Audio Recording

AUDIO. In chaos stories you are always lost. Why not go into the lostness? Chan says, go deeper—getting lost might be a good thing. Recorded June 5, 2022.

What is the impediment to your awakening? Whatever arises, it takes courage to stay with your inner life without doing anything about it—until the obstacles between self and life dissolve. As recorded Saturday evening, October 23, 2021, at Fall Sesshin.

Morning dharma talk during Fall Sesshin: When is koan practice koan practice? “Things are not as they appear, nor are they otherwise,” is the springboard for David Weinstein’s talk on the continual transformation of things. As recorded Wednesday, October 20, 2021.

What is the world? Just this! Eduardo Fuentes talks about the beautiful, mysterious lives we lead, and how “don’t-know mind” is hidden inside and underneath names and symbols. As recorded at Fall Sesshin, Friday, October 22, 2021.

What is a Dharma Theme? A curated collection of media from our KALPA library for you to read, listen to, & enjoy. Delve into talks with recent guests in Modern Zen Luminaries: A series of Zen Buddhist scholars, writers, translators, and practitioners in conversation with PZI’s Jon Joseph Roshi. Listen to audio from these Monday Zen Online Special Events.

NEXT: Zen Priest, Activist, Film Narrator & Writer Peter Coyote on March 28th

“A person on a raft flows on the stream by throwing themselves away.” Not fighting the difficulty of things; you have to go through it. John Tarrant on immersion, and orienting yourself to the infinite.

On practice and path: become the Way, and illumination is always with you. A dive into the sources, history, and meaning of the 4 Great Bodhisattva Vows; how PZI teachers and students work with them towards the ceremony of Refuge and taking up the path. Each teacher takes up one of the Vows. Teachers chant and intone Vows in English and Sino-Japanese; Michael Wilding recites, Jordan McConnell singing and on guitar. Complete session recorded August 1, 2021

Fathers dancing: Caring for others, holding paths in the dharma and celebrating. Mountains, clouds, waves, birds, lions and teachers dance. The trees dance and foxes steal shoes and dance in the moonlight. Sunday Talk with John Tarrant on Fathers’s Day, as recorded June 20, 2021.

Roshi Jon Joseph in conversation with an assembled panel of 4 PZI meditators who deal with varied experiences of chronic and severe pain. Koan meditation helped all of them meet, dance with and explore pain, allowing it to become a profound teacher and ally. As recorded May 31, 2021.

Listen to audio of John Tarrant’s morning & afternoon sessions, Dragons of the Blue Cliff Retreat. How does the bodhisattva of compassion use all those hands and eyes? How do I express Guanyin, and how is Guanyin showing up in my life? As recorded June 6, 2021. (Parts 1 & 2)

Koan meditation and dharma talk with John Tarrant. How is my hand like Buddha’s hand? PZI Zen Online, Sunday program as recorded May 16, 2021.

John Tarrant begins with a Daoist story from the Zhuangzi: the transformation of a giant fish named Kun. Includes meditation segments, music with Michael Wilding, Four Vows with Jordan McConnell & Amaryllis Fletcher, Cantor. Freedom is in your own breast—koans open the way. PZI Zen Online. As recorded May 2, 2021.

Jesse Cardin Roshi, of PZI & It’s Alive Zen in San Antonio Texas, wanders with us into the land of demons, and includes them. Spring Sesshin Dharma Talk recorded April 9, 2021.

An audio recording of a conversation on The Wisdom Podcast featuring Zen teacher John Tarrant Roshi. He and host Daniel Aitken speak about one of John’s favorite topics: Zen koans.

Deshan is determined to prove his scholarly certainty. He encounters 2 teachers who help him see the light. John talks about refuge; What is it? Why take it? Working with the vows as koans. Zen rests in mystery and uncertainty. Linji: Have confidence in the light always working inside you. Music from Jordan McConnell. As recorded Feb. 28th, 2021.

Our Q’s & A’s of love and Zen. Turning toward everything, even what doesn’t fit with our description of reality. We long to be seen as we truly are and are equally terrified of being found. Nothing is excluded—what your heart longs for is in your life now! PZI Zen Online audio excerpt recorded Feb. 14, 2021.

