Aberdeenshire Soto Zen Group

04/10/2025

If you can find 18 minutes, get yourself a cup of tea, sit back and enjoy this video. Let it take you to a different world. For me there’s something profound in these women’s Buddhist way of life 🙏

Tashi Delek!Today I will take you to a Shangri-la, a small nunnery down below Nyenchen Kangsar Glacier in central Tibet. There are only four nuns living in t...

15/09/2025

12/07/2025

A great Dharma talk by a female monk at Shasta Abbey. She talks about the woman who raised the Buddha a story that is often forgotten. She also highlights the Buddha’s wish that women can practice and train in Buddhist practice equal to men.

09/01/2025

Unfortunately due to the snowy weather we will not be meeting at The Haven in Stonehaven for our weekly meditation tonight. Hopefully normal service will resume next week.

This World - A poem by Zen monk Ryokan

This world
A fading
Mountain echo
Void and
Unreal

Within
A light snow
Three thousand realms
Within those realms
Light snow falls

As the snow
Engulfs my hut
My heart, too
Is completely consumed

07/01/2025

This is not a Buddhist quote but I read it over the holidays and found it quite inspiring. John Muir was an environmentalist but I suspect his love of nature allowed him to touch something profound just like we do in meditation.

07/01/2025

Happy New Year to you all and I hope that you all enjoyed the festive holiday and that 2025 is good to you. Meditation starts again this Thursday at the usual time of 7.30 at The Haven in Stonehaven and I am hoping that the snow clears before then, fingers crossed. New comers are always welcome, no need to book, just turn up at about 7.25 and you will receive a warm welcome and an introduction to the group and the Soto Zen Buddhist tradition.

13/12/2024

Leading a more enlightened life can feel like a serious business sometimes but a bit of humour can help along the way 🙏

13/12/2024

We have a fantastic member of our group Seamus Corry who lives in England but when he works up in Aberdeen every few months or so he comes to our meditation evening at The Haven in Stonehaven

I was hoping we’d see him last night as I knew he was up in Aberdeen but I read on Linked In yesterday he’d headed back to England that day. So I was disappointed we wouldn’t see him. But true to the great man he is he’d sneaked into The Haven on his way home and left a box full of home made fudge for us to enjoy with our cup of tea after our meditation.

They were enjoyed by us all Seamus and haste ye back my friend🙏🙏

04/12/2024

A huge thanks to The Haven in Stonehaven for bestowing their annual award for compassion upon our weekly meditation group. It was a great honour. Here is photo of our group with the award.

Also a big thanks for the lovely Christmas pies you left for us on Sunday!

04/12/2024

On Sunday 1st December we held a half day retreat led by a Buddhist monk. It was great to see so many people come along to the event. We hold these roughly five times per year and they are a great way to deepen your practice of meditation and Buddhism. Everyone is welcome to attend these events. Below are two photos from Sunday morning.

Here is a link to talk 5 in a series of talks on the Lotus Sutra, that we are studying at our Thursday night meetings. Feel free to come along any Thursday 7.30pm to 9,00pm. Everyone is welcome.

https://shastaabbey.org/audio/rmmLotusSutraRetreat5BuddhaNature19.mp3

27/11/2024

No Meditation at The Haven Thursday 28th November

There will be no meditation at The Haven in Stonehaven tomorrow night. This is due to The Haven holding their AGM in the Yoga Studio so we can't have access tomorrow. So please don't come along tomorrow night.

We will be back as usual next week, Thursday 7.30pm to 9.00pm. Newcomers are always welcome and you do not need to book, just come along.