Ordinary Mind Zen Melbourne
Ordinary Mind Zen Melbourne offers a Zen Buddhist approach to cultivating mindful awareness and presence in the activities of daily life
We are a small group of students practising under the guidance of our teacher Geoff Dawson, a Dharma successor of Charlotte Joko Beck.
Our group practices a style of Zen Buddhism that is adapted to Western temperaments and ways of life, but maintains the discipline of its traditional roots.
We offer meditation meetings (2½ hours) at Kangaroo Ground, near Eltham and Warrandyte. Everyone is welcome to join us: beginners, experienced practitioners, and people of all traditions.
The meditation meetings are suitable for anyone with little or no meditation experience. If you would like to attend and are coming for the first time, please read about Starting Out and then Contact Us one to two weeks in advance.
About Our Practice
The heart of our Zen practice is meditation: being in life as it is, in the present moment. We extend this into our daily life, supporting ourselves and others around us.
This is expressed in What Practice Is by the founder of our school, Charlotte Joko Beck.
talks & writings by our teacher
Dharma talks by our teacher Geoff Dawson are updated each week.
Geoff’s book The Ten Zen Precepts: Guidelines for Cultivating Moral Intelligence is available in paperback or kindle version.
Zen Buddhism is best known for its cultivation of spiritual insight, rigorous practice of sitting meditation and mindful simplicity in every-day life. What is less known about Zen is its ethical foundation, its roots deep in the Buddha’s teachings of non-harm and generosity of spirit.
These teachings are the ten precepts. They are not commandments, or moral absolutes, but guidelines on how to cultivate good character, to conduct our lives with better wisdom and compassion.
Recent student Writings
acknowledgment of country
We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, and pay respect to them and to their Elders past, present and emerging. We give thanks for their wisdom and for their care of country since ancient times, and acknowledge their resilience, their continuing culture, and the ongoing contribution they make to the life of this region.
