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
What Is Buddha?
KOAN:
What is Buddha?
—PZI Inquiry Koan
Your Thoughts & Feelings Are the Buddha
There is an inner restlessness in the question, “What is Buddha?” If we look beyond what we think we know of as Buddha, the answer can be anything. A Zen master answered this question with, “dried shit stick!” Nothing is excluded; the jewel can be anywhere. Complete Sunday Zen session, with poems from Li Bai and John Tarrant. April 28, 2023.
Your Thoughts & Feelings Are the Buddha
There is a restlessness in the question, “What is Buddha?” If we look beyond what we think we know of as Buddha, the answer can be anything. A Zen master answered this question with, “dried shit stick!” Nothing is excluded; the jewel can be anywhere. Complete Sunday Zen session, with poems from Li Bai and John Tarrant. April 28, 2023.
Everywhere! It’s Everywhere You Look
Zhuangzi said, “We wander in borderless vastness; Great Knowledge enters in, and we don’t know where it will ever end.” Dharma talk given by John Tarrant in a Sunday Zen session on February 26, 2023.
Everywhere – It’s Everywhere You Look
“Feeling the time,” is a line from the poet Du Fu—the time is always with us. And it’s always too early to despair. We’re just here. Not wanting anything to be different. Objections are full of knowing! You step out of the way you are perceiving the world, the dream of who you are, you turn the light backward. Recorded February 26, 2023.
Yuanwu & the Great Masters of the Blue Cliff
The subject is the Dharma, the deepest matters, our own true face. One way to look at these matters is through the Blue Cliff Record, a compilation of occasions for revealing who you are.
The Beauty of Insignificant Things
The beauty and magnificence are in the smallest thing. Are tanks more important than pears? There is nowhere that the Way does NOT exist. It is even in the things you do not want to look at, or are repulsive. Enter the world in some intimate way. Complete Sunday talk. July 24, 2022.
The Beauty of Insignificant Things
The beauty and magnificence are in the smallest thing. Are tanks more important than pears? There is nowhere that the Way does NOT exist. It is even in the things you do not want to look at, or are repulsive. Enter the world in some intimate way. Complete Sunday talk. July 24, 2022.
What Is It To Be YOU?
Look, right now! Do you notice? John Tarrant gives inquiry koans on the first day of Summer Sesshin. Recorded on June 14, 2022. 2 minutes.
A Map for Getting Lost
It helps to be on the side of lostness when the world goes to hell in a handbasket (Ukraine). All we have to do is be here and be lost—no usual schemes or regrets. Let the universe teach you. Accomplishing is not the deepest thing. Being lost is a promising beginning. Getting lost is good for finding personal practices.
Winter Sesshin: The Silence of Haiku
Silence is for freedom and for being together. Haiku is in service of the silence—it expresses restraint and vastness at the same time. Haiku poets often had many nicknames under which they published their poems. Jesse Cardin Roshi gives the evening words, Jordan McConnell and Amaryllis Fletcher play the Boundless Vows. As recorded February 5, 2022.
Where Do You Go, Oh Where Do You Go When You Die?
Article by John Tarrant for Lion’s Roar magazine. A traditional Chan way to approach the question of death is to stroll, stumble, hurry, struggle, fall accidentally through the gates of samadhi—the deep concentration of meditation—and look around. When you really enter this moment, it has no end, no beginning; it is older than the universe that seems to contain it. Then it will inevitably occur to you: “I’ve always been here.”
Special Program: 4 Teachers & 4 Boundless Vows – Complete Session
Allison Atwill, John Tarrant, Jon Joseph, Jordan McConnell, Michael Wilding, Michelle Riddle, Tess Beasley
On practice and path: become the Way, and illumination is always with you. A dive into the sources, history, and meaning of the 4 Great Bodhisattva Vows; how PZI teachers and students work with them towards the ceremony of Refuge and taking up the path. Each teacher takes up one of the Vows. Teachers chant and intone Vows in English and Sino-Japanese; Michael Wilding recites, Jordan McConnell singing and on guitar. Complete session recorded August 1, 2021.
Dharma Theme: Summer Sesshin 2021 – In the Palace at the Blue Cliff
Here is a curation of sesshin dharma talks on a single page, for easy finding and listening. A sesshin is always more than the sum of its parts or its recorded talks. There are morning rituals, greetings, incense passed magically through the screen, the changing light, rich silences, moments of humor, tech gremlins, tears, synchronicities, dogs barking, dreams, and awakenings that we share. It is the timeless play of the universe, with each other. As recorded in the PZI Digital Temple, June 22-27, 2021.
Yuanwu & the Great Masters of the Blue Cliff
Second evening talk of Summer Sesshin 2021: John Tarrant introduces the great master of the Blue Cliff and the great questions and koans of his awakening.