Hakuin

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.

No being has ever fallen out of the samadhi of Buddha nature. Being in the life you have is your samadhi. Recorded at Summer Sesshin on June 14, 2022. 4 minutes.

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.

In the evening dharma talk John introduces us to an ancestor in the koan tradition, Dahui Zonggao 大慧宗杲 (Ta-hui Tsung-kao, Daie Soko), 1089-1163 and his disciple Wuzhuo Miaozong (無著妙宗; 1096–1170 CE), Miaozong lived during the Song dynasty and was one of the first nuns to be included in an imperially sanctioned Zen lineage history. The conversation between Dahui and Miaozong is instructive of his early method of using only the ‘head of the koan’ and becoming one with it. His method was formulated for his culture.

Hakuin’s “Woman at the Inn,” the woman is unknown but kept the inn where pilgrims coming to study with Hakuin stayed. Hakuin’s dharma talk spoke of the pure land of mind and the buddha of light in your own body. When that buddha of light appears, everything glows with a great light. The woman meditated day and night and one day while washing a pot she has a breakthrough.

John’s evening talking is brief, yet poignant. There is a light and a joy and they are here now. It doesn’t wait until you improve yourself, your partner, enemy, or live in a different colored state.