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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230213T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230213T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20221205T233548Z
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SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: Trickster Stirs Us Up with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nA Visit with Two of Lewis Hyde’s Classics \nJoin us as we review Lewis Hyde’s work in preparation for his February 20th appearance at PZI’s Zen Luminaries evening with Jon Joseph. \nKOAN:\n \nThe storehouse of treasures opens of itself.\nYou may take them and use them any way you wish.\n\n—PZI Miscellaneous Koans (Eihei Dogen’s Fukanzazengi) \nIn his classic work\, The Gift; How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World\, Lewis Hyde asks us to recognize the true value of creative labor—the work of artists\, poets\, and teachers—which is essentially given in a gift exchange. A gift exchange establishes connections and cohesion in society; a modern commodity exchange supports a society of divided strangers. But what is the mysterious source of the “gifted state?” \nHyde: \n“An essential portion of any artist’s labor is not creation so much as invocation. Part of the work cannot be made\, it must be received; and we cannot have this gift except perhaps by supplication\, by courting\, by creating within ourselves that ‘begging bowl’ to which the gift is drawn … \n“A gift exchange is an erotic commerce\, joining self and other\, so the gifted state is an erotic state: in it we are sensible of\, and participate in\, the underlying unity of things. \n“Readers are usually struck by [Walt] Whitman’s bolder\, more abstract assertions of unity—’I am not the poet of goodness only/I do not decline to be the poet of wickedness also’—but the real substance of the state Whitman has entered lies in the range of his attention and affections.” \nI…do not call the tortoise unworthy because she\nis not something else\,\nAnd the jay in the woods never studied the gamut\, yet\nTrills pretty well to me\,\nAnd the look of the bay mare shames stillness out of me. \n—Walt Whitman \nIn Trickster Makes This World; Mischief\, Myth and Art\, it is the trickster—Hermes\, Coyote\, Raven—who is the change master. \nHyde: \n“The point of the trickster is to get trade going\, to get liveliness and flow going…the coyote loves to steal things\, likes bright things\, but there is a playfulness about it. It is about play…This figure comes out of polytheistic traditions and has sacred functions\, about keeping the cosmos alive and lively … \n“The trickster is a boundary-crosser. Every group has its edge\, its sense of in and out\, and trickster is always there\, at the gates of the city and the gates of life\, making sure there is commerce. He also attends the internal boundaries by which groups articulate their social life. We constantly distinguish—right and wrong\, sacred and profane\, clean and dirty\, male and female\, young and old\, living and dead—and in every case trickster will cross the line and confuse the distinction.” \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nJoin us for a koan\, meditation\, dharma talk and conversation.\nRegister to participate. All are welcome. \n—Jon Joseph
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-10/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/trickstersGiftCALENDAR.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230206T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230206T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20221205T233356Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230207T014747Z
UID:10001055-1675706400-1675711800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: What Is This Light? with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nPlease join us as we share experiences from our recent winter retreat. Our way out of darkness is through opening the heart-mind. \nYunmen taught\, “Everybody has a light inside. When you’re looking for it\, you can’t see; it’s dark\, dark\, hidden. What is this light that everybody has?”\nHe himself answered\, “The kitchen pantry\, the temple gate.”\nThen he said\, “It’s better to have nothing than something good.”\n\n—The Blue Cliff Record\, Case 86 \nThis morning we completed our winter sesshin\, and it is said that while in retreat\, every possible emotion will show itself in the course of those six or seven days. That the heart-mind naturally comes forth in all its variations is the very basis of our inquiry work. Last night\, before bed\, I took my dog out and was nearly in tears at the beauty of the world illuminated by a full moon after a few days of much-needed rain. I composed a poem as I walked: \nBlue leash and black dog\,\nFeet splash puddles of full snow moon.\nBroken clouds\, adrift.\n\nYunmen’s koan also allows us to dip into the dark\, the shadow. In giving a talk to the retreat group\, I spoke of my first Zen teacher\, Robert “Senor” King\, who spent his early childhood in Manila\, the Philippines\, during the Japanese occupation in World War II. During this cruel occupation\, hundreds of thousands of Filipinos perished. As a child\, he contracted poliomyelitis\, which disabled his legs for life. Senor King lived most of his life alone. But in an unpublished collection of poems that he left me when he died\, he had written a long poem about a brief affair with a young woman twenty years his junior. It reads\, in part: \nOur loving\nflowing\, freely gentle\,\nmelting\, delighting\nour hearts\, bodies\nremembering! …\n\nIt was such a joy for me to read the poem. It may be difficult to always see the light that is inside us. But it is always there\, and it never fails us. It is the light that shines in the most common of places: in the kitchen pantry and at the entrance gate. And it is something very good. \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nJoin us for a koan\, meditation\, dharma talk and conversation.\nRegister to participate. All are welcome. \n—Jon Joseph
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-9/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/light-sunsetCALENDAR-1.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230130T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230130T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20221205T193644Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230127T215918Z
UID:10001170-1675101600-1675107000@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ZEN LUMINARIES: A Flower Twirled - Jon Joseph Hosts Ruben Habito & David Weinstein on the Zen Legacy of Koun Yamada
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\nA PZI Zen Online Event with Special Guest Ruben Habito Roshi\n& Pacific Zen Roshi David Weinstein\nin conversation with Jon Joseph Roshi\nOn Monday\, three former students of Yamada’s Kamakura zendo share stories of the Japanese teacher who may have had the most significant impact on Zen in the West. Please join us. \n\nOnce in ancient times\, when the World-Honored One was at Mount Grdhrakūta\, he held up a flower\, twirled it\, and showed it to the assemblage. At this\, they all remained silent. Only the venerable Kashyapa broke into a smile. \nThe World-Honored One said\, “I have the eye treasury of the true Dharma\, the marvelous mind of nirvana\, the true form of no-form\, the subtle gate of the Dharma. It does not depend on letters\, being specially transmitted outside all teachings. Now I entrust Mahakashyapa with this.” \n—The Gateless Gate\, Case 6 \nWhat is the legacy of a teacher? A pebble drops into a pond\, and rings ripple outward through the universe. A flower twirls in the hand\, and a knowing is shared beyond words\, one generation to the next\, infinitely. \nKoun Yamada\, who died in 1989\, and his own teacher\, Hakuun Yasutani\, had immeasurable impact on many of the major Zen lineages in the U.S.\, Europe and South Asia. Fully half of those Yamada sanctioned to teach were Catholic and Protestant clerics; he did not see Zen as being strictly Buddhist. \nThe center pole to Yamada’s “big tent” approach to Zen was his clear awakening\, and for decades he stressed that all his students must at least once in their lives experience the joy of “seeing the nature” (kensho). Later\, he increasingly emphasized the importance of integrating that insight into our lives\, through the vow to save all beings of the world. \nRuben Keiun Habito Roshi\, a Jesuit\, studied with Koun Yamada Roshi for eighteen years\, receiving dharma transmission from him in 1988. Ruben left the priesthood in 1989\, and in 1991 founded the Maria Kannon Zen Center in Dallas\, Texas. He teaches at the Perkins School of Theology at the Southern Methodist University\, and has authored a number of works on the confluence of Zen and Christianity\, including Healing Breath: Zen for Christians and Buddhists in a Wounded World. \nDavid Onryu-Koun Weinstein Roshi studied with Yamada in Kamakura for nine years. David completed his koan study with John Tarrant\, and is director of the Rockridge Meditation Community\, in Oakland\, Ca. He has worked as a therapist for many years. \nJon Dokanun Joseph Roshi studied with Yamada in Japan for eight years\, before returning to the U.S. and completing his koan study with John Tarrant. Jon teaches at the Portola Camp Zendo\, in San Mateo. He formerly worked as a journalist and financial analyst. \n\nMore about Ruben Habito \nRuben Habito began Zen practice under Koun Yamada in Kamakura\, Japan in 1971 when he was a Jesuit seminarian in Japan. Yamada was a Zen roshi who taught Christian students\, which was unusual for the time. Habito received dharma transmission from Yamada in 1988\, left the Jesuit order\, and went on to found the Maria Kannon Zen Center in Dallas\, Texas. \nHe is a faculty member at SMU’s Perkins School of Theology where he teaches World Religions and Spirituality\, and directs the Spiritual Formation Program. \nsource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruben_Habito \n\n \nAll are welcome to join in for meditation and conversation. \nRegister to participate—PZI Members always FREE\, or you may donate $10 to help keep these conversations appearing. \nNon-member guests donate $12 or join PZI as a member!
