Movie Night - Last Saturday of each month at 7.00pm

Starting on 26th September we will be hosting a movie on the last Saturday of each month at St John Hall, Corlea Gardens at 7.00 pm
The films discussed will generally have a zen or Buddhist tinge.
The first one will be Raising The Ashes , a documentary film made by Michael O'Keefe. In it he records events at a retreat led by Bernie Glassman Roshi on the site of Auschwitz, the former nazi extermination camp in Poland.
As it happens the site Auschwitz was aquired by the nazis and designated a concentration camp in September 1939, seventy years ago.
Most people find it an intense and moving film. It raises many issues about intolerance and the process of healing which have relevance to divided societies like our own.
You can see a clip from Raising the Ashes by clicking here

SITTING TIME NOW 7.15 PM ON SUNDAY

STARTING ON SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 13 2009 THE WEEKLY SITTING WILL BE AT 7.15 pm. PLEASE TRY TO COME A LITTLE EARLY TO HELP WITH SETTING UP AS WE WILL BE STARTING SHARP ON 7.15.

GUIDELINES FOR GROUP PRACTICE

1. Try to arrive a little early to help with setting up the room and help put things back before you go.



2. Do not take food, drinks, bags or other belongings to your seat in the zendo. These can safely be left on the chairs at the top of the classroom or on the stage in the big the hall.



3. If you arrive after zazen has started wait outside the zendo until kinhin. Then join the group as quietly as possible.



4. Once the altar is set up observe silence within the zendo until the end of the sitting. (Its OK to talk when arranging the room before and after zazen or if there is in an emergency.)



5. Enter the zendo and get seated shortly before the sitting. The Jikko (practice leader) or the Doan (person ringing the bells) will give a sign a couple of minutes before the start time.



6. Try to remain physically still throughout the sitting. If you do have to move do so mindfully.



7. If you feel unwell bow and leave the zendo quietly. If you need help tell the Jikko. Don’t consult a watch during sitting. Its best not to wear one.

MICHAEL LUETCHFORD ON BALLYMENA VISIT

The following is an e-mail interview between Michael Eido Lutechford and Stephen Royle of the Ballymena Guardian:-

First off, could you outline briefly what anybody attending the Saturday talk and then the Sunday session can expect. Could you explain a little what Zen entails, what people gain and learn from it and the approach to meditation that you take?

In my talk on Saturday, I am planning to talk about my own experience with going to Japan in the 1970’s and coming back unexpectedly 20 years later as a Buddhist teacher. Zen is the Japanese form of Buddhism transmitted through China in the 9th century that is based on practicing “zazen”, which is a form of sitting practice (I don’t like the word “meditation” since there are rather large differences between some kinds of meditation and zazen). Zen is not really a religion in the usual sense of the word, because it is based on a physical practice to balance the mind and body.

So practicing zazen is one aspect of Zen. And the other is studying the philosophy of Buddhism, which teaches people how to live by following a middle way between extremes. This will be the theme of my talks at the session on the Sunday. I think that this theme is particularly appropriate in Northern Ireland, where as a society you have recently found a middle way between extremes in a major way.

Someone who attends the talks and the session will find some unusual views put across that are not religious in the normal sense of the term, and they will find the Sunday session physically challenging in the same way as going on a day hike might be. Sitting in zazen for around 4 hours in total is actually quite energetic, and is to some extent an exercise in self-control. Having said that, I never force anyone to sit in zazen and people are free to stop if they find the practice difficult. But practicing zazen is a kind of training, so perseverance is quite useful. Hopefully, anyone who comes to the talk on Saturday and the session on Sunday will feel happy and relaxed on Sunday evening, as if they have come back to the simple and satisfied state we enjoy as children, and dropped off all worries and concerns for a day. It is a kind of centring of body and mind.

If somebody is considering coming along, what would convince them to attend?

Difficult question. I don’t know the answer. Sometimes people come to a talk or one-day session and seem really enthusiastic, but then I never see them again. I think that people in the modern world are searching for a way of life that makes sense to them personally. But human beings are very complicated creatures. Actually I don’t try to persuade people to attend and I don’t follow them if they don’t come again. It sounds rather a lame way to go about it, but it is important for people to decide for themselves if something is valuable for them, without any persuasion. So I am not evangelical in any sense.

