PZI Teacher Archives

Yunmen's Good Day (BCR6)

KOAN:

Yunmen said, “I’m not asking you about before the full moon. Come and say a word or two about after the full moon.”
He responded to his own request, “Every day is a good day.”

—Blue Cliff Record Case 6 (transl. by John Tarrant & Joan Sutherland)

Text May 15, 2021

Every Day Is a Good Day

John Tarrant

What is the journey for? What is it to have this life? We’re in it—it’s so marvelous, so overwhelming and so incomprehensible. You’ll find, I think, that you can’t stand back from it and answer that question. So the “good day” is just how it is. It’s like the gift of the universe, and you’re in the universe, having received the gift. Transcript of John Tarrant’s dharma talk in Winter Sesshin 2020.

5619 Words

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Article May 6, 2021

Enlightenment Is Something We Do Together

John Tarrant

Conversation is itself a kind of meditation, a way we can accompany each other through life. We can share errors, painful mistakes, dreams, losses, discoveries, or just the ordinary glowing things. That’s a good day. Article by John Tarrant published in Lion’s Roar magazine February 18, 2014.

901 Words
Text October 8, 2020

18 Gratitude, Care And Feeding Of – The Zenosaurus Course In Koans

John Tarrant

Zenosaurus Curriculum 18: Gratitude comes with a feeling of openness, shyness, vulnerability. The person who is grateful can be hurt or rejected, she is taking a risk. With gratitude, there is more at stake, life is not small. 

1913 Words
Audio September 27, 2020

Every Day Is A Good Day

David Weinstein

PZI Zen Online with David Weinstein: He asks, together with Yunmen, what about the days after the full moon? As recorded August 26, 2020.

62' 30"
Video February 19, 2020

Every Day Is a Good Day

John Tarrant

Yunmen said, “Before or after the full moon, every day is a good day!” The light of sesshin infuses us. In a “good day” the light is in you, just how it is—this is not an achievement, you are in the gift of the universe. The tenderness of the good day. Our whole lives opening to now. You can’t bully the Dao, it’s bigger than you! Not getting in the way of life. Also: Dreams, Linji’s death, and more. Video recorded in Winter Sesshin 2020.

50' 7"