Sunday Zen with John Tarrant,
Allison Atwill & Tess Beasley
In the PZI Online Temple
10:30 am–12:00 pm Pacific Time
May 17th, 2026
Link coming soon!

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Most Recent Sunday Talk:
What Is This Light That Everyone Has?

Yunmen taught, “Everybody has a light inside. When you’re looking for it, you can’t see; it’s obscured in the dimness. What is this light that everybody has?”

He answered his own question, “The kitchen pantry, the entrance gate.” Then he said, “It’s better to have nothing than to have something good.”

—Blue Cliff Record Case 86
(transl. by John Tarrant & Joan Sutherland)

Enlightenment happens inside this life that we have. It’s not some other more satisfactory life with special conditions. So you set off!

You go through one archway, and then you go through a second, and then a third archway, and eventually your worries fall away, though you didn’t ask them to, all desperation falls away and any cause of suffering in the mind is illuminated.

Life after life you have been doing this and it’s not a surprise that you come eventually to the Buddha, who is sitting on an ordinary zafu smiling, and Buddha says, “Yes, that’s it, you are doing it alright, just do zazen like that!” and happiness comes over you. Meditation is also extra good if you do it together with friends.

—John Tarrant & Tess Beasley on April 26th, 2026

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Most Recent Podcast:
A Woman Raised a Goose in a Bottle

John Tarrant takes up an infamous koan about a woman raising a goose in a bottle.

There are many bottles that we may feel trapped in throughout our lives. Awakening is never about solving our problems but rather about dissolving the constraints of the mind.

In this episode we discuss the don’t-know quality of Zen and koans in general.

We also consider koans as a gateway.

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Most Recent Luminaries Guest:
Choreographer & Dancer Denise Fujiwara

Denise Fujiwara, Zen Luminaries guest and longtime PZI member, is a highly acclaimed choreographer and performer of Japanese Butoh and contemporary dance.

Creating a dance is very much like the process of contemplating a Zen koan; it is difficult to learn because vocabulary is foreign to the dance experience.

If you want to do Butoh, the first thing you must do is kill the self. Of course, you can’t kill the self because there is no self but you must figure out what no-self means, not by words but through physical research.

Within dance, what do notions like emptiness and no-self mean?

(Denise Fujiwara)

—Pacific Zen Luminaries Series on February 23rd, 2026

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From the Archive: The Pilgrim’s Way

One foot, and then the other foot, and then again—and suddenly we’re on a journey. Our walking transforms us; we find it’s not so hard to be at peace inwardly.

This is in spite of all that arrives: threatening, painful, and also as bright as the peonies in spring.

—Sunday Zen with John Tarrant & Friends, recorded May 4, 2025

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Upcoming Events
Online & In Person

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Join Us in the Mornings
Online Koan Meditation

Spring Open Temple Pass: Weekday morning meditations, FREE for PZI Members. Your cushion awaits!

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Next on Pacific Zen Luminaries

Roshi Joan Jiko Halifax joins host Jon Joseph & Friends – May 18th at 5pm Pacific Time
REGISTER

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Check Out PZI YouTube

Sesshin, Luminaries, and Sunday Zen videos live here!

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Explore the PZI Library

Here you’ll find clips, full length dharma talk videos and audios, transcripts, koans, art, and more.

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Listen to Our Podcast

Meeting the Inconceivable with PZI explores Zen koans, dreams, and the creative life.

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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.