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/zen-luminaries-jon-joseph-hosts-ruben-habito-david-weinstein-on-the-legacy-of-yamada-koun/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/kamakuraSpringCALENDAR.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230123T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230123T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20221219T224105Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230123T171210Z
UID:10001064-1674496800-1674502200@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: The Mountain Cloud Welcome with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\nJoin us for a third (and final) exploration of the legacy of Koun Yamada Roshi\, our ancestral teacher\, in anticipation of our January 30th Zen Luminaries event about Yamada\, with guests Ruben Habito and PZI’s David Weinstein. \n\nMazu said to the assembly\, “If you have a staff\, I will give it to you. If you have no staff\, I will take it away from you.”  —The Gateless Barrier\, Case 44\n\nFor whoever has\, to him more will be given\, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have\, even what he has will be taken away from him.  —Matthew\, 13:12 \nFor the last couple of weeks\, we have been exploring the extraordinary legacy of Koun Yamada\, our ancestral teacher at Pacific Zen and one of the most influential Japanese Zen teachers to Westerners in the last century. Yamada did not see kensho as a strictly Buddhist awakening\, and welcomed the many Christian clerics who came to study with him. \nHa had built a small zendo on his property in Kamakura that comfortably fit about two dozen people\, a number that more than doubled during retreats and sesshin. Many of Yamada’s students came from overseas—the US\, Europe\, and South Asia—to study at SanUn Zendo\, a lay zendo. The greatest in number where Christian clerics who perhaps made up a third of the foreign participants and nearly half of his thirty-six dharma heirs. These were mostly Catholic priests and nuns from many orders: Jesuits\, Benedictines\, Maryknolls\, Marists and others. Some had come to Japan as missionaries and took up meditation while there; others had come to Kamakura just to practice with Yamada. \nWhat they found was a tremendous openness\, acceptance\, and respect for their dedication to the spiritual path. Koun Yamada did not believe Zen was a religion but a practice that could be embraced by those of any faith. He was fond of saying\, “If you are a Buddhist\, Zen will make you a better Buddhist. If a Christian\, Zen will make you a better Christian.” He commented once that Frere Hugo Enomiya-Lasalle\, a Jesuit missionary who came to Japan in the 1930s and was for decades his student\, had “integrated his koan practice into his life far better than I.” \nDespite Yamada’s large Christian following\, he never lectured on the similarities between the teachings of Christ and Zen. His single mention of Christianity was in his commentary in The Gateless Gate\, in reference to the above Mazu koan\, where he quotes one of his students: \n“I was very interested to hear from one of the (Catholic) sisters in the zendo here that Christ uttered words that are almost identical: ‘To him who has\, will more be given; and from him who has not\, even what he has will be taken away.’ I wonder what Christ truly meant when he said that.”\n\nAlways intellectually curious\, Yamada was open to discussion about Christian mysticism. He once asked Ruben Habito\, a Jesuit who had studied with him for eighteen years\, to teach him The Spiritual Exercises\, a famous series of meditations\, contemplations\, and prayers created by Ignatius of Loyola. \nIn his book\, Healing Breath\, Habito recalls a time when some students were chatting over tea in Yamada’s living room after evening sitting. A Christian practitioner mentioned\, \n“‘We Christians believe that the bread offered in the Eucharist is the real body of Christ.’ Whereupon Yamada Roshi\, without the least bit of surprise or doubt replied\, ‘Of course!’” \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\nJoin us for a koan\, meditation\, dharma talk and conversation.\nRegister to participate. All are welcome. \n—Jon Joseph
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-13/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230116T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230116T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20221213T233022Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230113T234016Z
UID:10001181-1673892000-1673897400@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: Nourishing for Life with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nPractice Another 30 Years\nAs much as he stressed kensho\, Yamada urged the long practice of integrating awakening into our lives. \nDeshan one day descended to the dining hall\, bowls in hand. \nXuefeng asked him\, “Where are you going with your bowls in hand\, Old Teacher? The bell has not rung\, and the drum has not sounded.” \nDeshan turned and went back to his room. \n—Gateless Gate Case 13 (excerpt) \nWhen Yamada sanctioned a senior student to teach\, he would give them a calligraphy that read\, “Practice Another Thirty Years.” By this\, he meant that the process of bringing awakening experiences into our lives is endless\, even for those with decades of experience. \nLast week\, as we visited Koun Yamada’s life and teachings\, we read about his awakening experience—“The Joy of My Second Kensho”—and how central that experience was for his teaching and his followers at the SanUn (Three Clouds) Zendo in Kamakura. \nYamada became a strong advocate for students to attain kensho (seeing the nature) at least once in their lives. Such that\, in the years following Yamada’s passing in 1989\, some of his students and successors were critical of SanUn Zendo as a “kensho factory\,” stressing enlightenment over all else. “The purpose of sesshin is to gain enlightenment\,” read one set of calligraphy above the zendo door. And for many years\, if a student had passed the first barrier of Zhaozhou’s Dog (the koan Mu\, or No) during sesshin\, in a closing ceremony they were trotted around the zendo as a gesture of thanks to the Roshi\, and as encouragement to others. \nDespite his focus on enlightenment\, Yamada’s writings always stressed that kensho was just the first gate in one’s lifelong practice: \nThe true practice of zazen is very severe. The present koan is a good example of this. To attain kensho is not so difficult; for some people only one sesshin is sufficient. But kensho is only the entrance to our final goal in doing zazen\, namely the accomplishment of our character. This involves a purification which is most difficult and requires a great deal of time. There is really no end to the practice of Zen. You cannot accomplish a perfect character in forty years. \nOther students saw a shift in Yamada’s guidance as his teaching matured over the years. Ruben Habito\, who will be visiting us as part of the Pacific Zen Luminaries series in late January\, wrote this in the forward of Yamada’s Gateless Gate: \nIt was in this later phase of his teaching career that Yamada Roshi came to address not just matters of practice geared toward attaining enlightenment\, but likewise issues of daily life and contemporary society as the context for embodying this enlightenment. These included themes such as world poverty and social injustice\, global peace\, harmony among religions\, and numerous other social and global concerns.  \nThe engagement with these issues was for Yamada Roshi a natural outflow of his life of Zen. His was a perspective grounded in the wisdom of seeing things clearly and a deep compassion for all beings in the universe enlightened by this wisdom. This was what he sought to convey to his Zen students. In short\, the question of how a Zen practitioner is to live in daily life and relate to events of this world was a recurrent theme in his talks and public comments in this later phase. \nI remember when Yamada\, at age eighty\, gave a talk on the above koan\, Deshan Carries His Bowls. He was about the same age as Deshan was in the story. The koan was clearly one of his favorites. Though the story goes on\, at the point when Deshan takes his bowls and returns to his room\, at one telling of the koan Yamada stopped speaking right then. Sitting on a chair in the zendo\, before a small dais with a light and notes\, he raised both hands and shuffled his feet as if Deshan were returning to his room\, merely saying\, “gata\, gata\, gata\,” the sound of sandals on the floor. \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\nJoin us for a koan\, meditation\, dharma talk and conversation.\nRegister to participate. All are welcome. \n—Jon Joseph
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-12/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/oldmanBowlCALENDAR.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230109T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230109T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20221205T230802Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230109T170411Z
UID:10001054-1673287200-1673292600@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: Remembering Koun Yamada - with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nThis Monday night we’ll chat a bit about the legacy of Koun Yamada\, our ancestral teacher. \nThere is a solitary brightness\, without fixed shape or form.\nIt knows how to listen to the teachings\, it knows how to understand the teachings.\nIt knows how to teach.\nThat solitary brightness is you. \n—Linji\, Pacific Zen Miscellaneous Koans \nOn Monday January 30th\, our Zen Luminaries Series will host Ruben Habito Roshi together with PZI’s David Weinstein. Ruben leads the Maria Kannon Zen Center in Dallas\, and is the most senior disciple of our ancestral teacher Koun Yamada\, outside of Japan. \nOur conversation will center on the legacy of Koun Yamada. Yamada\, and his own teacher\, Hakuun Yasutani\, had a tremendous impact on major Zen Centers in the U.S. and Europe\, including Rochester (Kapleau)\, Honolulu (Aitken)\, Los Angeles (Maezumi)\, and Germany (Jaeger)\, among many others\, including Pacific Zen. \nI hope to also touch upon Ruben’s own Zen legacy. A Jesuit priest\, he left his native Philippines to serve in Japan as a Catholic missionary\, where he also took up Zen practice at the SanUn\, or Three Clouds Zendo while studying Japanese in Kamakura.(Three Clouds Zendo = Great Cloud Harada\, White Cloud Yasutani\, and Cultivating Cloud Yamada) He succeeded Yamada the year before Yamada died in 1988. He then left the Jesuit ministry and moved to Dallas to take a professorship at Southern Methodist University. \nIn preparing for our talk\, I pulled In Memoriam: Yamada Koun Roshi from my bookshelf\, a booklet of about thirty notes of remembrance from his non-Japanese disciples. It also includes the chapter\, “The Great Joy of My Second Kensho.” An account of this kensho was first published in The Three Pillars of Zen\, in a chapter entitled\, “Mr. Y.K.\, a Japanese Executive\, Age 47.” \nFor those of us who practiced in the Three Clouds line\, Yamada’s enlightenment experience was central to our motivation to practice and for our respect towards Yamada as a teacher. It is not that he wore his experience on his yukata sleeve. In all his lectures\, I never once heard him mention it. But his bearing and great confidence themselves seemed proof. On the other hand\, I doubt there was a single student of his who had not read his enlightenment story over and over again in The Three Pillars.  \nHere it is\, from In Memorium: \nIn the middle of the night\, I suddenly woke up. At first\, I was not sure of myself. Then suddenly (a quote from Dogen’s Shobogenzo): \nI have clearly realized\,\nMind is nothing but the mountains\, the rivers\, and the great earth\,\nNothing but the sun\, the moon\, and the stars. \nThe phrase ran through my mind. Repeated it once\, then—something like an electric shock ran through my body\, and heaven and earth collapsed. Immediately\, billows of great joy surged up. Like enormous tidal waves\, storms of joy swelled up and exploded over and over again. I could only laugh loudly\, with my mouth wide open\, as wildly as possible. Endless explosions of laughter: \nHa\, ha\, ha\, ha\, ha\, ha!\nHa\, ha\, ha\, ha\, ha\, ha! \n“Noooo philosophy at all! Noooo philosophy at all!” Thus I cried out a couple of times. \nHa\, ha\, ha\, ha\, ha\, ha!\nHa\, ha\, ha\, ha\, ha\, ha! \nThe empty sky\, split asunder and with its huge mouth open\, was laughing with its whole belly: Ha\, ha\, ha\, ha\, ha\, ha! Ha\, ha\, ha\, ha\, ha\, ha!” Later (concerned for me)\, my family told me it was not like human laughter… \nYamada was a social elite in Japan: descended from a samurai family\, he graduated from top schools\, owned and ran a small hospital in Tokyo. But he treated his students—retired admirals\, Catholic nuns\, poor English teachers—with an equal respect in the zendo. Deeply comfortable in his own skin\, Yamada wanted for his students what he himself had experienced: just a bit of solitary brightness and joy. \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nJoin us for a koan\, meditation\, dharma talk and conversation.\nRegister to participate. All are welcome. \n—Jon Joseph
