Sunday Talks

It’s easy to see how we divide the world. The impossible task of koans is to just be here. When you realize that, a 7,000-pound stone will feel light as a feather, and all the world will be united. With musical vows from Jordan McConnell. Recorded May 14. 2023.

Jesse Cardin responds to the intimacy of intensely difficult moments, including frustration and delight with his son, while moving house from the mainland to Hawai’i. When everything is included, even the most difficult things, people, or events, then intimacy is possible and uncertainty is a friend. Complete Sunday Zen session recorded May 7, 2023.

There is a restlessness in the question, “What is Buddha?” If we look beyond what we think we know of as Buddha, the answer can be anything. A Zen master answered this question with, “dried shit stick!” Nothing is excluded; the jewel can be anywhere. Complete Sunday Zen session, with poems from Li Bai and John Tarrant. April 28, 2023.

Nothing like a return from eight days in the hospital—an episode of great pain to make spring even more welcome. John tells his story of being hospitalized, and the legend of the painter of a yellow crane who disappears on the back of his creation. There is nothing to do or dread in pain. The heart opens: there are no barriers in evolving consciousness. Complete Sunday Zen session from April 12, 2023.

John remarks on being freed from the hospital after a brush with Covid and more, and feeling our ties to the birds, symbolizing freedom through their ability to take off at will. Also: The legend of the painter who disappeared on the back of a painted crane, and the Zhuangzi’s fish named Kuhn who becomes a bird. Recorded April 23, 2023

The salt and sauce is the invisible component of practice, of life, the place where we are held when disaster strikes or you find yourself at the Mad Hatter’s tea party. You might not need what you think you do to get by. We can be at peace in the midst of the madness of events—this is our main work in Zen. Complete Sunday Zen session from March 12, 2023. 

The red thread holds all the great forces, the fraught encounters, and intense relationships with people. Why are we so entangled? Will we find a place of ease and peace that severs the complications of the red thread? Is that even a good idea? Complete Sunday Zen session with Tess Beasley and music for meditation from Michael Wilding. Recorded March 26, 2023.

Our greatest tool from practice is a calm center in the middle of turbulence. My journey’s trajectory and outcome is not completely in my hands. It is hard to say whether circumstances are fortunate or not: are we drifting toward the rakshasas, or is it clear sailing? Lessons from a Polynesian legend: Trust your life, locate with love. As recorded March 18, 2023. Music for meditation from Michael Wilding.

It’s all medicine, really. Everything has Buddha nature, beauty and value. Healing is the big point of view. So the point is not to panic when the big moments come. If you can move out of your own point of view it becomes clearer. Complete Sunday Zen session with John Tarrant & Friends, recorded March 5, 2023. Includes comments from PZI teachers and music from Michael Wilding.

In the darkest days of the year, we tend toward year’s end assessments as a kind of emptying of heart and mind before the new year. John Tarrant tells a shaggy-dog transformation tale beginning with the koan, “Where do all the Buddhas come from? East Mountain walks on water.” There is a strange journey, a fox, carp, tiger, dragon’s cave, and a meeting with the Buddha. When we are free in the current matter, it is easier to love others, and our hearts flow out and touch each other.

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.

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.

Michael Wilding plays music for meditation, riffing on the Summertime theme. Recorded during the September 4, 2022 Sunday Session with John Tarrant.

Predicament koans give a nod to the perilous, loony nature of life right now. It is the dangerous situation of being alive—anything can happen. Linji said, “We can’t stay here long,” so relish it! Even in the middle of a disaster you can have a marvelous time. Music for meditation from Jordan McConnell & Michael Wilding. Recorded in the Sunday Temple on September 11, 2022.

A woman raises a goose in a bottle—when it is grown, she wishes to remove it without breaking the bottle, or killing the goose. How do you get the goose out of the bottle? What is the glass between you and the world? This koan offers a chance to taste life. Complete session recorded September 4, 2022.