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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241202T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241202T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20241120T162246Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241202T232358Z
UID:10001920-1733162400-1733167800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: It's Complicated: Odysseus Returns Home
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nTell me about a complicated man.\nMuse\, tell me how he wandered and was lost\nwhen he had wrecked the holy town of Troy\,\nand where he went\, and who he met\, the pain\nhe suffered on the sea … Now goddess\, child of Zeus\,\ntell the old story of our modern times.\nFrom the beginning. \n—The Odyssey by Homer\, translated by Emily Wilson \nSo opens the nearly three-thousand-year-old Greek epic about a man trying to return to his original home. This tale is not very different from our own wandering in the Chan-Zen tradition. Perhaps it is wholly the same. \nDizang asks Fayan\, “Where are you going?\nLost\, Fayan responds\, “I am wandering\, trying to get back to my true home.”\n“Why are you doing that?”\n“I am not at all sure\,” replies Fayan.\n“Being lost\, being unsure\, that itself is your original home\,” answers Dizang. \nWhen The Odyssey opens\, our hero—sacker of cities\, trickster\, beggar\, pirate\, loving husband and father—is being held captive by the alluring and powerful nymph Calypso\, who wishes to keep him as her lover for all eternity. Instead\, forlorn\, he sits all day long on the shore of her island\, weeping for the family and community he has not seen in two decades. Rather than the immortality of the gods that she is offering\, he wishes instead to once again “see the smoke that rises/from his own homeland\, and he wants to die.” \nEmily Wilson’s translation of the classic is “majestic as literature gets\,” writes one critic. She brings forth the light of this one hero’s journey that shines through all ages\, regions and cultures. It radiates with the nature\, which is our self nature. There is an immediacy\, intimacy and familiarity in both the story and the translation that allows us to embody the journey and know it to be our own. \nTell me about a complicated man and woman\, who have wandered and have been lost\, who have done both wonderful and awful things\, and who now just wish to return home to their hearths and families. Tell me\, Muse\, an old story of our modern times. \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-38/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/JonJosephCALENDAR500X375.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241125T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241125T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20241029T190350Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241029T190643Z
UID:10001905-1732557600-1732563000@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ON BREAK: MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:Jon Joseph is not teaching today. Come join us next on December 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/on-break-monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-15/
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:20241118T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241118T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20241029T190300Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241029T190725Z
UID:10001904-1731952800-1731958200@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ON BREAK: MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:Jon Joseph is not teaching today. Come join us next on December 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/on-break-monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-14/
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:20241111T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241111T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20241029T190158Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241029T190742Z
UID:10001903-1731348000-1731353400@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ON BREAK: MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:Jon Joseph is not teaching today. Come join us next on December 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/on-break-monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-13/
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:20241104T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241104T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20241029T185830Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241101T185508Z
UID:10001902-1730743200-1730748600@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: The Sweetest Fig: Gifts From Unexpected Quarters