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-8/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/yamada-kounCALENDAR.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230102T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230102T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20221205T224945Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221230T210054Z
UID:10001172-1672682400-1672687800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: The Source of Song with Jon Joseph and Jordan McConnell
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nYandou shouted and said\, “Haven’t you heard it said that what comes in through the front gate is not the family jewels?” \nXuefeng said\, “Then what should I do?” \nYandou said\, “In the future\, allow the great teaching to flow point by point from your own breast\, to come out and cover heaven and earth.” \nAt these words\, Xuefeng was greatly awakened\, exclaiming over and over\, “Today on Tortoise Mountain I have achieved the Way!” \n—From the commentary on Blue Cliff Record Case 22 \nJordan sees the creative process of developing a song—finding words and melody—as very much like working with a koan. Where do songs come from? “We can’t know the answer to that\,” says Jordan\, “but we know there is music inside each of us.” Somehow\, we allow it to flow from our own breast and cover heaven and earth. Koans are like that. \nJoin us on Monday while we explore the song that lives in our own hearts. Together\, we will put that song to words and music. \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nJoin us  for koan meditation\, dharma talk\, music\, and conversation. All are welcome.\nI hope to see you then. \n—Jon Joseph
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/on-break-monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-3/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/jordanCALENDAR.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221226T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221226T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20221205T224513Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221223T224807Z
UID:10001171-1672077600-1672083000@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ON BREAK: Monday Zen with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:No Monday Zen today. Jon Joseph is on a winter break next week. \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCome join us January 2nd with Jordan McConnell hosting on Monday night. \n—Jon Joseph
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-6/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/wooden-bucketCALENDAR500x350.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221219T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221219T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20221115T192922Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221217T014934Z
UID:10001168-1671472800-1671478200@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: Just Me & the Ancients with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nJoin us this Monday night to talk about the wisdom of the ancients and review David Hinton’s visit from last Monday. \nThose who have passed the barrier can not only meet Zhaozhou face to face\, but also walk hand in hand with the whole descending line of ancients. Eyebrows entangled with theirs\, you will see with the same eyes and hear with the same ears. Wouldn’t it be a wonderful joy?\n\n—Gateless Gate\, Case 1\, Wumen’s commentary \nWhen I recently asked author and translator David Hinton where he formally practiced meditation\, he responded: “It’s just me and the ancients.” I often feel that way. \nWe held a small retreat at a center in the Point Reyes National Seashore several weeks ago. Perched on the sandstone cliffs above the Pacific\, Commonweal’s cornerstone project\, since its founding\, has been the Cancer Help Program: a week-long residential retreat for those with cancer and their partners. I could feel the ancients’ abiding presence there on the edge of the vast ocean. \nGoing on a walk above the seashore\, several of us visited what is known as the “Chapel\,” a shed-like building on the south side of the property. Opposite the door and on the floor\, someone had placed a fresh bouquet of irises. To the left was a pile of small stones with names or short messages painted on them\, apparently in memoriam. One of the people visiting the Chapel said of Commonweal\, “This is the place where people come to die.” \nThe next morning\, people were shuffling in and out the front door just before pre-dawn meditation in the main house. At at the edge of my vision was one person who remained standing just inside the door\, as if waiting or in meditation. When the half hour passed\, I glanced up at the person and saw a tall coat rack\, draped with garments. An ancient had joined us for a time. \nTwenty-five years ago\, I checked out Commonweal to learn about their cancer program. My father Buck\, at 79\, had just been diagnosed with stage-four non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. I felt a need to become one of his caregivers\, and called the director\, Michael Lerner\, whose own father had contracted non-Hodgkin’s\, but who eventually died of other causes. \nAt the time\, a competitor company was recruiting me to take a big new job; I told them I might have to turn down the offer to care of my father. I suggested to Buck that we go to Commonweal together for a week-long retreat\, and his gruff response was: ”I have lived a long time\, and want to live longer.” Indeed\, that difficult bastard did live longer\, finally passing at age 90 of congestive heart failure. \nNow I am an ancient. It can seem daunting to be in the front row\, to be the inheritor of a vast and powerful wisdom tradition; not just the wisdom of Zen\, but the wisdom of all humanity. But that is really none of my business. It is none of our business. It is the business of the universe. Our job is to take the hands of the ancients\, and realize that when we do\, we mysteriously find that our eyebrows are intertwined with theirs\, that we see with the same eyes\, and hear with the same ears. How wonderful. How wonderful. \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nJoin us for a koan\, meditation\, dharma talk and conversation.\nRegister to participate. All are welcome. \n—Jon Joseph
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-7/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ancients-MasterMeditatesCALENDAR.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221212T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221212T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20220622T232028Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221212T182456Z
UID:10001088-1670868000-1670873400@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ZEN LUMINARIES: Wild Mind\, Wild Earth - The Sixth Extinction As Our Teacher: Jon Joseph in Conversation with Poet & Translator David Hinton
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\n\nJoin us Monday night visit with translator and essayist David Hinton on our relationship with the Earth in this time of ecological crisis. \nEgrets \nRobes of snow\, crests of snow\, and beaks of azure jade\,\nthey fish in shadowy streams. Then startling away into\nflight\, they leave emerald mountains for lit distances.\nPear blossoms\, a tree-full\, tumble in the evening wind. \n—Tu Mu\, 9th century Chinese poet (trans. David Hinton) \n“We love this world\, this living planet: We feel joy when life thrives\, grief when it suffers and dies. It is a mystery. \n“We are much more than what we think we are\, and that is liberation of astounding proportions. Even simple perception: A gaze into star-strewn night skies\, what is that gaze but the very Cosmos looking out at itself? What is thinking but the Cosmos contemplating itself? And our inexplicable love for this world\, our delight and grief—what is that but the Cosmos loving itself\, delighting in itself\, grieving for itself? \n“We are wild through and through: wild mind\, wild earth\, wild Cosmos. This is how Paleolithic and ancient Chinese people understood it. And it seems clear enough\, even self-evident\, once we step outside the cultural assumptions we have inherited. \n“Perhaps the Great Vanishing is itself our next teacher. With the suffering and death of mass extinction already unimaginably vast\, perhaps it is these grievous forces that will complete a similar transformation here—returning wild mind to wild earth. \n“We are unborn through and through\, wild mind wholly integral to the generative existence-tissue of wild earth—and accepting this engenders a new understanding of our unfolding eco-catastrophe.” \n—David Hinton\, from his book\, Wild Mind\, Wild Earth \nThe ten thousand things are all there in me. \nAnd there is no joy greater than looking within and finding myself faithful to them. \n—Mencius\, 3rd century BCE\, (trans. David Hinton) \n\nDavid Hinton’s work explores how the wisdom\, poetry and practice of Chinese Buddhism invite us to recognize the kinship of mind and nature—a relationship that must be re-animated if we are to address the intersecting ecological crises of our time. \nHow Chan/Zen and contemporary environmental thought flow together\, at this critical juncture in human history\, is at the heart of Hinton’s new book\, Wild Mind\, Wild Earth: Our Place in the Sixth Extinction. \nHinton has published many books of original poetry\, nonfiction\, and translations of ancient Chinese poetry and philosophy. All are informed by his abiding interest in deep ecological thinking\, and in exploring the weave of consciousness and landscape. Hinton’s work has earned wide acclaim and many awards. \nLearn more at davidhinton.net. \n\n\nJon Joseph Roshi\nJoin us on Monday for a lively conversation about Chan\, Zen\, poetry\, and more with special guest David Hinton. All are welcome. Register to participate. \n—Jon Joseph
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/zen-luminaries-jon-joseph-in-conversation-with-poet-chan-poetry-translator-david-hinton-2/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/DavidHinton_CALENDAR_500x375.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221205T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221205T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20221115T192658Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221202T210343Z
UID:10001167-1670263200-1670268600@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: A Visit From Isis with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nJoin us Monday night to talk about moving across the frontier between dreaming to waking \nDaowu and Jianyuan went to a house to offer condolences. Jianyuan struck the coffin with his hand and asked\, “Alive or dead?”\nDaowu said\, “I’m not saying alive\, I’m not saying dead.”\nJianyuan asked\, “Why won’t you say?”\nDaowu said\, “I’m not saying! I’m not saying!” \nOn the way home\, Jianyuan stopped in the middle of the road and demanded\, “Tell me right now\, Teacher. If you don’t say\, I’m going to hit you and leave.”\nDaowu said\, “You can hit me\, but even if you do\, I still won’t say.”\nJianyuan hit him. \n—Blue Cliff Record Case 55 \nIt’s only been a few years since I began following my dreams as part of my meditation practice. I naturally dream a lot. I love to sleep\, I love to dream. And in inviting my dream world into my practice world\, I’ve been looking to them less for self-knowledge than for affirmation of the deep undercurrents of my psyche\, which flows (for all of us) within the vast river we call the Way. \nA few weeks ago I joined a small group of zendo leaders\, where we opened the meeting by going around the room sharing experiences. One person\, across the room from me\, shared a dream-story about seeing animal tracks in the mud. \nThat night she appeared in my dream\, selling funeral packages. Two were on offer: One was plain and simple\, a casket with no adornment. The other was complex\, difficult\, and beautiful. The two packages were as different as common linen is to gold-threaded brocade. As part of the expensive package\, the woman held up a finely crafted box made of dark-grained wood\, with a deep lacquer finish and tight-fitting lid. \nI shared the dream with a group of friends\, and their questions helped me unpack it some. What was in the box? Without hesitation\, I answered: “My guts\, my internal organs.” My heart\, intestines\, liver. Strangely\, I said\, “But that is normal in preparing a body for burial.” “No\,” they pointed out\, “it is not normal in these times.” \nHowever\, ritual removal of human organs after death was part of the mummification process commonly used in ancient Egypt\, particularly for pharaohs. \nCan you speak from the woman’s point of view? What did the box have to say? It was a fascinating inquiry\, but afterward\, I didn’t really feel I had learned anything new about my life. \nLying in bed that night\, I went over the dream again and again in my mind. Half asleep\, the dream continued to evolve\, and I could now see the woman clothed in ancient Egyptian dress. My thought was\, “Oh\, this is my Egyptian wife\,” and then she morphed into what I took to be an Egyptian goddess. The name that came to me was “Isis.” \nSeveral days previously\, I had seen a reference to the cult of Isis\, existing around the time of Jesus\, that may have influenced early Christianity. Not knowing if Isis was a man or woman\, I looked her up in Wikipedia. Along with her brother and husband\, Osiris\, Isis was the most widely worshiped Egyptian god in the first millennium BC. She was believed to guide and heal the dead in the afterlife\, just as she had revived her slain husband\, Osiris. She also brought healing spells to help ordinary people. Isis was the goddess of pharaohs\, and her revival of Osiris in the afterworld was considered the motivating source for Egyptian mummification. \nTapping through dreams into the cosmos of the Egyptian afterlife feels brocade-like to me: at once distant and ancient\, richly intimate and immediate. Moving across the frontier\, from the country of dreams to waking and back again\, I don’t think we have to choose either “alive” or “dead.” That is asking too much. \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nJoin us for a koan\, meditation\, dharma talk and conversation.\nRegister to participate. All are welcome. \n—Jon Joseph
