Welcome

Why meditate?

Most of us seek out meditation or mindfulness practice as a means to relieve anxiety or to obtain other therapeutic gains. We want to be happy and content, learn to relax, reduce stress or perhaps tame the tyranny of our constant mind chatter. 

Few people consider however, that the desire to change ourselves or our circumstances, while perhaps necessary, is also the root cause of anxiety itself.

Since our desires are inexhaustible, they constitute our main motivators and driving force in life. Thus, most of our energy and resources are directed towards satisfying our cravings resulting from our desires.

We constantly set preferences relating to our desires in the form of 'likes' and 'dislikes'. In fact, we always seek to gravitate towards one side of this ledger. The more 'likes' we have in our life, the more successful or happy we judge it to be. 

When reality does not align with our preferences or desires, we usually suffer. We then seek relief through new preferences and this dualistic cycle continues. 

Meditation and mindfulness practice, in its original Buddhist context, was never practiced as a means to feel better or to solely obtain therapeutic outcomes. While this is an important side-benefit of meditation, these aspects on their own simply feed back into our ledger of "likes" and "dislikes" and perpetuate the cycle of our constant cravings. 

Instead, meditation in a Zen-Buddhist context, is a practice-path that aims to end suffering through direct personal insights into our own nature. The aim is to experience and personalise freedom and liberation that results from dislodging the hold our habitual discriminatory way of thinking has on our conditioned mindsets.

The goal of Pathway-Zen is to guide anyone that is serious about cultivating a Zen practice-path in their life. This is facilitated through a systematic program that includes aspects of both Rinzai and Soto Zen.

As a secular and non-profit organisation, everyone is welcome irrespective of their tradition, religious affiliation or none. Please feel free to come along to one of our regular events in Spring Hill or Samford. All newcomers are given an introduction to Zen on arrival.

Pathway Zen is guided by Arno Hess, an Australian and Brisbane based dharma and Zen Buddhist teacher, authorised both in Australia and through the Sanbō Zen lineage in Japan.