Description
Have confidence: just go into the silence. The absolute is always there. Inside it all, there’s freedom. There’s no situation where infinity is not there.
Great Silence
Links to Audio, Video, & Text on the topic
Have confidence: just go into the silence. The absolute is always there. Inside it all, there’s freedom. There’s no situation where infinity is not there.
Silence
Silence is for freedom and for being together. —John Tarrant
GREAT SILENCE AT THE BEGINNING MINI-COLLECTION: WINTER 2022
VIDEO: Always Home – Tess Beasley, Part 1
VIDEO: It Is Everywhere, Blooming! – Jesse Cardin, Part 2
VIDEO CLIP: Resting in the Silence – Allison Atwill, Part 3
VIDEO CLIP: Buddha’s Immoveable Seat – Allison Atwill, Part 3
VIDEO CLIP: When Nowhere Is Home – Tess Beasley, Part 4
VIDEO CLIP: Homecoming Kama’aina, Child of the Land – Jesse Cardin, Part 4
VIDEO CLIP: Shelter for the Homeless Person – Michelle Riddle, Part 4
It is good to remember that access to the eternal beginning is always there for us.
The old character for that vastness beneath everything is ‘sky.’—John Tarrant
AUDIO: Silence of Haiku – John Tarrant, Winter Sesshin 2022
VIDEO: Silent Illumination – Jon Joseph Hosts Chan Scholar Guo Gu, Zen Luminaries Fall 2022
AUDIO CLIP: Make Your Mind Still – John Tarrant, Sunday Zen, Fall 2020
ARTICLE: Cloudy But Bright Inside – John Tarrant, Uncertainty Club Magazine, Summer 2019
DHARMA THEME: Haiku For You
Darkness
As koan work deepens, we get held more. We’re just here.
Something opens out in the darkness.—John Tarrant
KOAN: The Valley Streams Run Deepest Indigo – Blue Cliff Record Case 82
VIDEO: Trusting in the Dao – John Tarrant, Winter Sesshin 2023
TEXT: A Great Current Carries Us – John Tarrant, Sunday Zen, Summer 2022
TEXT: The Everlasting Body Runs Deepest Indigo – John Tarrant, Sunday Zen, Summer 2022
AUDIO: The Valley Spirit Never Dies – John Tarrant on Mother’s Day, Spring 2022
TEXT: Knock on Any Door: Daoist Masters & Zen Koans – John Tarrant, Summer Sesshin 2019
VIDEO: What Is the Dao? — John Tarrant, Fall Sesshin 2019
The valley spirit never dies. It’s called dark female-enigma, and the gateway of dark female-enigma is called the root of heaven and earth, gossamer so unceasing it seems real. Use it: it’s effortless.
—Daodejing, 6
Emptiness
In Zen you don’t have to believe anything. The first principle of Zen, as told to Emperor Wu by Bodhidharma: Vast emptiness, nothing holy.
—John Tarrant
KOAN: Bodhidharma’s Vast Emptiness – Blue Cliff Record Case 1
AUDIO: The East Mountain Walks on Water – John Tarrant, Sunday Zen, Winter 2022
AUDIO: Bodhidharma Comes and Goes – Jon Joseph, Monday Zen, Summer 2021
TEXT: I Don’t Know – John Tarrant, Zenosaurus Course in Koans, 2020
AUDIO: Not for Anything Else – Allison Atwill, Fall Sesshin 2020
AUDIO: Held by Emptiness – John Tarrant, Green Glade of Meditation, Summer 2019
AUDIO: Bodhidharma’s Response to Emperor Wu – David Weinstein, Fall Sesshin 2019
VIDEO: Undoing, Unfinding, & Unknowing as Paths to Awakening – John Tarrant, Fall Sesshin 2011
There’s a layered quality to suffering and intense emotion. As you become interested, a tiny elf light appears in the darkest dungeon. That’s the gate of emptiness.
—John Tarrant
Mystery
VIDEO: Everywhere! It’s Everywhere You Look – John Tarrant, Sunday Zen, Spring2023
ARTICLE: You Don’t Have to Know – John Tarrant, Lion’s Roar Magazine, Spring 2013
Related Materials and Koans
DHARMA THEME: A Solitary Boat Making Its Way – Winter Sesshin 2023
TEXT: The Spirit of Love, Joy, & Play in Koans – John Tarrant, Summer Sesshin 2014
TEXT: Storehouse of Treasures – John Tarrant, Rising from Stillness Retreat 2014
TEXT: Trapped in a Stone Grave – John Tarrant, Rising from Stillness Retreat 2014
