There are many ways to connect with Zen Open Circle.
 

Join us, you are welcome here!

One of the events listed below, "The Big Summer Sit" is public and does not require a ZOC membership. The other events held by ZOC each year do require a membership, which allows you to support the work of our teachers that make this community possible. To learn more about membership opions please visit the membership page here: Become a Member.

 

Once you are a member, you can view upcoming member events by navigating to the Member Events page either by clicking the menu item in the "Members" drop down or by clicking the following link: Member Events. 

(Please note: we often only put up the registration for an event in the few weeks leading up to it, so if you don't see many events listed on the page, this is why. If you become a member of ZOC we will send you regular emails to notify you of upcoming events to ensure you don't miss them becoming available.)

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If you have any questions or need any help whatsoever with navigating this website or getting involved with ZOC offerings, please do not hesitate to reach out to the Support Team on gassho@zenopencircle.org.au.

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While the exact schedule of events may change from year to year, here's a sense of our community activity:

 

Taking Part in the Gathering 

Taking Part in the Gathering has been happening as a regular digital dojo space for shared practice, long before COVID-19 forced us all into our rooms and onto Zoom. It's offered in three terms of six sessions each, gathering on the second and fourth Sunday afternoon of each month, from 4-5.30pm. We sit zazen, ahead of a dharma talk, followed by open inquiry.  The talks may build on each other, pursuing a theme that feels strongly pertinent to the moment we're in.  There are three terms of six sessions each. If you're looking to really deepen your practice and explore the most demanding issues of the day in the light of the dharma, this is the gathering for you.

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​Quiet Sitting with Sangha

On the first and third Sundays of each month you are invited to join us for Quiet Sits in the Open Dojo at 4 p.m.  Quiet Sits have slipped into the Sundays in-between our fortnightly Taking Part in the Gathering offerings from Susan Murphy Roshi and Kynan Sutherland Roshi. Our Quiet Sits offer the blessing of an hour of silent zazen supported by short encouragement talks. Apprentice Teacher Deborah is on hand to offer detailed support to your practice, with occasional opportunities beginning also for dokusan (one on one dharma encounter with the teacher). All are welcome here, no prior experience is necessary, just an open heart and enquiring mind. You will need to be a member of our Sangha.

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Spring Sesshin

Spring Sesshin is a traditional, week long, Zen retreat.  When face-to-face, it takes place at Cloud Mountain, our residential dojo near Berry, in Kangaroo Valley, NSW. Spring Sesshin is the real mainspring of serious Zen practice each year, and the place where close bonds of community are forged. It may include a celebration of people taking the precepts in the ceremony of Refuge, called Jukai. Spring mood itself, at a very deep level of practice in a very alive and beautiful setting of rainforest, parrots, frogs and each other, sitting with the rich silence as close friends of the Way.

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The Big Summer Sit

The annual Big Summer Sit is a time of practice we hold open, and free, to the wider community. Each participant is asked to seriously pledge to sit every day over the summer for at least 15-25 minutes, embracing 'the silly season' and the lovely ease of summer with equally poised attentiveness. We open a discussion thread to see how it's going, and arrange regular online talks from our teachers to support everyone through their serious undertaking.

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Yarning Circles

Each event offered by Zen Open Circle also includes a Yarning Circle. This is an online space where members can share their experiences and their practice in a safe and supportive digital environment. These spaces are also the hub of organisation for each event where you can get email notifications for upcoming gatherings.

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The Dawn Dojo

The Dawn Dojo is the commitment we make to sit every day - in the early morning if possible - for a period of 108 winter days. It convenes in your own home, but we meet up twice a month at dawn online, in harmony with the moon. In some years, the Dawn Dojo also includes daily sits together online in the early morning for those who can make it. Full Moon mornings include an encouragement talk from one of our teachers, and New Moon mornings host one of our sangha members describing how they came to Zen practice, and how that sits in their lives. Intimate, daring and lovely, the Dawn Dojo!​

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It's Alive! Eco-Dharma Group

Care for the earth, care for the self, care for the other - ultimately these are impossible to separate. Susan Murphy Roshi's teachings are rooted in the rich red earth, the forests and waterways and the air that we breathe. Our practice is to come back home to this very place, and not look away from the ecological crisis currently unfolding around us. We put this into play by joining together to learn about protective action happening right now around the planet.

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Occasional events

Every now and then we offer a dedicated Study event, often based around a sutra or text that resonates with the time we're in. In the past, just for example, we've explored the Vimalakirti Sutra, and Tyson Yunkaporta's Sand Talk. The special study event may span a single weekend (Saturday and Sunday), or take place across a series of fortnightly meet-ups. 

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