Susan Murphy on Zen Koans for Facing the Climate Crisis, the vast meaning of Country, and Cooling Fires

Contemplify

“A powerful and important plunge into the reality of the mind and climate.”

— Joan Halifax, author of Being with Dying and Standing at the Edge

Susan Murphy is an Australian Zen teacher whose passionate feeling of kinship with the natural world began during her early childhood years living near the Great Barrier Reef and the Gondwanaland rainforest. A successful filmmaker, radio producer, and writer, she received dharma transmission from Ross Bolleter and John Tarrant in 2001. She leads regular retreats around Australia and teaches an Australia-wide sangha that extends internationally online. She is the author of numerous books, and most recently A Fire Runs through All Things: Zen Koans for Facing the Climate Crisis, which holds the center of this conversation.

Susan and I talk about a childhood moment of awakening, the vast meaning of the word “Country” in Australia and its ringing formation in her, the punchy joy of Zen koans, and so much more.

Visit Susan Murphy at zenopencircle.org.au

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