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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251027T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251027T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250930T131323Z
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UID:10002175-1761588000-1761593400@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:PACIFIC ZEN LUMINARIES: Tassajara Stories: A Sort of Memoir – Jon Joseph in Conversation with Author David Chadwick
DESCRIPTION:David Chadwick\, author\, activist\, musician\, and Zen priest\, joins host Jon Joseph for remembrances about the early days of San Francisco Zen Center and the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. \nDavid began his study of Zen in 1966 under Shunryu Suzuki Roshi who ordained him as a priest in 1971\, shortly before Suzuki’s death. Later\, Chadwick continued to study with Zentatsu Baker Roshi and assisted in the operation of the San Francisco Zen Center for a number of years. Throughout this time\, he helped SFZC develop its centers and businesses\, including Green Gulch Farm and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. \nHe is widely known as the primary archivist and biographer of Shunryu Suzuki\, with his Crooked Cucumber (1999)\, Zen is Right Here (2007)\, and Zen is Right Now (2021). Now\, Chadwick has begun to publish a three part series of anecdotes and recollections of the founding of Tassajara Zen Mountain Center\, called Tassajara Stories: A Sort of Memoir\, of the first Zen monastery in the United States. \nIn addition to writing books\, David created maintains three websites\, Cuke.com (“an archival site on the life and world of Shunryu Suzuki and those who knew him”); ZMBM (a site dedicated to his book Zen Mind\, Beginner’s Mind); and Shunryusuzuki.com (a comprehensive archive of Shunryu Suzuki’s talks\, video\, photos\, and more). All these archives are free to the public. “I like to preserve things\,” he notes. \nSource: Cuke.com\, SFZC.com \n“Tassajara Stories is a marvelous and entertaining book and David Chadwick is a tremendous storyteller. We have here a record of his lifelong passion to record the arrival of Zen in California. I opened the book to check it out\, sat down at the kitchen table and there went my afternoon\, reading and reading. The best thing\, though\, is that these stories touch on the core of practice\, and the reason you might want to turn your heart toward the great matter. David encourages us to Zen practice in a subtle and amusing way. I’m giving it as a gift and reading it again myself.” \n—John Tarrant\, Director of The Pacific Zen Institute and author of Bring Me the Rhinoceros and Other Zen Koans That Will Save Your Life.  \nFrom the preface to Tassajara Stories:  \n“Shakkei is the outlying mountains and trees and whatever else one can see from a garden. If we look at what happened at Tassajara as being the garden of the book\, then the other content is the shakkei. This borrowed scenery sets Tassajara and our experience in that valley in a broad context that gives background and color to who we were and how we got there\, and includes the mountains\, the woods\, the road\, our neighbors\, the city\, the times\, the war\, the counterculture\, what was happening all around us.” \n—David Chadwick \n\n \nJon Joseph Roshi of San Mateo Zen and PZI created this series to support the hardworking innovators and shining voices of modern Zen: scholars\, writers\, poets\, translators\, activists\, artists\, teachers\, and more. \nAll proceeds for each event\, including teacher dana\, go directly to the guest speaker. Event attendees are encouraged to give as generously as you are able\, so we can offer deep thanks to Luminaries guests. \nOur suggested donation is $10 for PZI Members and $12 for Non-Members\, but the scale slides from zero depending on one’s ability to contribute. We also greatly appreciate Patrons\, who help support the program with larger gifts of $25—$250.
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/luminaries-tassajara-days-david-chadwick/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/David-Chadwick_500.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251027T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251027T190000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250826T130657Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250930T133137Z
UID:10002173-1761586200-1761591600@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: ON BREAK
DESCRIPTION:Jon Joseph is on break for Pacific Zen Luminaries. Join us again on November 3rd!\n\nWe are not alone in the world. We have each other to turn toward. All we need to do is ask. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-69/
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:20251020T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251020T190000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250826T130735Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251017T153103Z
UID:10002172-1760981400-1760986800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Who Is Hearing the Sound of the Rain?
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nEarly this week we wound our way up the eastern slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains to begin a fall meditation retreat at the Mount Madonna Center. On the way up\, we were met by slashing rain and terrific winds as the first major storm of the year swept in from the Pacific\, only a few miles away. “Who is hearing?” became the thematic koan of the sesshin\, as we gathered the first night in the zendo\, listening to the drumming of rain on the darkened zendo roof. The coast redwoods and Chinook salmon were happy at the sound of the storm\, and so were we. \nEarly on in the sesshin we spoke of seasonal influences: Yunmen’s golden wind revealed itself; Wumen’s lovely poem appeared: \nIn spring flowers\, in autumn the moon\nIn summer cool breezes\, and winter snow.\nIf idle concerns don’t cloud the mind\,\nThis is the very best season. \nAnd as the days unfolded\, the “thusness” of sitting together in silence\, the soft clucking of wild turkey hens searching for acorns in the oak copse\, the clinking of spoons in bowls of warm morning gruel\, and the soundless sound of a strawberry sunrise over the Pajaro Valley. All brought an immediacy and intimacy to our shared time. \nSeveral hours south of Santa Cruz\, just over the Big Sur ridge is Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. David Chadwick\, one of its founding monastics and life-long chronicler of the teachings of Shunryu Suzuki (d. 1971)\, will be visiting our Pacific Zen Luminaries series to discuss his new book\, Tassajara Stories: A Sort of Memoir about the first year of the monastery’s founding\, in 1967. Suzuki\, best known for Zen Mind\, Beginner’s Mind (1970)\, a compilation of some of his talks\, was the founding abbot of Tassajara\, San Francisco Zen Center\, and Green Gulch Farm. HIs teachings have touched millions of people over the past half century. \n—Jon Joseph \nFrom an August 12\, 1971 talk at Tassajara: \nUnless you go through emptiness\, you are not practicing. But if you stick to an idea of emptiness\, you are not a Buddhist yet. Someone was sitting in front of a sunflower\, watching the sunflowers\, a cup of sun\, So I tried it too. It was wonderful. The whole universe in the sunflower. That was my experience. Sunflower meditation. A wonderful confidence appeared. You can see the whole universe in a flower. If you say\, “Oh\, this sunflower doesn’t really exist\, that is not our zazen practice. \nSuzuki’s final lecture on August 21\, 1971: \nTo solve our human problem doesn’t cover all of Buddhist practice\, and we don’t know how long it takes to make the buddha trip. We have many trips: work trips\, space trips\, the many trips we must have. The buddha trip is a very long trip. This is Buddhism. Thank you. \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-70/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Mount-madonna.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251013T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251013T190000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250826T130814Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251006T112703Z
UID:10002171-1760376600-1760382000@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: ON BREAK
DESCRIPTION:ON BREAK for Great Fall Sesshin. Join us again on October 20th! \n\nWe are not alone in the world. We have each other to turn toward. All we need to do is ask. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-71/
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:20251006T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251006T190000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250826T130843Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251004T123958Z
UID:10002170-1759771800-1759777200@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: The Space Between
