PZI Teacher Archives
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Allison Atwill -
David Parks -
David Weinstein -
Eduardo Fuentes -
Jesse Cardin -
John Tarrant -
Jon Joseph -
Michelle Riddle -
Tess Beasley
Text Library
There are 208 pieces here.
Dharma Theme: Baizhang’s Fox – Cause & Effect in a Fox Life
How many lifetimes do we spend in our fox suits? They are not wasted. All forms are part of the lively package of existence. Turning words and sudden awakenings even from long-suffering can appear anywhere and in the most unexpected ways.
Dharma Theme: Past Midnight – Discoveries in the Dark
These dharma talks and texts, like Dongshan’s First Rank, wander in the hours before moonrise when anything can appear. Being lost, or in the dark, is a necessary condition on the Way.
Words, Not Swords – Listening to the Universe with Grace Martin
PZI member Grace Martin wanted to renew communication with her adult son. She drew inspiration from a talk by John Tarrant and landed on the perfect method: Grace reads to him (and us) from Daniel Pinkwater’s book, Wingman—one of her son’s childhood favorites.
A Valentine’s Day Bankei Koan Miracle
A search for the source of a Zen koan leads David Weinstein on a Valentine’s Day tour of koan history and many lineage teachers: “It’s like a murder mystery, tracing the clues, a prime suspect emerges, but then there’s a twist and it’s someone else, until finally, in the end I realize the prime suspect is me.”
Dharma Theme: Winter Sesshin 2023 — A Solitary Boat Making Its Way
A complete audio record of talks from PZI’s Live-Online Winter Sesshin 2023, January 31–February 5, 2023. Videos also available in the KALPA library.
A Donkey Sees a Well, a Well Sees a Donkey
On thing you realize when you’ve been walking along for thirty lifetimes, is that the journey itself is home. There’s no flaw in what you’re doing. And in the journey you encounter peach blossoms, and you can feel that it changes you. There could be many forms of peach blossoms in your life.
Ikkyu’s Well & The Miscellaneous Koans
Images of water are deep in the meditation tradition. There is the notion that water nourishes us and holds us, and that the Dao flows like water and always finds the Way. Whatever blocks the river, the Dao dissolves it or will move around it. That’s the quality of meditation.
Yuanwu & the Great Masters of the Blue Cliff
The subject is the Dharma, the deepest matters, our own true face. One way to look at these matters is through the Blue Cliff Record, a compilation of occasions for revealing who you are.
A Blue Cliff Record Journey of Not Picking & Choosing
It’s remarkable that the Picking & Choosing koan appears four times in the Blue Cliff Record, which contains only one hundred cases. So, what to do with it? Whatever you see is going to be true, it’s going to belong to you.
Peach Blossom Journey
A guided meditation from John Tarrant: You’re walking along, and you’re kind of in the middle of your life—which you always are, no matter how old you are, you are in the middle of it—and you’re sort of just thinking and noticing, and then you have this idea: Why don’t I treat my whole life as a pilgrimage? That’s it. That’s what I’ll do.
A Great Current Carries Us
The Daoist idea that came into Chan and Zen is that we harmonize with things. We don’t try and subdue them, although that’s a very strong human impulse. The great koan masters pointed out that the heart has a place of ease, and that there’s an inner freedom and a path we can walk no matter what we’ve suffered or are afraid of or are afraid might happen.
Dharma Theme: Door After Door Opening Inside, Fall Sesshin 2022
A complete audio record of talks from PZI’s Live-Online Fall Sesshin 2022, October 4-9, 2022.
The Lion with the Golden Hair
The tip of each hair on the golden-haired lion is itself a whole world, an image of all the galaxies, all piled together. This lion is warm-hearted, delighted with everything, having a generally good time no matter what kind of time we’re having.
The Great Collaborators of the Blue Cliff Record
Deep in Summer Sesshin, we are in the middle of the Blue Cliff Record. We, ourselves, are under the Blue Cliff, with Yunmen and Yunmen’s friends. We are all those people. The Blue Cliff is still being written, and we’re helping out with that project.