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nThis very place is paradise\,\nthis very body the Buddha. \n—Hakuin Ekaku\, Praise Song for Meditation \nWar\, conflict\, argument. These times have long been with us\, and because inside and outside are not two\, they penetrate our hearts and minds. Like the Bodhisattva of Compassion\, we cannot help but hear and see the cries of the world. But is it so strange to consider relief from those cries coming from simple\, unexpected quarters? \nThis year we had a tremendous harvest of figs from our family tree. And after making jam and pickled figs\, I slowly dry several pounds of fruit in the oven. Each afternoon\, as I take out a couple of figs from the plastic bag in the fridge\, I think of Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem about her Palestinian father\, a journalist who was a passionate lover of figs. \n“Appreciate your life\,” one of my Zen teachers often said. I take a dried fig in hand\, and feeling its leathery skin\, I hear the crunch of seeds between my teeth and taste the sweet pulp of its fruit. Because inside and outside are not two\, the precious fig-ness spills out to the far corners of the world\, making it a bit more rich in being. \nLast week\, like thousands of others\, I sent Naomi—a Pacific Zen Luminary—a note of congratulations for having received the prestigious Wallace Stevens Award for poetry. Her reply\, which included thanks\, was perfect Naomi: “I will try to be worthy!” Too late; already accomplished. Worthy of the largest\, fattest\, sweetest fig in the world. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nMy Father and the Fig Tree \nFor other fruits\, my father was indifferent.\nHe’d point at the cherry trees and say\,\n“See those? I wish they were figs.”\nIn the evening he sat by my bed\nweaving folktales like vivid little scarves.\nThey always involved a figtree.\nEven when it didn’t fit\, he’d stick it in.\nOnce Joha was walking down the road\nand he saw a fig tree.\nOr\, he tied his donkey to a figtree\nand went to sleep.\nOr\, later when they caught and arrested him\,\nhis pockets were full of figs. \nAt age six I ate a dried fig and shrugged.\n“That’s not what I’m talking about!” he said.\n“I’m talking about a fig straight from the earth –\ngift of Allah! — on a branch so heavy it touches the ground.\nI’m talking about picking the largest\, fattest\, sweetest fig\nin the world and putting it in my mouth.”\n(Here he’d stop and close his eyes.) \nYears passed\, we lived in many houses\, none had figtrees.\nWe had lima beans\, zucchini\, parsley\, beets.\n“Plant one!” my mother said. but my father never did.\nHe tended garden half-heartedly\, forgot to water\,\nlet the okra get too big.\n“What a dreamer he is. Look how many things he starts\nand doesn’t finish.” \nThe last time he moved\, I got a phone call.\nMy father\, in Arabic\, chanting a song I’d never heard.\n“What’s that?”\n“Wait til you see!”\nHe took me out back to the new yard.\nThere\, in the middle of Dallas\, Texas\,\na tree with the largest\, fattest\, sweetest figs in the world.\n“It’s a figtree song!” he said\,\nplucking his fruits like ripe tokens\,\nemblems\, assurance\nof a world that was always his own. \n—Naomi Shihab Nye\, from Everything Comes Next \n\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-37/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/figsB500.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241028T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241028T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20241028T175623Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241028T182639Z
UID:10001841-1730138400-1730143800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Sesshin Field Notes: In Praise of the Dark
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nSesshin Field Notes: In Praise of the Dark \nYunyan asked Daowu\, “How does the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion use all her hands and eyes?”  \nWu said\, “It’s like reaching behind you for a pillow in the night.”  \nYan said\, “I understand.”   \nWu said\, “How do you understand?”  \nYan replied\, “All over the body are hands and eyes.”  \nWu said\, “You have said quite a bit there\, but you’ve only said eighty percent of it.”  \nYan said\, “What do you say\, Elder Brother?”  \nWu replied\, “Throughout the body are hands and eyes.” \n—The Blue Cliff Record Case 89 \nWhat is the heart-mind of the bodhisattva upon entering Zen sesshin—cloistered silence\, many hours of meditation\, walks through the wooded hills? I pay close attention to my dreams in the weeks before sesshin to perhaps understand what my psyche is trying to reflect back to me. Several days before our recent fall retreat\, I had the following dream: \nI am sitting in a comfortable public space where people are moving about. The sun is shining in a garden outside and people are enjoying the warm weather. I find myself chatting with a teacher whom I had known at Zen Center of Los Angeles forty years ago. He says to me\, “I shouldn’t have chosen that guy as my assistant; he wasn’t any good.” The implication was that he should have picked me instead. Mildly flattered\, I am also incredulous: I have not spoken with this teacher in thirty years\, yet I have a single important connection: the teacher in the dream was the first to give me the koan Mu. \nMore than ten years ago when I became a teacher in the Pacific Zen tradition\, I had a dream about Taizan Maezumi Roshi\, who had been this man’s teacher. Still in the dream with the younger man\, I tell him of my dream about Maezumi: \nIn the early one morning dark\, Maezumi comes down the stairs to do kentan\, a review of the zendo\, which is full of monks in black robes seated on cushions\, atop a raised platform. Only a single seat is open\, to my right. Maezumi sits next to me\, which I take to mean he approves of my teaching. \nThis telling ended my dream within a dream. \nWhat did my present dream mean to me? At first I thought it might have to do with the linkage of succession from the young teacher back to his teacher and further back to his. But that explanation did not seem to hold power. \nA few days later I spoke with a friend about the dream\, and