PZI Teacher Archives

disaster

Video November 18, 2023

Losing Things, Finding Things

John Tarrant

In meditation things come and go, as in life. In Zen the experience of loss contains a treasure. There is gold inside the loss whether of a person, a country, or a beloved house. Grief dissolves everything. The valleys of life are important for developing empathy. Mazu gives us the path to walk through the demons: Help others cross. Make yourself a raft. An Indigenous saying: Inside the last tear, happiness is hiding. 

52' 21"
Video October 25, 2023

The Smell of Fresh Toast & the Enchantment of the World

John Tarrant

“What is this?” asked the eccentric Zen teacher Budai, holding up odd objects to a crowd. The universe is an intimate net, its jeweled facets contain everything, including the smell of fresh toast. All living beings must turn toward the ultimate. This is deeper than any sorrow, horror, disgrace. The strangeness and beauty of now, of life, is beyond explanation. And this moment has always been here.

52' 52"
Audio October 25, 2023

The Smell of Fresh Toast & the Enchantment of the World

John Tarrant

“What is this?” asked the eccentric Zen teacher Budai, holding up odd objects to a crowd. The universe is an intimate net, its jeweled facets contain everything, including the smell of fresh toast. All living beings must turn toward the ultimate. This is deeper than any sorrow, horror, disgrace. The strangeness and beauty of now, of life, is beyond explanation. And this moment has always been here.

52' 52"

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Article September 8, 2021

Let Me Count the Ways

John Tarrant

Love is an enlightenment story available to everyone, and that story includes being attacked by demons as well as being showered with roses. If we widen our gaze, in love, we discover what we like about ourselves and how we want to live our lives.

2661 Words
Audio September 10, 2020

Saving Houses: Fiery Guanyin – with Allison Atwill

Allison Atwill

Saving houses from fire: Allison Atwill Roshi’s stories of fiery compassion and radiance. Audio excerpt from Guanyin in the Pavilion Under the August Moon, recorded August 30, 2020.

7' 0"
Audio September 8, 2020

10,000 Kalpa Fire!

Allison Atwill

PZI Zen – Winter Sesshin 2018. Allison Atwill on her narrow escape from Fire in Montecito CA.

92' 50"
Audio September 8, 2020

Standing in Your Own Place with Allison Atwill Roshi

Allison Atwill

PZI Zen – Sesshin Winter 2018. Dharma talk relaying the narrow escape for two natural disaster one after another in devastating fire and debris flows afterward.

71' 38"