Linji
Beautiful Blossoms, Everything Changing: Refuge & the Bodhisattva Path
Deshan is determined to prove his scholarly certainty. He encounters 2 teachers who help him see the light. John talks about refuge; What is it? Why take it? What is the rakusu? A robe of freedom? Zen rests ultimately in mystery and cultivates uncertainty. Having confidence in the light always working inside you – Linji’s teachings. PZI’s approach: working with vows as koans. Music -Jordan McConnell. As recorded Feb. 28th, 2021.
The Nature of Practice
Practice. The notion of practice, as something you embody, and you walk through, and you are—rather than something you add, like something added to gasoline. There’s also a sense of moving in the dark, in some way that’s positive. So that in a practice, “not knowing” is on your side.
Hosting the Life You Have
Rilke said, “Life is always right.” Whatever I think about that saying, this is the life I have, and I can’t have another life. And really, fundamentally I don’t want another one, because this one is so rich and compelling, no matter what’s going down right now.
Solitary Brightness – Nothing to Hang Onto
Audio PZi Zen Online: our lives right now are an exercise in not knowing. Surprising intimacy in new forms of communication and meditation. But really there is nothing to hold onto. And that vastness is filled with light. These three koans reflect that in the time before we know or name. As recorded July 16 2020.
Emptiness in the Role of Host
PZI Zen Online Audio: Our culture needs to renew its old dreams. And it is good when the bottom falls out. We are still held by vastness— our job is to work in harmony with the universe. Take the role of host for everything that appears. Allow “not knowing.” If you know who you are, you can not take a step! Nothing before us, and only a wake behind. The empathic nature of emptiness. Blessings of the goddess. As recorded July 26th 2020.
I Carry Silence & Light – Muses in the Midst of Turmoil
PZI Zen Online: Three threads: Anna Swier’ s poem: ‘There’s a Light in Me’. The light in us wholly unharmed even in extremes of suffering, a place for the Muses to meet us. ‘Terma’ – a Tibetan teaching hidden in physical objects or even concealed in your mind or memory- written in indecipherable Dakini script, to be found by you. Concealed in physical objects or even in your mind/memory, written texts or even email! little reminders that we are already awake. When we hold light and silence everyone can feel it it changes the field. As recorded June 16th 2020.
Stories from the interior – Solitude & Loneliness
Audio PZI Zen Online -Taking the role of the host everywhere & Abiding Nowhere guide Allison’s talk. Solitude as resting in vastness. Loneliness – you may even be in company, but something is missing. revisiting childhood’ solitude and the solitude of mountain trails. Abiding ‘somewhere’ keeps me out of vastness.
Every Day Is a Good Day
Yunmen said, “Before or after the full moon, every day is a good day!” The light of sesshin infuses us. In a “good day” the light is in you, just how it is—this is not an achievement, you are in the gift of the universe. The tenderness of the good day. Our whole lives opening to now. You can’t bully the Dao, it’s bigger than you! Not getting in the way of life. Also: Dreams, Linji’s death, and more. Video recorded in Winter Sesshin 2020.
Linji’s Was I at Fault or Not?
Revisiting the big koans on his personal path: What is being a teacher? What is succession? Jon talks about Linji’s path to enlightenment – his teachers Wangbo and Daiyu conspire to help him. Jon reflects on his recent visit to Japan and the Chan zendo in Kamakura, his warmth and gratitude for Yamada and his teachings. Our ancestors in the Chan lineage.
Linji’s – Was I at Fault or Not??
Revisiting the big koans – What is this? Who is hearing? Who am I ? and others on his personal path: What is being a teacher? What is succession? Jon talks about Linji’s path to enlightenment – His teachers Wangbo and Daiyu conspire to help him. Our ancestors in the Chan lineage. Jon reflects on his recent visit to Japan and the Chan zendo in Kamakura, his warmth and gratitude for Yamada and his teachings.
All Those Hands and Eyes
John talks about the warm intimacy of the ‘the dark’ – the uncolonized zone where koans work with us. Intimacy in teachings is used often as an equivalent for enlightenment. Koans open gates and bring us inside that mystery. Some categories of koans: Predicament koans, Heart Changing koans, Inquiry koans and more.
The Nature of Practice
In practice you are traveling, you are on a path. It is different from a plan because you are on uncertain turf. Practice also has more love in it because you are moving in the dark in a positive way. The koan is like the dog that follows you around with a bowl – it foils your serious plans.
The Brightness of the Blockage
The experience of being blocked; a major or minor imprisonment and of help arriving from unexpected sources.
That Solitary Brightness Is You
A discovery that all the Linji koans we are working with during the retreat are variants on Linji’s “There’s nothing I dislike.” They all appear from this core. The solitary brightness with no fixed shape or form is yours. If you “only don’t object” or exclude reality, the brightness is there. As recorded in Summer Sesshin 2016.
10,000 Things
I like having a roomful of things and a roomful of people. So my plan for this talk is to say a little bit of some of the things I’ve
been thinking about as I sit with this koan, and talk a little bit about retreat, and then to have some time for conversation and questions and observations.
The Doughnut Maker
David Weinstein and Rachel Boughton give a talk at the 2016 Summer retreat.
The Nature of Practice
John Tarrant gives a talk at the 2016 Summer retreat.
Just Act Ordinary
Rachel Boughton gives a talk on Monday morning of the summer retreat. 2016.
The True Person of No Rank
John opens the evening with the koan “The True Person of No Rank.” It goes something like this: “There is a true person of no rank who is always coming and going from the portals of your face.” Who is that person of no rank? Linji was a great teacher and the ancestor of most of the koan lines of Zen and this is a koan of his. It has been used since ancient times as a meditation both for beginners and advanced students. Probably the best way to work with it is to play with it. Don’t rank how you are doing. Just let it keep you company, like an animal would. You forget about it, but every time you look, there it is! And after a while it doesn’t go away. October 17, 2013.