Koan Groups
Local Koan Study Groups
One of the best ways to understand what we do, and how to get the most out of it, is through a koan small group.
This is one of our innovations at PZI. When we work with koans in a small group, we learn to embrace whatever in our lives rises to meet the koan. That becomes our gate of entry. Brightness appears through whatever is in front of us, whether beautiful or difficult.
Groups give us a chance to listen, too. When we really hear someone, without any agenda, we meet life at a deeper level. It is fairly common for someone to say “I listened to the sound of the rain and it was inside me and I became one with the rain. The colors are fresher and I’m in love with the world.” Garden experiences of freedom like this are exactly what the ancient masters used to notice, and they are wonderful. And as with rain, so with people. Koan meditation is just consciousness—it’s a natural capacity that is always available, in the woods, on a city street, in a room full of other human beings. Want to connect?
KOAN:
One day Changsha went wandering in the mountains. Upon returning, when he got to the gate, the head monk asked, “Where are you coming from, Master?”
Changsha said, “From wandering in the mountains,”
The head monk asked, “Where did you go?”
Sha said, “First I went pursuing the fragrant grasses, then I returned following the falling flowers.”
The head monk said. “How very much like the sense of springtime.”
Sha said, “It even surpasses the autumn dew dripping on the lotuses.”
—The Blue Cliff Record, Case 36
Koan Group Leadership
We teach our group leaders by the same process of group koan work: they work with the koans themselves and then facilitate other people to do the same.
The groups happen in different ways in different locations. Some groups happen through our established centers, with senior teachers nearby. A lot of times they happen farther afield. Some groups are beginning to meet in-person again, others are still meeting only online. Online groups will continue to be available.
PZI Membership is required to join these facilitated groups, and we recommend reading John Tarrant’s Bring Me The Rhinoceros and Other Zen Koans That Will Save Your Life, as an introduction to koan meditation work.