PZI Teacher Archives

Dahui

Teacher

Text July 26, 2023

Dahui’s Journey, Bodhidharma’s Response, & the Marvelous Duke

John Tarrant

So, if you stop being afraid, if you stop being wonderful, if you stop being charming, if we stop charming each other, we’re just here in the vastness with no agenda, and that’s the Daoism that’s at the core of Chan. Emptiness is here. That’s what I think is a good thing.

5028 Words

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Dharma Theme March 29, 2023

Dharma Theme: Not Getting It – Doing It Wrong

PZI Teachers

The Zen approach is not about avoiding mistakes but bringing them to the path. Making a mistake opens the tenderness in us and can be more helpful than not making one. Then, the mistakes are not mistakes.

0 Words
Audio October 27, 2022

Fall Sesshin 2022: Dahui’s Journey, Bodhidharma’s Response, & the Marvelous Duke

John Tarrant

Sesshin is an embrace which allows greater freedom to appear, and it is deeply mysterious. We don’t do it for a particular outcome or we would be constraining ourselves. We are free and easy wandering. In the koan, Emperor Wu wants a method and a first principle of the holy teaching. Bodhidharma answers, There isn’t a principle! You can’t confine it. Chan is trusting uncertainty, it is not something to be believed. Vows from Amanda Boughton, closing words from Tess Beasley. Complete session recorded on October 7, 2022.

72' 59"
Video May 30, 2022

Zen Luminaries: Morten Schlütter on Women in Chan

Jon Joseph

Zen Luminary Morten Schlutter with Jon Joseph on Japanese Zen vs Chinese Chan; Women Ordained in Chan & Dahui’s teaching style in Chan. 4 min

4' 28"
Video May 27, 2022

Zen Luminaries: Morten Schlutter Chan Scholar & Historian with Jon Joseph: On Hongzhi & Dahui

Jon Joseph

Jon joseph and Morten Schlutter – Koan study in Song Dynasty. Diverse teachings of Dahui & Hongzhi and a bit on their lifelong relationship in the dharma- 4min recorded May 23, 2022

5' 31"
Audio February 16, 2022

The East Mountain Walks on the Water

John Tarrant

Brilliant Zen student Dahui’s teacher, Yuanwu, sees his student can’t quite let go of his hold of the precipice and gives him this koan. There is something underneath everything: it is vastness. The old character was ‘sky.’ Haiku was hailed as a perfect snapshot with eternity in it. Haiku from John Tarrant, Masaoka Shiki, and others. Complete session recorded February 13, 2022.

60' 13"
Audio September 27, 2020

Hanging Lanterns at the Gates of the Autumn Temple: What Is Your Light?

John Tarrant

Hanging Lanterns at the Gates of the Autumn Temple: John continues working with Yunmen’s koan, What is your light? Huangbo’s calm mysterious joy. Music on saxophone by Michael Wilding. PZI Zen Online, as recorded Sept. 27, 2020.

90' 10"
Text August 25, 2020

You Know Nothing (of Zen) – The Woman at the Inn

John Tarrant

You can trust that the thing that you are doing is going to work. It’s underground. There’s a growth happening in the dark. You don’t even have to see it. But, after a while, you start to notice it. It’s kind of a cool thing, actually. You think, “God, even me! Even I have some part in this.”

3157 Words
Audio June 11, 2020

What Is Your Response? A Butterfly Flies up!

Michelle Riddle

PZI Zen Online: The moment you are doing nothing the universe is doing you! What is your response? Responses, readings from Atlanta Mayor Bottoms, Yunmen, William Stafford, Joan Sutherland. Koans for troubled times. Each moment is new. Where is the source of your response? No guarantees, anything can happen. As recorded June 5, 2020.

80' 18"
Text May 8, 2020

The Method of Zen

John Tarrant

In the evening dharma talk John introduces us to an ancestor in the koan tradition, Dahui Zonggao 大慧宗杲 (Ta-hui Tsung-kao, Daie Soko), 1089-1163 and his disciple Wuzhuo Miaozong (無著妙宗; 1096–1170 CE), Miaozong lived during the Song dynasty and was one of the first nuns to be included in an imperially sanctioned Zen lineage history. The conversation between Dahui and Miaozong is instructive of his early method of using only the head of the koan and become one with it. His method was formulated for his culture like we are for ours.

4731 Words
Audio February 11, 2020

Great Doubt Leads to Great Awakening

David Weinstein

David Weinstein talks about the great Dahui and his teaching that “Great doubt leads to great awakening.” Nothing wrong with the little daily awakenings, either. How great faith allows for great doubt, which leads to great awakening. David talks about his journey with his teachers and “Making your mind a question mark!”

53' 39"
Video October 24, 2018

The Method of Zen: Dahui & Miaozong

John Tarrant

In the evening dharma talk John introduces us to an ancestor in the koan tradition, Dahui Zonggao 大慧宗杲 (Ta-hui Tsung-kao, Daie Soko), 1089-1163 and his disciple Wuzhuo Miaozong (無著妙宗; 1096–1170 CE), Miaozong lived during the Song dynasty and was one of the first nuns to be included in an imperially sanctioned Zen lineage history. The conversation between Dahui and Miaozong is instructive of his early method of using only the ‘head of the koan’ and becoming one with it. His method was formulated for his culture.

35' 7"