PZI Teacher Archives
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Sixteen Bodhisattvas Take a Bath (BCR78)
KOAN:
In the old days there were sixteen bodhisattvas. When it was time to bathe they got into the bath together. Suddenly they realized the cause of water and said,“This subtle touch releases the brightness. We have become the sons and daughters of the Buddha.”
—Blue Cliff Record Case 78
(transl. by John Tarrant & Joan Sutherland)
Dharma Theme: The Storehouse of Treasures Opens by Itself – 2023 Online Fall Retreat
Here you will find links to dharma talk audios from PZI’s Online Fall Retreat: The Storehouse of Treasures Opens by Itself with John Tarrant & PZI Teachers. Includes music from Amaryllis Fletcher, Amanda Boughton & Jordan McConnell. Recorded in the PZI Digital Temple, September 27–30, 2023.
Fall Retreat: Closing Night – Lost in the Bath Together
The first phase of practice is being lost—allowing that. You are out of the known territory. It is key to know we don’t control the process. When you are ‘in it,’ don’t try to go beyond it. Enjoy and embrace the lostness. Transformation happens in the vessel. This is why we have a retreat.
Fall Retreat: Feeling the Bath
All the ways we try to get out of awakening! It becomes a real burden, to not let some piece of life touch me or penetrate. These things become very clear in retreat; it becomes hard to ignore what’s there. And all the efforts to snare it, charm it, or steal it from someone else, including a past or future versions of oneself … despite these efforts, we can’t hold off awakening.
Fall Retreat: Into the Bath
David talks about entering baths in Japan. How do you enter a bath? What is your way? We are not just entering the bath—the bath enters us. Water added to water. It’s not about getting clean; it’s about getting free.
Fall Retreat: Enter Here – Into the Bath Together
How does it feel to be here? The bath is that which contains us. We go in together—enter here. There is something marvelous about letting it all go and letting the imperfections of life appear. Feeling that subtle touch. The universe is at play: let’s see it playing, and let’s let it see us play.
Fall Retreat: Enter Here – Into the Bath Together
How does it feel to be here? The bath is that which contains us. We go in together—enter here. There is something marvelous about letting it all go and letting the imperfections of life appear. Feeling that subtle touch. The universe is at play: let’s see it playing, and let’s let it see us play.
Fall Retreat: Into the Bath
David Weinstein talks about entering baths in Japan. How do you enter a bath? What is your way? We are not just entering the bath—the bath enters us. Water added to water. It’s not about getting clean; it’s about getting free.
Fall Retreat: Feeling the Bath
All the ways we try to get out of awakening! It becomes a real burden, to not let some piece of life touch me. These things become very clear in retreat; it becomes hard to ignore what’s there. And all the efforts to snare it, charm it, or steal it from someone else, including a past or future versions of oneself … despite these efforts, we can’t hold off awakening.
Fall Retreat: What Is Lost In the Bath?
What is this life? The nature of what appears is always changing—it’s something we feel together in ‘the bath. Prajna, or wisdom, is learning to recognize and see accurately. We can suddenly see that everything is okay and here, and yet it’s a dance. We find it; we lose it again. In practice, as in life, lost things return or cycle in and take their leave again.
Fall Retreat: What Is Lost In the Bath?
What is this life? The nature of what appears is always changing—it’s something we feel together in ‘the bath. Prajna, or wisdom, is learning to recognize and see accurately. We can suddenly see that everything is okay and here, and yet it’s a dance. We find it; we lose it again. In practice, as in life, lost things return or cycle in and take their leave again.
2023 Fall Retreat: Opening Night Welcome
Fall Retreat Opening Night: A welcoming dharma talk from John Tarrant and a welcome to retreat from Heads of Practice Jan Brogan and Chris Gaffney. Closing words from Tess Beasley. Four Boundless Vows with guitarist Jordan McConnell, closing bells and blessings from Cantor Amaryllis Fletcher.
9 Sixteen Meditators Get Into The Bath Together – The Zenosaurus Course in Koans
Zenosaurus Curriculum 9: For a long time I had the idea that there was a right thing that “should” be happening. I was hurrying past to get to the right thing, there was a gap between my consciousness and the world.
Hosting the Life You Have – Koans for Hard Times
Rilke said, “Life is always right.” Whatever I think about that saying, this is the life I have and I can’t have another life. And really, fundamentally, I don’t want another one because this one is so rich and compelling no matter what’s going down right now.
Hosting the Life You Have
“We’d give anything for the life we have,” says poet Tony Hoagland. Take the role of host wherever you are; no special undertakings are necessary. From Summer Sesshin. As recorded June 13 2016.
Soaking in the Bath, Releases the Light
This is one of those “in the old days, once upon a time” stories. There are a couple of interesting things about this. The first thing is about the idea of just getting in the bath, that maybe one of the metaphors for spiritual tradition is you get in a bath, and not only that, you do it together. We do it with each other. You could say we do it with the crows who call, we do it with the frogs, with the trees, with the birds. And then something happens in the bath. What happens in the bath, I suppose, is really most of what happens on the spiritual journey.
Hosting the Life You Have – Koans for Hard Times
..one of the things we can be skeptical about is that division. This is meditation, this is not meditation, and the question is always, how do you know it’s not meditation? How do you know what’s happening now isn’t it?
I Was Only Two Hands
John Tarrant gives a dharma talk on Monday evening of the summer retreat. 2016.
16 Bodhisattvas Soaking in a Bath
Soaking in the meditation bath with other students of the way is the topic of this dharma talk. October 17, 2012.