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.
Open Mind with John Tarrant, Allison Atwill, & Tess Beasley: The Great Goddess – Seeing Through the Eyes of the Ancestors
THIS RETREAT IS FULL
Want to be on the waitlist? Contact the registrar, Eleanor Silberman
The Great Goddess: Seeing Through the Eyes of the Ancestors
An Open Mind In-Person Retreat with Three Roshis:
John Tarrant, Allison Atwill, & Tess Beasley
Commonweal Center in Bolinas, CA
August 8–11, 2024
Thursday Eve through Sunday Noon
The mind is a jumble of many things, and, when we throw them overboard, we forget who we are. Then the world becomes intense and beautiful without reservation. We meet the ancestors at breakfast, and everything that appears comes near. The corn tortilla burning on the stove, a puppy dog, the trouble that occurs in love, the changing of the seasons, is all for us.
Deep down we find a purity in things.This is the heart of the Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy. Join us to spend some time with her.
This is a residential retreat held in a beautiful place on the ocean, with a simple feel and wonderful food. The flexible schedule allows the work of the soul to go on in the dark. The retreat works well for those who would like to bring a partner or friend. No particular background in spiritual practice is required.
Join us for an exploration of the great way of Zen: koans, stories, meditation and dreams. We’re looking forward to it and if you want to come, sign up soon—this retreat is small and fills quickly! Join us at beautiful Bolinas.
—John, Allison, & Tess
About PZI Open Mind Retreats
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.
There will be sitting together, koans, teaching, walking on the beach, poetry, conversation, writing and time to find out what our lives might be like without our usual stories. We will do exercises that help our attention to deepen. We will make discoveries and our lives will open.
This is a retreat that people find has a powerful effect on their lives and their understanding, both of the practice of the inner life and of 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 all different levels of meditation experience. It has a flexible schedule that makes it work 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.
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.
Retreat Details
Cost
Members Shared Double Room: 875
Non-Members Shared Double Room: 925
Members Single Room: 1095
Non-Members Single Room: 1145
Location
Commonweal Center, 451 Mesa Road, Bolinas, CA 94924
Dates and Times
Begins Thursday, August 8th, at 7:30 p.m. (dinner at 6, check-in at 4)
Ends Sunday, August 11th at 12:00 p.m.
Questions
Registration, member scholarship, or retreat-related questions?
Please contact our registrar, Eleanor Silberman
Important
Notify the registrar if you’ll arrive at 6:00 p.m. or later
Stay tuned
You’ll get a detailed Welcome Email one week before the event
Covid safety
We’ll all follow this Covid protocol
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
