PZI Teacher Archives
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Allison Atwill -
David Parks -
David Weinstein -
Eduardo Fuentes -
Jesse Cardin -
John Tarrant -
Jon Joseph -
Michelle Riddle -
Tess Beasley
Huineng's Original Face (GG23)
KOAN:
Quickly, without thinking good or evil, what is your original face before your parents were born?
—Gateless Gate, Case 23
Zen Luminaries: Books & Tales with Ruth Ozeki
A longtime Buddhist practitioner, Ruth was ordained in 2010 and is affiliated with the Brooklyn Zen Center and the Everyday Zen Foundation. She currently teaches creative writing at Smith College, where she is the Grace Jarcho Ross 1933 Professor of Humanities in the Department of English Language and Literature. Conversation with Jon Joseph and Ruth Ozeki recorded May 29th, 2023.
Stories from Kyoto & the Ancient Road Home
Tess reports on her pilgrimage along ancient temple paths in Kyoto, Japan. But one need not travel so far to meet the Buddha. Entering the garden of your own life is enough. Complete session recorded May 21, 2023, with music from Michael Wilding and Jordan McConnell.
Falling with the Koan NO
John Tarrant gives a talk on Zhaozhou’s NO: This koan is often offered as a first “gate,” but I think you need to already be in trouble and falling before it’s useful. Life is always offering us that cliff—that door of falling. When you’re falling, you can’t screw it up because actually there’s not a lot you can do. But what you do will be very free and won’t be constrained by the usual. From a recording made in Fall Sesshin 2022.
We Are Carried in the Dark – On Lostness & the Spiral Path of Practice
The Dharma is a spiral path of lostness. What will happen next? It’s dark. We’re here no matter what. When you think okay, I’m lost, what’s next? Trusting in the dark is the Way—it is not our business how we awaken.
Resting in the Great Silence at the Beginning
Wherever you are, even in the places you are certain the silence is NOT, it is there enfolding you. Even at Walmart with a toddler, in a flood, or at the doctor’s office—it is there, blooming. We are always stepping into that emptiness. Complete January Sunday Zen session, Part 2.
Great Silence at the Beginning: Holding It for Each Other
What are the properties of great silence? It cannot be tarnished or eroded, it can’t be given or taken away, but it can of course be obscured. The whole universe is holding it for you; we hold it for each other and for ourselves. Zen cliches are showing up, with the truth! January Sunday Zen on January 15, 2023. 6 minutes.
Spring Equinox – Return from the Dark: Transmission – It’s Not Outside of You
Transmission happens when we let our hearts open. It comes from a free heart. Babies are transmission devices! Taking up the koan you are given—a little temple to live in. Koans do what they do without consulting anyone. The work reveals a wonderful quality, of the world coming to meet us. The great lesson: It’s not outside of you, and you can’t legislate your own enlightenment! 4 Vows: Jordan McConnell. As recorded March 21, 2021.
Meditation: Abiding Nowhere the Heartmind Comes Forth
A 32 minute Meditation: The tale of the Diamond Sutra with John Tarrant. Koan meditation, as recorded March 21st 2021.
Knock on Any Door – Daoist Masters & Zen Koans
Whatever your condition is, you can see the “I have joy.” Out of that emptiness, out of what seems unpromising—the dark material, the valley spirit, the enigma, out of the mystery, out of what I don’t understand—it just appears. The joy just appears.
Your Original Face – Awakening Experiences – PZI Zen Online May 5
Audio: PZI Zen online Allison sits with Awakening. What is it? Awakening experience is outside of our control or will. It comes in a from a direction we don’t know about – a direction we have darkened. The sufficiency of the moment. Hakuin Ikkaku as a teacher and seeing into your essential nature. As recorded May 5, 2020.
All Those Hands and Eyes
John talks about the warm intimacy of the ‘the dark’ – the uncolonized zone where koans work with us. Intimacy in teachings is used often as an equivalent for enlightenment. Koans open gates and bring us inside that mystery. Some categories of koans: Predicament koans, Heart Changing koans, Inquiry koans and more.
The Journey, the Reaching & Luopu’s Last Words
The great Chan teacher Luopu’s deathbed story, and his emphasis on the importance of a “direct meeting with the source” outside the teachings—you can’t just read about it. “Don’t grasp principles with words.” The story features the Book of Serenity’s compassion for the whole process toward enlightenment, for these wonderful teachers. Dharma talk in Fall Sesshin. Video as recorded 2019.
Knock on Any Door – Daoist Masters and Zen Koans
John Tarrant talks about the bond between Daoism and Chan Zen. See transcription with same name https://www.pacificzen.org/library/knock-on-any-door-daoist-masters-zen-koans/