Allison Atwill explores cases against life and love, the ways we block the universe’s gifts—and how we “abide somewhere” by clinging to lack. Or, we hang on to what we have like Deshan and his commentaries. We want to be included, “to feel beloved on earth.” Where is love in Zen? Included! Audio excerpt from The Ink Dark Moon. As recorded Feb. 14 2021, PZI Zen Online.

John Tarrant on encouraging friendship with the world—koans, trees, people. How we interact with friends, from the heart. We listen to each other. We don’t have to make them anything other than what they are. Poems, stories, comments. Complete session as recorded Jan 24 2021, PZI Zen Online.

PZI Zen Online: Handing Things On in the Dark. The dark silent time of this year has lasted for 9 months, in COVID. “The whole meaning of your life is in the current matter happening now.” No explaining it. “To be deeply in Zen is to be deeply in how to express it.” The first vaccines are here. The mysterious freedoms of this time, welcoming the new year, and a tour of the deep thick dark of midnight. As recorded Jan 3 2021.

PZI Zen Online: 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. As recorded Dec 27 2020.

PZI Zen Online: “What is the most marvelous thing, a matter of special worth?” a student asks Baizhang. “Sitting alone on Mt. Courage Peak,” he answers. The importance of an imaginative response to any time of change. The wisdom of an indigenous storyteller who embodies a much longer timeline of radical earth changes. Music by Michael Wilding posted separately. As recorded Dec 13 2020.

PZI Zen Online: Why do people go to wild places to find their true nature? The wild is here, right now, in your own wild temple. Anything can happen in the wildness of now. The Universe is so rich in destinations that you are always already at one! The beauty of joining in meditation in difficult times. With music from Jordan McConnell, Amaryllis Fletcher. As recorded Nov 29 2020

Audio excerpt from the Journey Into Awakening Series, in which John Tarrant tells the koan story of a woman who gets a task that seems impossible, that she must practice without fail for one year. As recorded on Sunday, November 22, 2020. 17 minutes.

PZI Zen Online: John Reads the Ballad of Tam Lin, in which a brave girl helps her lover, caught in the Faery Queens’s caterhaugh (boggy fen), transform. As recorded on retreat, Oct 31 2020. 13 minutes.

PZI Zen Online: Four Guanyins reappear online for Zen Tuesdays. They marvel at the immensity in all things from various perspectives. Drawing inspiration from Jane Hirshfield’s poem “Tree,” The Doors’ “Light My Fire,” a golden crowned sparrow, a remarkable brother’s life and more. Excerpts and complete audio sessions. As recorded Oct 2020.

PZI Zen Online: Gathering in the Valley of Our Time – All talks, music, sutras and excerpts included. As recorded Oct 1-4 2020.

PZI Zen Online- Audio Excerpt – John Tarrant opens the dream with the koan: ‘What is your Light?’. Huangbo’s insights on Buddha Nature as ‘calm mysterious joy’, and also touches on the frequent call and response in koan practice and ‘the silent bond in which all things are you and your family’. Recorded Sept. 27 2020 12 minutes.

PZI Zen Online – Meditation, the vessel in difficult times. Our in upheaval from Covid quarantine and riots over racism. Chan took on difficult times with stories and Zen’s encounter with Daoism & ‘The Chuang Tzu’ with strange characters like ‘crooked carriage’ and his friends. Who’s hearing? Who’s concerned about the world? Who’s sad? We are in it together so let’s vow first to: ‘Set endless heartache to rest!’ Koans & stories are ‘ancient vials of life’ to help now. As recorded May 31 2020

PZI Zen Online: Hanging Lanterns at the Gates of the Autumn Temple. You have your own light. Life and hard times of an apple tree. Marking Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s passing. Music: Michael Wilding, Amaryllis Fletcher, Jordan Mc Connell. As recorded Sept 20 2020.

PZI Zen Online: Orange skies, unhealthy air, Apocalypse week in CA and the west. The old agreements are fragile: Climate change a long gathering storm, fire a consequence. Having a practice – the simplest thing – a conversation with the vastness. Being lost is an opportunity – as old attitudes fall away. Musicians Amaryllis Fletcher, Cantor & Jordan McConnell. As recorded Sept 13 2020