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: Throw On Some Clothes!
REGISTER
Yangshan asked a student, “Where were you born?”
The student said, “I’m from Yu province.”
“Do you think about that place?”
“I’m always thinking about it.”
“That which is able to think is mind. What is thought about is the environment. Within the environment are mountains, rivers and the great earth, towers, terraces, pavilions, people, animals and all kinds of other things. But turn your thought inward to the mind that thinks. Are there lots of things there?”
“When I reach that place inside, I don’t see anything there.”
“That’s right when you are at the stage of faith, but it’s not yet enough for the stage of being human.”
“Do you have anything else to point out or not?”
“Whether I have something else or not isn’t the issue. When you look inside now, you see only an undifferentiated darkness. But move around and throw on some clothes and notice yourself doing that.”
—Book of Serenity Case 32
Yangshan saying, “…but it’s not yet enough for the stage of being human,” immediately brought in Shishuang’s “Take a step from a 100-foot pole,” as well as the Hermit of Lotus Blossom Peak’s “It has no power for the way.”
I appreciate Yangshan’s example of moving around and throwing on some clothes and noticing yourself doing that. Shishuang doesn’t tell us how to take a step off the 100-foot pole; there are no helpful hints. The hermit of Lotus Blossom Peak doesn’t tell us anything about the journey into the 10,000 peaks.
Yangshan, together with his teacher Guishan, founded the Guiyang School: the first of the five schools of Chan. Besides being noted for using esoteric symbols, his school is also noted for having been a gentler, kinder style of practicing Chan—not so much yelling or hitting. Yangshan tells us what to do. Nanquan said that ordinary mind is the way; Yangshan is showing us ordinary mind.
What do you notice as you put on your clothes and move around?
—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