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-4/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/visitFromIsisCALENDAR.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221128T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221128T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20220822T181646Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221128T220454Z
UID:10001095-1669658400-1669663800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ZEN LUMINARIES: Silent Illumination - Jon Joseph in Conversation with Chan Teacher Master GuoGu
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nJoin us this Monday night for conversation with Master Guo Gu\, Chan (Zen) scholar\, leader of the Tallahassee Chan Center\, and founder of the Dharma Relief Project. Guo Gu\, also known as Jimmy Yu\, is one of the most fascinating Zen Buddhist teachers active today\, having himself plunged deeply into two cultures: ancient Chan and contemporary America. \nOn Hongzhi’s silent illumination: \nHongzhi Zhenguje\, a 12th century poet and meditation master\, is one of the leading figures in the history of Chan (Zen)\, having revived the Caodong (Soto) school following its demise in Song China. Some Western scholars link him to a meditation technique know as “silent illumination\,” a cool\, if not cold\, reductionist form of sitting: no thoughts\, feelings\, or sensations are permitted. \nMaster Guo\, a teacher in both the Caodong and Linji (Rinzai) Zen schools\, believes Hongzhi is deeply misunderstood by modern scholars. “Silent illumination” was not a method of meditation at all\, argues Guo Gu in his book\, Silent Illumination: A Chan Buddhist Path to Natural Awakening (2020)\, but is Buddha nature itself: \nHongzhi’s masterful command of the Chinese language\, and his fondness for poetry in particular\, is evident in the imagery he used to describe silent illumination\, whose qualities are freedom\, openness and clarity. In other words\, for him\, silent illumination was awakening. He never presented it as a ‘method’ or ‘technique’ for meditation practice. \n—excerpt from Silent Illumination\n\nFar from advocating a retreat from the world\, Guo Gu believes Hongzhi’s rich prose urges us to plunge deeper into life: \nMultitasking amid chaos\, manifesting in places of encounter—none of these are realms outside yourself. Heaven and earth share the same root; the myriad forms are of a single body. Adapting to changes and transforming freely without being manipulated by those who curry favor—this is to actualize great freedom. Traveling like the wind; illuminating like the moon; encountering things without obstructions. . . entering the currents to be one with the dusty world\, you transcend everything and shine in brilliance. \n—Hongzhi \n\nJimmy Yu (born 1968)\, also known as Guo Gu (果谷)\, is a Chan teacher and a scholar of Buddhism. At fourteen\, Guo Gu took up study in Taiwan with Chan Master Shen Yen. He then moved to the US\, where he was the bassist for American 1980s hardcore bands Death Before Dishonor and Judge. After his youthful days in hardcore\, he returned to Buddhism and ordained as a monk under Chan Master Sheng Yen (193–2009)\, and for many years served as Shen Yen’s assistant\, translator\, and finally\, successor. \nIn 2000\, he left monasticism to pursue academia. He received an MA degree in Chinese Buddhist studies from University of Kansas in 2002 and a PhD from Princeton University’s Department of Religion in 2008. \nGuo Gu is currently an Associate Professor of Religion at Florida State University\, teaching courses in East Asian religious traditions\, especially Chinese Buddhism and late imperial Chinese cultural history. His research interests include the cultural history of the body\, Buddhist monasticism\, Chan/Zen Buddhism\, and popular religions within the broader context of fifteenth- to seventeenth-centuries China. \nIn recent years\, he founded of the Dharma Relief Project\, which raised over $100\,000 to buy surgical masks in the early days of the Covid pandemic. \nLearn more about him at https://guogulaoshi.org \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nJoin us on Monday for a lively conversation about Honghzhi\, Chan/Zen\, and more with special guest Master GuoGu. All are welcome. Register to participate. \n—Jon Joseph
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/zen-luminaries-jon-joseph-in-conversation-with-chan-teacher-master-guogu/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Guo-Gu1-corrected.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221121T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221121T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20221014T183051Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221107T235544Z
UID:10001150-1669053600-1669059000@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ON BREAK: Monday Zen with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:No Monday Zen today. Jon Joseph returns to his regular Mondays on December 5th. \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nJoin us next Monday the 28th when Jon hosts a Luminaries conversation with Master Guo Gu. 
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-3/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/wooden-bucketCALENDAR500x350.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221114T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221114T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20221014T182857Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221114T193351Z
UID:10001149-1668448800-1668454200@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: A Flute with No Holes with Jon Joseph & Special Guest Michael Wilding
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nPlay the iron flute with no holes. \n—Pacific Zen Miscellaneous Koans Case 55 \nMichael worked for some years as a professional musician\, touring clubs in London\, Los Angeles\, and all points in-between. For the last six years\, Michael’s gift of his gorgeous saxophone and flute have been a mainstay to our retreats and meditations. \n“When I first played at retreat five years ago\, it was a kind of experiment for me. People were in the zendo meditating\, and I felt as if I were meditating with them. One note followed another. I would find a sequence of notes. It was very much like I was watching them arise. It was a lovely experience. \n“How do I play a flute with no holes? It is an impossible question that doesn’t need to be answered… \n“In the beginning\, I thought I needed to know what I wanted to achieve. Then\, with Zen practice\, I gave up the idea of knowing where I wanted to go. It became a big adventure. Exciting. Uncharted territory. Each step along the way was delightful because I didn’t know what I was going to find there. \n“If in a dream\, I’m going somewhere\, I may not know how to get there. But it’s not a problem. Not knowing the route is not a problem. We’re on a road to not knowing where.” \n—Michael Wilding \nJoin us Monday night as we talk with and listen to Michael Wilding\, who plays flute and saxophone with no holes. \nMONDAY ZEN UPDATE: Jon Joseph is away November 21st\, and returns on the 28th for a Luminaries Series conversation with Master Guo Gu. \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nJoin us for a koan\, meditation\, dharma talk\, & conversation. All are welcome. Register to participate. \n—Jon Joseph
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-2/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/michaelWilding-HeadshotBW-cropped.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221107T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221107T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20221014T182353Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221104T231346Z
UID:10001148-1667844000-1667849400@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: Dances with Diablo with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nHow do we move the unmovable? How do we make a mountain take three steps\, or allow it to dance? “Mountains are mountains\,” says Yunmen. \nMake the mountain dance. Make Mount Diablo take three steps. \n—Pacific Zen Miscellaneous Koans \nThree years after California became a state\, in 1851\, the US government sent surveyors to establish an “initial point” in Contra Costa County atop Mount Diablo. The east-west baseline and north-south meridian running through that initial point remains the reference point for all property corners in most of northern California and all of Nevada. \nA year after the first survey was made\, a second party put in a survey marker 3-1/2 feet to the southwest. By mistake\, the true initial point was forgotten\, until my brother-in-law John pulled some historical records and recovered it nearly a century-and-a-half later. He made surveyors move the mountain by a step. \nFrom a Zen point of view\, the mountain\, of course\, never moved. It was always in the right place. “Mountains\, rivers and the great earth\, where are they to be found?” asks Yunmen. Closer than we think\, I suspect. \nWhen I first worked on it\, the koan was “Make Mount Fuji take three steps.” At about that time\, I had climbed Fuji on a dark summer night with hundreds of other pilgrims. We sat on the edge of its barren cinder-cone\, watching the sun come up in the East. There is even a word for it in Japanese: goraiko (御来光)\, the “honorable coming of the light.” \nWhen the koan moved to Hawaii\, it became: “Make Haleakala (on Maui) take three steps.” And then to Sonoma-Marin: “Make Mount Tamalpais take three steps.” \nI grew up about six crow-flying miles from Mount Diablo (3\,849 feet\,) and like its initial point\, there was nothing in our local landscape that was not somehow reflected by the mountain. Riding bikes down Warren Road\, we felt we were riding right into it. If it was cold out and rained\, there might be a slight dusting of snow on the peak—a most glorious sight. \nWhen I first began sitting Zen with high school friends\, we rode in Dana’s old Dodge pickup truck\, double-clutching our way up the steep hill in the early morning dark to gather at our Spanish teacher’s house. Dawn Wind Zendo\, said the wooden sign outside his front door. The small house sat atop a high knoll overlooking the Diablo Valley and the vast mountain to the east. Even now\, I can hear the wind coming off the mountain\, rattling the shutters\, katta\, katta\, katta. \nThe birds have all vanished into deep\nskies. The last cloud drifts away\, aimless.\nInexhaustible\, the mountain and I\ngaze at each other\, it alone remaining. \nThe above is a favorite Li Po poem\, Jing Ting Mountain\, Sitting Alone (trans. David Hinton.) But to explain how it perfectly captures the intimacy my young friends and I felt with Mount Diablo in the goraiko\, the coming of the light\, at the Dawn Wind Zendo\, is to say too much. Explanation makes the mountain smaller; it makes us smaller. It is better to say nothing and just allow the mountain to dance. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\nJoin us for a koan\, meditation\, dharma talk\, & conversation.\nAll are welcome. Register to participate. \nThis Monday night we sit and dance with mountains.
