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 15 Sunday Zen: With John Tarrant & Friends
September 21 Daylong: With John Tarrant & Tess Beasley
October 22–27 Fall Sesshin: with John Tarrant & PZI Teachers
- This event has passed.
THURSDAY ZEN: Isn’t That the Sound? with David Parks
January 11 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Free – $10
REGISTER
Looking for a new year’s poem, I stumbled upon this from Basho, Japanese master of Haiku.
awake at night—
the sound of a water jar
cracking in the cold
—Basho (Haas translation)
I remember winter backpacking trips that I have taken over the years, hiking into the Red River Gorge in Kentucky, walking through snow and ice, icicles hanging from rocks, streams frozen through, a small trickle of water beneath the ice. And there was this sound that moved through you as tree limbs separated from their trunks. All was quiet and then, CRAACCKK! cuts through and holds everything, everywhere, all at once.
Basho knows this sound, a crack in the cold dark night. Earlier in his life there was an old pond, a frog, and a sound that comes with a splash:
The old pond.
A frog jumps in.
Plop!
In the koan, Little Jade, from the PZI Miscellaneous collection, Yuanwu, after an encounter with his teacher Wuzu, hears a rooster crow. “Isn’t that the sound?” he says as his heart opens. He expresses joy on awakening, “The golden duck vanishes into the golden brocade …”
Sound opens us. Walls crumble and fall. As the crow calls—is that inside or outside? Here or there? What of Crack or Plop or the call of the rooster? So many of our koans begin with sound:
Who is hearing?
Stop the sound of the distant temple bell.
Stop the dogs barking at midnight.
Speak without moving your lips and tongue.
So, let’s get together for a sound bath on Thursday. Isn’t that the sound?
—David Parks
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
