Video Library

John Tarrant tells a long koan story of awakening: The East Mountain Walks on Water. Recorded during Sunday Zen on December 18, 2022. 36 minutes.

The body of form changes, but what is everlasting? Q: “What endures?” A: “Mountain flowers bloom like brocade. The valley streams run deepest indigo.” Everybody has it. We are on a journey with no fixed destination, and the moment we’ve been looking for is here. What carries us, if not the world around us? With solo flute improv from Micheal Wilding.

Jon Joseph talks with poet and Chan/Zen scholar David Hinton about his book, Wild Mind, Wild Earth – Our Place in the Sixth Extinction. Hinton writes that we must rekindle our relationship to nature to avoid extinction, tracing Chan/Zen roots to the paleolithic/indigenous and Daoist concepts of ‘not born,’ or ‘no separation’ with the earth. Includes comments from John Tarrant and Allison Atwill.

Wherever you are, even in the places you are certain the silence is NOT, it is there enfolding you. Even at Walmart with a toddler, in a flood, or at the doctor’s office—it is there, blooming. When we hold it, enter it, trust it, it brings the possibility of greater remembering. The Dao that can be told is not the eternal Dao; the nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth. We are always stepping into that emptiness. It is a kindness older than pain. Complete session with comments and vows from Jordan McConnell. Recorded January 15, 2023.

Jon Joseph talks with scholar and Chan Teacher GuoGu about his book, Silent Illumination, on the literary genius of Zen master Hongzhi, whose teaching evolved during the height of 12th century Chan. GuoGu discusses the subtleties and great freedom inherent in Chan, from its flourishing in the Sung Dynasty to the current day.

Complete Sunday Zen session recorded on December 18, 2022. Music from Jordan McConnell.

Jordan McConnell on guitar, as recorded during Sunday Zen with John Tarrant on December 18th, 2022. 5 Minutes.

Entering into great silence. What is appearing, in this new year? A guided meditation with Tess Beasley from the first Sunday Zen session of the new year. Recorded January 8, 2023. 5 minutes.

What are the properties of great silence? It cannot be tarnished or eroded, it can’t be given or taken away, but it can of course be obscured. The whole universe is holding it for you; we hold it for each other and for ourselves. Zen cliches are showing up, with the truth! January Sunday Zen on January 15, 2023. 6 minutes.

If awakening could come from anywhere, how would that change things for you? Wherever you are, even in the places you are certain the silence is NOT, it is there, enfolding you. Even at Walmart with a toddler, in a flood, or at the doctor’s office—it is there, blooming. From a January Sunday Zen session on January 15, 2023. 10 minutes.

Jan Brogan & Chris Gaffney welcome participants pre-sesshin – Winter 2023. 5 minutes.

We don’t need to turn away from the world and we don’t have to find a place to stand. Our listening and our presence operate below the level at which we usually manage things. So that is the hearing aspect of this koan. Just let hearing have you. This koan can be carried everywhere with you. Complete Sunday Zen session.

Poet, teacher and essayist Naomi Shihab Nye, recorded in conversation with Jon Joseph Roshi in June of 2022.

Jon Joseph Roshi converses with poet and essayist Jane Hirshfield on her many volumes of poetry and essays, her worldview, Buddhist practice, and more. With comments & questions from John Tarrant. Complete session from October 24th, 2022.

After a relative dies, the ancestral wrongs and difficulty can disappear as we change towards a more expansive view. Dreams tell us not to ignore the great forces of life, even in our turbulent times. Our koan school relates to the shadowy dark materials—including instead of excluding, without being taken over by them. October 30, 2022

Amanda Boughton sings a Croatian song of connection to the land and flocks of sheep tended there. Recorded during the Ancestral Stories Retreat, October 30, 2022. 4 minutes.

We can accumulate things in life that become symbolic after we die. The real inheritance is in our hands and hearts, and is reliable no matter what the surface relationship may have been. When we are challenged, the ancestors show up. Meeting the Lord of Death is one of those challenges, and is part of meeting life. Excerpt from the Ancestral Stories Retreat on October 30, 2022.

