PZI Teacher Archives

demons

Video July 13, 2022

Welcoming What’s Here

Tess Beasley

Disturbances in sesshin are taking part in the gathering too. From a talk in Summer Sesshin on June 15, 2022. 5 minutes.

5' 24"
Audio September 23, 2021

More Spells for Passing Through Danger & Demons

John Tarrant

Everyone is assailed by demons right now. Demons have a long history in the culture. If you’ve got demons, you’re alive! But you don’t have to get on board with them. Demons come out of your own heart, just like enlightenment. Tess Beasley reads from James Hillman’s “Dreams & the Blood Soul.” Michelle Riddle & Jon Joseph chant a Zen spell for dispelling demons, the Sho Sai Myo Kichijo Dharani. John reads Keats and Coleridge.

71' 56"
Audio September 13, 2021

Finding the Self, Forgetting the Self – Drifting Toward the Land of the Rakshasas

John Tarrant

We’re in a time that is difficult, but it is our time—and difficulty is not the only thing going on. Creativity is also present, but it is easy to be crazy right now. The old masters understood this situation. September 5, 2021.

77' 23"
Text August 13, 2021

Enter Here, Step Through

John Tarrant

Day two of 2018 Winter Sesshin. John Tarrant introduces the great koan “No,” a gift from the ancestors. The gift is what happens when we hang out with the koan. “No” as the purest gate. When we step through, we find out we’re here! It’s not personal, you’re harmonizing with the universe. Transcript from a recording on January 17, 2018.

4957 Words
Audio April 23, 2021

Spring Sesshin 2021: The Lostness & Wandering on the Pilgrim’s Path

Jesse Cardin

PZI’s Jesse Cardin, Director of It’s Alive Zen in San Antonio, Texas, reminds us that lostness is part of peach blossoms, and explores how that might appear on the second day of a retreat—or whenever. As recorded April 9, 2021.

54' 1"
Audio May 13, 2020

Fortunate Encounters with Demons, Delusions & Other Unexpected Guests

Tess Beasley

Tess unleashes demons: Demons abound in this Covid lockdown, and they can be helpful! We have a protective psychic immune system—what triggers a response? Demons tend to employ certainty and cultivate a life-or-death field of response. What are they protecting? Recorded online on May 12, 2020.

81' 38"
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