A Weekend of Zazen with Zen Master Senshin (Soen Sa Nim) 4 to 6 September 2026
Friday 4 September: Public Talk 7- 8.30pm. No Bookings required.
Zazen is the practice of directly experiencing our true nature. Hakuin Zenji, the amazing revitaliser of Rinzai Zen, said that all things finally return to the practice of Zazen. Every practice, concept, feeling, and activity – everything returns to the practice of Zazen. We all live in a dualistic world with multiple dynamics competing for our attention. To not be pushed or pulled around by the concept of a self and react to our past attachments, as if they were real, is a practice of Zazen. When we bring our awareness to this possibility, even while living in a dualistic world, we can live in a non-dualistic way and in harmony with all beings.
Saturday Day 1: Zen Workshop Day 9am – 4pm.
During this first day of Zazen, instruction of the various forms of Zazen will be offered and the opportunity to practice Zazen will be provided. The primary focus of the day will be on how to use our exhalations to strengthen our tanden. With a single pointed focus on aligning our exhalations with the sensations in our tanden, together we can actively deepen in our awareness, or that which is beyond the self, and experience our inconceivably huge and clear Mind.
Sunday Day 2: Zen Workshop 9am – 4pm.
During the second day of Zazen, we will practice deepening in our experience. After leaving his palace, the Buddha practiced with two hermits who taught him to meditate in this way; to not think and to not think about not thinking. Some years later, the Buddha realised that, for him, this practice did not lead to a transformative experience. Wanting to know what was what, the Buddha sat silently under a Bodhi tree for six years before awakening directly to the deepest truth; From the origin, everyone has a true nature. Guided by the Buddha’s experience, together we will practise Zazen so that we too can experience our essence, and when giving it our all, become it completely.
Throughout the day, individual interviews will be offered to all. Interviews are an opportunity to experience our clear and open state of mind while simultaneously learning how to renew our efforts to clarify our mind.
Cost for weekend is members $100 non members $120, includes vegetarian lunch and refreshments. Bookings essential on: https://www.trybooking.com/DNQDN
Zen Master Senshin (Soen Sa Nim) has been the Guiding Teacher of the Queensland Zen Centre since 1996. Her training began in 1978 in New York City when she became a student of the founding teacher of the Kwan Um School of Zen, Zen Master Seung Sahn. In 1996, she received Inka from Zen Master Seung Sahn, and after his death in 2004, Dharma Transmission from Zen Master Dae Gak, Abbot of the Furnace Mountain Zen Centre in Kentucky, USA.
Since 1999, Zen Master Senshin has continued her training with Shodo Harada Roshi, Abbot of Sogen-ji Monastery in Okayama, Japan. Zen Master Senshin is the author of Essence of Mind, a book containing a selection of her Dharma Talks given during first years of her Brisbane residency.