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nWuzu Fayan said\, “If you meet a man on the path who has accomplished the Way\, do not greet him with words or silence. Tell me\, how will you greet him?”\n \n—Gateless Gate Case 36 \nThrough his years of teaching\, Wuzu has served as a guide entering the space between words and silence. This is the place where we might discover “before thinking good or evil.” There are no protective barriers here—no walls\, no safety. It is just this. \nWe have been visiting with Song Era Chan masters these past weeks. \nIn ancient China there were three periods of Zen\, the Legendary period (5th–8th c.)\, when the likes of half-historical and partly-mythical Bodhidharma and Huineng walked the earth. Then we have the Classical period (8th–10th c.)\, the time of Mazu\, Baizhang\, Huangbo\, Linji\, Dongshan and the other ancients we know from koan stories. Finally\, the Literary period (10th–13th c.)\, the era of the Song greats: Dahui\, Yuanwu\, and Wuzu in China\, and Hongzhi\, Wumen\, and Dogen in Japan. \nWuzu Fayan entered the monastery at thirty-five years old\, rather late\, back in the day. He was said to be unassuming and plain-spoken\, which was in great contrast to his successors\, ‘son’ Yuanwu and his ‘grandson’ Dahui\, both literary firebrands. \nZen is said to be beyond scriptures and words. But what do we say upon hearing of a friend’s grave illness? How do you respond when you get notice you’ve been laid off? Or when your grandchild is born? Are those moments beyond silence and speech? They kind of are. “And yet\, and yet\,” writes Issa\, “the dewdrop world is the dewdrop world.” Words themselves are that dewdrop world. \nWuzu once told a story about going to the marketplace\, where\, he saw a puppet show for the first time. Fascinated\, he went in for a closer look: The puppets appeared to be moving around on their own\, walking and sitting down with dynamic arms and legs. Wuzu could see the puppeteer behind the blue curtain. \nHe called out\, “Sir! What is your name?”\nThe puppeteer responded\, “Honored priest\, just watch the show. Why ask for names?” Wuzu told his monks\, “Brothers\, when I heard him say this\, I had not a single word in response\, nor a single idea to espouse\,” adding\, “Can any of you say something in my place?” \nThe koans credited to Wuzu are often spare: \nFor example\, it’s just like a water buffalo passing through a latticed window. Her head\, horns\, and four legs have passed through. Why is it that her tail can’t pass through? \nEven Śākyamuni and Maitreya are servants of that one. Tell me\, who is the one? \nThe girl Qian and her true soul were separated. Which is the true Qian? \nWhen Wuzu was ill and failing\, he went to the hall and bade the monks farewell\, saying “Zhaozhou had some final words. Do you remember them? Let’s see if you can recite them.” When no one responded\, Wuzu recited Zhou’s words: \nFortune few among the thousand\,\nBut one has countless pains and sorrows. \nThen Wuzu said\, “Take care\,” and passed away that night. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-72/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Wandering-on-the-path_500x375.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250929T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250929T190000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250825T162546Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250926T172624Z
UID:10002167-1759167000-1759172400@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Duck Legs Are Naturally Short
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nA crane’s legs are naturally long and a duck’s legs are naturally short.\nA pine tree is naturally tall and straight\, while brambles are naturally crooked.\nGeese are white\, crows are black.\nEverything is manifested in this manner…\nDo you have it? Do you have it?” \n—Yuanwu Keqin\, from The Record of Foguo \nYuanwu Keqin (Perfect Enlightenment) along with his teacher Wuzu Fayan and his student Dahui Zonggao\, formed a triad in the Linji School koan tradition in 12th-century China that remains an abiding foundation in Chan-Zen. Yuanwu is best known for his commentary on the 100-case collection of koans and verses called The Blue Cliff Record (pub. 1128). The Blue Cliff Record\, named for the temple at the Blue Cliff where Yuanwu gave lectures\, is the most famous Chan koan collection of all time\, and is used around the world in zendos today. \nYuanwu’s poetry can be extraordinarily beautiful\, like his preface to The Blue Cliff Record: \nBoundless wind and moon—the eye within eyes\nInexhaustible heaven and earth—the light beyond the light\nKnock on any door—there is one who will answer \nAcceptance is a key feature of Zen practice. \nAccepting that cranes have long legs and ducks short\, accepting the naturalness of a world in which pine trees are tall and brambles crooked. And what of us? Do we have it? We too are tall or short\, straight or gay\, progressive or conservative. Do we need to make any of that wrong? Or right? The universe does neither—John Tarrant says the universe has opinions similar to a microwave oven: It takes in everything. \nIn another passage\, Yuanwu asks\, “Just when it’s like this\, what is it?” Indeed\, what is it? Who am I? What am I? To ask the question is a good beginning. \nAt the end of his life\, Yuanwu’s followers asked him to write a poem. He sat up straight\, composed the following\, and passed: \nMy work slipped off into the night\nFor you no pretty song took flight\nThe hour is here\, I must be away\nFare you well\, take care alright! \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-68/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Duck_500x375.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250922T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250922T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250825T161741Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250919T145654Z
UID:10002166-1758564000-1758569400@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: ON BREAK
DESCRIPTION:Jon Joseph is on break for Pacific Zen Luminaries this evening\, but will return on September 29th. We hope you join us then!\n\nWe are not alone in the world. We have each other to turn toward. All we need to do is ask. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-on-break-10/
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:20250922T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250922T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250821T152741Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250924T180502Z
UID:10002160-1758564000-1758569400@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:PACIFIC ZEN LUMINARIES: Jon Joseph in Conversation with Translator Thomas Yuho Kirchner
DESCRIPTION:  \n\nThomas Yuho Kirchner\, a Zen monk of the Rinzai School in Japan\, is the widely respected translator of Zen koan classics\, including The Record of Linji\, Entangling Vines\, and Muso Soseki: Dialogs in a Dream. \nHe joins host Jon Joseph to discuss Dahui’s Letters. These letters are the critical writings of Dahui Zhonggao\, considered the father of koan meditation and the leading figure of the Linji Chan-Zen School in 12th c. China. The letters are timeless in that they provide valuable lessons on koan practice for modern–day meditators. \nKirchner was born in Baltimore\, Maryland\, in 1949. He went to Japan in 1969 to attend Waseda University in Tokyo for a year\, after which he remained in Japan to study Buddhism. He spent three years training under Yamada Mumon as a lay monk at Shofuku-ji before receiving ordination in 1974. Following ordination he practiced under Minato Sodo Roshi at Kencho-ji in Kamakura and Kennin-ji in Kyoto. Following graduate studies in Buddhism at Otani University he worked at the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture in Nagoya and subsequently at the Hanazono University International Research Institute for Zen Buddhism. He presently lives at Tenryu-ji in Arashiyama\, Kyoto. \nOn more than a half century of Zen practice\, he says\, “I have a deep sense that this is a really\, really meaningful experience. It has given me a compass for my life. With time\, I will be able to face death with peace of mind.” \nSource: Wisdom Publications \nOn Entangling Vines:  \n“A wonderful book\, a book to take if you are planning to be shipwrecked on a desert island; it is the book I open every day\, and teach from every day. It is surprising\, lucid\, scholarly\, alive\, and unassuming\, and it goes deep.” \n—John Tarrant\, Director of The Pacific Zen Institute and author of Bring Me the Rhinoceros and Other Zen Koans That Will Save Your Life.  \nOn The Record of Linji:\n\n“A masterpiece of scholarship not only on Linji Chan\, but also on Chinese Buddhist language and history―the annotations\, which constitute almost two–thirds of the book\, explain in astonishing detail the meanings\, references\, and grammar of each line of text.” \n―Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Quarterly \n\n \nJon Joseph Roshi of San Mateo Zen and PZI created this series to support the hardworking innovators and shining voices of modern Zen: scholars\, writers\, poets\, translators\, activists\, artists\, teachers\, and more. \nAll proceeds for each event\, including teacher dana\, go directly to the guest speaker. Event attendees are encouraged to give as generously as you are able\, so we can offer deep thanks to Luminaries guests. \nOur suggested donation is $10 for PZI Members and $12 for Non-Members\, but the scale slides from zero depending on one’s ability to contribute. We also greatly appreciate Patrons\, who help support the program with larger gifts of $25—$250.
