About Egely Monastery

Buddhism is quite well known in the West today. All schools of Buddhism are based on the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha, who lived in northern India about 2500 years ago. At the age of 33 he had an experience - a religious awakening, through which he saw what this universe is, how it works and how we human beings can live in harmony. From this experience came Shakyamuni Buddha's wisdom and compassion. From that time until his death at the age of 80 he strove to instill this insight into his followers.

Over time several distinct schools of Buddhism evolved, of which Zen is one that emphasizes zazen - sitting meditation.

Here is a famous description of Zen Buddhism:

Four Sacred Verses of Bodhidharma.
A special transmission outside the scriptures;
Not depending upon words and letters;
Directly pointing at the mind-heart of man;
Seeing into one's nature and attaining Buddhahood.

These verses are easily understood except for "attaining Buddhahood". This can be translated as "realization of perfect enlightenment": an experience of the fact of primordial perfection of all and everything. There is nothing to attain, nothing to get. It is already here. Wake up! You are in the midst of the Kingdom of God.

This perspective is not unique to zen, but is found for instance also in the Nyingma school of Tibetan buddhism - more specificky in the Dzogchen teachings.

Therefore zazen - and dzogchen meditation - is simply sitting. There is nothing to strive for, nothing to gain. Mastering this state however, takes some adjustment and this is where Zen training comes in.

Rinzai Zen Buddhism is famous for using koans to awaken its students to the "special transmission outside the scriptures". Koans are dialogues or questions that are impossible to understand intellectually, but rather point to direct experiences.

Dzogchen build upon this direct experience and says, that we must choose this perspective and get used to the fact, that we are buddhas.

Egely Monastery - Taikyo-Ji is a place where you can come for Dzogchen inspired zen training.

Our practice is based on the Rinzai Zen School of Buddha Dharma, and we are in the process of integrating Nyingma Dzogchen into this.

We are currently busy establishing the monastery which was opened June 1, 2007. A temporary temple for our daily practice as well as facilities for staying overnight are already established.

Zazen meetings.
Every Tuesday and Thursday at 19:15 - 20:45 and every Tuesday at 9-10:30 we conduct zazen (meditation) meeting in Egely monastery, Egely, Glappevej 12, Østermarie.
If you need instructions then please come 30 minutes early.
Every Saturday at 9 / ca. 12 we meet for a short morning service, zazen, Dharma talk and a cup of tea.