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/diablo-JJ-CALENDAR.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221031T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221031T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20220830T184854Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221029T054304Z
UID:10001107-1667239200-1667244600@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: Finding Ghosts with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nJon Joseph Roshi\nLiving In The Ghost Cave \nJoin us Monday night as we share our stories from living in the ghost cave. \nWater poured on cannot wet\,\nWind blowing cannot enter.\nThe tiger prowls\, the dragon walks;\nGhosts howl\, spirits wail.\nHis head is three feet long—I wonder who it is?\nStanding on one foot\, he answers back without speaking.\n~ The Blue Cliff Record\, Case 59\, Xuedou’s appreciatory verse \nGhosts howl and spirits wail. The ghost I met some years ago was completely silent. We were traveling in Switzerland\, and it was getting later in the day as we approached Lake Lucerne\, one of the many large alpine lakes scattered across the Alps. We inquired at a hotel\, and found they had nothing in the main hotel\, but had a room available in an old mansion\, atop a hill a couple hundred meters detached. We took a room on the second floor\, and as it turned out\, were the only guests that night in the six-room building. Just before dark\, a huge thunderstorm\, with memorably violent lightning\, wind\, and rain swept over the lake. After the storm passed\, there was a deep calm and quiet in the mountains. \nWe went to bed\, and sometime after midnight I woke\, glanced up at the head of our bed\, and saw what looked like the apparition of an Eskimo man standing atop the headboard. I took my right arm\, back-handed the figure\, and shouted\, “Hey\, get out of here!” My wife startled awake\, and I told her about what I had seen. We went back to sleep. The next morning\, I asked the desk clerk if there were ever reports of spirits in the mansion\, and he said\, “Yes\, I myself once saw the ghost of a man on the stairway outside your bedroom.” \nUnlike in The Gateless Gate\, there are dozens of references to ghosts in The Blue Cliff Record. A favorite phrase for Yuanwu\, who added commentary to Xuedou’s appreciatory verse on the hundred koans\, was: “Don’t live in a ghost cave.” At times\, Yuanwu seems to warn against getting stuck in the quietude of samadhi\, as when Elder Ting stood motionless between Linji’s slap and Ting’s own bow\, in case thirty-two. In other places\, Yuanwu points to our human-ghost nature\, when we can’t seem to shake patterns of hurtful behavior. In case one\, Bodhidharma walks out on Emperor Wu following a short exchange (“What is the first principal of the holy teaching?” asks Wu. “Vast emptiness\, nothing holy\,” replies Bodhidharma. “Who is this standing before me?” again Wu asks. “I don’t know”\, responds his guest. Later\, Wu was remorseful their visit was so short). Xuedou\, in his appreciatory verse to the koan writes\, “Wu yearns after Bodhidharma’s return in vain for a thousand and ten thousand ages/Give up the yearning!” Yuanwu’s comment: “What is Wu saying? He is living in a ghost cave!” \nWe have a koan in Pacific Zen’s Miscellaneous collection: “Save a ghost.” It is a simple one. The point of the koan\, for me\, is that we not separate ourselves from the ghost we are hoping to save. We\, not someone else\, are the ones who howl and wail as we make a living in ghost caves. Sometimes we bother clueless tourists. More often we yearn\, over and over again\, for life circumstances to be different. When we embody the ghost\, we somehow come to understand that there is nothing wrong with our own ghost-like qualities. And the cave becomes a less scary place. \nSnow \nLittle soul\,\nfor you too\ndeath is coming. \nWas there something\nyou thought\nyou needed to do? \nSnow\ndoes not walk into a room\nand wonder\nwhy. \n~ Jane HIrshfield\, Ledger \n  \nJoin us for a koan\, meditation\, dharma talk\, & conversation. All are welcome. Register to participate. \n—Jon Joseph
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-5/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/ghostUnderbedCALENDAR.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221024T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221024T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20220622T232048Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221004T182802Z
UID:10001089-1666634400-1666639800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ZEN LUMINARIES: Jon Joseph in Conversation with Poet & Essayist Jane Hirshfield
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nJane Hirshfield is an American poet\, essayist\, and translator. Hirshfield is also a Buddhist who received precepts at San Francisco Zen Center in 1979. Hirshfield’s poetry reflects immersion in a range of poetic traditions. Polish\, Scandinavian\, and Eastern European poets have been particularly important to her\, along with the poetry of Japan and China. \nIn many interviews\, Hirshfield expresses frustration at being labeled a Buddhist poet: “I always feel a slight dismay if I’m called a ‘Zen’ poet. I am not. I am a human poet\, that’s all.” \nAmerican poet Lisa Russ Spaar has said of Hirshfield: \nIt is arguable that the riddle\, the existential joke of being\, of meaning\, of Dickinson’s ‘prank of the Heart at play on the Heart\,’ is as powerful a source as song for the lyric poem. Central to Hirshfield’s vision is a kind of holy delight that is at the heart of riddles and koans. \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\nJoin us on October 24th for a lively conversation about poetry and more with special guest Jane Hirshfield. All are welcome. Register to participate. \n—Jon Joseph
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/zen-luminaries-jon-joseph-in-conversation-with-poet-essayist-jane-hirshfield/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/JaneHirshfield_CALENDAR500x333.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221017T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221017T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20220830T184707Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221015T005158Z
UID:10001106-1666029600-1666035000@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: The Did-Not-Go Buddha with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nThis Monday night\, let’s talk about the beauty of being non-attained. \nA monk once asked the priest\, “The Buddha of Unsurpassed Wisdom sat on the Bodhi seat for ten kalpas\, but did not attain Buddhahood. Why was that?”\n“An excellent question\,” the priest replied.\n“Yes\, but why did he not attain Buddhahood?”\n“Because he was a non-attained Buddha\,” the priest responded. \n—The Gateless Gate\, Case 9 \nPacific Zen teachers met about a month ago\, and the subject chosen was dokusan\, or one-on-one work with a teacher. In Japanese\, doku 独 means “individually” or “alone\,” and san 参 means “to go\,” in honorific language. In the Rinzai (Linji) tradition\, sanzen 参禅 means “going Zen\,” implying going to see the teacher for koan work. We often call dokusan “interviews” for convenience\, but one translation we have used in the past\, and which I like\, is “work in the room.” \nAt our teacher’s meeting\, we took turns reflecting on our experiences with dokusan both as teachers and as students. Several recalled their very first encounters with their teachers\, from which they remembered a simple exchange\, or the feeling afterward that they had found their true\, life-long teacher. “Dokusan is a perennial and deep question for me\,” said one participant. “Direct encounter with a teacher is at the center of touching the heart-mind in sesshin.” \nThe memory coming up for me was not of a dokusan I had gone to\, but one I did not go to. I spoke about this story at sesshin about five years ago\, but in the intervening time\, I must say that the way I view this non-encounter has evolved. \nI was a member of the SanUn Zendo in Kamakura\, where I studied with Yamada Koun. I sat daily in the zendo\, attending bi-weekly zenkai—all-day meditation meetings—and about five long and short sesshin a year. I had not yet passed through Wumen’s Barrier Set Up by the Ancient Teachers\, Zhaozhou’s Dog\, or the koan Mu—or No\, as we now work with it. \nSoon after a retreat\, I was scheduled to return to the U.S. to attend graduate school\, and was uncertain whether I could come back to Japan. If I wanted to pass the koan No before returning\, time was short. \n“Sit as much as you can\,” advised Yamada\, and I did. In the mornings that summer\, I rode my bicycle to extra sittings with the Benedictine priest Willigis Jager\, who was working closely with Yamada. I also went up to the mountains outside Tokyo to a kind of Zen temple called Shimeikutsu\, built by the Jesuit Enomiya LaSalle\, another Yamada student\, where I would spend some days meditating by myself. \nOur week-long summer sesshin rolled around\, and I jumped into it with great passion. The daily schedule called for about eight hours of meditation\, a sutra service\, work practice\, teacher talks and dokusan. Though against the rules\, I also got up at night when everyone was asleep to do extra sitting at my place in the zendo. The sesshin went quickly and the last day arrived. I still had not passed the koan No. By about noon\, all of the fifty participants had completed their final meetings with Yamada\, and we were all silently sitting in the small zendo. The head of practice yelled out: “If for any reason whatsoever\, anyone wishes to go see the Roshi one last time\, you may go now!” \nI so wanted to go to dokusan. But I could not move off my cushion. I was frozen. Everyone would know it was me who went: What would they think? What if I failed? I had nothing to bring the Roshi. What would he say? Would he be angry? Was my enlightenment waiting for me in that room\, and was I afraid of it? A couple of seconds went by. Then another few\, and a minute. Finally\, the bell rang for the end of the period\, and the sesshin was over. The opportunity had passed. \nAfter the retreat\, I was absolutely devastated. I had taken it for granted that by the end of summer\, with all my extra work\, I would pass the koan No. Instead\, a shocking nothing met me. Everyone gathered around in the zendo to share tea and snacks\, but I went off for a time\, tearfully trying (as a non-smoker) to drag on a cigarette\, which I held in my shaking hands. I was so thoroughly disappointed. Maybe I did not have what it takes to pass the koan No. Perhaps I never would pass. \nFive years ago\, when I last spoke about this experience\, I still saw “not-going” that day as a bit of a lost opportunity. Even now\, I can play out heroic fantasies about what I would have said and done in that dokusan. But my view has changed about the “failure\,” as I saw it at the time. \nHow wonderful it is to “not-go!” Though I may not have appreciated it at the time\, the not-going was whole and perfect in itself. As is all of the “not-going” in our lives. “Coming or going we are never astray\,” says Hakuin Zenji. There is not one thing out of place\, even our perceived lack of enlightenment. After all\, from the very beginning we were unattained Buddhas. \nSo what was waiting for me in that room? Perhaps a kindly but exhausted 80-year old man\, looking forward to some rest after sesshin. I think he did attain that. \nIn love and memory of William Ordinary-Music Zoller\, a long-time zendo friend and trumpet player who passed last Monday. May he have joy on the roads. \nAnd join us in two weeks: Poet Jane Hirshfield is visiting on Monday\, October 24. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nJoin us for a koan\, meditation\, dharma talk\, & conversation. All are welcome. Register to participate. \n—Jon Joseph
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-the-did-not-go-buddha-with-jon-joseph/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/buddha-kamakura-japanCALENDAR.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221010T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221010T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20220830T184344Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221010T180700Z