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/luminaries-kirchner-sept-2025/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Kirchner_500.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250915T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250915T190000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250825T162506Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250913T125331Z
UID:10002169-1757957400-1757962800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Dahui Breaks Through
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nBeing and non-being are like vines clinging to a tree.\nIf suddenly the tree falls and the vines wither\, where do being and non-being go?\n\n —Book of Serenity Case 87\n\nEvery day Dahui went to Yuanwu Keqin for instruction\, but all Yuanwu would say is “Being and non-being are like vines clinging to a tree.” Whenever Dahui opened his mouth to respond\, Yuanwu would cut him off\, saying “That’s no good!”\n\nOne day Dahui went to the master and said\, ”I heard that you once asked your teacher Wuzu about being and non-being. Do you remember the master’s reply?” In answer\, Yuanwu only laughed. Dahui said\, “Since you asked in front of the assembly\, surely there’s no reason not to tell me Wuzu’s reply.”\n\nYuanwu then said\, “When I asked about the statement ’being and non-being are like vines clinging to a tree\,’ Wuzu replied\, ‘Try to describe it and it cannot be described; try to portray it and it cannot be portrayed.’  When I asked\, ‘What if the tree suddenly falls and the vines whither?’ Wuzu said\,’They come down together.’” \nDahui suddenly understood.\n\nDahui Zonggao (1089-1163) is considered one of the greatest Chan masters from the Song Dynasty\, a period when Chan had a profound influence on religious and political life in China\, the world’s largest nation at time. He is best known for promoting meditation using huatou (word head) koan fragments as a way to help students break through to kensho. \nDahui was also one of the most controversial teachers of the time. When he found that monks were over-intellectualizing his teacher Yuanwu’s koan collection\, The Blue Cliff Record\, he ordered all copies gathered up and destroyed. When the political faction his students were aligned with fell out of favor\, Dahui was defrocked and banished by the imperial court for fourteen years\, though he continued to teach and write. \nDahui’s Letters are perhaps best known for their harsh criticism of “silent illumination\,” a purportedly “quietistic” form of meditation practiced in the Caodong (Soto) School. Ironically\, it was a leading Caodong teacher\, Hongzhi Zhenjue\n(compiler of the koan collection The Book of Serenity)\, who helped Dahui return from exile and regain an abbot position at a leading monastery. \nAs he was dying\, Dahui wrote this poem: \nBirth is just so.\nDeath is just so.\nSo\, as for composing a verse\,\nWhy does it matter? \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-67/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Tress-with-vines-unsplash_500x375.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250908T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250908T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250825T162254Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250908T202815Z
UID:10002168-1757354400-1757359800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Dreams in the Dark\, Dark and Dim
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nYunmen taught\, “Everybody has a light inside\, but sometimes it appears dark\, dark and dim. What is this light that everybody has?” \nI can tell when I’m beginning to fall asleep; perhaps you can too. As I watch my thoughts drift and kind of hop a track\, they begin to stretch normal distances and time in all possible directions. Objects and interactions gain in permeability as they break away from ordinary thoughts and concerns. We are now in the dream world\, which is dark and dim\, but which also shines with its own light. \nTraveling in ancient China\, I encountered a Chan monk on the road who offered to be my guide. Together we visited three large temples\, each honoring a different teacher: Deshan\, Dongshan\, Yunmen. Each temple had its own flavor\, but all radiated a warm golden color with hundreds of monks in residence embodying a quiet joy as they went about their activities. I chose to stay at Yunmen’s Cloud Gate temple. \nYunmen’s has always been my favorite among the Five Chan Schools. In some ways the dream was an affirmation of that. Mostly\, I felt welcome and included. \nIt so happened that this morning I was reviewing Muso Soseki’s Dialogues in a Dream (2015)\, a series of letters written by the famous fifteenth century Japanese Zen master\, beautifully translated by Thomas Yuho Kirchner. \nIn it is an account of how Muso got his dharma name. Practicing as a monk in the Tendai and Shingon schools\, the nineteen-year-old Muso was uncertain of his future course of study and decided to enter a hundred-day solitary retreat. \nThree days before the end of retreat\, Muso had dream in which he too met a monk-guide at a temple called “Shushan.” The two went on to a second temple\, called “Shitou.” Both are famous Tang era teachers. \nAt the second temple\, the two travelers met an old priest. The guide addressed the priest: “This monk (Muso) has traveled here in search of a sacred image. Please\, Reverend\, be so kind as to present him with one.” \nAt that\, the old priest handed Muso a scroll\, which he unrolled and found to be a painting of Bodhidharma. He rolled up the scroll\, put it in his sleeve\, and woke from the dream. Muso felt the dream was leading him to Zen\, and he changed his dharma name to incorporate both the dream and the two masters: Muso (dream-window) Soseki (rough-stone). \nDreams are a mystery\, and perhaps we can only feel our way into them; full understanding being neither possible nor necessary. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-66/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Dreamworld_500x375.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250901T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250901T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250825T161753Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250825T161753Z
UID:10002162-1756749600-1756755000@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: ON BREAK
DESCRIPTION:Jon Joseph is not teaching today\, but will return on September 8th. We hope you join us then!\n\nWe are not alone in the world. We have each other to turn toward. All we need to do is ask. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-on-break-11/
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:20250825T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250825T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250623T162134Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250823T133134Z
UID:10002103-1756144800-1756150200@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Our Own Perfect Awakening
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nAll buddhas of the past\, present and future\nalso take refuge in prajñaparamita (perfection of wisdom)\nrealizing unexcelled\, perfect enlightenment … \n—Excerpt from The Heart Sutra \nIn a recent article in The New Yorker\, called “Enemy of the Good; The Pain of Perfection\,” Leslie Jamison writes about the growing trend of perfectionism\, not as a constructive aspiration\, but as pathology. That perfectionism might be some form of admirable striving is misguided\, says Gordon Flett\, a clinical psychologist who has co-authored many studies on the subject. “I can’t stand it when people talk about perfectionism as something positive\,” he says\, “they don’t realize the deep human toll.” \nI considered the notion of striving for “perfection” in our Zen practice. There it is in the Heart Sutra\, the foundational sutra of our school: with all our being we work to achieve perfect wisdom. To do that\, we get up early\, sit with a straight back\, keep nose vertical and eyes horizontal\, and soak into our koan\, day and night. \nAs it is for students\, so it is for teachers. How do I be a perfect teacher? Do I try to go toward it\, or not? As Nanquan said\, ”If you go toward it\, you go against it.” To which Zhaozhou remarked\,“If I don’t go toward it\, then how do I know it is the true Way?” \nKoshin Paley Ellison writes in his book\, Untangled: “I often tell my students\, ‘I will disappoint you!’ And then I like to say\, ‘And I’m committed to being with you in the disappointment.’ This makes for a good beginning. We need to find a good enough teacher\, we need to find a good enough community\, which is one where you can be dirty potatoes in a barrel [rubbing up against each other to get clean].” \nFlett found that the antidote for perfectionists was for them to realize that their lives mattered. He calls it “the psychology of mattering.” It is the mattering of our own unique jewel\, shining within Indra’s vast and boundless net. The universe would be a darker place without our light. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-60/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Droplets-unsplash_500x375.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250818T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250818T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250623T162219Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250816T112806Z
UID:10002102-1755540000-1755545400@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Isn't This the Sound?
