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
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TUESDAY ZEN with David Weinstein: Jinniu’s Spirit of Joy and Play
REGISTER
Jinniu’s Spirit of Joy and Play
Every day at mealtime, Jinniu himself would take the buckets of rice to the front of the monastery hall, where he’d dance and laugh heartily, saying, “Bodhisattvas, come and eat your rice!”
(Xuedou comments: Jinniu wasn’t being kindhearted.)
Later, a student asked Changqing, “In the old days someone said, ‘Bodhisattvas, come and eat your rice!’ What did he mean?”
Changqing replied, “That’s a grace before the meal.”
—Blue Cliff Record Case 74
When this koan about Jinniu came along, I immediately had an image to accompany it, by the 18th-century Japanese Zen monk and artist Sengai. It is not an image of Jinniu, but rather of Hotei, one of the seven gods of good luck. He is often depicted playing with children and sometimes called the Laughing Buddha.
The inscription by Sengai on the image says, “How old are you, dear moon? Thirteen and seven?” Hotei is always depicted carrying a large cloth bag over his back, one that never empties; he uses it to feed the poor and needy. It includes an inexhaustible cache of treasures, including food and drink.
There’s something about Hotei’s unbridled joy, evident in Sengai’s picture, that feels like the kind of joy Jinniu must have felt each time he brought the rice into the meditation hall. That kind of joy doesn’t get talked about much in the koans, so I appreciate this example.
Though serious business, koan practice is also a kind of deep play. In that way, when having a conversation with someone about a koan, it can feel less like an examination or a test than about playing together—entering each other’s imaginations and our own.
Can you imagine that?
—David Weinstein
COME JOIN US on Tuesdays for koan meditation, dharma talk and conversation.
Register to participate. All are welcome.
David Weinstein Roshi, Director of Rockridge Meditation Community
