Taking Part in the Gathering

John Tarrant’s opening dharma talk in Summer Sesshin at Santa Sabina. Recorded June 13, 2022.

John Tarrant welcomes Summer Sesshin participants and introduces a stanza from Shitou’s song-poem, Taking Part in the Gathering, as an opening koan. The poem comes from the inception of Chan as a Daoist current on the nature of reality. Koans, art, meditation & conversation are part of waking up together in PZI culture. June 13, 2022.

David tells the story of Jiashan’s awakening, after being sent by Daowu to find the Boat Monk. David also guides a revealing exercise in picking and choosing. Complete talk given in Summer Sesshin, June 16, 2022. 37 minutes.

Michelle Riddle opens the sesshin vessel with instructions to help participants understand what it is to work with koans, especially within the unique container of group practice. She encourages “being with and bearing with usual responses,” while carried by the koans into new territory. How garage music and weed-whackers welcomed her to Summer Sesshin. Recording of the complete dharma talk given on June 14, 2022. 17 minutes.

John Tarrant’s dharma talk on June 17, 2022, in Summer Sesshin. Complete session. 45 minutes.

John Tarrant’s dharma talk on the first day of Summer Sesshin. He reads Shitou’s poem, Taking Part in the Gathering. Complete session. 38 minutes.

The small self is always trying to hold off the world. But we are really a kind of flow. We feel the warm empathy at the bottom of all things. All things have Buddha nature. Not opposing reality is the beginning of all awakenings.

Evening dharma talk by John Tarrant in Winter Sesshin. As recorded January 15, 2018.