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
- This event has passed.
MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Duck Legs Are Naturally Short
REGISTER
A crane’s legs are naturally long and a duck’s legs are naturally short.
A pine tree is naturally tall and straight, while brambles are naturally crooked.
Geese are white, crows are black.
Everything is manifested in this manner…
Do you have it? Do you have it?”
—Yuanwu Keqin, from The Record of Foguo
Yuanwu Keqin (Perfect Enlightenment) along with his teacher Wuzu Fayan and his student Dahui Zonggao, formed a triad in the Linji School koan tradition in 12th-century China that remains an abiding foundation in Chan-Zen. Yuanwu is best known for his commentary on the 100-case collection of koans and verses called The Blue Cliff Record (pub. 1128). The Blue Cliff Record, named for the temple at the Blue Cliff where Yuanwu gave lectures, is the most famous Chan koan collection of all time, and is used around the world in zendos today.
Yuanwu’s poetry can be extraordinarily beautiful, like his preface to The Blue Cliff Record:
Boundless wind and moon—the eye within eyes
Inexhaustible heaven and earth—the light beyond the light
Knock on any door—there is one who will answer
Acceptance is a key feature of Zen practice.
Accepting that cranes have long legs and ducks short, accepting the naturalness of a world in which pine trees are tall and brambles crooked. And what of us? Do we have it? We too are tall or short, straight or gay, progressive or conservative. Do we need to make any of that wrong? Or right? The universe does neither—John Tarrant says the universe has opinions similar to a microwave oven: It takes in everything.
In another passage, Yuanwu asks, “Just when it’s like this, what is it?” Indeed, what is it? Who am I? What am I? To ask the question is a good beginning.
At the end of his life, Yuanwu’s followers asked him to write a poem. He sat up straight, composed the following, and passed:
My work slipped off into the night
For you no pretty song took flight
The hour is here, I must be away
Fare you well, take care alright!
—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
