PZI Teacher Archives

Dharma Theme

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Dharma Theme October 30, 2023

Dharma Theme: Stop Suffering!

PZI Teachers

We’re always looking for a recipe or data points to get a handle on happiness. The most profoundly simple but difficult challenge is to let ourselves transform into ourselves. We imagine a different, better self “after awakening.” Every stroke, even the most difficult or painful, is part of the piece. Our journey through suffering transforms everything, including the destination.

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Dharma Theme October 25, 2023
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Dharma Theme August 1, 2023

Dharma Theme: Friendships & Meetings – Relationships in the Dao, Then & Now

PZI Teachers

Zen is about meeting—we make friends with each koan and allow the universe to work with and through us. The sweetness, and even the gnarly bits of friendship are part of the intimacy at the center of meeting. In the field of connectedness we discover things we can’t discover on our own.

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Dharma Theme June 9, 2023
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Dharma Theme June 9, 2023
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Dharma Theme June 9, 2023

Dharma Theme: Fire – The Extremes of Climate Change

PZI Teachers

Our era is undoubtedly difficult, and even crazy. We are in an underworld time. We know that we’re cutting down ancient trees, burning fossil fuels, melting the sustaining ice, finding leaders who pretend that we have no part in the changes that overwhelm us. We are suffering from forces greater than us and also from ourselves; we too are forces beyond our control.

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Dharma Theme June 9, 2023

Dharma Theme: The Ink Drawings of Hakuin Ekaku

Here you will find a sampling of ink drawings by the great Zen ancestor Hakuin Ekaku.

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Dharma Theme June 9, 2023

Dharma Theme: Meeting the Inconceivable

PZI Teachers

What you can conceive of might take away your life. On the other hand, what you cannot conceive of will give you your life.

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Dharma Theme May 10, 2023

Dharma Theme: Haiku for You

PZI Teachers

Koans and poetry tumble over each other. Old Zen masters used snatches of poetry as koans. Good poetry has an objective quality and is related to koanville in that way. It does not try to persuade or recruit.

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Dharma Theme May 4, 2023
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Dharma Theme May 1, 2023
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Dharma Theme April 12, 2023

Dharma Theme: Dragon Teachers & Magical Creatures

PZI Teachers

Anything might be in the Blue Dragon’s cave: awakening, memories, sorrows, dance moves—all the possibilities of your life might be there. You just fall into meditation in the Blue Dragon’s cave. Perhaps your whole life is blessed—every struggle and confusion itself.

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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.

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Dharma Theme March 22, 2023

Dharma Theme: In the Wild – Mountain Koans & Poems

PZI Teachers

Eventually you come to a place where you can’t go on and you can’t go back. You have arrived at the base of cliffs; you can’t scale them, you can’t get around them, and there’s no handy tunnel through them. It’s a daunting place—that’s the point of it. And when you arrive here your life and your journey can become your own.

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Dharma Theme February 9, 2023

Dharma Theme: A Solitary Boat Making Its Way – Winter Sesshin 2023

PZI Teachers

HERE ARE WINTER SESSHIN AUDIO RECORDINGS of dharma talks, including music from Cantor Amaryllis Fletcher, and musicians Amanda Boughton, Michael Wilding and Jordan McConnell. (These will be added as they are edited A complete audio record of talks from PZI’s Live-Online Winter Sesshin 2023, January 31–February 5, 2023. Videos also available in the KALPA library.

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Dharma Theme August 11, 2022

Dharma Theme: Taking Part in the Gathering – Summer Sesshin 2022

John Tarrant, PZI Cantor & Musicians, PZI Teachers

Here is our curation of full-length Summer Sesshin dharma talk audios on a single page, for easy finding and listening. A sesshin is more than the sum of its parts or recorded talks—there are personal interviews and deep meditation, teaching talks and conversations, old friends and new, ceremonies, brilliant teachers, music, great enlightenment, mistakes, and delight. The play of the universe. Recorded at Santa Sabina Center, June 13-19, 2022.

