Yunmen’s Medicine and Sickness Cure Each Other (BCR87)

Meditation gets us away from reaching and grasping and winning and losing and honor and disgrace. This lack of ulterior motive makes meditation a friendly time. All our daily reaching and grasping and getting somehow sticks to us and when we meditate it unsticks and falls off. With music for meditation from Jordan McConnell & Michael Wilding.

The salt and sauce is the invisible component of practice, of life. It is the place in which we are held when disaster strikes, or there’s chronic illness, or you find yourself at the Mad Hatter’s tea party. You might not need what you think you do to get by. What is salt and sauce for you? We can be at peace in the midst of the madness of events – this is our main work in zen. Music for meditation from Micheal Wilding on flute and then on drum. Complete Sunday Zen session from March 12, 2023. 

John Tarrant gives a talk on July 19, 2014. A final tale and conversation about awakened mind and delusional mind of suffering. At summer retreat we sat with the koan, “Sickness and Medicine are in accord with one another, the while world is medicine, what am I?”

Rachel Boughton, Sensei, talks about working with koans and being kind to yourself at a long meditation retreat. July 14, 2014.

John opens the first evening at summer retreat talking about the spirit of a koan. We were nestled in the lovely redwood mountains of Land of the Medicine Buddha in Soquel California. We were meditating, walking and diving into the great koan, Sickness and Medicine. It is based on a koan which goes like this, “Sickness and Medicine are in accord with each other. The whole world is medicine, what am I?” July 14, 2014.

A panel discussion on the final evening of the retreat with four of the PZI teachers at this Summer retreat at the Land of Medicine Buddha. Four Roshis gave the evening talk together. July 18, 2014.

John talks about sitting with the koan, “Sickness and medicine are in accord with each other, the whole world is medicine, what am I?” This is the second day of retreat at Land of the Medicine Buddha in Soquel, California.