I also understand that Zen can be practised by anybody of any belief system, and you do not need to be a Buddhist to take part. Could you elaborate a little on this?

Yes, since Zen is based on a physical-mental practice and doesn’t worship any particular being or god, anyone can take part. The philosophy of Buddhism is about how to live in this world in front of us, so it is a pragmatic philosophy that is concerned with the world as it is, not the world as it should be. In other words, Buddhism is not an idealistic or spiritual religion. Anyone can study how to live, no matter who they are. And anyone can sit in the posture of zazen.

Finally I am told that you were working in Japan when you became interested in Zen meditation, before residing there for years and going on to translate. Dedicating your life to it, and moving to a completely culture, has obviously been a great commitment. Has this been a path that has mostly run smoothly? How has Zen practice helped to overcome challenges you have faced?

No, the path has been a difficult one. But without Zen I would not have been able to overcome the challenges in the way that I did. Even now, I feel that I live in a space between two very different cultures, not fitting into either, and that is often a lonely experience. But I think the practice of zazen has given me a kind of stamina, in the same way as, for example, long-distance running gives you a kind of stamina, that can be used in everyday situation. The ability to go on rather than to give up. Some people might call me stubborn, but it’s actually a little different from that. The ability to carry something on through thick and thin is a very valuable ability in many areas of life.

MICHEAL O'KEEFE'S VISIT TO BALLYMENA

From Ballymena to Nirvana?
by Meaghan Meban (Ballymena Guardian)

Ballymena, the home of the Seven Towers and the ‘big shopping centre’ seems like the least likely place for spirituality but Hollywood star and Zen priest, Michael O’Keefe talks to the Guardian about how his path of enlightenment passed through Ballymena.
Sipping his cappuccino in a nearby cafe, Michael explains how he made the transition from actor to Zen priest why he visited Ballymena. Twenty years ago, after reading countless books by authors like Kerouac and Ginsberg, Michael quickly became interested in Buddhism. For his 31st birthday present an old friend, him to an Introduction to Zen Practice at the Zen Community of New York. He became a Zen student in 1986 and "never looked back," he said. When this reporter commented that Michael looked nearly two decades younger than his 51 years of age, he laughed: "That’s Zen for you. It can take years off."
Becoming a Zen Priest in 1994, Michael quickly became involved in social improvement projects and has tirelessly campaigned with others for permanent accommodation for homeless and has helped to establish HIV/Aids clinics. Michael is also a member of the Peacemaker Circle, which is involved across the world in building a "global, effective force for social change". "It integrates social action with spiritual practice, taking in the medium of mediation," he added.
His work has brought him to Northern Ireland on many occasions but this is his first visit to Ballymena. Over the last several years he has conducted many types of workshops some of which have been lead by Paul Haller, abbot of San Francisco Zen Center. Having met the organiser of the Ballymena Zen group, Liam Clarke, through Paul, Michael has stayed in touch over the years. With the new Zen group forming in Ballymena, they decided that the next time Michael was in Northern Ireland, it would be the perfect opportunity to visit to town.
However, Zen isn’t his only link to the town, in fact, he is friends with our own home-grown celeb, Liam Neeson. Which quickly reminds you that he is not just a Zen Priest, he is an actor too, who has starred in scores of films and appeared in countless TV series. As an actor, Zen has helped him live his characters’ "moment to moment reality."
"It’s quite helpful to acting really," he added. As the name O’Keefe suggests, Michael has strong ties to Ireland with relatives in Limerick and Cork.
As a third generation of Irish Catholic was it difficult to give up his faith? "No not really," he said: "I think Catholicism is beautiful and whenever I’m visiting my family, I would sometimes go to mass, but this is where my passion lies now. "But the great thing about Zen is, you don’t have to be a Buddhist to experience the meditation side of it. "Some people even find that it strengthens their faith, whatever it may be."
Eloquently summing up one of the many benefits of Zen, Michael said: "The more you practice Zen, the more you find out about yourself and the more you find out about yourself, the more you want to practice Zen."

