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 Karin Pfluger
F E A T U R E D
October 6: Sunday Zen at 10:30 AM PDT with John Tarrant & Friends
October 22–27 Fall Sesshin: The 1000-Armed Goddess of Mercy
November 16 Daylong: Zen and the Goddess Part II
THURSDAY ZEN with David Parks: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
October 3 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Free – $10
REGISTER
If wherever you are, you take the role of host, then whatever spot you stand on will be a true place.
—The Record of Linji, PZI Miscellaneous Koans Case 38
This is a koan about the host and the guest. Something we all know. As host we receive our guests, not with judgment but with a generosity of spirit, not finding fault but helping them find their place. To be the host is to be hospitable, to open a space for the other. It is to receive the guest. Sort of like a mirror.
We start with a spirit of discovery, inquiring of ourselves, “Where is this koan in my life?”
This morning I looked into the mirror. I look into the mirror every morning. As I appear in the mirror, my reflection comes back to me. The mirror is always doing this—something appears, it is reflected back. So when I am wearing a red shirt, red. Or if I have bloodshot eyes, it shows me that. The mirror can’t stop being a mirror. And it shows me my face as I appear before it. Like a good host, the mirror receives what comes its way, without judgment. There is a deep kindness in this.
So, the mind. It is the natural state of the mind to be here, present in the moment. To embrace what is, as it is. This acceptance is love, it is in itself compassion for whatever appears. To be present to the world in this way is to “Take the position of the host,” simply receiving what comes, welcoming the guest.
On Thursday, we will start with this and see where life takes us.
—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
