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 & Friends: Taking Refuge in Awakening, the Way and Our Companions
REGISTER
I take refuge in awakening
I take refuge in the way
I take refuge in my companions
These are the Three Refuge Vows, the first of sixteen that an aspirant takes in receiving the precepts before an assembly of their Sangha. It is a celebration we call Refuge, and is essentially a lay ordination: the one taking Refuge receives a dharma name and the small robe called a rakusu. The ceremony is usually joined at sesshin, but in unusual circumstances, held remotely.
The Refuge ceremony begins with an invocation:
When knowing stops, when thoughts about who we are fall away, vast space opens up and love appears. Anything that gets in the way of understanding this is a cause of suffering and something to refrain from.
Moment by moment, thought appears, the earth appears, we appear. When we test each bit of life against the heart, we find we cannot reject anything, for we are the only hands and eyes that eternity has. With our virtues, our failures, and our imperfections, this is the body we take refuge in; this is what we offer to the world.
The aspirant works for a year, or more, with their teacher reviewing each of the sixteen vows, which include the Three Pure Vows (I vow to do no harm/to do good/to do good for others) and the Ten Bodhisattva vows (I vow not to kill/to steal/to misuse sex/to lie/to misuse drugs/to gossip maliciously/to praise myself at the expense of others/to be stingy/to indulge in anger/or to disparage awakening, the way and my companions.)
Each of these are treated as a koan: what is their inconceivable nature and how do we realize that truth in our lives? The only way we can investigate these koans is to “test each bit of our lives against our own heart.”
The invocation goes on: By their nature, vows are not things we hold perfectly. Vows are the bridge we build between the spacious world and the things we do every day. They encourage us to follow our questions when they arise. Underlying our vows is compassion for everything that has the courage to live.
—Jon Joseph
Join Jon Joseph and Friends as we hold a refuge ceremony on Monday night!
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
