PZI Teacher Archives

poet Rilke

Video July 29, 2022

Love, Meditation & the Red Thread

John Tarrant

There is a marvelous living side-by-side when we show each other the greatest possible trust—not trying to rush away the feeling of the eternal, together. John Tarrant’s complete Sunday session from July 17, 2022.

78' 51"
Text February 17, 2021

Freely I Watch the Tracks of the Flying Birds

John Tarrant

Everybody, every time, has its own difficulty and crisis. This is ours. We can trust our own lives that brought us here, and perhaps we have something to do here. And we don’t know what that is but we’ll find it as we keep walking. The thing about the meditation path is, I don’t have to think a lot about what’s mine to do. You just give yourself to the meditation, and it’s produced for you. It’s given to you. The path opens by itself, you know. Transcript of PZI Zen Online Sunday Talk with John Tarrant, recorded March 29 2020.

5504 Words
Text February 5, 2021

The Everlasting Body Runs Deepest Indigo: Meditation for Troubled Times

John Tarrant

It’s a very strong thing to be human, you can be subjected to all sorts of great forces. And sometimes you can win through, and sometimes you die. But we’re all of us doing that, all the time. So I was thinking about how good it is to love each other, to meet each other, and to make peace in our hearts. Sunday talk with John Tarrant, recorded June 14 2020.

6874 Words
Audio February 4, 2021

Handing Things on in the Dark: Friendship

John Tarrant

Zen is about meetings, the courage to meet and be a friend. Even the gnarly bits of friendship are part of it, the mystery of connection. You don’t have to be good at love—better to be in it. In the field of connectedness we discover things we can’t discover on our own. Audio excerpt from Sunday Zen with John Tarrant, Handing Things on in the Dark, PZI Zen Online. As recorded January 31, 2021. 18 minutes.

17' 38"
Audio November 3, 2020

Hanging Lanterns: A Ceremony of Light

John Tarrant

Hanging Lanterns Series with John Tarrant. John reflects on life as a ceremony—dawn every day, the turning of the earth toward winter and back again. Everyone has their own light. Practice asks us to not refuse the eternal, nor the poignant daily awakenings and noticings. Music from Amaryllis Fletcher & Jordan McConnell. PZI Zen Online, as recorded Oct. 25, 2020.

45' 7"
Audio September 20, 2020

Hanging Lanterns: The Smallest Things & What Is Your light?

John Tarrant

Hanging the Lanterns at the Gates of the Autumn Temple: You have your own light. The life and hard times of an apple tree. Marking Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s passing. Music: Michael Wilding, Amaryllis Fletcher, Jordan Mc Connell. PZI Zen Online, as recorded Sept. 20, 2020.

91' 46"
Text September 18, 2020

Secret Fidelity & One Finger Zen, Even in the Bardos

John Tarrant

I think this is a time when things are kind of changing and incredibly uncertain, and that fidelity to what’s really true to us is important and valuable. And we don’t have to pretend that when difficulties are here, they’re not here. But also, we don’t have to pretend that they cancel the illumination, because nothing does, really. Even if we’re dying, the brightness of life is still there. And after we’re dead, we’ll worry about that later, [laughs] when the time comes in the bardos.

7528 Words
Audio September 16, 2020

Hanging Lanterns: In Times of Great Change, What Is Your Light?

John Tarrant

Hanging Lanterns at the Gate of the Autumn Temple: Orange skies, unhealthy air; apocalypse week in CA and the West. The old agreements are fragile, climate change a long gathering storm, fire a consequence. Having a practice—the simplest thing—a conversation with the vastness. Being lost is an opportunity as old attitudes fall away. Don’t take yourself too seriously! “Each step along the way is of equal substance,” says Hirada. Musicians: Amaryllis Fletcher, Cantor & Jordan McConnell, guitar. PZI Zen Online, as recorded September 13, 2020.

93' 27"
Audio June 15, 2020

The Everlasting Body Runs Deepest Indigo – Meditation for Troubled Times

John Tarrant

We are in the midst of great civil unrest around racism and the institutions that support it. Li Bai, Du Fu, Dalong & Primo Levi speak about what remains, what lives, what holds us in the universe—even as we feel most perishable, sad, defeated. The light is still there in all things, even without a foundation to stand on. As recorded June 14, 2020.

96' 32"
Audio May 26, 2020

Secret Fidelity & One Finger Zen, Even in the Bardos

John Tarrant

PZI Zen Online: A woman’s story of awakening, and meeting with the mysterious prediction of teacher Heavenly Dragon. The absurdity of life’s journey. A meeting with a strange woman and her interrupting request, “Say a word of Zen!” How do you allow something different to arise? This—one finger! As recorded May 24, 2020.

94' 49"