UID:10001105-1665424800-1665430200@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: Shall We Dance? with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\nThis Monday night we will share experiences from Fall sesshin and share in this dance of life. All are welcome whether or not you attended sesshin.  \nThe teacher said\, \n“If you are awakened on hearing it the first time\, you can teach buddhas and ancestors. \n”If you are awakened on hearing it the second time\, you can teach humans and gods.\n”If you are awakened on hearing it the third time\, you won’t even be able to save yourself.”\nA student asked\, “When were you awakened\, teacher?”\nThe teacher said\, “The moon sets at midnight; I walk alone through the marketplace.” \n—Book of Serenity\, Shoushan’s Three Phrases\, Case 76 \nIt is not often that a story comes to me that demands to be told. Going into sesshin recently\, I was asked to give a talk\, and I developed a story\, coupled with a koan. But the another story kept coming up\, again and again\, and it was mysteriously linked to another koan\, which at the time I could not see how it fit. So I threw out the first story\, and went with the one below\, even though it was only partly formed. \nAbout a month ago\, my high school class held its 50th reunion. It was at a small yacht club on an industrial slough in Alameda. The club needed a fresh coat of paint\, the appetizers of meatballs and cheese squares stuck with toothpicks ran out quickly\, though the dry chicken and rock-hard salmon\, with a side of over-boiled mixed veggies\, moved slowly. Perfect food for a high school reunion. \nAfter a couple of drinks on the deck out back\, people lit up and seemed to enjoy themselves. Some gathered in old cliques\, while others chatted with near strangers. I found that if I entered a conversation without expectations\, it was invariably interesting: people’s stories of careers\, marriage\, children\, and perhaps more marriage\, were all rich. Greg successfully founded a bicycle company; Mike became a school teacher and piano tuner; and Jerry a hairstylist. \nOnly 35 of the original 200 came; 40 had already passed away. One of them was Brett\, who had been a Varsity football player. I asked his friend how Brett died\, and he said\, “In the end\, it was the drugs and booze.” \nDawna\, who I had known a bit as a Freshman\, also attended. She had asked me to the Sadie Hawkins Day dance\, where the girl asks the boy. I was a strange choice. She was a cheerleader\, budding into a beautiful young woman. I was a third-string football player\, and young even for a 14-year old. My sister\, a Senior at the time\, said I should go\, and offered us a ride with she and her date. We picked up Dawna at her house and drove to the dance. We danced a little bit\, hung out with friends\, and toward the end\, she went off to go talk with a few other people. When the dance was over\, I couldn’t find her to take her home. I walked into the night outside\, around the corner of the now empty gym\, and there she was with Brett\, the football player\, kissing passionately. I said to Dawna\, “Do you need a ride?” She came with me\, and we said nothing in the back seat on the way to her house. \nThough laughable now for this sixty-something\, as a young teenager on my first date\, I was deeply ashamed and hurt. I had been trying to construct a young self that was low-profile and low-risk. I felt I had been lured out of my shell and stung. We never spoke again. Dawna went on to become a Varsity cheerleader and class officer\, while Brett became a star athlete. Meanwhile\, I began to buy grunge clothes at the Goodwill and became a wilderness hiker and Zen Buddhist. I never went to another high school dance. \nFor 50 years\, whenever I got a notice of a high school reunion\, I was reminded of the incident. And in trying to repair my own self\, I had created a self for Dawna\, as well: she was a manipulator\, or perhaps easily manipulated; cold\, and frankly\, uninteresting. I said hello to her at a couple of reunions over the decades\, but we never once talked. \nBefore the 50th reunion\, I read her bio and found it far more fascinating than I imagined: she had raised her children in the wilderness\, and they had gone on to interesting jobs in environmental science and the arts. \nAs the reunion was winding down\, I saw Dawna sitting alone\, finishing a piece of cake. I sat next to her\, asked her about one of the other folks attending\, and then said\, “Dawna\, I read your bio\, and realized I never really knew you.” She nodded quietly and looked down at her cake. Someone came up to the table\, and I left the party. \nWe walk through the marketplace\, and we must do it alone. But fortunately\, we have each other to walk with. \n—Jon Joseph \nThose Who Do Not Dance\, by Gabriela Mistral\n(transl. Maria Giachetti\, found in “Women in Praise of the Sacred\,” Jane Hirshfield\, editor) \nAn invalid girl asked\, \n“How do I dance?”\nWe told her:\nlet your heart dance. \nThe crippled girl asked\,\n”How do I sing?”\nWe told her:\nlet your heart sing. \nA poor dead thistle asked\,\n”How do I dance?”\nWe told it:\nlet your heart fly in the wind \nGod asked from on high\, \n”How do I come down from the blueness?”\nWe told Him:\ncome dance with us in the light \nThe entire valley is dancing\nin a chorus under the sun.\nThe hearts of those absent\nreturn to ashes. \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nJoin us for a koan\, meditation\, dharma talk\, & conversation. All are welcome. Register to participate. \n—Jon Joseph
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-shall-we-dance-with-jon-joseph/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/letsDance-jjCALENDAR.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221003T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221003T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20220830T185221Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220830T185221Z
UID:10001108-1664820000-1664825400@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ON BREAK: Monday Zen with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:No Monday Meditation & Talk today. \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nJon Joseph is away on October 3rd in preparation for PZI’s Fall Sesshin. He returns next week\, on the 10th. \nCome join us then!
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/on-break-monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-2/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/wooden-bucketCALENDAR500x350.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220926T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220926T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20220830T184037Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220925T200006Z
UID:10001104-1664215200-1664220600@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: Water\, Water Everywhere - with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\nExplain water. \n—Pacific Zen Miscellaneous Koans \nOver theses last weeks\, we have been working with the image of water—moment by moment\, non-stop flow. A coin lost in the river is found in the river. “What is that sound outside the gate?” asked the teacher. The monk replied\, “The sound of raindrops.” And last week\, in this drought-prone\, wildland-fire-plagued part of the country\, we heard the sound of raindrops. It was wonderful. \nThe above koan\, “Explain water\,” seems utterly plain\, but when I recently visited it with a friend\, what touched me was its reservoir of richness within its simplicity. Wet and dry seem to need each other. \nTaking a gulp of water from a mason jar\, (which made me laugh\,) my friend said\, “I cried twice recently.” In several years of talking together\, I don’t recall him having openly offered up his emotions that way. He said\, “I was surprised at how I cried when I heard the Queen had died.” His first memory of Queen Elizabeth\, when he was a very young child\, was of seeing her picture on Canadian currency. Her reign had been ancient and august\, pre-dating even his father’s birth. “I cried again\, when I heard a certain song being played this past September 11th.” The Whole World had been released by the hip-hop band Outkast just after the World Trade Center attack. On hearing it\, he wept for the dead\, and for the survivors. \nAfter speaking with my friend\, I thought of a quote from Joan Sutherland Roshi’s new book\, Through Forests of Every Color. Joan writes about a young woman\, Mujaku\, who lived in medieval Japan\, and became a nun at age thirty-two following the death of her samurai husband. While in dokusan with her Zen teacher Bukko\, she heard the cry of a deer\, down at a nearby creek. The master shouted\, “Where is that deer? Who is hearing?” Shaken\, Mujaku later went to the creek to fetch water\, saw the moon’s reflection in her bucket\, and spontaneously created a poem: \nThe bucket catches the stream\nThe pure moon through the pines\nAppears in the water. \nAnd then the tears came. Joan writes: \nShe sees the moon’s reflection in the water: her grief\, radiant. Later still\, she says\, the bottom falls out of her bucket: water and light soaking into the earth. All that wet: the stream\, the watery moon in a bucket\, the deer’s moist eye\, the woman weeping. \nHer tears become a solvent for what is unyielding within\, the defenses we erect to keep from feeling the pain of life all the way through—which also keeps us from feeling its beauty all the way through. The tears soften\, unstick\, breach\, topple\, and fill. They run like water under the ice\, and suddenly the frozen is flowing again. \n—Through Forests of Every Color\, Joan Sutherland\, p. 44 \nWhat is the cause of water? Maybe it is something that doesn’t need explaining. Perhaps it is self-evident; perhaps we are self-evident. It is possible we are more simple than we think\, our lives more clean\, direct and refreshing than we can imagine. And far more satisfying. \nNothing in all beneath heaven is so soft and weak as water. And yet\, for conquering the hard and strong\, nothing succeeds like water. And nothing can change it: weak overcoming strong\, soft overcoming hard. Everything throughout all beneath heaven knows this\, and yet nothing puts it into practice. \n—Tao Te Ching\, David Hinton\, p. 117 \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nJoin us for a koan\, meditation\, dharma talk\, & conversation. All are welcome. Register to participate. \n—Jon Joseph
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-water-water-everywhere-with-jon-joseph/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/waterJJ-CALENDAR.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220919T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220919T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20220622T232107Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220919T155550Z
