PZI Teacher Archives

meditation practice

Audio January 28, 2021

Friendship: A Thing of Special Wonder

John Tarrant

On encouraging friendship with the world—koans, trees, people. How we interact with friends, from the heart. We listen to each other. We don’t have to make them anything other than what they are. Poems, stories, comments. Complete session as recorded Jan 24, 2021, PZI Zen Online.

54' 16"
Audio September 9, 2020

Hanging Lanterns: Everyone Has Their Own Light

John Tarrant

As old agreements fall apart, practice is a kindness. What is the image of our time? A lamp that lights another, without losing any radiance. It carries the changes, in the warmth of fire. What is meditation? Any moment of sanity! Michael Wilding on flute, Amaryllis Fletcher on violin, and Jordan McConnell on guitar for the 4 Vows. As recorded on Sunday, September 6, 2020.

85' 43"
Audio July 10, 2020

Audio Excerpt: The Elephant in the Room – Dream of the Totality of Being

John Tarrant

PZI Zen Online: Audio excerpt. John Tarrant Roshi recounts a Sesshin dream—insight on meditation practice. As recorded June 27 2020.

4' 19"
Video December 26, 2019

Walking the Mysterious Path Together – Koans, Transformation & PZI

John Tarrant

John Tarrant, Roshi, Director of PZI and author, talks about the mystery of meditation as he first experienced it in the ancient forests of Queensland; about transformation on the ancient koan path we follow, and the evolution of Pacific Zen Institute as a community, and koan school with a new online resource center, the KALPA (Koans and Liberation Project Archive) Library. Your support helps produce PZI’s ongoing retreats and dharma talks, John’s writing projects, and spreads the teachings. 8 minutes. January 2019

8' 16"
Text September 17, 2019

The Nature of Practice

John Tarrant

A practice is different from a plan. You know what a plan is; you’ve probably made a few of them. A practice has more love in it, because a practice is something you’re doing without being sure of the outcome..

9232 Words
Video June 18, 2019

The Bird Path

John Tarrant

John says birds open the sky for us when we watch them fly—everything just appears, and then is gone, with no trace. If we trust whatever appears, that’s a taste of the bird path. Might it be true that no matter what, you’re not having the wrong moment, that you don’t have to disapprove? When it’s difficult, it’s good to know that it’s for us, it’s ours. Life is blessing us all the time. Our thinking and feeling “This isn’t it,” is what we call loneliness. John talks about how our practice asks us, “What’s it like to be alive, to be me? What’s it like to be a tree? A bird? What if I’m a fire? What if I’m river?” My mind and the universe—not much difference.

32' 21"
Video July 6, 2017

The Curiosity Shop

Rachel Boughton

Rachel Boughton discusses techniques of meditation during sesshin; darkness, light, curiosity, and learning how to sit attentively with a koan. 2014.

46' 7"
Video June 26, 2017
23' 0"
Video June 26, 2017

The Sport of Meditation

Steven Grant

Steven Grant gives a talk on “the sport of meditation” at 2016 Winter Sesshin.

3' 28"