PZI Teacher Archives
disaster
Losing Things, Finding Things
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.
The Smell of Fresh Toast & the Enchantment of the World
“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.
The Smell of Fresh Toast & the Enchantment of the World
“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.
Let Me Count the Ways
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.
Saving Houses: Fiery Guanyin – with 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.
10,000 Kalpa Fire!
PZI Zen – Winter Sesshin 2018. Allison Atwill on her narrow escape from Fire in Montecito CA.
Standing in Your Own Place with Allison Atwill Roshi
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.