PZI Teacher Archives

The Fire Across the River (MK2)

KOAN:

Put out the fire across the river.

—PZI Miscellaneous Koans, Case 2

Audio June 9, 2021

Put Out the Fire – A Panel on Koan Practice & Pain

Jon Joseph

Jon Joseph Roshi assembles a panel of four PZI meditators who have varied experiences of chronic and severe pain. Koan meditation has helped all of them find a way to allow in the pain—to not exclude it—and to see it as a profound teacher and ally. Recorded May 31, 2021.

52' 15"
Audio March 2, 2021

Meditation: Put Out That Fire across the River

Jesse Cardin

An 18-minute guided koan meditation with Jesse Cardin Roshi of PZI & Awakened Insight in San Antonio, Texas.

18' 49"
Text March 1, 2021

One Day, My Child, All This Will Be Yours

John Tarrant

Australia’s ancient forests were burning in September 2020. In the face of unfathomable loss John Tarrant writes, “It’s too early to despair, it’s always too early to despair. The world itself is a mystery school and teaches us what it needs. It gives us impossible tasks and impossible journeys, and all we can say is that we love the world without knowing outcomes, because it is the only world we have, and because we never do know outcomes.” Article for Lion’s Roar magazine, published September 14, 2020.

2045 Words
Video July 6, 2017

Stop the Fire Across the River

Allison Atwill

Allison presents a talk on another miscellaneous Koan, “Stop the fire across the river.” This is like stopping the war within ourselves: where does this fire arise within us and what form does it take? Passion, anger, demons, delusions all take form within us.

Allison demonstrates the possibility of working with the fire of anger through humor and diligent practice and attention to what flares up within the body. January 22, 2014.

55' 23"