Eiki-ji
http://zen-asociace.cz/
Eiki-ji is dedicated to the practice of Zen from Master Dogen, founder of the Soto school Zen in twelve century.
The temple is leaded by Réverend Seï Yu Debailly.
Eiki-ji Temple is located at Dřisy, okres Praha- východ, at 25 minutes from Prague by bus.
Eiki-ji, zen buddhist Abbey is a place devoted to the practice of meditation within the Soto Zen tradition. The monastic community offers retreats and other events for anyone who wishes to learn about ZEN and its fundamental relevance in daily living. We have been here in Czech Républik for 20 years.
Retreat Orientation
We try to make the monastery and the teaching we offer as accessible as possible to everyone, so please contact Rev. Seï Yu Debailly.
.Weekend Introductory Retreats
These are held once a month and are the best way to first learn about our practice. The aim is to help you get a basic understanding of zazen and the essential teachings . These retreats are also for those who are already familiar with Buddhism zen but who are new to our practice.
Booking a Retreat
If you would like to come on a retreat, please contact rev Seï yu Debailly.
Residential Stays
After attending an introductory retreat you are welcome to stay at the Abbey when you have the opportunity. Many people find coming outside of scheduled retreat times to be a helpful and supportive setting for a second visit.
Staying at the monastery outside of retreat times provides an opportunity to experience the day to day life of the monastery. This can help you to discover how to practise meditation in your daily life. Residential stays are open to anyone who has attended an introductory retreat.
Weekend and 3-Day Retreats
These retreats are open to anyone who is already familiar with our practice and wishes to deepen their meditation and training. These retreats often involve more periods of zazen and the lectures and discussions cover a wider range of spiritual experience.
Week Retreats
For week-long retreats, bookings will be accepted for the full week only.
Sesshins
A sesshin is an intensive retreat designed to assist the participants to go deeply into the practice of zazen. Those who come can find, sometimes to their surprise, that they touch greater depths in themselves than they had imagined were possible. Although these retreats are not easy, the helpful teaching and supportive atmosphere make them suitable for anyone who is intent on placing meditation at the centre of their lives.
EIKI-ji, Zen buddhist abbey is under the spiritual direction of the Abbot, Rev. Master SEÏ YU DEBAILLY, a senior disciple of the late Rev. Master Etienne Zeiler disciple of master DESHIMARU.
The senior priests at the Abbey are experienced in teaching people how to sit in zazen and how to establish a spiritual practice. Anyone who wishes to practice zazen can benefit greatly by sharing in the life of the monastery for a while; during their stay they will learn how to establish and deepen their own practice in daily life. One of the joys of zen training is that all activities are an expression of our true nature if approached with the compassionate awareness of zazen.
Our programme of retreats aims to help people establish a practice of meditation and then to support them in their subsequent training in the Zen way. The life of the monastery forms a valuable background for these activities; the resident community, most of whom have been living and working together for many years, provide the teaching and a sense of stability. We are always here and try to be available whenever people have need of advice or just a friendly ear. The Abbey is one of the main centres for a congregation spread throughout the UK and beyond.
All are warmly invited to join the Abbey's programme of lay training. The purpose of spiritual practice is to realise our true nature, which is also the true nature of all of existence, and to express this with our body, speech and mind. Meditation and daily training enable us to see and let go of the clinging which causes suffering, thus allowing the compassion and wisdom within our hearts to enrich our lives.
Soto Zen
Zen literally means meditation and zazen or seated meditation is the heart of our practice. All beings already have the same enlightened nature as the Buddha but we obscure it by believing that we are separate, isolated beings. This makes us very needy and we spend our lives trying to get what we believe we lack, through acquiring possessions, power or relationships. It is as though we are trying to fill a void inside but however much we get, the void always seems to remain. From the Buddhist viewpoint this happens because we misunderstand our own nature.
To practice zazen is to learn how to see beyond one's thoughts and feelings and realize this true nature. There is a deep sufficiency in all of us and we all have a great capacity to give. These virtues and all the fruits of enlightenment are already within us but they can only be manifested when we see through our mistaken perceptions. This is a matter of discovering what we already possess rather than seeking what we believe we lack. This approach is both affirming and challenging, requiring us to look intently at the reality of the present moment - excluding nothing and grasping nothing. We need the willingness to see ourselves as we are; rather than judging what we find, we can develop the capacity to neither indulge nor suppress emotions, thereby freeing ourselves from the forces that drive us to act unwisely. Compassion, both for oneself and all beings, is at the heart of this process.
Our Founder and Our Order
The founder of the Abbey, Rev. Master Seï Yu Debailly, is a French man who was ordored monk in France at the Gengronnière temple by master Mokusho Zeisler. After the death of master Mokusho Zeisler in 1991, rev Seï Debailly established in Praha in Czech Républik in 1991 the root of the true practice of zazen exactly transmitted by master Deshimaru to his disciples in Europe. Then rev Seî Yu Debailly went on to study in Japan where he became a roshi, and was authorised to teach and to ordain men and women as monastics.
The style of teaching used at EIKI-Ji has its roots firmly in the tradition of Dogen school and yet has a form that over the last fifty years and more has been adapted to the needs of Western people.
In the Order of occidental Zen men and women train together and have equal status and recognition.