Welcome

zen.org.au is a non-profit organization based in Melbourne, Australia.

Our mission is to offer practical and spiritual support to individuals and the local community in ways expressive of Zen:                                               

"Not founded on words or tradition, pointing directly to the mind, and seeing our nature."

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As our main project, we operate the

Melbourne Zen Hospice

.
The Melbourne Zen Hospice provides free home support and companionship to persons of any age, gender, religious and cultural background, who are living with an advanced life-limiting illness, and to their carers and family members living with them, anywhere across inner suburban Melbourne.

Our work is about offering practical, emotional, and/or spiritual support, that is highly personalized, dependable, and complementary with other palliative care and medical services.

We do what we do not as something unique or special, but simply to contribute directly and engage compassionately in supporting the present life of those who contact us and whom we visit.

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The Buddha said:

"Even if I were to live on, our coming together would have to end.
All things in the world are impermanent ...
Do not be troubled, for this is the nature of life!"
from the Parinirvana Sutra, the Buddha's final teaching


The Melbourne Zen Hospice is now accepting new patient referrals.

If you are interested in making a referral, please read further about what we offer and whom we can help.                                                                      

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News


     
  • Melbourne Zen Hospice is now able to offer limited phone support, as a complementary form of confidential listening and assistance to patients, families, and interested members from the wider community. Please phone (03) 9885 5725. If the line is unattended, please leave a message with a landline contact number and we will return your call as soon as practicable, usually outside of business hours.
     
  • Patient support is our priority, and some of you will have noticed that our website has not been further developed over the last 12 months, and also the rollout of our planned newsletter/blog has been further delayed. We are currently receiving pro-bono professional website support, and therefore are optimistic of being able to expand and improve our website and its features in the course of this year.
     
  • A new volunteer intake and training program has successfully completed in January 2009. The next volunteer intake is now likely to happen toward the end of 2009 or early in 2010. If you are interested in volunteering with Melbourne Zen Hospice, we very much appreciate to hear from you, however at this point we are receiving many more requests from prospective volunteers than we can responsibly include and manage in our service. However please feel free to register your interest here, and we shall keep your contact details on file and get back in touch with you prior to our next intake process. Sorry we have no paid staff vacancies at this time. Thank you
     
  • If you have professional experience as a fundraiser specialising in grant applications, or have a legal background with specific experience in non-profit governance, and would occasionally like to volunteer your expertise in support of the work we do, we would be grateful for your help. Also, if you have real estate that may be potentially suitable for the set-up of a small residential hospice, and you might be interested in making it available to Melbourne Zen Hospice on charitable terms, we would be grateful to hear from you. Thank you
     
  • In early 2008, we received official endorsement from the Australian Taxation Office as a Public Benevolent Institution (PBI) and Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR). This means that donations over $2 made to Melbourne Zen Hospice are now fully tax deductible (within Australia). If you would like to support our work through making a donation, you can do so here.
     
  • Learning not to fear death? A Palliative Care conference in Edmonton, Canada, featured this as its discussion topic. You can read Carter Haydu's report online at www.buddhistchannel.tv here.

Thank you for visiting our site.

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