she said it perhaps meant I had lost confidence in my own understanding and teaching. Seeking two approvals\, I was seeking validation outside myself when I should be seeking it inside. Though a touch painful to hear\, that interpretation rang of truth and had a warmth to it. \nIn meeting students in dokusan on the first couple of days of sesshin\, I heard them express similar doubts and fears. As bodhisattvas coming into retreat\, they too were struggling with the materia negra\, the dark matter of the soul. \nThough we do not realize it at first\, passing through the dark night of the soul is the place of true freedom. From Melville’s Moby-Dick: \nWe asked the captain what course of action he proposed to take toward a beast so large\, terrifying\, and unpredictable. He hesitated to answer\, and then said\, judiciously\, “I think I shall praise it.” \n—Jon Joseph \nWriter’s Note: As I send this out\, we are entering the final days of our annual fall sesshin\, “The Manifestations of the 1000-Armed Goddess of Mercy\,” held at the Santa Sabina Convent in San Rafael\, California. We have been holding two or three retreats here every year for a decade\, but ownership of this beautiful century-old Benedictine sanctuary will soon change and we will move our retreats elsewhere. We wish to thank the many generations of women who have lived here\, dedicating their lives to God and their community. We will miss them. \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-37-4/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/whaletail.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241021T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241021T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20241015T172248Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241015T172659Z
UID:10001893-1729533600-1729539000@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ON BREAK: MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:NO MONDAY ZEN TODAY \nJon is preparing for sesshin today\, returning to Monday Zen on October 28th. \nHope to see you then! \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/on-break-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/2021/06/wooden-bucketCALENDAR500x350.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241014T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241014T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20241009T214933Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241011T181947Z
UID:10001840-1728928800-1728934200@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: “Yoshi” Means Good in Our Dreams and Lives
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\n“Yoshi” Means Good in Our Dreams and Lives \nLast night when I was sleeping\,\nI dreamt—marvelous error!—\nthat a spring was breaking out\nout in my heart… \n—Anthony Machado\, “Last Night When I Was Sleeping” \nThis morning I woke up from a dream that I had finished writing this note while sleeping. Though it seemed I was working on the note through the second half of the night\, upon waking I couldn’t remember its contents\, only that it was called “yoshi (吉).” In Japanese\, yoshi means “good\, good luck\, or joy\,” and there are at least five different kanji characters that read as yoshi. \nI notice how often the word “good” appears in koans. Yunmen’s “good day\,” Layman Pang’s “good snowflakes\,” and Ching’s “good news” when a chick breaks out of its shell. Even “the whole world is medicine” and “Bodhisattvas\, come eat your rice” have the feeling of generosity.\n\nYet we also live in Huineng’s world of “before thinking good or evil\,” where a beautiful and essential light shines in all things. We can’t call that light “good”—that would make the world smaller because it is more than good: it drinks in the whole universe\, both good and bad. So instead we call it “the nature\,” and when we see the nature\, we call that kensho. \n\nDuring Open Temple this morning\, my thoughts wandered to my friend’s husband\, who died last week. He had been diagnosed with cancer three years go and it was in check\, and then suddenly it wasn’t. He was a good man\, a very good man\, and funny. As a child he was chosen to be the spokes-kid for Oscar Meyer\, riding the Wienermobile. And now\, like a dream\, he is gone. But his memory remains. It is yoshi. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nMachado’s poem continues:\n\nI said: Along which secret aqueduct\,\nOh water\, are you coming to me\,\nwater of a new life\nthat I have never drunk?\n\nLast night as I was sleeping\,\nI dreamt—marvelous error!—\nthat I had a beehive\nhere inside my heart.\nAnd the golden bees\nwere making white combs\nand sweet honey\nfrom my old failures.\n\nLast night as I was sleeping\,\nI dreamt—marvelous error!—\nthat a fiery sun was giving\nlight inside my heart.\nIt was fiery because I felt\nwarmth as from a hearth\,\nand sun because it gave light\nand brought tears to my eyes.\n\nLast night as I slept\,\nI dreamt—marvelous error!—\nthat it was God I had\nhere inside my heart.    \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-37-3/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/dreamybaloons.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241007T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241007T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20241004T170337Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241004T185154Z
UID:10001839-1728324000-1728329400@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Refuge in the Limbs and Branches of This Tree of Life
