist Morality
• Reality is the Present Moment
• The Meaning of the Buddhist Precepts
• Practice and Theory in Buddhism
• Interview on Radio Bristol

Click here to access our transcripts page with commentaries on the Shobogenzo chapters