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\n“Wuzu said\, “Why did Bodhidharma come from the West? The cypress tree in the garden!”\nAt these words Yuanwu was suddenly enlightened. He went outside the cottage and saw a rooster fly to the top of a railing\, beat his wings and crow loudly. He said to himself\, “Isn’t this the sound?” Full of gratitude\, he took incense back to Wuzu’s room. He told of his discovery and said\,\n“The golden duck vanishes into the golden brocade\, with a country song the drunk comes home from the woods; only the young beauty knows about her love affair.”\nWuzu said\, “I share your joy.”\n\n —Ferguson\, Entangling Vines Case 98\, Notes \n\nUnfathomable\, inexhaustible\, its source mysterious—joy often sustains me in my practice. But is joy the only point? I’m not so sure of that. \nI was probably in a foul mood when I recently reviewed Kosho Uchiyama Roshi’s How to Cook Your Life: From the Zen Kitchen to Enlightenment. I was struck by how little joy he seemed to be expressing in his life at the small temple Antaiji in Kyoto. When a student asked the Roshi what he did for fun\, he was “totally taken by surprise” at the question. The Roshi offered that he takes three shots of whiskey at night to keep his feet warm\, but “at the same time\, I do not live my life to have fun.” \nFun\, of course\, is not the same as joy and gratitude. Uchiyama was the author of some twenty books and a respected Soto master who generously worked with Westerners for decades before his death in 1998. And in the book\, toward the end\, he does devote a few paragraphs of commentary on Eihei Dogen’s exhortation: \nHow fortunate we are to have been born as human beings to be given the opportunity to prepare meals for the Three Treasures. Our attitude should truly be one of joy and gratefulness.\n\nMy querulous mind began bringing up contrasting images of practice from our own zendo. At our Pacific Zen sesshin\, when the Roshi’s dokusan room is near\, loud laughter often spills into the quiet zendo during the one-on-one interviews. Our daily sutra dedications are infused with warmth. ”What I like about you guys\,” one new member told me recently\, “is you laugh a lot.” \nMay you have joy and be welcome\nMay you have joy on the roads\nLet wisdom go to every corner of the house\nLet people have joy in each other’s joy\n\n(Tarrant and Sutherland)\n\nBut that does not make Uchiyama’s reserved way wrong. \nIt is the expression of his life\, his culture\, and his karma. As a young monk\, Uchiyama suffered terribly\, living in a poor\, broken down temple in post-war Japan. After the war\, people were starving. An article of his in Lion’s Roar magazine\, translated as “Laughter Through the Tears\,” speaks of his difficult early days. Those days seemed to have many more tears than laughter. \nIsn’t that also the sound? \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-61/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Silver-Sea_500.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250811T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250811T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250623T162254Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250808T185011Z
UID:10002101-1754935200-1754940600@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Horses Cross Over
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nA student asked Zhaozhou\, “For a long time I’ve heard about the stone bridge of Zhaozhou. But now that I’ve come\, I see only a log thrown across the river.”\nZhaozhou said\, “You only see the log bridge\, you just don’t see the stone bridge.”\n“What is the stone bridge like?”\n“It lets donkeys cross\, it lets horses cross.”\n \n—The Blue Cliff Record\, Case 52 \nAn arched stone bridge. Yes. Horses and donkeys clattering across. Yes\, yes. Such powerful and sensual images. In reading this koan\, horse memories and bridge dreams have visited me again and again. Look\, look\, they say. \nThere is some historical context to this koan: one of the three old stone bridges in China was built at a town called Zhaozhou\, not far from the famous teacher’s temple. The river floods\, or dries up from drought\, but the bridge holds. It is such a grand old bridge\, allowing a whole parade of life: dogs and fleas\, rats\, bandits and emperors. We too may cross. \nYet sometimes all we can see is the narrow\, rickety log plank\, with its uncertainty and dangers. The crossing becomes treacherous\, the world now more fluid. “As I cross the bridge\,” offers Fu Ta-shih\, “the bridge flows\, the water is still.” We don’t know how the crossing will go. \nAs a kid\, I was around horses a lot. My best friend through middle school was a competitive Western–style horseman\, eventually winning the state junior championship for barrel racing. When I stayed over\, we never rode\, but always tended to the horses. With hand hooks we swung green hay bales off the pickup truck. Splitting the alfalfa into flakes for the animals would release a wonderful sweet herbal scent. And the week–old pine shavings\, used for bedding in the stalls\, were soaked with horse piss with its ammonia stink and mixed with fresh shit. I loved shoveling that crap into a wheelbarrow\, being close to the horses. \nThat semi–rural neighborhood is now long gone in time and space; the creeks got paved over\, and the fields were filled in with houses. Gary and his horses moved away\, and we lost contact. After several decades\, I found him on the internet and we reconnected. I worry about him sometimes. A while ago they found a tumor in his brain they had to take out. And three years ago\, he discovered a heart condition the doctors called a “widow–maker\,” which is what his father died from. \nIt sometimes feels like we are in an era of log bridges\, flowing bridges with no familiar structures to rely on. On the phone with an old Zen friend\, she mentioned how dangerous the world has become: Washington\, Gaza\, and fires. It was hard to disagree. Later\, sitting outside in the backyard in the warm sun with my dog\, a lawnmower kicked up next door. It was the most beautiful essence of summer sound. I’m not sure if the sound was a log bridge or a stone bridge\, a horse or a donkey. Maybe that’s not the point\, as long as we can cross. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-62/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Terracotta_Horses_500x375.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250804T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250804T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250623T162332Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250801T173537Z
UID:10002100-1754330400-1754335800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Feast On Your Life
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nSit. Feast on your life.\n\nThese are the last lines of the Derek Walcott poem\, “Love after Love.” Walcott\, whose family was of English\, Dutch\, and African descent\, and who grew up in the Caribbean\, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992. When Edward Espe Brown recently visited our Luminaries Series\, I asked him to read Walcott’s poem\, which he included in his latest book\, The Most Important Point. Edward recited it from memory. \nOn reading and then hearing the poem\, powerful thoughts and references welled up for me. This verse is often seen as a song of rediscovering oneself\, of finding a new self-acceptance after being awash in heartache and loss. \nThe time will come\nwhen with elation\,\nyou will greet yourself arriving\nat your own door\, in your own mirror\,\nand each will smile at the other’s welcome\n\nHere we meet Dongshan’s old woman from The Five Ranks\, who wakes up late one morning\, looks into a mirror\, and finds in her own face a new reflection. \nAnd the monk Jinniu\, who in The Blue Cliff Record laughs and dances heartily as he serves the monks food\, saying: “Bodhisattvas\, come eat your rice!” \nWalcott continues: \nand say\, sit here. Eat.\nYou will love again the stranger who is your self.\nGive wine. Give bread. Give back heart\nto itself\, to the stranger who has loved you\n\nall your life\, whom you have ignored\nfor another\, who knows you by heart.\nTake down the love letters from the bookshelf\n\nthe photographs\, the desperate notes\,\npeel your own image from the mirror.\nSit. Feast on your life.\n\n(Derek Walcott\, Collected Poems 1948-84) \nEdward recounts a private meeting with Shunryu Suzuki: \nThe roshi tells him: “The most important point…” and he paused as I prompted\nmyself to listen intently as the words came out slowly\, “is… to find out… what is… the most important point.”\n\nGoing into our Luminaries chat\, I asked myself\, as I do daily: \nWhat is the most important point? \nWhat is my inmost desire? \nWhy am I practicing? \nWho am I? \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-63/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Derek_Walcott_500.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250728T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250728T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250623T162624Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250623T162624Z