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nI vow not to kill\nDogen: The Buddha’s seed grows when you don’t take life. Pass on the Buddha’s life and do not kill.  \nI vow not to steal\nDogen: Just as they are\, you and the things of the world are one. The gate to freedom is open.  \nI vow not to misuse sex\nDogen: The three wheels of yourself\, others\, and your actions are pure. When you desire nothing\, you follow the Buddha’s Way.  \nI vow not to lie\nDogen: The Dharma Wheel turns from the beginning. There is never too much or too little. Everything is wet with dew and the truth is ready to harvest.  \nI vow not to misuse drugs\nDogen: Drugs are not brought in yet. Don’t bring them in. That is the great light. \nIf the Refuge Vows (I take refuge in awakening\, the Way and my companions) are the very roots of our tree of life\, and the Pure Vows (I vow to do no harm\, to do good\, and to do good for others) are its trunk\, then the Ten Bodhisattva Vows (sometimes translated as the “Ten Grave Precepts”) are the tree reaching out into the world\, its branches and leaves touching the wind\, rain and sunshine of space. \nLike the previous\, the Bodhisattva Vows are studied over many months as koans. What does it mean to kill? To give a doctor orders not to resuscitate a dying loved one? To dampen some light in ourselves and others? Do not steal\, misuse sex\, lie\, misuse intoxicants? If in all the universe there is not one thing out of place\, how then is it even helpful to lean into making our lives and the lives of others better? Maybe just asking the questions is the best we can do. \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-37-2/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/tree.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240930T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240930T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20240917T201442Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240927T004815Z
UID:10001821-1727719200-1727724600@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Three Pure Vows
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\nLast week\, in spending time with the Three Refuge Vows\, we talked about the act and experience of taking refuge in awakening\, the Way\, and our companions. Now we are looking into the second set of three vows\, the Three Pure Vows. \nI vow to do no harm.\nI vow to do good.\nI vow to do good for others. \nIn spending time with these vows as koans\, it naturally brings up questions like\, what does “pure” mean?  What is harm\, good\, and good for others? Where is the cave of the Buddhas\, and how do we find the source of their teachings? The path of perfect enlightenment\, it is said we all walk\, is that my path? Ordinary and awakened; free ourselves and others. Much to talk about. \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-36-6/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-and-light.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240923T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240923T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20240917T181643Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240921T012356Z
UID:10001820-1727114400-1727119800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: A Place Where One Belongs
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\nA Place Where One Belongs\nI take refuge in awakening\nI take refuge in the way\nI take refuge in my companions \n —The Three Refuge Vows\, from Pacific Zen’s Ceremony of Taking Refuge in the Bodhisattva Way \nWhat does it mean to take refuge? The dictionary defines it as “a condition of being safe or sheltered from pursuit\, danger\, or trouble.” It is entering a safe place. \nAt the same time\, while most commonly the Chinese characters (三 帰) are translated as “the three refuges\,” their direct translation means “the three returns: returning home\, going to a place where one belongs\, return from whence one came.” Indeed. \nJoin us. \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-36-5/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Fox_500W.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240916T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240916T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20240910T215102Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240913T180058Z
UID:10001819-1726509600-1726515000@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Every Year a Tomato Year
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\nEvery Year a Tomato Year\nYunmen said\, “I’m not asking you about before the full moon. Come and say a word or two about after the full moon.”\nAnd he himself replied\, “Every day is a good day.” \n   — The Blue Cliff Record Case 6 \nFor me\, every year is a tomato year. For some decades\, I have planted tomato seeds in the late winter\, guarded them from snails as they became small starts\, planted and watered them in the early summer\, and in August and September harvested\, blanched\, roasted\, canned or froze them. And through those late summer months\, I have but one meal in the morning: sliced tomato with a dab of mayonnaise on a piece of toast. Morning after morning. Every year is a good year. And before we use the tags of good and evil\, it is just a year. Somehow\, that itself is a celebration. \nPablo Neruda’s poem Ode to Tomatoes begins: \nThe street\nfilled with tomatoes\nmidday\,\nsummer\,\nlight is\nhalved\nlike a tomato\,\nits juice\nruns\nthrough the streets… \nJoin us Monday. \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-36-4/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/tomatoes.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240909T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240909T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20240903T162321Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240905T205347Z
