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: Silence in the Midst of Roaring Life
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Someone asked, “What is ‘being silent while speaking’?”
Yunmen said, “A clear opportunity just slipped through your fingers!”
When I found this exchange about being silent while speaking, I was reminded of another exchange in which Baizhang asked “How would you say something without moving your lips?” Baizhang was Huangbo’s teacher, Huangbo was Muzhou’s teacher and Muzhou was Yunmen’s teacher.
Feeling the flow of this phrase about being silent while speaking as it moved through one hundred years and three generations of Zen teachers increased my sense of intimacy with being silent while speaking.
I was reminded of trekking in the Himalayas while reciting a mantra, getting lost in the infinite stone steps and the equally infinite number of mantras recited while being silent. When I stopped to rest, having forgotten where I was, seeing the towering peaks all around me, I saw without using my eyes, I heard without using my ears, I smelled without using my nose. I was transported without using my body. I knew the mountains without using my mind, and my tongue fell out completely.
There was another experience that came to mind, also in the Himalayas. While on a pilgrimage to a cave sacred to the Hindu god Shiva, along the way I met and spent some time with a devotee of Shiva. We sat on a little island at a point where two rivers joined each other and the sound of those rivers was so loud I could not hear my own voice.
To speak but not hear your own voice is an unusual experience, as is finding silence in the roar of two rivers, or in the midst of a roaring life.
—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
