PZI Teacher Archives
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Allison Atwill -
David Parks -
David Weinstein -
Eduardo Fuentes -
Jesse Cardin -
John Tarrant -
Jon Joseph -
Michelle Riddle -
Tess Beasley
PZI Zen Online
Turning Toward What Is Most Oppressive
Tess tells a story about the confinements of physical pain and long isolation for a musician during Covid lockdown. What are the gifts of turning into the trouble and the fear? 7-minute excerpt from Sunday Zen on Memorial Day 2022.
Loving the World That Carries Us
The body of form changes, but what is everlasting? Q: “What endures?” A: “Mountain flowers bloom like brocade. The valley streams run deepest indigo.” Everybody has it. We are on a journey with no fixed destination, and the moment we’ve been looking for is here. What carries us, if not the world around us? With solo flute improv from Micheal Wilding.
Great Silence at the Beginning: Holding It for Each Other
What are the properties of great silence? It cannot be tarnished or eroded, it can’t be given or taken away, but it can of course be obscured. The whole universe is holding it for you; we hold it for each other and for ourselves. Zen cliches are showing up, with the truth! January Sunday Zen on January 15, 2023. 6 minutes.
Great Silence at the Beginning: It’s Everywhere
If awakening could come from anywhere, how would that change things for you? Wherever you are, even in the places you are certain the silence is NOT, it is there, enfolding you. Even at Walmart with a toddler, in a flood, or at the doctor’s office—it is there, blooming. From a January Sunday Zen session on January 15, 2023. 10 minutes.
Loving the World That Carries Us
The body of form changes, but what is everlasting? Q: “What endures?” A: “Mountain flowers bloom like brocade. The valley streams run deepest indigo.” Everybody has it. We are on a journey with no fixed destination, and the moment we’ve been looking for is here. What carries us, if not the world around us? With solo flute improv from Micheal Wilding.
Zen Luminary: Poet Naomi Shihab Nye
Poet, teacher and essayist Naomi Shihab Nye, recorded in conversation with Jon Joseph Roshi in June of 2022.
Zen Luminaries: Poet & Essayist Jane Hirshfield
Jon Joseph Roshi converses with poet and essayist Jane Hirshfield on her many volumes of poetry and essays, her worldview, Buddhist practice, and more. With comments & questions from John Tarrant. Complete session from October 24th, 2022.
Zen Luminaries: Poet & Essayist Jane Hirshfield
Jon Joseph Roshi converses with poet and essayist Jane Hirshfield on her many volumes of poetry and essays, her worldview, Buddhist practice, and more. With comments & questions from John Tarrant. Complete session from October 24th, 2022.
Ancestral Stories: Old Wrongs Can Disappear
After a relative dies, the ancestral wrongs and difficulty can disappear as we change towards a more expansive view. Dreams tell us not to ignore the great forces of life, even in our turbulent times. Our koan school relates to the shadowy dark materials—including instead of excluding, without being taken over by them. October 30, 2022
Ancestral Stories: A Balkan Lament
Amanda Boughton sings a Croatian song of connection to the land and flocks of sheep tended there. Recorded during the Ancestral Stories Retreat, October 30, 2022. 4 minutes.
Ancestral Stories: How the Ancestors Show Up
We can accumulate things in life that become symbolic after we die. The real inheritance is in our hands and hearts, and is reliable no matter what the surface relationship may have been. When we are challenged, the ancestors show up. Meeting the Lord of Death is one of those challenges, and is part of meeting life. Excerpt from the Ancestral Stories Retreat on October 30, 2022.
Ancestral Stories: Opening to the Treasures of the Unconscious
Ancient and indigenous cultures have different models for healing and dreaming, with different points of view often galactic or mythic. Including and opening to vastness when facing any problem allows for a wider range of solutions, and access to the hidden treasures that we have no idea are there for us. Excerpt from the Ancestral Stories Retreat on October 30, 2022.
Ancestral Stories: Are These Leaves Falling or Are They My Father’s Hands?
John Tarrant reads his new autumn poem about meeting the vastness of autumn, and meeting his father, the Lord of Death. From the Ancestral Stories Retreat on October 30, 2022. 3 minutes.