Dharma Theme: Summer Sesshin 2022 – Taking Part in the Gathering
Here is our curation of full-length Summer Sesshin dharma talk audios on a single page, for easy finding and listening. A sesshin is more than the sum of its parts or recorded talks—there are personal interviews and deep meditation, teaching talks and conversations, old friends and new, ceremonies, brilliant teachers, music, great enlightenment, mistakes, and delight. The play of the universe. Recorded at Santa Sabina Center, June 13-19, 2022.
Dharma Theme – Zen 2.0: John Tarrant on Zen Koans – Zenosaurus Articles 1-19
Zenosaurus: John Tarrant’s introductions and commentaries on 19 koans, from his earlier website, tarrantworks.
Featured: These are the times we are given —John Tarrant
The immense vulnerability of being alive comes to the mother dropping off her children in Texas and everyone else, including you and me, particularly when we do something tender. In the Zen path our job is to be at peace, to offer refuge and sanctuary. That peace is infectious, other people will feel it and it will sustain them and those they meet.
SUTRA: Torei Zenji’s Bodhisattva Vow
When I regard the true nature of all things and all living creatures, I find them to be the sacred forms of the Tathagatha’s never-failing essence. Each particle of matter, each moment, is no other than the Tathagatha’s inexpressible radiance.
Artist: Sacha Kawaichi
Sacha Kawaichi’s artworks on canvas and iPad.
Dedication: Funeral Service
The bare bones structure of a PZI Funeral Service begins with the koan, “Where do we go when we die?” and includes the Heart Sutra and the Kanzeon Sutra of Endless Life.
Dedication: Funeral
The Dedication of blessing, thanks and love that we recite at PZI funerals.
Winter Sesshin: What Does It Mean to Get It?
In the belly of Winter Sesshin: We are in the time of the pagan festival Imbolc which celebrates the forming of new life before spring. A time in the womb of the earth, and also of masks coming off. We are coming into being in the Temple. February 4. 2022.
Dharma Theme – Hakuin’s Praise Song for Meditation: Collected Audio
Here is a curation of four dharma talks on a single page, for easy finding and listening, from Hakuin’s Praise Song for Meditation 4-Part Special Sunday Series with PZI Teachers Allison, Tess, Michelle, & Jesse. As recorded in the PZI Digital Temple on January 9, 16, 23, & 30, 2022.
Podcast Interview: David Chadwick Interviews John Tarrant
John Tarrant Roshi in a short interview with host David Chadwick, author of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi’s biography, Crooked Cucumber. Recorded for the Cuke Podcast, December 2021.
Dharma Theme: Published Articles by John Tarrant
Here you’ll find a list of links to published articles written by John Tarrant. Publication credits are included in each file.
Interdisciplinary Artist: Corey Hitchcock
PZI Member and WebAdmin, and Interpreter of the Wild Corey Hitchcock is a painter, installation artist, and writer. She lives and works in her studio in Penn Valley, CA.
Artist: Lonnie Rankin
Here you will find a selection of drawings from painter and PZI member Lonnie Rankin. She makes her art in Santa Fe.
Dharma Theme: Zen Luminaries, A Series of Conversations with Jon Joseph Roshi
Modern Zen Luminaries: A series of Zen Buddhist scholars, writers, poets, translators, and practitioners join PZI’s Jon Joseph Roshi for lively discussions online, with a focus on our Chan lineage. Includes all recordings beginning with the series’ launch in September 2021.
Dharma Theme – Metamorphosis: Collected Audio from Fall Sesshin 2021
Here is a curation of our Fall Sesshin dharma talks on a single page, for easy finding and listening. A sesshin is always more than the sum of its parts or its recorded talks. There are morning rituals, greetings, incense passed magically through the screen, the changing light, rich silences, moments of humor, tech gremlins, tears, synchronicities, dogs barking, dreams, and awakenings that we share. It is the timeless play of the universe, with each other. As recorded in the PZI Digital Temple, October 19-24, 2021.
Ceremonies: Long Readings for Afternoon: Taking Part in the Gathering – Shitou Xiqian
SUTRA: Shitou Xiqian’s ancient Sandokai translated by Joan Sutherland and John Tarrant, entitled Taking Part in the Gathering.