The PZI Way
PZI Mission Statement
Our mission is to create a culture of
transformation 
through meditation, koans, conversation, and the arts.
The Pacific Zen Institute is a community in the Rinzai Zen tradition that embraces koan practice, creativity, and real life.
In Zen you don’t believe the Dharma, you inhabit it. Dreams, myths, stories and conversations on the deepest matters are part of the foundation.
The Zen task is to open the gates of the world beyond our prejudices.
Like the Buddha, we can step away from everything we are certain about. I think that this possibility is the best contribution we can make to healing the flaws in consciousness and helping the world.—John Tarrant
Unkindness comes out of certainty; when we throw out certainty, we have the bare reality of consciousness, and another name for that is love. —John Tarrant
The PZI Difference: Our Koan Practice Tradition
How to Practice Zen Koans, A User’s Guide: John Tarrant in Lion’s Roar Magazine
Before anything is explained, there is the sky, the earth, redwood forests, pelicans, rivers, rats, the city of San Francisco. And you are part of all that. We’re all part of that. In the land of koans, you see that everything that happens in your life is for you. There is no one else it can be for. Your life counts
A koan is a little healing story, a conversation, an image, a fragment of a song. It’s something to keep you company, whatever you are doing. There’s a tradition of koan study to transform your heart and the way you move in the world. The path is about learning to love this life, the one you have. Then it’s easy to love others, which is the other thing a practice is about. Koans don’t really explain things. Instead, they show you something by opening a gate. You walk through, and you take the ride.
—John Tarrant, Lion’s Roar Magazine
The Heart of Our Zen Practice
We Have It Already
You’ll notice that there’s this tremendous desire to improve our state of consciousness.
It seems to go with the human brand. But true meditation is a moment when we do less. Mainly it’s not just that we don’t run around chasing things, but we don’t interfere; we don’t oppose what’s appearing in the mind. When we don’t oppose what’s appearing in the mind, we realize it’s just waves and flowers and there’s an intrinsic openness and spaciousness within what’s already here, and so we don’t have to go somewhere else to find what we’re looking for.
We have it already!
Hosting the Life You Have with John Tarrant
Koans & Conversation
We wake up together! Conversation is itself a kind of meditation, a way we can accompany each other through life. We can share errors, painful mistakes, dreams, losses, discoveries, or just the ordinary glowing things. That’s a good day. Read on…
Enlightenment Is Something We Do Together
by John Tarrant in Lion’s Roar Magazine ,
February 18, 2014
More on practice:
Waking Up in Difficult Times with John Tarrant: Winter Sesshin 2017
Summer in the Palace at the Blue Cliff with John Tarrant & PZI Teachers: Summer Sesshin 2021
Gathering in the Valley of Our Time with John Tarrant & PZI Teachers: Fall Sesshin 2020
What We Get Up To
Imagination
Imagination & Zen
We hold the door to the imagination open wide with glee. Koans with their ancient potent imagery and references lead the way into the wild imaginal universe.
Some PZI Artists, Writers & Musicians
Allison Atwill
Mario Da Cunha
Denise Fujiwara
Chris Gaffney
Corey Hitchcock
Lonnie Rankin
Michael Hofmann
Sacha Kawaichi
Piper Leigh
Jordan McConnell
Dennis Peak
Michael Wilding
Dance
Choreographer & Dancer Denise Fujiwara: A Member Story
Denise Fujiwara hails from Toronto, Ontario in Canada and is a life-long dancer, choreographer, performer and teacher. Denise practices and teaches Butoh, a contemporary Japanese dance theatre practice. She shares contemplative aspects of her art form that assist participants to experience deeply embodied movement, through the cultivation of curiosity, the imagination, awareness and presence. Her mentors include Japanese butoh master Natsu Nakajima and Zen Roshi, John Tarrant. She performs and leads workshops across Canada and abroad.
Denise has enhanced Winter Sesshins at PZI for many years with her butoh movement sessions. It includes shadow elements. Nothing is excluded. No movement possibility is ignored. She begins by having us move parts of our bodies in unusual ways, then she steps it up. It is wild. Observers have compared this group exercise to visiting the holo-deck of Starship Enterprise.
Here is a link to Denise’s latest NACC film collaboration: Noppera Bo by Denise Fujiwara / Fujiwara Dance Inventions, William Yong / W Zento Production.
Thank you, Denise!
Music
Sutras of Inclusion: Ants, Sticks & Grizzly Bears
Cantor Amaryllis Fletcher & the PZI Sutra Book
Amaryllis Fletcher, musician and teacher, joined PZI in 2000. She had been a student of Robert Aiken Roshi in Honolulu. When she relocated to Colorado, Roshi Aiken referred her to his dharma heir, John Tarrant. Amaryllis first attended PZI events in 2006 when the group was still known as the California Diamond Sangha. Amaryllis has collaborated with many musicians on Sutras and sutra services. The PZI Sutra Book has evolved, just as traditional robes disappeared and traditional meditation structures have eased.
Amaryllis is an accomplished classical violinist and has played her remarkable solos during during sesshins meditations for many years.
PZI Musicians