Ancestral Stories: Our Ancestors Are Within Us
What is my piece in this patchwork inheritance? We are complicated—we don’t always know what qualities and histories inhabit us. We come into these lineages in mystery…maybe the lineages find us. Our koan lineage is one of moments of awakening, passed down. Excerpt from Ancestral Stories Retreat on October 30, 2022. 19 minutes.
Ancestral Stories: The Taste of Old Wrongs Can Disappear
After people die, our point of view about them can shift—it often becomes more vast. Problems with those who’ve gone before can dissolve. In our PZI School, this is why the shadowy dark material is important: when included, it helps it to dissipate so the taste of old wrongs can actually disappear. Excerpted from Ancestral Stories Retreat on October 30, 2022. 7 minutes.
Puhua Somersaults for Enlightenment
John Tarrant’s complete Sunday Talk audio from May 21, 2022.
Losing a Pet & the Ritual of Passing in Every Moment
As part of Tess Beasley’s Memorial Day teaching, Allison Atwill comments on the death of Poppet, a difficult but beloved sheep. A ritual to mark the passing of someone you love, and the passing that is happening in every moment, is a vital gift of practice. 5 minutes. May 29, 2022. 5-1/2 minutes.
What Is Most Urgent for Me? What Should I Do?
What next? I am up against it. How can I do what is needed or know which direction to go? The direction is inward. A turning toward everything inside the self is required. Like the Buddha—his urgency amplified his situation. Facing pain, loss, injury, or grief, we want direct and appropriate action to release us. The only way forward is toward the inner world. Tess Beasley Sensei’s Sunday Talk on May 29, 2022.
What Is Most Urgent for Me? with Tess Beasley
Tess Beasley talks about what it means to turn toward pain and loss by embracing uncertainty. Memorial Day 2022. 5 minutes.
Zen Is Poetry
Koans and poetry tumble over each other. Good poetry has an objective quality and is related to koanville in that way. It does not try to persuade or recruit. Not knowing always supports us—you are always in the jeweled net. Music for meditation and the four vows with Jordan McConnell and Amaryllis Fletcher. Participants create poetry from a few momentary observations. Poems by John Tarrant and others.
Zen Luminaries: Minding the Earth, Mending the World with Zen Writer & Roshi Susan Murphy
Writer & Roshi Susan Murphy, in conversation with Jon Joseph, reads from her books and talks about her childhood, family, lifelong relationship with the land, the disturbing evidence of climate change in Australia, and her ongoing, warm collaborations with indigenous aboriginal elders. Recorded April 25, 2022. Jordan McConnell sings the vows.
A Morning of Amnesty
We abide in the inexplicable amnesty of hereness. Amnesty is also a metaphor for awakening. You allow your awakening to go all the way through. And you can be free, then caught, then free again. Recorded April 17, 2022. Music from Michael Wilding. Todd Geist sings vows.
Secret Affinities: Knock on Any Door
Knock on any door—someone will answer. Letting koans teach you koans is the way. Anything that arises is part of the work. It’s not following instructions. John Tarrant’s Sunday Talk as recorded March 27, 2022.
Music for Getting Lost
Michael Wilding’s musical solos during a meditation for getting lost. Recorded during John Tarrant’s Sunday Talk on March 13, 2022.
Music for The Lost Cities
Jordan McConnell plays a guitar solo for exploring the lost cities during John Tarrant’s Sunday Talk on March 20, 2022.
Music for Treasures of the Lost Cities – Michael Wilding
Michael Wilding plays flute for exploring the lost cities, during John Tarrant’s Sunday Talk on March 20, 2022.
Some Treasures of the Lost Cities
A quest, a treasure hunt, through cities overtaken by sands and ghosts and overwhelmed by the sea. We search for hidden teachings in scrolls, clay tablets, or dreams. Being lost is primary. In the koan lands we side with being lost when we turn toward uncertainty and wait, and whether we can bear it or not, a path opens. There is no end to this opening.
A Map for Getting Lost
It helps to be on the side of lostness when the world goes to hell in a handbasket (Ukraine). All we have to do is be here and be lost—no usual schemes or regrets. Let the universe teach you. Accomplishing is not the deepest thing. Being lost is a promising beginning. Getting lost is good for finding personal practices.
Uncertainty & The Mind of Fear
Allison remarks on Bodhidharma’s Setting the Mind to Rest koan. Reality vs Data: Data can’t be wrong, can it? Recorded during Sunday session with John Tarrant & Friends on February 27, 2022. 4 Minutes.