UID:10002098-1753725600-1753731000@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: ON BREAK
DESCRIPTION:Jon Joseph is on break for Pacific Zen Luminaries. Join us again on August 4th!\n\nWe are not alone in the world. We have each other to turn toward. All we need to do is ask. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-on-break-8/
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:20250728T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250728T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250519T200519Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250729T235410Z
UID:10002068-1753725600-1753731000@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:PACIFIC ZEN LUMINARIES: How to Cook Your Life – No Recipe! Jon Joseph in Conversation with Author and Zen Teacher Edward Espe Brown
DESCRIPTION:  \n\nEdward Espe Brown found his way to Zen practice in 1965\, and dove in whole-heartedly. He was the first head cook\, or tenzo\, at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center\, and in 1970 his best-selling book\, The Tassajara Bread Book\, was published. \nHis teacher\, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi\, ordained him as a priest in 1971\, giving him the dharma name Jusan Kainei (“Longevity Mountain\, Peaceful Sea”). \nIn the years since\, Edward helped found Greens Restaurant in San Francisco\, worked with Deborah Madison in writing The Greens Cookbook\, and has written several other cookbooks\, including The Complete Tassajara Cookbook\, and Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings. He edited Not Always So\, a collection of Suzuki Roshi’s lectures\, and in 2007\, he was the subject of a critically acclaimed feature-length documentary film entitled How to Cook Your Life\, directed by Doris Dörrie. \nIn 2018\, No Recipe: Cooking as a Spiritual Practice\, Edward’s book about finding our own way in the kitchen – and in life – was published. One of Edward’s students\, Danny Parker\, put together a book of his lectures\, selected from 30 years’ worth of teaching; The Most Important Point was published in 2019. \nIn addition to studying Zen\, Edward has also done extensive vipassana practice\, yoga\, and chi gung. He leads regular sitting groups and meditation retreats in Northern California and offers workshops in the U.S. and internationally on a variety of subjects\, including cooking\, handwriting change\, and Mindfulness Touch. \nSource: peacefulseasangha.org \n“Suzuki Roshi once said\, ‘The most important point is to find out what is the most important point.’ After a lifetime of practice inspired by his teacher\, Suzuki Roshi\, Ed Brown has discovered that the most important point is love and acceptance. No one expresses this most important point better than Ed. His simple\, soulful\, honest talks will melt your heart.” \n―Norman Fischer\, poet\, Zen priest\, and author of Experience: Thinking\, Writing\, Language\, and Religion \n“It was the wish of Ed’s teacher\, Shunryu Suzuki\, that Zen Buddhist practice might be transformed into a vibrant and new form in coming to North America. Ed exemplifies that transformative view.” \n—Danny S. Parker\, editor \n\n \nJon Joseph Roshi of San Mateo Zen and PZI created this series to support the hardworking innovators and shining voices of modern Zen: scholars\, writers\, poets\, translators\, activists\, artists\, teachers\, and more. \nAll proceeds for each event\, including teacher dana\, go directly to the guest speaker. Event attendees are encouraged to give as generously as you are able\, so we can offer deep thanks to Luminaries guests. \nOur suggested donation is $10 for PZI Members and $12 for Non-Members\, but the scale slides from zero depending on one’s ability to contribute. We also greatly appreciate Patrons\, who help support the program with larger gifts of $25—$250.
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/zen-luminaries-with-edward-espe-brown/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Edward-Espe-Brown500.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250721T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250721T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250623T162406Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250718T185954Z
UID:10002099-1753120800-1753126200@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Why Wait? We Can Have It Right Now
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nOne day\, Huangbo went into the kitchen and asked the cook what he was doing\, and the cook said he was sorting rice for the monks. Huangbo asked how much rice they were eating. \n\nThe cook replied\, “Two-and-a-half measures.”\n“Isn’t that too much?” asked Huangbo.\n“I’m afraid it isn’t enough\,” said the cook.\nHuangbo struck him.\n\nLater\, the cook mentioned this to Linji\, who said\, “I’ll test the old fellow for you.” As soon as Linji came to attend Huangbo\, Huangbo told the story and said that the cook didn’t understand.\n\nLinji asked\, “Isn’t that too much?” And then he said\, “Teacher\, kindly give a turning word in place of the cook.”\n“Well\, why not say\, ‘We’ll eat a meal again tomorrow!’”\nLinji slapped Huangbo and said\, “Why talk about tomorrow—eat it right now!”\n“This lunatic has come here again to pull the tiger’s whiskers\,” said Huangbo.\nLinji shouted and went out.\n\n—The Record of Linji\, Critical Examinations\, I \nWhy wait until tomorrow? Why not have it now? \nUpon entering practice\, it is hard not to set targets and timelines. At least it has been hard for me. Fulfillment\, awakening\, recognition: these goals are hard\, if not impossible\, to resist. “I’m late\, I’m late\, for a very important date!” says Alice’s White Rabbit. I notice in myself a constant urge to trade up for something better. \nWe sometimes forget there is nothing better than this moment\, this place. The good news is we don’t have to wait around for “this.” We can enter the world of awakening right now. But it may not be what we anticipated\, planned for\, or scheduled. It may look a lot like our ordinary life\, but also more mysterious\, more wonderful\, and more beautiful than we imagined. \nIn his introduction to Edward Espe Brown’s The Most Important Point\, editor Danny Parker writes about his big hopes\, and then his great disappointment\, on entering the path. \n“My experience with Zen practice during those months was surprising and largely disappointing—not at all what I imagined. Nothing in my life was solved. My problems loomed larger than when I first came. Far from reaching enlightenment\, I experienced my life as patently mundane. The magic carpet of kensho was pulled out from under me. The great hope of a big transformative realization was gone.”   \nAfter a time\, Danny drifted away from the practice. A decade later\, he was invited by a friend to do a one-day sitting with Ed Brown\, and it became for him “one of the most powerful and pivotal” moments of his life. \n“Old pinecones falling periodically on the metal roof thumped like a cheering section; outdoors jays wailed for me. Even my aching legs seemed to love me. I was home again in quiet simple kindness.”\n\nLinji is the master of the “Don’t Wait” school\, and some of his advice is exceedingly helpful\, in the most simple\, immediate manner: Forget the primi or secondi piatti\, eat your dolce now. \nWe don’t have to believe the stories we cook up. We can be generous hosts and offer welcome. And we can do that right now. \n—Jon Joseph \nArt: A Dahlia from my garden\, with photo assist from Stephen Gay \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-64/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/dahlia500.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250714T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250714T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250623T162828Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250623T162844Z
