imaginative response

Jon Joseph Roshi assembles a panel of four PZI meditators who have varied experiences of chronic and severe pain. Koan meditation has helped all of them find a way to allow in the pain—to not exclude it—and to see it as a profound teacher and ally. Recorded May 31, 2021.

A student asks Baizhang, “What is the most marvelous thing—a matter of special worth?” He answers, “Sitting alone on Mt. Courage Peak.” The vastness is always there, inside and outside. The possibility of imaginative responses in times of change. The wisdom of an indigenous storyteller who embodies a much longer timeline of radical earth changes. The freedom of not being you. PZI Zen Online, as recorded Dec. 13, 2020. Music posted separately.