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 Emlyn Guiney
F E A T U R E D
September 21 Daylong: Zen and the Goddess Part I
September 22 Sunday Zen with John Tarrant & Friends
October 22–27 Fall Sesshin: The 1000-Armed Goddess of Mercy
- This event has passed.
OPEN MIND RETREAT: Transforming the Mind & Heart – The Story of the Grail with John Tarrant, Allison Atwill & Tess Beasley
March 7 @ 4:30 pm - March 10 @ 12:00 pm
$825 – $1075
CLOSED
Contact Registrar Eleanor Silberman if you have questions.
Transforming the Mind & Heart
—The Story of the Grail
With John Tarrant, Allison Atwill & Tess Beasley
March 7–10, 2024
Thursday Eve through Sunday Noon
Commonweal Center, Bolinas CA
IN PERSON
People go to abandoned places to search for their true nature.
At such a moment, Honored One, where is your true nature?
In the old days there was a wasteland and in that wild expanse there was a castle that appeared and disappeared at will. The king of that castle was disabled with an ancient wound and unable to walk but he could fish from a boat and was called the Fisher King.
His sickness caused the land around to be infertile. You could not find his palace but you might stumble upon it. The palace had a magical sword and a grail dish that emits light and heals but did not heal the king.
That is your job when you arrive there: to understand, to heal the Grail King and the land around, and to learn to ask a question which requires not heroics but intimacy and tender care. In your turn you will have to take up his duties and rule the castle.
The Grail Story appeared when the old order was breaking down, and we live in that sort of time now and we think it will help us. It is a koan story in which impossible problems must be solved.
—John Tarrant
Join us for an exploration of the great way of Zen—koans, stories, meditation and dreams. We’re looking forward to it, and there are limited numbers, so if you want to come, sign up soon. Join us at Beautiful Bolinas.
—John, Allison, & Tess
John Tarrant, Allison Atwill, and Tess Beasley will lead this retreat with a group of twenty-five participants or fewer. There is usually a mix of experienced meditators and complete beginners. We sit in a circle and meditate until it’s time to listen or talk, until it’s time to take a walk and gaze at the ocean, put our faces into the wind and feel our hearts shift in new and unexpected ways.
Pacific Zen Institute’s Open Mind retreats come out of our impulse to make a Zen meditation retreat that is native to American culture. When we take away the barriers to understanding, things just naturally shine.
This is a residential retreat held in a beautiful place on the ocean with a simple feel, and wonderful food.
People find that this retreat has a powerful effect on their lives and understanding of the practice of the inner life and the world of work and personal interaction. It has the deep strength of an intensive meditation retreat inside a form that works for people with different levels of meditation experience. It has a flexible schedule that works well for those who would like to bring a partner or a friend.
No particular background in spiritual practice is required.
Bring a notebook. Also, if you want to paint or draw or play an instrument you can bring your gear.
RETREAT DETAILS
Cost
Member Shared Room (double): $825
Member Single Room: $1025
Non-Member Shared Room (double): $875
Non-Member Single Room: $1075
Location:
Commonweal Center, 451 Mesa Rd, Bolinas, CA 94924
Dates and Times:
Four Days & Three Nights
Begins Thursday, March 7th, at 7:00 p.m. (dinner at 6, check-in at 5)
Ends Sunday, March 10th at 12:00 p.m.
Questions:
Member scholarship and retreat-related questions?
Contact Eleanor Silberman
In Bolinas, the grey whales are migrating north with the calves close in, pelicans fly by like royalty, osprey carry fish and hermit thrushes pass through. Foxes are stealing shoes, small badgers are peeping out of holes, the ocean is breaking on Duxbury reef, and the great forces carry us too, as we had hoped.
In the field of meditation we welcome a spring that is larger than our difficulties or fears. There is a joy and renewal. We don’t have to get back into life. We are there already. —John Tarrant
John Tarrant Roshi taught Zen in a traditional Japanese manner for about 15 years and then developed new ways to teach people who had no previous experience of Zen koans or even of meditation.
John has a Ph.D. in psychology and is the author of Bring Me The Rhinoceros & Other Zen Koans That Will Save Your Life, and The Light Inside the Dark: Zen, Soul, & the Spiritual Life. He directs Pacific Zen Institute. He has a special interest in leadership and in creativity.