UID:10002097-1752516000-1752521400@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: ON BREAK
DESCRIPTION:Jon Joseph is not teaching tonight\, but will return on July 21st. We hope you join us then!\n\nWe are not alone in the world. We have each other to turn toward. All we need to do is ask. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-65/
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:20250707T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250707T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250623T162934Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250623T162934Z
UID:10002096-1751911200-1751916600@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: ON BREAK
DESCRIPTION:Jon Joseph is not teaching tonight\, but will return on July 21st. We hope you join us then!\n\nWe are not alone in the world. We have each other to turn toward. All we need to do is ask. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-on-break-9/
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:20250630T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250630T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250416T154804Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250624T123352Z
UID:10002058-1751306400-1751311800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: ON BREAK
DESCRIPTION:Jon Joseph is not teaching today\, but will return on July 21st. We hope you join us then!\n\nWe are not alone in the world. We have each other to turn toward. All we need to do is ask. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-59/
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:20250623T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250623T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250416T154637Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250622T132211Z
UID:10002057-1750701600-1750707000@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph – The Tao Arrived: A sharing of experiences from the Great Summer Retreat
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nZhaozhou taught\, “The Greatest Way is not difficult if you just don’t pick and choose. As soon as you hear this\, you think\, ‘That’s picking and choosing\,’ or ‘That’s clarity.’ But I don’t identify with clarity. Can you live this way?”\nA student asked\, “If you don’t identify with clarity\, what do you live by?” “Again\, I don’t know\,” responded Zhou.\n“If you don’t know\, why do you say that you don’t identify with clarity?” “Just asking the question is enough\,” replied Zhou. “Make your bow and step back.” \n—The Blue Cliff Record\, Case 2 \nAs I write\, we are finishing up Pacific Zen’s Great Summer Sesshin in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Morning fog rolls up from the Pajaro Valley\, sometimes engulfing our zendo\, but each day around noon the fog burns off and the bright sunshine comes out\, filtering through the coastal redwoods. Over the week our meditations have followed a similar natural rhythm of mist turning to clear sunshine. \n“We are all like fledgling birds\,” one teacher said\, “Each time we come to retreat\, we grow a few more feathers until finally we can fly.” \nDaily\, whole koans or their bits have been flying gracefully across the empty sky in which we sit. A few that appeared this week: \nThe physical body decays. What is the pure and everlasting body? Mountain flowers open like brocade; mountain torrents are deep as indigo. \nOur Mind is nothing other than mountains\, rivers and great earth\, the sun\, moon and stars. \nI spent some time with Zhaozhou’s “Greatest Way” (above)\, one of the most important koans in The Blue Cliff Record. In that koan\, the character Way\, or Tao 道(J. dō)\, is a foundational notion in Chan–Zen. But the character often translated great\, 至 (J. shi)\, in common usage means to arrive\, reach\, attain. So one possible translation of the above term is “The Way Arrived\,” or “The Way that is attained.” \nIf the life we already have is both arrived and attained\, whole and complete in itself\, then this life with all its many avenues and ditches is the greatest way. If somehow we learn to identify less with either endarkenment (picking and choosing) or enlightenment (clarity)\, then perhaps we can walk this greatest way\, this vast empty sky\, with just a bit more ease. As traveling companions\, this pure and everlasting body will always be with us. It forever lives in the valley fog and coastal redwoods. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-58/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/sun_fog500.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250616T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250616T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250416T153840Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250416T153840Z
UID:10002059-1750096800-1750102200@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: ON BREAK
DESCRIPTION:Jon Joseph is on break today for the Great Summer Sesshin\, but will return on June 23rd. We hope you join us then! \n\nWe are not alone in the world. We have each other to turn toward. All we need to do is ask. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-on-break-7/
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:20250609T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250609T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250416T184913Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250623T223249Z
UID:10002061-1749492000-1749497400@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ZEN LUMINARIES: Untangled – Jon Joseph in Conversation with Author\, Zen Teacher\, and Jungian Psychotherapist Koshin Paley Ellison
DESCRIPTION:  \n\nKoshin Paley Ellison is recognized as one of today’s most thoughtful and trusted leaders in the contemplative medicine movement. With his husband\, Chodo Campbell\, he co-founded the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care\, an educational non-profit dedicated to integrating contemplative approaches to care with contemporary medicine. Through Koshin’s leadership and vision\, NYZC has developed transformational\, collaborative training experiences: the Foundations in Contemplative Care and the Contemplative Medicine Fellowship. Today\, New York Zen Center’s teachings and practices are internationally recognized — and have touched the lives of tens of thousands of individuals. \nAs a renowned thought leader in contemplative care\, Koshin’s work has been featured in the New York Times\, PBS\, CBS Sunday Morning and other media outlets. Koshin and Chodo were featured in Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death\, a documentary about facing our mortality and are also the focus of a forthcoming documentary about Buddhism in America for Dutch television. \nKoshin is the author of Untangled: Walking the Eightfold Path to Clarity\, Courage\, and Compassion (Balance/Hachette\, 2022); Wholehearted: Slow Down\, Help Out\, Wake Up (Wisdom Publications\, 2019)\, and the co-editor of Awake at Bedside: Contemplative Teachings on Palliative and End of Life Care (Wisdom Publications\, 2016). \nSource: The New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care \n“Intimacy is based on the willingness to open ourselves to many others\, to family\, friends\, and even strangers\, forming genuine and deep bonds based on common humanity. Koshin Paley Ellison’s teachings share the way forward into a path of connection\, compassion\, and intimacy.” \n—His Holiness the Dalai Lama \n“Oh\, what a tangled web we weave when we believe our own thoughts! Koshin Paley Ellison shares his wisdom and passion in Untangled. Written with truth\, humor\, sometimes revealing pain\, always manifesting compassion\, Untangled is a gem.” \n―Sharon Salzberg\, author of Loving Kindness and Real Change \n\n \nJon Joseph Roshi of San Mateo Zen and PZI created this series to support the hardworking innovators and shining voices of modern Zen: scholars\, writers\, poets\, translators\, activists\, artists\, teachers\, and more. \nAll proceeds for each event\, including teacher dana\, go directly to the guest speaker. Event attendees are encouraged to give as generously as you are able\, so we can offer deep thanks to Luminaries guests. \nOur suggested donation is $10 for PZI Members and $12 for Non-Members\, but the scale slides from zero depending on one’s ability to contribute. We also greatly appreciate Patrons\, who help support the program with larger gifts of $25—$250.
