"Every day is a good day"

Welcome to Melbourne Zen Meditation (MZM)

We are an open association of meditators, including new meditators, and those who come to revive their practice. Anyone with or without prior meditation experience is invited to become part of MZM, and welcome to attend any of our scheduled meetings - after emailing a prior RSVP.

MZM exists simply to organize and support meditation meetings, including offer practical guidance as needed. In this way people from different walks of life with an interest in meditation can come and develop a regular practice. Beyond this, MZM has no interest at all in trying to convert anyone to any particular view or belief system.

Our general meeting format, combining guided and silent meditation, is held Thursday evenings 7.30-9pm. More formal Zen practice meetings, comprising only silent sitting meditation (Zazen) and walking meditation (Kinhin), are Monday evenings 8-9.30pm. Occasionally there may also be one-off meetings on other days.

MZM also offers a 5-week meditation course, run several times a year (the next course is planned for early 2010). The course is suitable for new meditators and those with some prior experience. It is designed to help participants learn to meditate simply and well, and to develop a regular practice.

Our usual meeting venue is in High Street, Glen Iris. (Occasionally some related activities, such as public talks, meditation retreats, etc, may also be held in other locations, including outside of Melbourne). For further practical information about MZM, please follow the "Learn more about us" link below.

MZM meetings focus on actual meditation practice, rather than on beliefs, expectations, or theories about meditation. Many people do come to meditation with hopes of finding stress relief and health benefits, and there is now an extensive body of research to confirm that regular meditation will predictably give rise to such benefits. However often it is our fixation and impatience around our expectations which stands in the way of meditating simply and well.

Regardless of what motivation makes you start to meditate, meditation itself becomes a practice and process of letting go. To emphasize this, the great Japanese Zen master Kodo Sawaki Roshi often proclaimed that Zen meditation is "good for nothing". Sawaki took issue not with Zen meditation (he kept sitting for many hours every day), but rather with people's expectations of personal gain.

Zen meditation, otherwise known as Zazen, can also be called "just sitting". This makes for a very practical and uncomplicated approach. Basically you sit down and start with where you are, and you also end with where you are. Along the way, you simply sit straight while being aware of whatever you are experiencing - without getting caught up in thinking about it or trying to change it.

Essentially Zen meditation is not about trying to create calmness or stillness (or any specific experience), so much as about practicing non-judgmental awareness. Applying non-judgmental awareness to whatever it is you are experiencing, - now, and now, and now - you are effectively "letting go" and calmness and stillness eventually set in as by-products.

Sounds simple? Well, it is. Meditation is one of the simplest ways to be. But it has become burdened by our very ideas and expectations regarding its benefits. This means that many new meditators start by trying too hard (in an effort to achieve something), but then quickly give up because it seems too hard (when the experience does not match the expectations).

Actually Zazen is as simple as "just sitting", and as ordinary as brushing teeth. Most of us brush our teeth with reasonable regularity and discipline, yet without much fuss or instant expectations. Just like tooth-brushing, Zen meditation is a matter of regular habit much more than of any skill or technique.

Meditation is a choice and certainly not a forced activity. If you choose to take up Zen meditation, there is no question that you will be perfectly capable of it. The issue is not so much whether you will "succeed" in meditating, but rather whether you may be willing to accept your meditation experience just as it is. Accepting it just as it is whilst staying with it can also be described as "mindfulness" (a trendy term these days, but often misconstrued for just acting excessively slowly and self-consciously).

Being one with your meditation is simply to be one with your present experience. Being one with your present experience is to become one with yourself. And being one with yourself is actually to begin to lose track of who you are (especially in terms of our thinking mind). Whatever benefits may arise from meditating, they are likely to come not from trying to control or change something, but from sitting wholeheartedly and letting go - here and now.

Sawaki Roshi: "Hey what are you gawking at? Don't you see its about you!"

Hoping to see you soon!
Seikan
MZM