Nanyang’s Water Jug
A student asked National Teacher Zhong of Nanyang,
“What is the original body of Vairochana Buddha like?”
The National Teacher said, “Pass me that water jug.”
The student picked up the water jug and brought it to him.
The National Teacher said, “Put it back where it was.”
The student asked again,
“But what is the original body of Vairochana Buddha like?”
“That old Buddha is long gone,” said the National teacher.
Book of Serenity Case 42
New to Pacific Zen Institute? Welcome!
After twenty years of teaching koans in a classical way, John Tarrant discovered ways of teaching koans that can orient anyone, including people who have no experience with meditation or Zen, towards a rich, full engagement with their own lives and towards awakening.
Explore and connect in PZI Zen Online events, our extensive Koans and Liberation Project Archive, and more.
The Pacific Zen Institute is a community that embraces koan practice, creativity, and real life. Our mission is to create a culture of transformation through meditation, koans, conversation, and the arts. Join us
Dear Friends,
Sesshin means touch the mind, touch the heart.
These are events that can change your life and long ago I decided to do as many as I could. So here we go!
Thank you for being part of this wonderful practice community we have.
Let’s get enlightened together at sesshin.High, high up, great birds
are circling, eagles are traveling through,
so high up, that alas they won’t stay.—John Tarrant
Happening Now at PZI
Sunday Zen with John Tarrant & Friends
November 30th, 10:30 am Pacific Time
In the PZI Online Temple
Link coming soon!
Meditation is not a task with a known goal.
It’s something you can’t do wrong, a chance for the things of this world to come towards you and to meet you, for doors to open by themselves, and for us to see where the ancient paths lead.
Waking up is something we do together, in the online temple on Sunday.
We love it when you join us.
—John Tarrant Roshi and all of us at PZI
Most Recent Sunday Talk:
The Most Wonderful Thing in the World
A student asked Baizhang, “What’s the most wonderful thing in the world?” Baizhang answered, “Sitting alone on Great Courage Peak.” The student bowed. Immediately, Baizhang hit them.
It’s a glorious thing to have companions on the Way.
It’s also one of the great gifts of practice to learn to enjoy one’s own company with the same curiosity and care as one might a dear friend.
Who is this one with whom I seem to spend so much time? Whose worries wake me in the night? Whose heart beats fast or slow in my chest?
In Zen, to befriend this One is to befriend the whole universe.
—Sunday Zen with Tess Beasley & Friends, November 23rd, 2025
Most Recent Podcast:
No Complaints Whatsoever
Thanksgiving and the whole notion of gratitude can bring along complicated feelings.
In this episode John Tarrant shares an old story about a miserable student convinced that he is beyond help.
The teacher he finds tells him she’ll offer him a practice but only if he promises to take it up for a whole year, no questions asked. It goes terribly, but even that turns out perfectly in the end.
Gratitude is far more mysterious than we give it credit for, and impossible to fabricate.
Like awakening itself, it arises by itself as we move deeper on the path.
Most Recent Luminaries Guest:
Lotus Girl Helen Tworkov
Helen Tworkov, founder of Tricycle magazine, and author of Lotus Girl: Life at the Crossroads of Buddhism and America, joins host Jon Joseph for a conversation about Zen in the West and her own spiritual journey.
Tworkov first encountered Buddhism while traveling during the 1960s, and has studied both Zen and Tibetan Buddhism. She became a student of Mingyur Rinpoche in 2006 and currently spends time in both New York and Nova Scotia.
“I wanted to add to the history of Buddhism in America something of the impolite, naïve, and despairing side of this wondrous journey.”
—Zen Luminaries Series with Jon Joseph & Friends, November 24th, 2025
Article from Our Archive:
What Are the Practices of Gratitude?
Gratitude is something that I haven’t planned on—either to receive or to give—it takes me by surprise.
It arrives out of nowhere. It’s the part of happiness that is beyond selfishness.
Gratitude dissolves the walls in the heart.
Gratitude, often accompanied by tears, is what people always mention when they have an awakening experience. Koun Yamada said that when he awakened, he fell into his teacher’s lap and wept. His teacher patted his head and said, “I know, I know,” the way you would with a child you loved.
—John Tarrant, Lion’s Roar magazine, November 25, 2009
Upcoming Events
Online & In Person
Join Us in the Mornings
Online Koan Meditation
End of Year Open Temple Pass – FREE for PZI members. Your cushion awaits!
Coming Next on
Pacific Zen Luminaries
Jon Kabat-Zinn, professor emeritus & founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction joins Jon Joseph & Friends on January 19th at 6 PM Pacific – Save the date!
Check Out PZI YouTube
Sesshin, Luminaries, and Sunday Zen videos live here!
Explore the PZI Library
Here you’ll find clips, full length dharma talk videos and audios, transcripts, koans, art, and more.
Listen to Our Podcast
Meeting the Inconceivable with PZI explores Zen koans, dreams, and the creative life.
John Tarrant’s latest book!
The Story of the Buddha
Now available in the PZI Online Store.
Prefer to listen? The audiobook is also available with narration by John himself.
PZI operates from the simple yet profound discovery that awakening can happen in this very life, at this very moment, rather than in some other life at some other time. We use Zen koan meditation, art and conversation toward this end. Join us
Upcoming Retreats at PZI
Save the Date! Late Winter Retreat with John Tarrant & PZI Teachers
JAN 28–FEB 1
PZI Online Temple
The Universe
Save the Date! Open Mind Retreat in Bolinas with John Tarrant & PZI Teachers
MAY 7–10
Commonweal Center
Bolinas, CA