PZI Teacher Archives

Who Is Hearing?

KOAN:

Who is hearing this sound?

—PZI Inquiry Koan

Text March 27, 2023

Here

John Tarrant

Like trees and giraffes, delusions appear to be the opposite of emptiness. But when you really settle into being lost and uncertain, that is an open gate. It comes to be called “here.”

766 Words
Video November 17, 2022

Hearing the Sounds of the World

John Tarrant

We don’t need to turn away from the world and we don’t have to find a place to stand. Our listening and our presence operate below the level at which we usually manage things. So that is the hearing aspect of this koan. Just let hearing have you. This koan can be carried everywhere with you. Complete Sunday Zen session.

65' 59"
Audio November 15, 2022

Hearing the Sounds of the World

John Tarrant

We don’t need to turn away from the world and we don’t have to find a place to stand. Our listening and our presence operate below the level at which we usually manage things. So that is the hearing aspect of this koan. Just let hearing have you. This koan can be carried everywhere with you. Comments from teachers & Amanda Boughton sings vows. November 6, 2022.

65' 59"
Audio September 30, 2022

The Distant Temple Bell – A Mysterious Task Koan

John Tarrant

Just listen! After a difficult battle, a Japanese general hears a bamboo flute in the distance. The sound awakens him to practice and teach Zen, and to allow music in the zendo—the sound itself a gateway into everything. John Tarrant plays a John Cage soundscape: Sound lets us listen to the world—it gives us our own lives. When we step into the here, we step into the infinite and stop being afraid. Jordan McConnell plays guitar in the meditation. Comments from teachers and leaders. September 25, 2022.

64' 58"
Audio August 5, 2021

Special Program: 4 Teachers & 4 Boundless Vows: Opening Words – with John Tarrant

John Tarrant

John Tarrant’s welcome and introduction to a special program on The Four Boundless Vows and the Bodhisattva path. We are each in the true temple; it’s always happening here, and everyone holds it. Meditation and opening words: the beauty of practice and of the path, the way we teach through stories in Zen, and inclusion of the Daoist view that “the world does fine on its own.” Excerpt from the Sunday session recorded August 1, 2021.

27' 7"
Audio March 19, 2021

Meditation: Who’s Hearing?

John Tarrant

A 17-minute guided meditation with John Tarrant, excerpted from a Sunday Meditation & Talk recorded on March 14th, 2021.

7' 53"
Audio February 1, 2021

The Traveling Moon and the Cuckoo’s Call

Jon Joseph

Audio Excerpt: PZI Winter Sesshin: Jon Joseph reads poems and reminds us that even deep in jumbled mountains the cuckoo is calling us home. The cuckoo is the voice of the Dao. 2 minutes.

1' 26"
Text October 8, 2020

12 Who Is Hearing This Sound? – The Zenosaurus Course In Koans

John Tarrant

Zenosaurus Curriculum 12: When you really hear, your understanding comes in a way that’s different from the usual.

1018 Words
Audio June 1, 2020

I Vow to Set Endless Heartache to Rest: Chan Stories and the Zhuangzi

John Tarrant

John Tarrant talks about Chan’s encounter with Daoism and the Zhuangzi, replete with strange characters like “Crooked Carriage” and his friends. Chan took on their difficult times with stories and koans. Upheaval from Covid quarantine, riots over racism—koan meditation is a vessel for our times. Who’s concerned about the world? Who’s sad? We are in it together, so let’s vow to set endless heartache to rest. Koans and stories are ancient vials of light that help us now. PZI Zen Online, as recorded May 31, 2020.

90' 58"
Text September 18, 2019

Dreams

John Tarrant

Tonight I want to talk about another aspect of the koan about who’s hearing, who am I, what am I. There’s a spectrum I’ve been talking about so far for all of one previous talk. And I wanted to get at it slightly at an angle by going in through dreams, and the idea of is there a difference between what we’re doing and dreams anyway, which is certainly relevant to who we think we are. 

3437 Words
Text September 18, 2019

Goblins Q & A

John Tarrant

Hakuin would paint that as a demon. This is demon number three. Which number demon is that? And the other things is that thing about how the thing we thought was the problem can transform, there is that real sense of what’s wrong with being a demon? If I think there’s a demon obviously I’m it.

5681 Words
Video June 7, 2019

The Continuous Flowing Nature of Mind

John Tarrant

The Zen Koan for summer sesshin was “Who Is Hearing?” The talk by John Tarrant and ensuing conversation regards the nature of the mind, and aspects of practice. June 22, 2011.

35' 15"