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: Yunyan’s Great Compassion
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Yunyan asked Daowu, “How does the Bodhisattva Guanyin use all those hands and eyes?
Daowu answered, “It is like someone in the middle of the night reaching behind their head for the pillow.”
Yunyan said, “I understand.”
“How do you understand it?” asked Daowu
“All over the body are hands and eyes.” said Yunyan
Daowu said “That is very well-expressed, but it is only eight-tenths of the answer.”
Yunyan asked “How would you say it, Elder Brother?”
Daowu said “All throughout the body are hands and eyes.”
This koan appears in both the Blue Cliff Record and the Book of Equanimity. In the Blue Cliff Record it is entitled, “Yunyan’s Hands and Eyes.” In the Book of Equanimity it is called, “Yunyan’s Great Compassion.”
It’s interesting that Yunyan gets top billing over Daowu as it would seem that Daowu got the upper hand on Yunyan in appreciating the difference between all over the body and all throughout the body. Isn’t one deeper than the other? All over the body is on the surface, not on the inside. You might think that the koan should be called “Daowu’s Great Compassion” or “Daowu’s Hands and Eyes.” After all, Daowu is Yunyan’s elder brother so…doesn’t that mean he knows more?
Just to make things a bit more interesting, the story also appears in the Record of Yunyan. Though there is no title, it is interesting to notice that the positions are reversed and that it is Daowu who asks Yunyan the first question about hands and eyes.
Daowu asked, “‘The Bodhisattva of Compassion has thousands of eyes—which is the most important one?” Yunyan said, “It’s like when a person reaches out for their pillow in the middle of the night.” Daowu said, “I understand.”
Yunyan asked, “What do you understand?”
Daowu said, “There are eyes all over one’s body.”
Yunyan replied, “You said that so directly, but you are only 80% correct.”
Daowu asked, “How do you understand this?”
Yunyan said, “There are eyes all over one’s body.”
Yamada’s translation in both the Blue Cliff Record and the Book of Equanimity has Yunyan saying, “The whole body is hands and eyes.” Then Daowu saying, “All throughout the body are hands and eyes.” Aren’t they saying the same thing as in the version of the Record of Yunyan?
Then the donkey and the well came along and asked, “Isn’t the difference between eyes all over the body and eyes all through the body the same as the donkey sees the well and the well sees the donkey?”
—David Weinstein
COME JOIN US on Tuesdays for koan meditation, dharma talk and conversation.
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David Weinstein Roshi, Director of Rockridge Meditation Community
