mysterious tasks

Just listen! After a difficult battle, a Japanese general hears a bamboo flute in the distance. The sound awakens him to practice and teach Zen, and to allow music in the zendo—the sound itself a gateway into everything. John Tarrant plays a John Cage soundscape: Sound lets us listen to the world—it gives us our own lives. When we step into the here, we step into the infinite and stop being afraid. Jordan McConnell plays guitar in the meditation. Comments from teachers and leaders. September 25, 2022.

John Tarrant gives an evening dharma talk on the incalculable value of descent and return. We take up the task set by the ancestors: that’s what we came here for. As recorded in Fall Sesshin, October 21, 2021.