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/zen-luminaries-with-koshin-paley-ellison/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/KOSHIN-PALEY-ELLISON500.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250609T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250609T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250416T153707Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250416T153707Z
UID:10002055-1749492000-1749497400@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: ON BREAK
DESCRIPTION:Jon Joseph is on break today for Pacific Zen Luminaries\, but will return on June 23rd. We hope you join us then!\n\nWe are not alone in the world. We have each other to turn toward. All we need to do is ask. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-on-break-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
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250602T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250602T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250416T154516Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250530T175639Z
UID:10002056-1748887200-1748892600@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Holding the Story More Lightly
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nMinister Luxuan was having a conversation with Nanquan and said\, “Sengzhao said\, ‘The universe and I have the same root. The ten thousand things and I have one body.’ How very strange and wonderful!” \nNanquan pointed to a flower in the courtyard and called to the minister saying\, “These days people see this flower as though it’s a dream.” \n—Blue Cliff Record Case 40 \nNeed we so deeply believe the endless stories that make up our dream self? \nKoshin Paley Ellison is a therapist\, Zen teacher\, and co-founder of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care\, which provides training in care for the aging\, recovering\, terminally ill\, and professional care-givers. He writes: \n“We see what we want to see\, or what we are afraid will happen\, as opposed to what actually is. Can you think of a time in your life when you were so lost in a story—either a good one or a bad one—that you didn’t see right under your nose?” \nIn his book\, Untangled: Walking the Eightfold Path to Clarity\, Courage and Compassion\, Koshin recalls a family that had a story they could not let go of. Called by the family to the hospital emergency room at 4:00 a.m.\, he relates: \n***** \nThis was early in my clinical training\, and I remember thinking\, “Oh god\, what am I going to do?” Then I realized—that wasn’t my feeling. I got interested in that feeling of “I don’t know what to do\,” and realized I had taken on that feeling the moment I walked in. \nWe walk into rooms all the time and experience them as sad or energetic rooms. This was a fearful\, bewildered room\, so I took on the feeling\, “I don’t know what to do\, I’m scared\, I feel helpless.” \nInstead of continuing to take it on\, I got curious. I felt tight in my chest\, and then I looked at the family pressed up against the curtain. Their breath was all in their chests\, their eyes were wide. \nI said\, “What’s happening?” They said\, “We don’t know what to do. We don’t know what’s happening.” I saw\, when I looked over at the father on the bed\, that he was clearly mouthing something. \nI said\, “Do you know what he’s saying?” They said\, “No.” So I went over\, and he was whispering. This little man was whispering\, “Hold me\, hold me\, hold me.” I gently touched his hand and I said\, “I’ll be right back\, hold on.” \nI told them\, “He wants to be held.” \nThey said\, “We can’t do that.” \nI said\, “If you hold me\, I’ll hold him.” \nI don’t know what came over me. If we don’t stay with the fear\, and we explore the feeling instead\, things can shift. \nI wanted to help them get close\, so I said\, “One of you keep your hand on me\, and the rest hold each other\, and we’ll make a little chain.” I gently leaned across the bed and held the man around his shoulders\, my arm on his arm. He said\, “Ahhhhhh. More\, more\, more.” \nI ended up crawling into the bed with him\, holding him\, as his wife was touching me on my shoulder\, and I was holding him\, embracing him\, this man. And he said\, “Ahhhhhh\, thank you\, thank you.” And he died. \n***** \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-57/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Mayumi-waves_500x375.jpeg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250526T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250526T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250416T153250Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250523T150100Z
UID:10002053-1748282400-1748287800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Zen and the Ways: Searching for a Master Swordsman
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nFor thirty years I searched for a master swordsman.\nHow many times did the leaves fall\nand the branches break into bud?\nBut from the moment I saw the peach blossoms\, I’ve had no doubts. \n—Entangling Vines\, Case 8 \nThe above poem was written by the 9th century Chan-Zen master Lingyun Zhiqin\, on his becoming awakened while turning a corner in the road and seeing across the valley peach trees in bloom. What did he realize? For a moment he dropped his search for mastery and realized the intimate\, personal beauty of the blossoms. \nSome five centuries later\, the Japanese priest Keizan Jokin wrote: \nThe village peach blossoms didn’t know \ntheir own pink\nbut still they freed Lingyun\nfrom all his doubts. \nOur search for a master swordsman in Chan-Zen is not so different from the search for mastery in the traditional East Asian arts of self-defense. Both seek to drop the self and find the Way. \n“Archery\, therefore\, is not practiced solely for hitting the target\,” writes Eugen Herrigel\, in his classic Zen in the Art of Archery (1953)\, “The mind must be attuned to the Unconscious. If one really wishes to be master of an art\, technical knowledge is not enough. One has to transcend technique so that the art becomes an ‘artless art’ growing out of the Unconscious.” The master swordsman must forget the sword. \nThere is probably no martial art more closely associated with Zen Buddhism in recent years than Aikido (合気道)\, sometimes translated as “The Way of the Harmonious Spirit.” Developed by Morihei Ueshiba (honorifically called\, “Osensei”) in the 1920s to defend oneself against an attacker without seriously injuring the assailant\, the defender actually uses the momentum of the attack against the attacker himself. \n“It’s a lot like dancing\,” says Lance Sobel\, who has just returned from a three-day Aikido training period. Lance\, a fourth-degree black belt\, has been practicing Aikido for fifty years and Zen meditation for nearly as long. He got into martial arts in his early 30s\, and decided to try something other than Karate after breaking bones in both hands after a training session. He notes that early training in Aikido is structured: one partner attacks\, the other partner moves out of range and as the attacker comes closer\, immobilizes or throws them across the mat. More advanced training is spontaneous and free-form: the defender looks for openings with energy\, redirects that energy\, the two enter that dance. \n“When the dance starts happening in a dynamic way\, there is an incredible sense of the universe\, of expanded awareness\,” says Lance. “Where can I safely move? Where can I move them? You are not locked into a predetermined response; it moves more like an organism.” \nTodd Geist\, a Head of Practice at Pacific Zen and a second degree Aikido black belt writes\, “What I loved most about Aikido training was the sense of absolute ease that could come even when being tossed head over heels across the mat. There would be this moment of contact with your partner\, and your body just reacts. Suddenly you are in the air. Not because your partner overwhelmed or hurt you\, but because that was the best way to resolve the situation and dissipate the energy of conflict\, and your body just knew how to do it. It wasn’t always\, or even often like that\, but when it was\, I felt completely free.” \n“We are doing Aikido in order to become freer ultimately\,” writes Seishiro Endo\, 8th dan and elder in the original Aikikai school. “We must savor the circumstance at this moment now as it vibrates from the partner\, open our senses regarding the whole situation around us\, and be able to give rise to function. I hope that we will continue to practice while valuing the vibration in this moment\, now\, now\, now…” \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-on-break-5/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Aikido500.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250519T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250519T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250416T153141Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250519T203441Z
UID:10002054-1747677600-1747683000@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Yes. My Dog Has Buddha Nature.