Report and Pictures of Paul Haller in Belfast

(picture from Pacemaker, originally published with this report in the Irish Times)

Exile brings Zen philosophy back home to Belfast
Carissa Casey
The abbot of San Francisco Zen Center, Paul Haller or Ryushin Haller Roshi, has had something of a love-hate relationship with Belfast over the years. He left the city in 1971 at the age of 21, vowing never to return.
Now he visits regularly and in the last three years he has helped establish a thriving Zen community in Northern Ireland.
This week he is giving a series of public talks and holding Zen meditation events at centres throughout the North.
He grew up on the Lower Falls during the ear y days of the Troubles and says he got as far away from the place as he could as soon as he was able. The website of his centre in San Francisco notes that "he has come a long way from his roots in war-torn Ireland". He travelled across Europe, the Middle East and eventually settled in Japan. "In retrospect, I can see I went to the other side of the planet. If I could have left the planet, I probably would have been up for that too, but I couldn't," he said yesterday.
He came across Zen while living in Japan. "I liked the fact that you could have a spiritual practice that didn't have a dogma to it. You didn't have to sign up to a fixed way of being. The Zen approach seemed to just attempt to have you discover the fundamentals of spirituality rather than get caught up in a religious practice."
Haller was brought up a Catholic and, he admits, was always spiritually ambitious. When he was six, he attended Mass every day in the hope of becoming a saint. By his mid-20s, enlightenment - the ultimate Zen state - had overtaken sainthood as his goal. He spent a year in a remote Thai monastery and six months living in a cave hoping, in vain, to achieve that state.
"I didn't get enlightened. At the end of six months I decided I couldn't take it any more. I went to Bangkok and the guy in the next hut suggested I go to the San Francisco Zen Center."
San Francisco was still abuzz with hippie ideals and the Zen centre, which was established in the late 1960s, was a popular and lively place. "I was oblivious to all that. I'd been living life in a very remote area. Most of the day I'd be wandering around a forest meditating under a tree.
I arrived at the San Francisco centre on July 4th and they were having a celebration with really loud rock music. It was like I'd gone to Mars." Despite the initial shock, Haller spent the next 30 years at the centre, eventually becoming co-abbot. It is a sizeable community with some 200 full-time residents in three venues.
In that period Haller only once visited his home town. "I came back for my father's funeral, but I only came back for four or five days. At that point things were just awful. It was always somewhere in my mind. I didn't know all the daily machinations of it, but I knew it was this enormous conflict."
The ceasefires in the 1990s brought him back again on a mission of peace and reconciliation. With a group of Buddhists from the US he brought together members of both loyalist and republican communities.
Zen Buddhism, with its emphasis on meditation rather than dogma, has a lot to offer people who have survived trauma, he believes. "You can look at it as a tool for mental health. There's a way of working with people, to have them experience their body, to discover a capacity to hold difficult emotions and start to unwind the after-effects of that." After the first visit, Haller began helping to establish local Zen centres. In the last three years five new centres have opened - in Newry, Larne, Ballymena, Portrush and Newcastle - along with Belfast. "You can't heal communities in a weekend or even in a couple of weeks. It takes years and years."
For more information on where Haller is speaking, see www.belfastmeditationcentre.org
© The Irish Times

REGULAR EVENTS

REGULAR EVENTS

SUNDAY SITTINGS OF BALLYMENA ZEN GROUP are held at 11.oo am in St John Hall

ZEN DAYS (full days of zen meditation and chanting) are held on the third Sunday of each month in Black Mountain Zen Centre on Donegall Street, Belfast from 9.00 am until 5.00 pm. There is also a shedule of sittings at this venue. See weblink for details.

MINDFULNESS DAYS (themed days of meditation and readings) are held in Drumalis Retreat Centre in Larne on the first Saturday of each month. They run from 9.00 am until 5.00 pm. (There are weekly sittings at Drumalis each Thursday at 7.30 pm.)