PZI Teacher Archives
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Allison Atwill -
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Jesse Cardin -
John Tarrant -
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Michelle Riddle -
Tess Beasley
The Dao
Refuge – No Escape Hatch
It is part of being human to have complex, multiple views. We are always communing with what is here. There is no escape hatch out of this life into another one. Where would we go? When we let go of imposing conditions on our life, then there is a profound freedom—refuge allows that. And we find there is a beautiful helplessness to our condition.
Dharma Theme: Great Silence
Have confidence: just go into the silence. The absolute is always there. Inside it all, there’s freedom. There’s no situation where infinity is not there.
Refuge – No Escape Hatch
It is part of being human to have complex, multiple views. We are always communing with what is here. There is no escape hatch out of this life into another one. Where would we go? The Dao takes its own time with our intractable problems and suffering. We already know we want to live the truest, most authentic life we can, before we think refuge.
Everywhere! It’s Everywhere You Look
Zhuangzi said, “We wander in borderless vastness; Great Knowledge enters in, and we don’t know where it will ever end.” Dharma talk given by John Tarrant in a Sunday Zen session on February 26, 2023.
Sickness & Medicine – Deep Listening
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.
Everywhere – It’s Everywhere You Look
“Feeling the time,” is a line from the poet Du Fu—the time is always with us. And it’s always too early to despair. We’re just here. Not wanting anything to be different. Objections are full of knowing! You step out of the way you are perceiving the world, the dream of who you are, you turn the light backward. Recorded February 26, 2023.
Resting in the Great Silence at the Beginning
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. Complete January Sunday Zen session, Part 2.
Harmonizing with the Dao – Nothing Has To Be Wrong
A guided koan meditation from John Tarrant. Allowing the koans to have you when you work with them is the same as opening to your life. There are no steps to the Way. You are already free, and there will be unexpected help on difficult paths. August 7, 2022. 10 minutes.
A Great Current Carries Us
You can feel happy despite your stories. The world and human life are never still—you are on the Way, carried by the great current of the Dao. Allowing koans to have you, when you work with them, is the same as opening to your life—there are no steps. You are already free, and there is unexpected help on difficult paths. Music from Jordan McConnell & Michael Wilding. Complete Sunday session recorded August 7, 2022. 81 minutes.
A Great Current Carries Us
You can feel happy despite your stories. The world and human life are never still—you are on the Way, carried by the great current of the Dao. Allowing koans to have you, when you work with them, is the same as opening to your life—there are no steps. You are already free, and there is unexpected help on difficult paths. Music from Jordan McConnell & Michael Wilding. Complete Sunday session recorded August 7, 2022. 81 minutes.
A Great Current Carries Us
You can feel happy despite your stories. The world and human life are never still—you are on the Way, carried by the great current of the Dao. Allowing koans to have you, when you work with them, is the same as opening to your life—there are no steps. You are already free, and there is unexpected help on difficult paths. Music from Jordan McConnell & Michael Wilding. Complete Sunday session recorded August 7, 2022. 81 minutes.
A Passionate Entry into Life
John Tarrant’s complete Sunday Talk: The Great Way Is Not Difficult; It Just Avoids Picking & Choosing. Recorded June 26, 2022, in the PZI Online Temple.
Rhinoceros Shopping – Jam & Enlightenment
The Rhinoceros has a suggested shopping list for John. Among the items, like hay and jam, is enlightenment. Yes, you really can find all of these things at the market, right in the middle of your busy life. 15-minute excerpt from the Sunday Session: Enlightenment While Shopping for Jam, recorded May 15, 2022.
Fall Sesshin 2021: Ikkyu’s Well & The Miscellaneous Koans
John Tarrant talks about Ikkyu’s “no shadow or form” in his evening dharma talk in Day 2 of Fall Sesshin. Amanda Boughton sings the 4 Boundless vows. As recorded Wednesday, October 20, 2021.
Carl Jung’s Red Book
Jung’s journey is interesting, harrowing, ridiculous, pompous, incomprehensible, amusing, sad, frightening, wise—the whole range of the human is there. Jung’s point of meeting with Buddhism is that, at a time when darkness seemed and was near, he offered the example of a trust in the deepest possibility of transformation, and in the involuntary processes that we contain, and in the depths of what it is to be human.
Unexpected Gifts, Unexpected Help Along the Way
What is the gift of the universe? We receive unexpected help when we are “living down a level,” living things before we construct them. Not constantly consulting your “me,” you open to the invitations and gifts that appear; trusting in the Dao.
Following the Scent of Flowers
There’s a spaciousness inside all situations. We’re walking through them, and underneath our feet there’s space and light, and around us. And we’re walking through that space and light. That, then, is the source of empathy and love. And we accompany each other—and we don’t have to take ourselves or each other so seriously.
Following the Scent of Flowers
Audio: John Tarrant reminds us to enjoy the moment of “now” just as it is. There is empathy and delight even in dark days. The dark feminine endures, there is a spaciousness and transparency in all situations. The Way is open and does not depend on “me.” As recorded, with music from Jordan McConnell and Amaryllis Fletcher, on May 3 2020. PZI Zen Online.