UID:10001090-1663610400-1663615800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN LUMINARIES: Through Forests of Every Color with Special Guest Joan Sutherland - in Conversation with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nJoin us on Monday night when we visit with Joan Sutherland Roshi for a conversations on koans\, her new book\, and the nature of endarkenment. \nHere is a tree\, older than the forest it stands in.\nIf you guess its age\, it’s twice as old.\nIts roots met the changes of hills and ravines\,\nits leaves were altered by wind and frost.\nEveryone laughs at its outer decay\,\nfailing to appreciate the colorful patterns within.\nIts bark may have peeled away\,\nbut there is only truth inside. \n—Cold Mountain (Hanshan) \nJoan Sutherland Roshi is a teacher in the koan tradition\, co-founder of the Pacific Zen School\, and founder of The Open Source\, a network of Zen communities. A translator of classical Chinese\, she is the author of Vimalakirti and the Awakened Heart. Her collected writings and teachings are online at Cloud Dragon: The Joan Sutherland Dharma Works. \nHere are some excerpts from her most recent book\, Through Forests of Every Color; Awakening with Koans: \nKoan Tradition \nHow\, actually\, do koans work? What are they for? \nIf practitioners are having experiences both profound and outside the received tradition\, do the practitioners have to adapt\, or does the tradition? How deep\, really\, is our understanding of the ancestors? And underneath everything else\, what do the koans themselves want? \nI’ve come to see that the koan tradition isn’t static\, but supple and curious. Also\, not yet complete. Zen is the unfinished koan. \nPractice \nChan practice wasn’t about getting free of the world\, it was about being free in the world. \nHow do we fall willingly into the frightened\, blasted\, beautiful\, tender world? \nThroughout the koans there’s a focus on serving\, meaning caring for a world as wondrous and devastating as we are. Koan meditation’s inward turn serves an outward orientation; the aim of koan practice is to open a path into the world\, a path that recognizes the luminous nature of things and also the complicated poignancy of embodied life. \nIt’s not enough to see what buddha nature is; you have to realize what buddha nature does. \nEndarkenment \nIf you think of the Chinese and Japanese sense of a unified heart-mind\, enlightenment is roughly related to the illumination of the mind\, endarkenment to the liberation of the heart. \nThe distinction between them isn’t hard and fast; there are lots of boundary crossings. Enlightenment is\, again roughly\, what we come to know\, while endarkenment is what we come to realize that we can’t know. \nInsight and mystery\, each with its radiance. \n\nMore about Joan Sutherland Roshi: \nAfter practicing in the Soto Zen and Tibetan traditions\, Joan Sutherland returned to her early love—koan study. She studied with John Tarrant and was made Roshi in his lineage in 1998. Together they co-founded the Pacific Zen School. \nOver the decades\, Joan Sutherland’s teaching and writing has explored how koans enliven\, subvert\, and sanctify us. Her books include: Through Forests of Every Color\, Vimalakirti & The Awakened Heart\, and Acequias & Gates: Miscellaneous Koans and Miscellaneous Writings on Koans. Her work is the subject of a short film\, The Radiance of the Dark\, evoking her vision of an awakening that embraces “endarkenment” as well as enlightenment. \nSutherland is currently working on a long-term project to translate the major koan collections from the classical Chinese. \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\nJoin us on Monday for a lively conversation about Chan\, Zen\, and more with special guest Joan Sutherland Roshi. All are welcome. Register to participate. \n—Jon Joseph
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/zen-luminaries-jon-joseph-in-conversation-with-roshi-joan-sutherland/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/roshiJoanSuntherlandCALENDAR500x375.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220912T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220912T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20220829T205423Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220909T230100Z
UID:10001102-1663005600-1663011000@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: Call Me by My Name - with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nWhat is it like when the universe calls directly to us? It is intimate\, warm\, and deeply supportive. And it can’t be explained. Which is why we grow tomatoes. \nPablo Neruda gives us some hint in the opening to his “Ode to Tomatoes”: \nThe street filled with tomatoes\,\nmidday\, summer\,\nlight is halved like a tomato\,\nits juice runs\nthrough the streets. . . \nWeeding and watering in my garden last week\, and finding again the Neruda poem\, I knew it was time to revisit tomatoes as koans. So I re-read some of my past tomato blog posts\, and was a bit surprised at how much complaining I had done about growing tomatoes: \nSome seasons ago\, I wrote a sarcastic note called “One-Ton Tomato\,” which whined that my whole tomato patch had produced only a single cherry tomato by early September. I accused the garden of lacking in passion\, of not following the red thread. \nA couple seasons later\, I sprayed my young and promising tomato plants from a can upon which I had marked “Organic Fertilizer” in large letters. The next day\, they began to wilt pitifully\, and then die. I smelled an oily poison inside the can; apparently a departed gardener had used it to mix the weed killer Roundup. \nAnd then there were notes on slugs and snails\, dozens of which I ushered onto the “stairway to heaven.” \nThis year\, I don’t really have any complaints at all. In a strange and beautiful way\, I have been feeling more intimate with the garden. It has been calling my name\, and I have been going to it in response. That itself is enough. The great Master Dharma Eye (Fayan) had an exchange with a monk about this: \nA monk (named Wisdom Surpassed) asked Master Dharma Eye\,\n“Wisdom Surpassed asks the Teacher\, what is Buddha?”\nDharma Eye said\, “You are Wisdom Surpassed.” \nThat is not to say the garden is without challenges. My dog dug up the zucchini plant\, so I let the lemon squash go\, and it ran wild\, flowing into the lettuces and beets. The heat wave stunted the brassic—broccoli and cauliflower are not forming good heads. And for some reason\, my garden peas and beans are too tough to eat. But they are problems only if I name them as such. When they call me\, they are somehow familiar and welcoming. \nRecently\, sitting in the afternoon garden\, the wind was gently blowing\, making a juniper tree\, which rubs up against a wooden pergola\, produce a woody groan. In a deep sonorous voice\, it was calling my name: Jon\, Jon. I looked across the yard at the redwood tree and rhododendrons\, and as they too swayed in the wind\, in their own voices they called: Jon\, Jon. I was surprised\, but also felt supported and held by the community of the many beings in the garden\, and beyond. \nA monk once asked Master Visitation Land (Zhaozhou)\, \n“What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from the West?”\nLand answered\, “The juniper tree in front of the garden.”\nThe monk replied\, “Master\, don’t teach me using external objects.” \nLand said\, “I’m not teaching you using external objects.” \nThe nature of Zen is so much simpler and more intimate than we can imagine. It is our ideas and words which separate us from that fact. But that is not a problem\, either. Which is why we have koans\, the stories of our lives\, the gates\, that allow us to open into and enter the garden. \nBefore dinner\, I went into the twilight vegetable patch to pick a few tomatoes. The yellow-red Brandywines and large Romas were still warm from the low sun as I cradled them in my palm. Without speaking\, they were teaching me. Not as external objects\, saying internal and external uses too many words. Just call them by their name: tomatoes. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nJoin us for a koan\, meditation\, dharma talk\, & conversation. All are welcome. Register to participate. \n—Jon Joseph
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-call-me-by-my-name-with-jon-joseph/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/tomato-giant-JJ-CALENDAR500x375.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220905T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220905T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20220829T205701Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230307T012924Z
UID:10001103-1662400800-1662406200@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ON BREAK: Monday Zen with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:No Monday Meditation & Talk today. \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nJon Joseph is away on September 5th. He returns next week\, on the 12th. \nCome join us then!
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/on-break-monday-zen-with-jon-joseph/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/wooden-bucketCALENDAR500x350.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220829T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220829T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20220622T234932Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230307T012937Z
UID:10001092-1661796000-1661801400@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: Family Treasure with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nSomeone asked: “What does ‘Sitting correctly and contemplating true reality’ mean?”\nThe Master said\, “A coin lost in the river is found in the river.” —Record of Yunmen\, 15 \nIf we look at the river from a high level\, we might call it the Dao\, or the Way. And by retrieving the coins that have been lost in the river\, we are recovering the treasures of our lives. But that is just a metaphor. Our lives\, I think\, are much more intimate\, more wet\, and far richer than that which can be explained. \nI have two items on my desk\, left to me by my father. One is an old pipe\, which he took up for a time\, after giving up a long habit of smoking cigarettes. He started smoking at ten years old\, working with the family’s ranch hands\, and by the time he was coughing blood in his sixties\, he knew it was time to stop. He lived to be ninety. \nThe other is a small manila envelope which contains the only piece of his writing that I have: “$210.00 if you buy\, $180 if you sell. Gold 1887 2-1/2D.” That was the price of gold in 1973. \nBuck had inherited an old coin and a tremendous gold nugget from his mother several years before. Both the coin and the nugget were stolen from his trailer home a decade after he noted the price of gold. A coin found in the river is lost in the river. \nI held the gnarled old nugget once\, when we cleared out my grandmother’s house in the Sierra Nevada foothills. It was hard to say how much it weighed\, but it had heft in my small palm. Just recently\, I found a letter written by my grandmother about the discovery of this nugget. It had been found by her great uncle in the 1850s\, soon after the Gold Rush began\, in a creek outside of Angels Camp\, the small mining town made famous by Mark Twain’s story about jumping frogs. The uncle passed it on to his daughter\, who then gave it to my Grandma Rose. \nDreams of my father over the years have improved—we say that relations with the deceased often mend with time. He had been a difficult person his whole life\, and as he grew older\, macular degeneration blinded him\, and arthritis began to cripple him. \nA year after he passed\, some thirteen years ago\, I had a vivid dream of him wandering about a park as a homeless person\, completely lost. A few years after that\, while I was on a trip visiting colleges\, I dreamed that he and my mother (who divorced him after a long period of marriage) were together\, smiling broadly. I took that to mean our girls would be fine when they left home\, and they have been. \nRecently\, I had a dream where he and I were working on a project together\, building something out of wood\, and our interaction was good and easy. A coin lost in the river is found in the river. \nContemplating Yunmen’s true reality\, for me\, is not just about swimming in the river\, clear and cool. Look closer\, down into the water—there are sparkles of gold on the sandy bottom. These are the bits of our bright lives. They are a treasure. And they have never been lost. \nThe mandarin silence of windows before their view\,\nLike gods who nod to every visitor\,\n“Pass.”\n“Come\, thief\,”\nthe path to the doorway agrees.\nA fire requires its own conflagration.\nAs birth does. As love does.\nSaying to time to the end\, “Dear one\, enter.” \n—Jane Hirshfield \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\nOn Monday night\, bring and share some remembrance of ones passed. \nJoin us for a koan\, meditation\, dharma talk\, & conversation. All are welcome. Register to participate. \n—Jon Joseph
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-family-treasure-with-jon-joseph/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/nuggetCALENDAR500x375.jpg
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220822T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220822T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20220622T234827Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230307T012947Z
