Sunday Zen

It’s all medicine, really. Everything has Buddha nature, beauty and value. Healing is the big point of view. John Tarrant reads his poem, Healing Is Like Kissing, written for the dedication of an integrative medicine center. From Sunday Zen on March 5, 2023.

What is this? is an ancient question—it holds our whole lives. That wondering is the essence of what it is to be human. If you allow wonder into a hard time, it will change it. The attempt to discover something is where the question or problem will change.

From a Sunday Zen session with John Tarrant (What Is This?): Amaryllis plays a violin intro for Jesse’s rendition of the Four Vows on bongos and vocals. 3-minute clip recorded February 19, 2023.

Gifts are outside of usual commerce and exchange. What is it to receive one? What comes with that? Something is always vast and still, something is always blooming. Includes the story of an olive tree delivery, Denise Levertov’s poem The Gift, and music from PZI musicians. Complete Sunday Zen session.

Something is always vast and still, something is always blooming—the joys and pains of life, of forgetting and remembering. Gifts are outside of usual commerce and exchange, and life is a gift. Just accept it, like the flowers at the foot of the cliff. 17-minute excerpt from Sunday Zen on February 12, 2023.

In trying hard to find home, Michelle realizes that everything is happening on a deeper level, in great silence. Everything is always coming through—our role is to notice without manipulating the situation. 17-minute excerpt from January Sunday Zen, Part 4.

When even your own being can feel like the wrong container, Tess Beasley talks about the other side of finding home, where nowhere is home: the great silence that is before all divisions and differentiation. 15-minute excerpt from January Sunday Zen, Part 4.

Jesse is coming home to Hawaii. 15-minute excerpt from January Sunday Zen, Part 4.

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.

An excerpt from Part 4 of Great Silence at the Beginning on January 29, 2023. Michelle Riddle reads a poem written by John Tarrant for the dedication of a new healing center.

No management of the universe is necessary. Effort does not help. Buddha’s story starts with ‘everything’ achieved, and acknowledges the longing and sorrow that can not be assuaged by getting things. Buddha in awakening sits in the immovable seat at the center—all included—even Mara. Talk from January Sunday Zen, Part 3.

The great silence can show up anywhere. PZI Sunday Zen on January 15, 2023. 2 minutes.

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. We are always stepping into that emptiness. 10-minute excerpt from January 15th Sunday Zen session, Part 2.

John Tarrant tells a long koan story of awakening: The East Mountain Walks on Water. Recorded during Sunday Zen on December 18, 2022: The Transformations in Things. 36 minutes.

Complete Sunday Zen session recorded on December 18, 2022. Music from Jordan McConnell.

Jordan McConnell on guitar, as recorded during Sunday Zen with John Tarrant on December 18th, 2022. 5 Minutes.

Entering into great silence. What is appearing, in this new year? A guided meditation with Tess Beasley from the first Sunday Zen session of the new year. Recorded January 8, 2023. 5 minutes.

We don’t need to turn away from the world and we don’t have to find a place to stand. Our listening and our presence operate below the level at which we usually manage things. So that is the hearing aspect of this koan. Just let hearing have you. This koan can be carried everywhere with you. Complete Sunday Zen session.

The 3rd of John Tarrant’s Sunday series on predicament koans. John talks about the Great Kalpa Fire. (Kalpa is a great age, eon, or universe.) Opening Talk from John’s Sunday Session on September 18, 2022. 19 minutes. (Complete video also available.)

The great cataclysmic fire at the end of the universe is us, is in our hands, because there is no separation. A student asks three teachers the same question: “At the end of the universe, will everything be destroyed?” and gets different answers. It is like asking, “Do you think I am really going to die?” and then getting three opinions. Complete Sunday Talk recorded September 18, 2022.