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: Just Let It Be
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Daoxin asked Sengcan, “Please teach me the way of freedom.”
Sengcan asked, “Who is binding you?”
Daoxin said, No one is binding me.”
Sengcan said, “Then why should you search for freedom?”
Hearing this, Daoxin had great realization.
Sengcan was the third patriarch of Chan after Bodhidharma, the first patriarch, and his student Huike, the second. Many know the story of Huike cutting off his arm to show his sincerity to Bodhidharma.
Trust in Mind (the Xinxin Ming) is a well-known composition that begins, “The great way is not difficult if you just avoid picking and choosing…” and is attributed to Sengcan.
Daoxin studied with Sengcan for nine years after this exchange about binding. Sengcan acknowledged Daoxin as his successor, and therefore the fourth patriarch. But, ask even a longtime Zen practitioner something about the fourth patriarch and more than likely you will get a blank stare in response.
Daoxin’s realization that he was the one doing the binding—which was keeping him from being free—can be heard echoed in his response to a question about how to become clear. He said:
Don’t be mindful of the Buddha,
Don’t control the mind,
Don’t examine the mind,
Don’t speculate about the mind,
Don’t deliberate,
Don’t practice analysis,
Don’t become distracted;
Just let it be.
Don’t try to get rid of it,
Don’t try to make it stay.
This very body and mind is always the site of awakening in every step you take. Whatever you do, wherever you go, it is all awakening.
“Just let it be,” just let your binding be—knowing what you are doing is enough. Anything we “do about it” is just more binding. I can hear this echoed in something Yuanwu said 400 years later:
Life, death, difficulty, heartache—just let them be and you enter the realm of awakening without leaving the realm of the demon.
One of my favorite sakes is called “Demon Slayer,” but slaying demons is not what this practice is about. Daoxin knew that and taught specific techniques to help.
Slayed any demons lately?
—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