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nA student asked Zhaozhou\, “Has the dog buddha nature\, or not?”\nZhou replied\, “Yes.”\nThe student said\, “Then why did he jump into that skin bag?”\nZhou responded\, “Even though he knew better\, he just couldn’t help it.” \n—Book of Serenity\, Case 18 \nSo opens Zhaozhou’s Dog\, the well-known dharmakaya koan\, one often given as a first koan to practitioners. In the second half of the koan\, when asked again if a dog has buddha nature\, Zhou replies\, “No!” \nFrom Zen’s point of view\, the universe is utterly simple: there are only two bits. One is form\, or phenomenon\, and the other is no-form\, or emptiness. Presence and Absence\, as translated by David Hinton. \nBut these two parts are not in the least separate. Rather\, they are dependent on each other for their existence. The Heart Sutra\, Zen’s foundational text\, reads: “Form is emptiness and emptiness is form/Form is exactly emptiness and emptiness is exactly form.” What a lovely painting of a rice cake! \nAs soon as we say “form” or “emptiness\,” we divide the universe into two with ideas of how things should be. And we go on dividing\, opening a gap between ourselves and others\, between ourselves and ourselves\, and between ourselves and the world. This creates all sorts of mischief\, and sometimes pain. “People are disturbed not by things themselves\,” writes the Stoic Epictetus\, “but by the views they take of them.” We know that but we can’t help ourselves from doing it. Neither can my dog. \nThe world of “Yes” is hairy\, sweaty\, muddy\, shitty. Oh\, did I mention flatulence? My dog farts\, especially when we are watching TV. And she is an obsessive ball chaser; she has at least ten old tennis balls scattered around the backyard. “Yes” invites us to realize the intrinsic purity and beauty in the world of messiness. Messiness\, too\, is our original nature. It is not wrong. \nIn the world of “No\,” there is not one thing. Everything is a No-thing. Even “No” has no meaning outside of “No.” At some point 2\,500 years ago\, somebody made up a word to point to this thing of No-ness: buddha nature. The bouncy\, messy\, happy skin bag; this is the skin of both No and Yes. It is our skin. \nOur recent Luminaries guest Henry Shukman recounts a story of his solo retreat in the mountains of New Mexico. \nI was having a restless time. My brain was in recovery from a concussion\, the current state of US politics was dire\, and our retreat center down in Santa Fe was having difficulties—all of which made me uneasy\, sometimes angry\, sometimes sad. \nHe sat\, focusing on a thanka of Green Tara\, and something switched for him. \nAgain\, it struck me: Anger was 100 percent fine\, from a goddess’ point of view. From the perspective of awakening\, anger was not a problem. It was “empty”—transparent and boundless…\n\nGoing outside to gaze at the mountains\, he realized that “…all [is] a single arising\, a single body\, a single cloud\, a single wonder\, a single flash of lightening… Nameless. Marvelous. Empty. And here.” \nTranslator’s note: What most recently caught my eye during a review of this koan with a friend was the final line quoted above and Koun Yamada’s lengthy commentary on it. The Chinese characters read: \n(為) Doing (他) Other (知) Knowledge (而) Even so (故) Intentional (犯) Transgress \nOne translation is “Because he knows yet deliberately transgresses (Cleary).” The Pacific Zen translation is beautifully direct: “It knew what it was doing and that’s why it dogged (Sutherland\, Tarrant).” Yamada’s is: “Because he committed himself intentionally.” \nIn discussing the koan\, Yamada mentions that some people get hung up on whether a dog is capable of a crime or transgression. That\, he says\, is completely missing the point. The key is to directly appreciate the dog-ness of the dog. \nWhoof! Yap! \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-on-break-4/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/dog500.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250512T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250512T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250416T152713Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250416T185327Z
UID:10002052-1747072800-1747078200@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: ON BREAK
DESCRIPTION:Jon Joseph is on break\, hosting Pacific Zen Luminaries today. Join us again on June 2nd!\n\nWe are not alone in the world. We have each other to turn toward. All we need to do is ask. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-on-break-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
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250512T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250512T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T031535
CREATED:20250408T162612Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250513T230526Z
UID:10002028-1747072800-1747078200@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ZEN LUMINARIES: Original Love – Jon Joseph in Conversation with Author & Zen Teacher Henry Shukman
DESCRIPTION:  \n\nHenry Shukman joins Jon Joseph to discuss his writing and how his history of both studying and teaching Zen has influenced his work and life. He will read from his memoir One Blade of Grass as well as his latest book\, Original Love: The Four Inns on the Path of Awakening. \nHenry wrote his first book at the age of 19 and worked as a full-time writer for many years\, writing several award-winning and bestselling books of poetry and fiction. His poems have been published in the New Yorker\, Guardian\, Sunday Times (UK) and London Review of Books\, and his essays in the New York Times\, Outside\, Guardian and Tricycle.  He has also taught poetry at the Institute of American Indian Arts and Oxford Brookes University and was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow of Poetry\, and Poet in Residence at the Wordsworth Trust. He has an MA from Cambridge\, an M.Litt. from St Andrews. \nHenry is a teacher in the Sanbo Zen lineage and has trained in various other meditation schools and practices. After a spontaneous spiritual awakening at the age of 19\, he embarked on a long journey of healing and deeper awakening\, guided by Roshis John Gaynor\, Joan Rieck\, Ruben Habito\, and Yamada Roshi\, international abbot of Sanbo Zen\, who ultimately appointed him a teacher in 2010. Since then he has been leading a growing number of practitioners on the path of awakening\, in Europe and the US. He has also been authorized to teach Mindfulness by Shinzen Young\, and is a certified dreamwork therapist. He is the Spiritual Director Emeritus of Mountain Cloud Zen Center in Santa Fe\, New Mexico. \nSource: https://henryshukman.com \n\n“Original Love is one of the rare books destined to inspire new and seasoned meditators alike. Drawing on his own deep experience and years of teaching\, Henry Shukman brings a lucid and refreshing cast to the fundamentals of practice\, and reveals how the loving we yearn for is always\, already here; love is intrinsic to what we are.” \n—Tara Brach\, author of Radical Acceptance \n“If you’ve ever wondered how a messed up kid like you or me might master the wisdom of Zen\, One Blade of Grass is the adventure for you. It’s great company―and after reading it\, you might recognize that you’re further along than you imagined.” \n―David Hinton\, editor and translator of The Four Chinese Classics \n\n \nJon Joseph Roshi of San Mateo Zen and PZI created this series to support the hardworking innovators and shining voices of modern Zen: scholars\, writers\, poets\, translators\, activists\, artists\, teachers\, and more. \nAll proceeds for each event\, including teacher dana\, go directly to the guest speaker. Event attendees are encouraged to give as generously as you are able\, so we can offer deep thanks to Luminaries guests. \nOur suggested donation is $10 for PZI Members and $12 for Non-Members\, but the scale slides from zero depending on one’s ability to contribute. We also greatly appreciate Patrons\, who help support the program with larger gifts of $25—$250.
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/pacific-zen-luminaries-series-henry-shukman-with-jon-joseph-friends-may-12th/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Henry_Shukman500.jpg
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END:VCALENDAR