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. Questions? Contact Corey Hitchcock.
F E A T U R E D
Sunday Zen: with John Tarrant on December 3
Morning Meditations: Into Winter Open Temple Nov 6–Jan 5
Next Zen Luminary: Susan Murphy Roshi on January 24
- This event has passed.
THURSDAY ZEN: Into the Mysterious Dark with David Parks
November 30 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Free – $10
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In the dark? Darken further.
—PZI Miscellaneous Koan
We are in the depth of autumn verging on winter. The trees have shed their leaves, and the cold comes to the hills and valleys of the Bluegrass—the fullness of things transformed and laid bare.
Over the past week I was able to attend the death of a friend, my partner Genevieve’s father. The time we spent around his hospital bed was a time of darkening and darkening further. We accompanied him, his sight dimming until he passed peacefully into the mysterious dark.
To accompany him in his dying was to move with him in the dark, to welcome life’s uncertainty, to open to the vast mystery of here. I am not sure what to say at this point other than to offer this koan:
Daowu and Jianyuan visited a house in mourning to offer their condolences.
Jianyuan struck the coffin with his hand and asked, “Alive or dead?”
Daowu said, “I’m not saying alive, I’m not saying dead.”
Jianyuan asked, “Why won’t you say?”
Daowu said, “I’m not saying! I’m not saying!”
On the way home, Jianyuan stopped in the middle of the road and demanded,
“Tell me right now, Teacher. If you don’t say, I’m going to hit you and leave.”
Daowu said, “You can hit me, but even if you do, I still won’t say.”
Jianyuan hit him.
After Daowu died, Jianyuan went to Shishuang and told him this story.
Shishuang said, “I’m not saying alive, I’m not saying dead.”
Jianyuan asked, “Why won’t you say?”
Shishuang said, “I’m not saying! I’m not saying!”
At these words, Jianyuan had an opening.
—Case 55, Blue Cliff Record
This koan has been important in my own practice journey. As I reflect on losses I have experienced, I feel the deep sadness of missing someone. And I deeply hear Daowu’s, “I’m not saying.” He is “not saying” not because he doesn’t want to, but because he can’t say.
He refuses to divide the world into this and that, life and death. Daowu is “not saying” so his hapless student might come to realization for himself and know simultaneously that we lose things and there is nothing, not a single thing to lose.
Are you alive or dead? I don’t know, so I won’t say either.
—David Parks
COME JOIN US on Thursdays for koan meditation, dharma talk and conversation. All are welcome. Register to participate.
David Parks Roshi, Director of Bluegrass Zen
REGISTER
COME JOIN US at 4 pm on Thursdays for koan meditation, dharma talk and conversation.
Register to participate. All are welcome.
David Parks Roshi, Director of Bluegrass Zen
