Practice is this life, and realization is this life, and this life is revealed right here and now — Taizan Maezumi Roshi
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Zen meditation groups
I have studied contemplative practices since 1980 in India and in1996 I started practicing zen in earnest, receiving the precepts (jukai) in 1997 and tokudo (ordination as a Zen priest) in 2004. As teacher/facilitator of the Wild Ivy Zen Sangha, founded in October 2025, I host regular zen retreats and workshops in the UK and abroad. Together with my partner I facilitate regular Zen meditation groups in Hampstead, London NW3 in person (on the last Saturday of each month) and online (on the second Saturday of each month). We meet at 2pm and end at 5pm. At each meeting I give an informal talk on aspects of practice and Zen literature/philosophy, and give daisan (private interviews) for those who request them. I am a Dharma Holder in the White Plum Asangha, an international Zen Buddhist community founded by Taizan Maezumi Roshi. My Dharma name is Myōshin, which means ‘luminous heart’.
The following article in the Observer, published on 2/2/25, is an account by a participant to the Zen retreat ‘Appreciate Your Life’ I facilitated in November 2024. It can be found HERE. Below are articles related to recent retreats.
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AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
Bazzano has done much to further a deeper understanding of mindfulness for therapy, in part by refusing to allow it to languish in a psychotherapeutic ghetto or rest complacently in a cloister… Though it remains unclear what mindfulness will become, some intriguing indications of its future can be found in this necessary and timely book.” – Self & Society
“Draws a distinction between ‘problem-solving’ and ‘spiritual’ mindfulness.” – The Church Times
“As a genuine attempt to explore an antidote to ‘the literalism of McMindfulness as a quick fix for the anxieties of late-capitalist society’, this collection is almost ahead of its time: a new wave of conversations that ironically hark back to pure origins concerned with our wholehearted presence, could now be seen as controversial in our ‘mindful’ fix it quick culture. The collection deftly draws upon ideas from Buddhism, Philosophy, Psychology, Culture and Psychotherapy and Bazzano demonstrates his adeptness to select, collate and create a rich and harmonious choir of contemporary voices for our consumption.” – Julie Webb, The Natural Health Centre, UK
“This book is a tour-de-force that explores the meeting of mindfulness and psychology/psychotherapy. Its editor, Manu Bazzano, and the other authors are united in their insistence that mindfulness is not just an add-on to psychotherapeutic work; rather, it is a way of being that is central to the psychotherapeutic process.” – Therapy Today