Ancient and indigenous cultures have different models for healing and dreaming, with different points of view often galactic or mythic. Including and opening to vastness when facing any problem allows for a wider range of solutions, and access to the hidden treasures that we have no idea are there for us. Excerpt from the Ancestral Stories Retreat on October 30, 2022.

John Tarrant reads his new autumn poem about meeting the vastness of autumn, and meeting his father, the Lord of Death. From the Ancestral Stories Retreat on October 30, 2022. 3 minutes.

What is my piece in this patchwork inheritance? We are complicated—we don’t always know what qualities and histories inhabit us. We come into these lineages in mystery…maybe the lineages find us. Our koan lineage is one of moments of awakening, passed down. Excerpt from Ancestral Stories Retreat on October 30, 2022. 19 minutes.

After people die, our point of view about them can shift—it often becomes more vast. Problems with those who’ve gone before can dissolve. In our PZI School, this is why the shadowy dark material is important: when included, it helps it to dissipate so the taste of old wrongs can actually disappear. Excerpted from Ancestral Stories Retreat on October 30, 2022. 7 minutes.

Predicament koans give a nod to the perilous, loony nature of life right now. It is the dangerous situation of being alive—anything can happen. Linji said, “We can’t stay here long,” so relish it! Even in the middle of a disaster you can have a marvelous time. What constitutes a predicament? You oppose what is happening, by overlaying what should be going on. Music for meditation from Jordan McConnell & Michael Wilding. Recorded in the Sunday Temple on September 11, 2022.

The 3rd of John Tarrant’s Sunday series on predicament koans. John talks about the Great Kalpa Fire. (Kalpa is a great age, eon, or universe.) Opening Talk from John’s Sunday Session on September 18, 2022. 19 minutes. (Complete video also available.)

Excerpt from the 3rd of John Tarrant’s Sunday series on predicament koans. John talks about the Great Kalpa Fire. (Kalpa is a great age, eon, or universe.) Recording from the beginning of John’s Sunday Talk on September 18, 2022. 10 minutes.

The great cataclysmic fire at the end of the universe is us, is in our hands, because there is no separation. A student asks three teachers the same question: “At the end of the universe, will everything be destroyed?” and gets different answers. It is like asking, “Do you think I am really going to die?” and then getting three opinions. Complete Sunday Talk recorded September 18, 2022.

Jon Joseph Roshi talks with Joan Sutherland about her new book, Through Forest of Every Color, her evolving thoughts on koans, and her breakout work with John Tarrant and others: bringing koan teaching out of the box of dokusan and into a new western practice of conversations in groups. A rich and lively hour-long conversation with questions and insights from Jon Joseph, John Tarrant, and Allison Atwill. Recorded September 26, 2022.

Part 1 of a 1999 Jeffrey Mishlove interview of John Tarrant on his first book: Light Inside the Dark. Insight on the Soul and the Spirit. The light is everywhere in our everyday activities – we all suffer and have joy – if we can love our lives in the dark times we become more fully human – we need to love being in the unknown territory. The paradox of zen – the more we know, the more we have to open our hands and let the knowledge flow through. Having a practice is a set of operating instructions for meeting life.

A predicament koan for our times. A woman raises a goose in a bottle. When it is grown she wishes to remove it without breaking the bottle or killing the goose. How do you get the goose out of the bottle? What is the glass between you and the world? This koan offers a chance to taste life. Music from Michael Wilding, Amaryllis Fletcher, and Jordan McConnell. Complete session recorded September 4, 2022. 1 hour, 12 minutes.

Just having your life, whatever appears—meeting it. Nothing to DO. There is a joy in that, no matter what the universe delivers in the daily mix. Music from Amaryllis Fletcher and vows sung by Todd Geist. Recorded August 28, 2022.

There is a secret quality of friendship that is very close to enlightenment. Friendship is a state of freedom—you don’t want each other to be different. A tolerance comes out of the heart. Deep friendship has a long arc; Buddha realized that Mara would miss him if he left. Complete session recorded August 14, 2022. Music from Jordan McConnell & Michael Wilding.