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
- This event has passed.
TUESDAY ZEN with David Weinstein: Peach Blossoms
REGISTER
Lingyun was wandering in the mountains and became lost in his walking.
He rounded a bend and saw peach blossoms on the other side of the valley.
The sight awakened him and he wrote:
For thirty years I sought a sword master.
How many times have leaves fallen
and new buds appeared?
But from the moment I saw the peach blossoms,
I’ve had no doubts.
Some centuries later, across the water in Japan, Keizan wrote:
The village peach blossoms didn’t know
their own pink
but still they freed Lingyun
from all his doubts.
—PZI Miscellaneous Koans Case 37
What first jumped out at me from this koan is,“…From the moment I saw the peach blossoms, I’ve had no doubts.”
I thought, “But what about great doubt?” It is said to be essential for the practice. The formula is: Great doubt leads to great faith, which leads to great effort.
Then there were Keizan’s comments centuries later, which seem to be equally about the peach blossoms as they are about Lingyun. A question arose in my mind regarding the phrase, “freed Lingyun from all his doubts.” I thought, “And that is a good thing?” No doubt would lead to no great faith which would lead to no great effort, wouldn’t it? Was Keizan maybe pointing that out?
I then bumped into a couple of comments that also caught my attention. The first was from Xuansha Shibei who said, “Lingyun may well have been right, but I’ll guarantee that his understanding was incomplete.” The other was from Dachuan who said, “A thief has no peace of mind.”
What arose in me upon these readings was, “It has no power for the Way.” So I’m going to sit with all of this and with my doubtful character and make a report about it this Tuesday.
—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
