PZI Teacher Archives

Emperor Wu Questions Bodhidharma (BCR1)(BS2)

KOAN:

Emperor Wu asked the great teacher Bodhidharma, “What is the first principle of the holy teaching?”
Bodhidharma said, “Vast emptiness, nothing holy.”
“Then who are you, standing here in front of me?” asked the emperor.
“I don’t know,” said Bodhidharma.
The emperor didn’t understand.

Bodhidharma crossed the Yangtze River and went to the Kingdom of Wei. Later, the emperor raised this matter with his advisor, Duke Zhi. The advisor asked, “Your Majesty, do you know who that Indian sage was?”
“No, I don’t,” said the emperor. “That was Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, carrying the seal of the Buddha’s heart and mind.”
The emperor felt a sudden regret and said, “Send a messenger to call him back.”
Duke Zhi said, “Your Majesty, even if everyone in the kingdom went after him, he wouldn’t return.”

—Blue Cliff Record Case 1, & Book of Serenity Case 2

Video April 1, 2023

Everywhere! It’s Everywhere You Look

John Tarrant

Zhuangzi said, “We wander in borderless vastness; Great Knowledge enters in, and we don’t know where it will ever end.” Dharma talk given by John Tarrant in a Sunday Zen session on February 26, 2023.

63' 4"
Video February 19, 2020

Every Day Is a Good Day

John Tarrant

Yunmen said, “Before or after the full moon, every day is a good day!” The light of sesshin infuses us. In a “good day” the light is in you, just how it is—this is not an achievement, you are in the gift of the universe. The tenderness of the good day. Our whole lives opening to now. You can’t bully the Dao, it’s bigger than you! Not getting in the way of life. Also: Dreams, Linji’s death, and more. Video recorded in Winter Sesshin 2020.

50' 7"
Video February 3, 2019
0' 0"
Video October 14, 2011

Undoing, Unfinding, and Unknowing as Paths to Awakening

John Tarrant

John Tarrant speaks on undoing, unfinding, and unknowing as pathways to awakening, and exploring the mind’s often dubious reasons for the way things are.

16' 25"