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.
THURSDAY ZEN: Meeting the Ancient Ancestors with David Parks
March 2, 2023 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Free – $10
REGISTER
Meeting the Ancient Ancestors
With the eighth in the Ox-Herding Series, “I, me, my” is forgotten. In his book, A Primer for Forgetting, Lewis Hyde (translator of this rendition of the ox series) shares John Cage’s words concerning The Empty Studio:
Said John Cage to Philip Guston,
When you start working, everyone is in your studio—the past, your friends, enemies, the art world, and above all, your own ideas—are all there. But as you continue painting, they start leaving one by one, and you are left completely alone. Then, if you are lucky, even you leave.
In the studio of your life, you know what Cage is talking about. We define our world according to our past, owning and holding it in our memory and defining ourselves by our childhood, by past traumas, memories of friends and enemies, etc.
As we practice, as we find peace with the endless changes that life brings, our hold on our self-image lightens until not even a self remains. Thus, these words are attached to the eigth picture in the series:
Whip and rope, person and ox: all are empty.
Words cannot reproduce the vast blue sky.
How could snowflakes survive the flames of a forge?
One can only join the ancestors by arriving at this place.
Of course, as the poet notices, you can’t use your words, this cannot be spoken of definitively. “How could snowflakes survive the flames of a forge?” Indeed.
Hyde’s last line mentions arriving somewhere, at some place. That’s OK, but I like this better: A translation that reads like this: “Arriving here, meet the ancient ancestors.”
So, tomorrow, Thursday, is bound to be a big mistake, as we give words to this experience of ongoing flow, the vastness of things, and the endless changes.
—David Parks
Come join us Thursdays, for koan meditation, a dharma talk, and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome.
I hope you will join us.
—David Parks Roshi, Director of Bluegrass Zen
