PZI Teacher Archives
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Tess Beasley
Taking Part in the Gathering
KOAN:
We and everything we perceive
are interwoven and not interwoven,
and this interweaving continues on and on,
while each thing stands in its own place.
—Excerpt from Taking Part in the Gathering, PZI translation of the sutra attributed to Shitou Xiqiang
Taking Part in the Gathering: Opening Talk
John Tarrant’s opening dharma talk in Summer Sesshin at Santa Sabina. Recorded June 13, 2022.
Summer Sesshin: We Are Interwoven – Welcome to Sesshin
John Tarrant welcomes Summer Sesshin participants and introduces a stanza of Shitou’s long poem: Taking Part in the Gathering, as an opening koan. The poem comes from the inception of Chan and is described as a Daoist current on the nature of reality – how emptiness pervades form. Koans, Art, Meditation & Conversation are part of waking up together in PZI Culture. June 13, 2022.
Summer Sesshin: We Are Interwoven – Welcome to Sesshin
John Tarrant welcomes Summer Sesshin participants and introduces a stanza of Shitou’s long poem: Taking Part in the Gathering, as an opening koan. The poem comes from the inception of Chan and is described as a Daoist current on the nature of reality – how emptiness pervades form. Koans, Art, Meditation & Conversation are part of waking up together in PZI Culture. June 13, 2022.
Summer Sesshin: Shitou’s Teachers
David tells the story of Jiashan’s awakening, after being sent by Daowu to find the Boat Monk. David also guides a revealing exercise in picking and choosing. Complete talk given in Summer Sesshin, June 16, 2022. 37 minutes.
Summer Sesshin: The Porous Vessel of Sesshin
Michelle Riddle opens the sesshin vessel with instructions to help participants understand what it is to work with koans, especially within the unique container of group practice. She encourages “being with and bearing with usual responses,” while carried by the koans into new territory. How garage music and weed-whackers welcomed her to Summer Sesshin. Recording of the complete dharma talk given on June 14, 2022. 17 minutes.
Dharma Theme: Summer Sesshin 2022 – Taking Part in the Gathering
Here is our curation of full-length Summer Sesshin dharma talk audios on a single page, for easy finding and listening. A sesshin is more than the sum of its parts or recorded talks—there are personal interviews and deep meditation, teaching talks and conversations, old friends and new, ceremonies, brilliant teachers, music, great enlightenment, mistakes, and delight. The play of the universe. Recorded at Santa Sabina Center, June 13-19, 2022.
It’s Hard? Then Let the Koan Carry You
Shitou says the dark and bright are both part of the deep work. When times are tough, trusting your koan and the deep current carrying us all, is the way forward. Mazu tells us we came here to make a way out of no way—koans help. Trust in this valuable process. From a talk given at Summer Sesshin in June 2022. 5 minutes.
Summer Sesshin: Front Foot & Back Foot Walking
John Tarrant’s dharma talk on June 17, 2022, in Summer Sesshin. Complete session. 45 minutes.
Summer Sesshin: Taking Part in the Gathering
John Tarrant’s dharma talk on the first day of Summer Sesshin. He reads Shitou’s poem, Taking Part in the Gathering. Complete session. 38 minutes.
Koans on the Journey of Refuge
From a talk given by Tess Beasley in Summer Sesshin on June 15, 2022. 3 minutes.
Forms of Awakening
Kensho is a real thing—and you can’t pin it down. Awakening takes many and varied forms. Long to really understand reality, and have the joy of that. From a talk given during Summer Sesshin on June 17, 2022. 12 minutes.
How the Great Matter Works Is Not Your Business!
From an evening talk given in Summer Sesshin on June 17, 2022. 3 minutes.
On the Meaning and Importance of Kanzeon
John answers a question at Summer Sesshin about the Sutra, and the Bodhisattva Guanyin’s importance in Zen. 3 minutes.
Impossible Vows
From a talk in Summer Sesshin on refuge and vows, given by Tess Beasley. Recorded June 15, 2022.