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Dharma Theme June 11, 2022

Dharma Theme: John Tarrant’s Zenosaurus Koans 1–19

John Tarrant

ZENOSAURUS: 19 Koans with introductions and commentaries from John Tarrant, as first published on his website, tarrantworks.

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Audio March 2, 2022

Dharma Theme: Winter & Silver, Moonlight & Snow – Winter Sesshin 2022

John Tarrant, PZI Cantor & Musicians, PZI Teachers

A curation of Winter 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. As recorded in the PZI Digital Temple, February 1-6, 2022.

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Article February 1, 2022

Dharma Theme: Articles by John Tarrant

John Tarrant

Here you’ll find a list of links to published articles written by John Tarrant. Publication credits are included in each file.

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Audio November 4, 2021

Zen Luminaries: A Conversation with Peter Hershock hosted by Jon Joseph

Jon Joseph

As recorded Monday, November 1st, 2021, as part of a series of conversations with important Zen (Chan) voices: translators, writers, scholars, and practitioners.

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Dharma Theme November 1, 2021

Dharma Theme: Metamorphosis – Fall Sesshin 2021

PZI Teachers

Here is a curation of our Fall 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, October 19-24, 2021.

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Dharma Theme August 14, 2021

Dharma Theme: PZI Talk LIVE

Chris Gaffney, Corey Hitchcock

Here you’ll find audio clips from various PZI Talk Live meetings. This is a gathering in the spirit of our Member’s PZI Talk Google Group, but meeting face-to-face, online, with listening, noticing, and speaking occurring in real time. No experience necessary other than the one you are having!

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Dharma Theme July 19, 2021

Dharma Theme: In the Palace at the Blue Cliff – Summer Sesshin 2021

John Tarrant, PZI Cantor & Musicians, PZI Teachers

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.

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Dharma Theme April 23, 2021
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Dharma Theme February 15, 2021

Dharma Theme: The Teachings of Great Master Ma

PZI Teachers

PZI Dharma Theme: The teachings of Mazu. A curated list of references from our KALPA Library, on this old teacher in our lineage.

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Dharma Theme November 5, 2020

Dharma Theme: Zen Tuesdays – Immensity is Tapping

Allison Atwill, Michelle Riddle, Sarah Bender, Tess Beasley

PZI Dharma Theme: Four PZI Guanyins reappear for Zen Tuesdays in October. They marvel at the immensity in all things from various perspectives. Drawing inspiration from Jane Hirshfield’s poem, “Tree,” The Doors’ “Light My Fire,” a golden crowned sparrow, a remarkable brother’s life, and more. Excerpts and complete audio sessions as recorded in October 2020.

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Dharma Theme October 12, 2020
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Dharma Theme September 13, 2020

Dharma Theme: Guanyin In the Pavilion Under the August Moon

Allison Atwill, Michelle Riddle, Sarah Bender, Tess Beasley

PZI Dharma Theme: “Guanyin Manifesting in the Elements: Space, Earth, Water, Air, Fire.” A Dharma Theme? It’s a gathering, a curation of events from our vast KALPA library, based in a theme that is current in our online sessions and practice. We’re offering a compilation of various types of files: transcript, audio, art, music, and video—all from PZI teachers.

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Dharma Theme September 11, 2020

Dharma Theme: Your Light

PZI Teachers

PZI Dharma Theme: “Your Light.” In Zen, one lamp lights another but is never extinguished. We want these themed selections to work that way, as you explore the KALPA. A Dharma Theme? It’s a gathering, a curation of events from our vast KALPA library, based in a theme that is current in our online sessions and practice. We’re offering a compilation of various types of files: transcript, audio, art, music, and video—all from PZI teachers.

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Dharma Theme September 18, 2017

Dharma Theme: Pacific Zen Institute Sutra Book

Amaryllis Fletcher, Jordan McConnell, Michael Wilding, Pacific Zen Institute, Rachel Boughton, Richie Domingue, Ryan McCoy

This is a collection of Pacific Zen Institute’s Sutra Service & Sesshin Ceremony materials. Includes all sutras with sheet music as available, texts, lyrics, readings, and audios of Richie Domingue’s original compositions for the Dedications.

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