UID:10001091-1661191200-1661196600@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: A Stream of Regrets with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\nWho is this facing me?\,” asked Emperor Wu.\n“I don’t know\,” responded Bodhidharma. The Emperor did not understand.\nBodhidharma then departed and crossed the Yangtse River into the Kingdom of Wei.\nLater\, the Emperor brought this up with Master Chih\, who asked\,\n“Does your majesty know who that man was?”\nThe Emperor said\, ”I don’t know.”\nChih said\, “He is the Mahasattva Avalokitesvara\, transmitting the Buddha Mind Seal.”\nThe Emperor was deeply regretful\, and wanted to send an emissary to invite Bodhidharma back.\nChih said\, “Your majesty\, don’t send someone to fetch him back. Even if everyone in the whole country were to go after him\, he still would not return.” \n—The Blue Cliff Record\, Case 1 \nI broke my favorite coffee mug yesterday. My daughter\, in her second-grade ceramics class\, had splashed on mottled glaze of white\, gray-blues and green\, and I had used it hundreds\, perhaps a thousand times. Each time was a pleasure\, seeing its form and knowing its provenance. I had set the empty cup on a cabinet in my office\, it fell on the carpet\, and when I moved my chair to pick it up\, the chair crushed it. I felt like the dopey Emperor Wu\, who his whole life regretted not having known that Bodhidharma was a great sage. \nBreaking the mug opened a stream of remembered regrets for me. I probably should not have invited my girlfriend to live with me in Japan. I should have taken the subway rather than the taxi\, which made me 30 minutes late for a meeting with my boss’s boss. Why did I buy that stupid technology stock (asked many times)? The clueless Emperor Wu says\, “I don’t know.” \nYuanwu\, the commentator of The Blue Cliff Record\, asks a wonderful checking question for this koan: \nTell me\, is the Emperor’s ‘I don’t know’ the same as Bodhidharma’s\, or is it different? \nThe Emperor’s not-knowing is in a world of conditions that are ever-changing. We all make assumptions about the red-bearded barbarian: he is just one more hitchhiker bearing worthless tchotchkes from India. When we discover we made a mistake\, this Emperor has regrets. \nAnd then we hear of Bodhidharma’s brilliant “I don’t know\,” a response that is unconditional and awakened. We slip into a kind of reasoning that Bodhidharma is living in the Dao\, and how great it would be if I could just live his life. A shattered coffee mug? Bodhidharma is ok with it\, there is other favorites in the cupboard. The girlfriend quits Japan? Well\, the great sage points out\, she later married\, had a child\, and now lives with two darling grandchildren. So what if I left my job through a “mutual understanding”? A couple of years later\, the company went utterly bankrupt before being saved by a huge government bailout. \nBut this reasoning veers dangerously toward finding a silver lining in our life story\, as one of our teachers put it. Bodhidharma is unsure that the answer is “all is well that ends well.” \nIn the koan\, Ordinary Mind Is the Way\, Nanchuan says: \nThe Dao is not subject to knowing or not knowing. Knowing is delusion; not knowing is blankness. If you truly reach the genuine Dao\, you will find it as vast and boundless as outer space. How can this be discussed at the level of affirmation and negation? \nMaybe it is not about the answer; perhaps merely asking the question is sufficient. \nSometimes “not-knowing” can just be just another Imperial road block. I have a friend whose elderly mother\, for years\, has asked him questions like “Why are there young men sitting around the square all day? Why did the nurses cancel my appointment? Why did they tear down all the beautiful buildings in town?” In the past\, he has simply replied\, “I don’t know\, Mom.” But recently\, a koan came to him\, nuzzling against him like his large black dog\, and he realized his “I don’t know” was just a habitual way of closing his mother off. “The koan showed me I had been missing something\,” he said. \nThat night\, when his mother asked again why they had torn down all the beautiful buildings\, he looked inside before answering\, and he could physically feel her perplexity about her life. “She finds a lot of changes in the world difficult to handle\,” he said. “She didn’t want an answer\, she just wanted to express her puzzlement.” The Indian prince learns to listen. \nBodhidharma did not know\, nor did Emperor Wu. Were their answers the same\, or were they different? Hmm\, excellent question. \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nJoin us for a koan\, meditation\, dharma talk\, & conversation. All are welcome. Register to participate. \n—Jon Joseph
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-a-stream-of-regrets-with-jon-joseph/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/TeaTathagataCALENDAR_500x375.jpg
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220627T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220627T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20220224T032323Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230307T013024Z
UID:10001087-1656352800-1656358200@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:Zen Luminaries - Finding Refuge in Poetry: Monday with Co-hosts Jon Joseph & Allison Atwill and Special Guest Naomi Shihab Nye
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\nOn Monday night\, Naomi\, one of the great American poets of our time and an old friend\, will join us in conversation on her abiding faith in poetry as a shelter and source of solace in difficult and dark times. \nShe will read for us from several of her most recent collections\, including Everything Comes Next; Collected and New Poems\, and Dear Vaccine; Global Voices Speak to the Pandemic. \nPlease join us. —Jon Joseph \nOur voices poured out through\na hole in the floor.\nSome days the woman with a bucket\ncame swaggering up the block\nsinging our names\, the song that goes\nold old very old\nand we rode in her wake\, echoing\nthe thrum of her lowest note… \n—The House Made of Rain\, from Everything Comes Next \n\nNaomi Shihab Nye is one of the few poets whose work can stand up to being read aloud during a Zen retreat. Her writing has a special and generous quality\, a feel for our joys and troubles. \nGreat poetry has always been part of the Dharma path\, and to be immersed in Naomi’s work is a spiritual event—refuge and sanctuary in the times we have. \nOn Monday night\, Naomi will be with Jon Joseph and Naomi’s friend Allison Atwill. The idea is that Naomi will read her poetry and tell the stories behind the poems. Her poems and stories are magical. \nSee you then.  —John Tarrant \n\nNaomi Shihab Nye is an American poet\, editor\, songwriter\, and novelist\, born to a Palestinian father and an American mother. Nye has been affiliated with the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas and poetry editor for the Texas Observer for over 20 years. She is a professor of creative writing at Texas State University. Her works include poetry\, novels\, young adult fiction\, and illustrated books. She has published or contributed to over 30 volumes of poetry. \nI have always loved the gaps\, the spaces between things\, as much as the things. I love staring\, pondering\, mulling\, puttering. I love the times when someone or something is late—there’s that rich possibility of noticing more\, in the meantime… Poetry calls us to pause. There is so much we overlook\, while the abundance around us continues to shimmer\, on its own. —Naomi Shihab Nye \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\nCOME JOIN US on June 27th for a lively conversation about poetry and more with special guest “wandering poet” Naomi Shihab Nye. All are welcome. Register to participate. \n—Jon Joseph & Guest Co-host Allison Atwill \n\nAllison Atwill Roshi
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/zen-luminaries-jon-joseph-in-conversation-with-writer-poet-naomi-shihab-nye/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/JJ-AA-Nye-CALENDAR.png
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220214T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220214T193000
DTSTAMP:20260430T023458
CREATED:20220117T204846Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230307T013106Z
UID:10001086-1644861600-1644867000@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: Very Near to Zen with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:Register here for Jon’s Monday Meditation \nWuzu said\, “When you were very young\, did you read a story which went something like\,\n \n‘She calls to her maid\, “Little Jade!”\nnot because she wants something\nbut just so her children will hear her voice.’” \nThe official said\, “Yes\, my father read it to me.” Wuzu said\, “That is very near to Zen.” \n—PZI Miscellaneous Koans\, Entangling Vines Case 98 (amended) \nSome years ago\, at the end of each evening at sesshin\, the timekeeper would strike the large temple bell\, beat the wooden-board han\, and the liaison would call out: \nI beg to urge you everyone:\nlife and death is a grave matter;\nall things pass quickly away.\nEach of you must be completely alert;\nnever neglectful\, never indulgent. \nThe honorable custom of reciting this passage has evolved for us in recent years. At the end of sesshin night\, teachers and heads of practice now offer a few bedtime closing words of their own\, or perhaps a poem. \nBefore the pandemic\, we would gather together in a remote location and form a cloister away from our daily lives. With our Covid-era virtual retreats\, however\, the borders of the cloister have been redrawn and now wrap around and include our everyday lives. In our screen community we see cats and couches\, pajamas and coffee cups. For some reason\, in this past retreat\, one landscape feature that caught my eye was the number of children running through the community: toddlers being held\, kids getting ready for school\, and grandkids peeking into office doors to see what grandma was up to. It was a wonderful reminder of when my own children were small. \nSo\, on the very last night of retreat\, to celebrate the nighttime stories I would read to my girls two decades ago\, I chose Margaret Wise Brown’s Good Night Moon for the closing words. For me\, it has always been a book that was “very near to Zen.” \nIn the great green room\nThere was a telephone\nAnd a red balloon\nAnd a picture of– \nThe cow jumping over the moon\nAnd there were three little bears\, sitting on chairs\nAnd two little kittens and a pair of mittens\nAnd a little toy house and a young mouse\nAnd a comb and a brush and bowl full of mush\nAnd a quiet old lady who was whispering “hush” \nGoodnight room\nGoodnight moon\nGoodnight cow jumping over the moon\nGoodnight light and the red balloon\nGoodnight bears goodnight chairs\nGoodnight kittens goodnight mittens\nGoodnight clocks and goodnight socks\nGoodnight little house and goodnight mouse\nGoodnight comb and goodnight brush\nGoodnight nobody\, goodnight mush\nand goodnight to the old lady whispering “hush” \nGoodnight stars\, goodnight air\nGoodnight noises everywhere. \nAfter sesshin\, I opened the latest New Yorker\, and was pleasantly surprised to find an article on Brown\, celebrating the 75th anniversary of Goodnight Moon. A leading example of a new kind of child’s book in the 1940s\, called the “Here and Now” movement\, Good Night Moon recognized that small children need stories of the familiar before they can grasp ones of fantasy. \n“It is only the blind eye of the adult that finds the familiar uninteresting\,” wrote Lucy Sprague Mitchell\, Brown’s mentor. \nBut not all were fans: Anne Carroll Moore\, who ran the children’s division at the New York Public Library\, banned the book from her influential library system for 25 years because she found it “overly sentimental.” The standoff was called “The Fairy-Tale War.” Sentimental\, for me\, can be very near to Zen. \nGood night Zhao’s dog\nGood night snow in a silver bowl\nGood night distant temple bell\nGood night stone drenched in rain\nGood night stars\, good night air\nGood night noises everywhere. \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nJoin us for a koan\, meditation\, dharma talk\, & conversation. All are welcome. Register to participate. \n—Jon Joseph
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-meditation-with-jon-joseph-5/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
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