Front Foot & Back Foot Walking
John Tarrant reads Chan poet Su Dongpo (Tung-po) and comments on his journey through bright and dark. From a talk given in Summer Sesshin on June 17, 2022. 4 minutes.
Summer Sesshin: Journey of Refuge
Tess Beasley describes touchstones of the journey for participants taking refuge vows at Summer Sesshin. Refuge entails committing to the vows as koans, a ceremony with teachers and community, and receiving the rakusu. Complete talk in Summer Sesshin on June 18, 2022.
Jiashan Meets the Boat Monk
David tells the story of Jiashan’s awakening after being sent by Daowu to find the Boat Monk. From a talk given in Summer Sesshin, June 16, 2022.
Separation in the Realm of the Self
The exhaustion and effort of “making a me” often brings people to Zen. In retreat, we begin to see the contours of the self that causes us to suffer. From a talk in Summer Sesshin, June 16, 2022. 7 minutes.
Buddha Was Not Afraid of His Own Mind
Every time you sit, you are Buddha under the bodhi tree, having some portion of his enlightenment night. From a talk in Summer Sesshin, June 16, 2022. 5 minutes.
What Is It To Be Here?
Video clip: What is it to be here? Weaving and interweaving go on and on, while each thing stands in its own place. From a talk in Summer Sesshin, June 16, 2022. 3 minutes.
Control Is Not Your Friend
Relax into your meditation like a bird falls into the air. Practice is always here for you. We’re having this dream, now—we can’t hold onto it. Recorded at Summer Sesshin on June 14th, 2022. 4 minutes.
Our Part in the Gathering
It’s all here—we’re already taking part in the gathering. We each hold our part so we can experience it together. Recorded during Summer Sesshin on June 15, 2022. 4 minutes.
What It Is to Take Part in the Gathering
Sesshin is an opportunity to experience your own true nature, to help hold the retreat vessel for yourself and everyone else, and for not skipping out on what is troubling you. From a talk on the first day of Summer Sesshin, June 14, 2022. 10 minutes.
The Mysterious Source of the Bright
John Tarrant talks about the mysterious source of things at Summer Sesshin. Recorded on June 14, 2022. 3 minutes.
On Shitou’s Life & Poem: What Is in the Way of Freedom?
From John Tarrant’s opening talk on Taking Part in the Gathering, Shitou Xiqian’s song-poem on the nature of reality. Recorded at Summer Sesshin on June 14, 2022. 9 minutes.
Summer Sesshin: Opening Dharma Talk
Great Summer Sesshin, opening eve: Our first in-person sesshin in over 2 years, due to Covid. John Tarrant introduces Shitou’s song, Taking Part in the Gathering, his translation together with Joan Sutherland. In this sutra, Shitou is trying to say what reality actually is. The myriad things are your own self—you look at the world and the world looks back. Whatever appears, enter there! No being for countless eons has ever fallen out of Buddha nature. Recorded June 13th, 2022, at Santa Sabina Center.
In the Family of Things
The small self is always trying to hold off the world. But we are really a kind of flow. We feel the warm empathy at the bottom of all things. All things have Buddha nature. Not opposing reality is the beginning of all awakenings.
Enter Here, Step Through
Day two of 2018 Winter Sesshin. John Tarrant introduces the great koan “No,” a gift from the ancestors. The gift is what happens when we hang out with the koan. “No” as the purest gate. When we step through, we find out we’re here! It’s not personal, you’re harmonizing with the universe. Transcript from a recording on January 17, 2018.
Taking Part in the Gathering
This is 8th century Zen ancestor Shitou Xiqian’s great song, the Sandokai—or Taking Part in the Gathering, as translated by Joan Sutherland and John Tarrant. This foundational text is often read at Winter Solstice. “When you let these words in, you encounter the ancestors.” Winter Sesshin January, 2020.
Taking Part in the Gathering
Evening dharma talk by John Tarrant in Winter Sesshin. As recorded January 15, 2018.