PZI Events Calendar
W E L C O M E to the PZI Events Calendar! Here you will find all upcoming events and registration links for PZI Zen Online retreats, sesshins, and weekly meditations & talks. Search by individual event, day, or month. Save to your Google Calendar or iCal Calendar. No experience required to participate. All event times are Pacific Time. Questions? Contact Lucas at PZI Support.
F E A T U R E D
April 26: What Is This Light That Everybody Has? – Deep Sit Sunday Zen with John Tarrant & Tess Beasley
May 7–10: Say A True Word & I Will Stay The Night – Open Mind Retreat with John Tarrant, Tess Beasley, & Allison Atwill
June 8–14: Dragons & Tigers, Oh My! – Our Great Summer Sesshin with John Tarrant & PZI Teachers
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MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Sitting on Great Courage Peak
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Sitting On Great Courage Peak
A student asked Baizhang, “What is the most wonderful and special thing?”
“Sitting alone on Great Courage Peak.”
The student bowed, and Baizhang hit him.
—Blue Cliff Record Case 26
I was visiting this koan with a friend the other day, and what impressed me was this case’s ordinariness: just our sitting alone, right where we are, is enough.
“Great Courage Peak” sounds kind of aspirational, but it was just the name of the mountain where Baizhang lived. He could have as easily said Geyser Peak, Lake Tahoe, or Bolinas. Or he could have responded, “Sitting alone drinking a latte at Peets Coffee.” Or blanching and packing tomatoes in my kitchen. Reading The Record of Dongshan in the early morning. Don’t say “could be.” It is.
When Dongshan was leaving, he said to Yunyen, his teacher, “If in a hundred years someone were to ask me how to describe you, how should I respond?” Yunyen answered, “Say, ’Just this. This!’” Dongshan fell silent.
There is something wonderful and special about just-this-ness. The just-this-ness of Chan-Zen is a fullness, an enoughness, a wholeness. That is so great because we are the complete package, whatever mountain we sit on, even if we are sitting alone on no-courage mountain.
Many years ago, somebody felt they had to name just-this-ness, so they called it buddha nature.
Join us.
—Jon Joseph
COME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome.
Jon Joseph Roshi, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
