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Part 4: I vow to live the Great Buddha Way. Michelle Riddle takes up the 4th of the 4 Vows. What seems impossible may not be possible to ignore! Koans and sutras give many instructions on how to live, but you must live the Great Buddha Way as you. Like great art, it is an intimate and particular expression, but speaks to something we all feel, and something we all must do: realizing we are here! Excerpt from the Sunday session recorded August 1, 2021.

Michelle Riddle welcomes all Spring Sesshin participants and gives a dharma talk. See summary. As recorded April 7, 2021.

PZI Zen Online: October Zen Tuesday with Michelle Riddle Sensei. Zhaozhou’s message to a novice, “Wash your bowls.” A zendo plaque in Japan, “Look under your feet.” Focus on what is hidden in plain sight, right under you, obvious and overlooked. Like the migratory Golden Crowned Sparrows returning in fall. Ikkyu’s “Attention! Attention! Attention!” Complete session. As recorded Oct 20 2020.

Audio – PZI Zen Online – Guanyin in the Pavilion with Michelle Riddle Sensei -Touching earth as Guanyin. Falling – Layman Pang and his daughter Ling Zhao fall together. The subtle and varied flavor of Guanyin’s manifestations – her/his shape/form/gender shifting qualities. As recorded August 9 2020. Michael Wilding on flute, Jordan Guitar. Amaryllis Fletcher, violin.

PZI Zen Online: Audio excerpt from Guanyin in the Pavilion Under the August Moon. Michelle Riddle Sensei reflects on the kindnesses that appear as Guanyin, as she shifts the ground of suffering throughout our lives. Her quality of welcome. As recorded August 2 2020.

PZI Zen Online Audio – What moves, what is stil? How does stillness move? I am movement as I live, as I age, or dance but how am I part of it? Michelle shares various audio files T.S. Elliot reading a poem, David Bryne & Brooklyn Youth Choir. As recorded May 22, 2020.

With dreams, whatever part touches your heart, that’s the part you want. The universe is providing these personal and archetypal myths in the perfect formulation for your awakening. Dreams help us because we can’t control them. The gold is wherever you are. As recorded December 5, 2021. Music from Michael Wilding & 4 vows from Cantor Amaryllis Fletcher & Jordan McConnell. Comments and dream stories from Allison Atwill, Tess Beasley, Michelle Riddle, and others.

Teachers’ dreams often feature magical ways of feeding an entire community. Michelle Riddle’s remarkable giant pancake dream came after being asked to respond to a teaching from John Tarrant. Excerpt from John Tarrant’s Sunday session on dreams, on December 5, 2021.

Everyone is assailed by demons right now. Demons have a long history in the culture. If you’ve got demons, you’re alive! But you don’t have to get on board with them. Demons come out of your own heart, just like enlightenment. Tess Beasley reads from James Hillman’s “Dreams & the Blood Soul.” Michelle Riddle & Jon Joseph chant a Zen spell for dispelling demons, the Sho Sai Myo Kichijo Dharani. John reads Keats and Coleridge.

Special Program on The 4 Boundless Vows: John Tarrant, Jon Joseph, & Michelle Riddle chant the 4 Boundless Vows in English and Sino-Japanese. Excerpt from the Sunday program recorded August 1, 2021.

Michelle Riddle’s portion of the PZI enlightenment firm Atwill, Riddle & Beasley’s case for Ordinary Mind. As recorded March 28, 2021.

PZI Zen Online: The dedication recited as we leave sesshin, here it is sung by Michelle Riddle Sensei. As recorded Sunday Jan 24 2021. 3 minutes.

Four Women Zen Teachers of PZI tell a winter tale, the story of a vast moment that interrupted a battle in the middle of World War I. The Guanyins Allison Atwill, Tess Beasley, Sarah Bender & Michelle Riddle share the telling and teaching with meditation, poetry and reflection. Jordan McConnell on guitar. PZI Zen Online, as recorded Dec. 27, 2020.

Hanging Lanterns Series: Zhaozhou meets a practitioner. One treasure, deep in the cosmos, and in you. Seeing, feeling, being inhabited by the light in all things, the eternity in things. The treasure in the simplest things. These are our times; love the treasure in them. Michelle Riddle – vows, Michael Wilding – sax, Amaryllis – violin. PZI Zen Online, as recorded Oct. 11, 2020.

Hanging Lanterns at the Gates of the Autumn Temple with John Tarrant. Immensity is pecking; breaking through with a koan—Jingqing asks for help with his awakening. We are part of a great transformative process which can be precious and subtle. Music from Michael Wilding, Jordan McConnell & Amaryllis Fletcher, vows Michelle Riddle. PZI Zen Online, as recorded Oct. 18, 2020.

PZI Zen Online: Audio excerpt from Guanyin in the Pavilion Under the August Moon, Michelle Riddle’s Talk, “Earth.” Compassion is receptive earth. It does not have one face, nor is it driving or pitying. It erupts within us. It allows barriers to fall, and in that way it is the ground on which we stand, the heart and soul of awakening. As recorded August 9 2020.

Summer Sesshin: Into the Cave of the Blue Dragon – Sesshin opening with John Tarrant & Michelle Riddle. John talks about meditation in sesshin. Stories: District Mistress Fan & Yuanwu, “so near at hand.” Tabor’s poem: So easy to think I am not enough. Xing Quin “One drop, just ink—2 drops, a dragon is born.” We are in community and discovering together. Yunmen’s Talking to a Rock. Alan Watts onLetting go, “Don’t prevent the world from falling apart.” Be a tiger at home in the mountains. Closing prayer: Cantor Amaryllis Fletcher, Jordan McConnell on guitar. The Four Vows. Jon Joseph Roshi’s evening words. As recorded Thursday June 25, 2020.

Deshan’s story of Mirror Bright Mountain, a Diamond Sutra scholar and his journey to awakening. His meeting with the Zen teachers Tea Shack Lady and Dragon Pool. How his journey transforms everything, including his destination. Suffering from expertness and holding onto views. Music Jordan McConnell, Michelle Riddle, Sarah Bender, Amy Fletcher. PZI Zen Online. Audio as recorded May 17, 2020.

PZI Zen Online Audio: Michelle Riddle Sensei on what we do when we feel trapped —whether from the Covid 19 lockdown, or our own expectations and beliefs. How do we escape? As recorded April 24 2020.

A curation of Winter Sesshin dharma talks on a single page, for easy finding and listening. A sesshin is always more than the sum of its parts or its recorded talks. There are morning rituals, greetings, incense passed magically through the screen, the changing light, rich silences, moments of humor, tech gremlins, tears, synchronicities, dogs barking, dreams, and awakenings that we share. It is the timeless play of the universe. As recorded in the PZI Digital Temple, February 1-6, 2022.

Tess Beasley invites our voices into the room, acknowledging the interwoven yet not-interwoven vessel of sesshin. We are each a unique presence, yet it is when personal identity and ambition recede that feeling and empathy emerge. PZI Digital Temple. As recorded April 11, 2021.