Description
Zen is about meeting—we make friends with each koan and allow the universe to work with and through us. The sweetness, and even the gnarly bits of friendship are part of the intimacy at the center of meeting. In the field of connectedness we discover things we can’t discover on our own.
Friendships & Meetings –
Relationships in the Dao, Then & Now
Links to Audio, Video, & Text on the topic
Zen is about meeting—we make friends with each koan and allow the universe to work with and through us. The sweetness, and even the gnarly bits of friendship are part of the intimacy at the center of meeting. In the field of connectedness we discover things we can’t discover on our own.
Friends
AUDIO: Secret Friendship Along the Way – John Tarrant, Sunday Zen, Summer 2022
AUDIO: Friendship: A Thing of Special Wonder – John Tarrant, Sunday Zen, Winter 2021
How we interact with friends? From the heart. We listen to each other.
We don’t have to make them anything other than what they are.—John Tarrant
TORTOISE MOUNTAIN MINI-COLLECTION
KOAN: Tortoise Mountain Wakes Up – Blue Cliff Record Case 22
AUDIO: Tortoise Mountain Wakes up! This Very Matter Is It! – John Tarrant, Sunday Zen, Winter 2021
AUDIO CLIP: Handing Things on in the Dark: Friendship
– John Tarrant, Sunday Zen, Winter 2021
AUDIO CLIP: Two Friends Snowbound on Tortoise Mountain
– John Tarrant, Sunday Zen, Winter 2021
AUDIO CLIP: On Friendship: Moments That Last a Lifetime
– John Tarrant, Sunday Zen, Winter 2021
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. You and everything you touch share the same heart mind. Deep friendship has a long arc.
—John Tarrant
Collaborations
TEXT: The Great Collaborators of the Blue Cliff Record – John Tarrant, Summer Sesshin 2021
AUDIO: The Great Collaborators of the Blue Cliff Record – John Tarrant, Summer Sesshin 2021
Student & Teacher
VIDEO: Jiashan Meets the Boat Monk – David Weinstein, Summer Sesshin 2022
KOAN: Give Me the Reaching – A student asks Linji . . .
KOAN: Deshan’s Enlightenment (GG28) – Deshan questions a teacher late into the night . . .
KOAN: Huangbo Magnificent & Imposing – Huangbo meets Baizhang for the first time . . .
Meeting the World
AUDIO: Timelessly Carried by the Way – David Weinstein,
Winter Sesshin 2023
David shares his incredible life journey—being carried from a three-month meditation course in Nepal with Lama Yeshe to Seoul, Korea, and back again to Japan; meeting Koun Yamada in Kamakura, and eventually coming to California and PZI.
Meeting the Dream
AUDIO CLIP: Befriending the Dream – Tess Beasley, Sunday Zen, Fall 2021
AUDIO: Befriending Your Own Heart Mind – John Tarrant, Sunday Zen, Fall 2021
Meeting the Dragon
TEXT: Meet the Blue Dragon – John Tarrant, Lion’s Roar magazine, July 2019
Related Materials & Koans
VIDEO: Control Is Not Your Friend – John Tarrant, Summer Sesshin 2022
TEXT: Footsteps in the Hallway – Jesse Cardin, Uncertainty Club magazine, Winter 2017
DHARMA THEME: Zen Luminaries Conversations – hosted by Jon Joseph since 2021