UID:10001818-1725904800-1725910200@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: A Concord of Sweet Sounds
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n“But music for a time doth change his nature. The man that hath no music in himself\, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds\, is fit for treasons\, stratagems\, and spoils. The motions of his spirit are dull as night…Let no such man be trusted.” \n—Lorenzo\, in Shakespear’s The Merchant of Venice \nTwo of the most trusted men in our universe—Michael Wilding and Jordan Mcconnell\, will join us on Monday night for a concord of sweet sounds: playing and talking about the source of sound and music. We may investigate strains of South Asian melodies in the sweet notes of the flute. Or we may hear in the strings of the guitar the story of an abandoned and barren island off the coast of Ireland\, music written by the fairies to the thrum of wind in halyards and sheets of old sailing vessels. \nJoin us. \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-36-3/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/instruments_500W.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240902T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240902T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20240829T193517Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240829T193737Z
UID:10001817-1725300000-1725305400@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Sitting on Great Courage Peak
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\nSitting On Great Courage Peak\nA student asked Baizhang\, “What is the most wonderful and special thing?”\n“Sitting alone on Great Courage Peak.”\nThe student bowed\, and Baizhang hit him. \n—Blue Cliff Record Case 26 \nI was visiting this koan with a friend the other day\, and what impressed me was this case’s ordinariness: just our sitting alone\, right where we are\, is enough. \n“Great Courage Peak” sounds kind of aspirational\, but it was just the name of the mountain where Baizhang lived. He could have as easily said Geyser Peak\, Lake Tahoe\, or Bolinas. Or he could have responded\, “Sitting alone drinking a latte at Peets Coffee.” Or blanching and packing tomatoes in my kitchen. Reading The Record of Dongshan in the early morning. Don’t say “could be.” It is. \nWhen Dongshan was leaving\, he said to Yunyen\, his teacher\, “If in a hundred years someone were to ask me how to describe you\, how should I respond?” Yunyen answered\, “Say\, ’Just this. This!’” Dongshan fell silent. \nThere is something wonderful and special about just-this-ness. The just-this-ness of Chan-Zen is a fullness\, an enoughness\, a wholeness. That is so great because we are the complete package\, whatever mountain we sit on\, even if we are sitting alone on no-courage mountain. \nMany years ago\, somebody felt they had to name just-this-ness\, so they called it buddha nature. \nJoin us. \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-36-2/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/woman-at-table_500W.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240826T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240826T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20240814T183607Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240814T183607Z
UID:10001794-1724695200-1724700600@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ON BREAK: MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:NO MONDAY ZEN TODAY \nJon Joseph is on break until September 9th. Please join us then! \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-35-4/
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:20240819T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240819T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20240814T183450Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240814T183450Z
UID:10001793-1724090400-1724095800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ON BREAK: MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:NO MONDAY ZEN TODAY \nJon Joseph is on break until September 9th. Please join us then! \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-35-3/
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:20240812T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240812T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20240510T233641Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240827T012458Z
UID:10001723-1723485600-1723491000@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ZEN LUMINARIES: Jon Joseph in Conversation with Poet Robert Hass: On His Poetry\, Japanese Haiku\, and Working with Milosz
DESCRIPTION:Join Jon Joseph and acclaimed poet Robert Hass for a conversation about the great Japanese Haiku masters\, Hass’s poetry\, and his twenty-five-year collaboration with the poet Czeslaw Milosz. \n\nRobert Hass\, a Bay Area native\, is one of the most prolific and celebrated American poets of the last half century. He served as U.S. Poet Laureate from 1995–1997\, and has been the recipient of numerous awards\, including a Pulitzer Prize\, National Book Award\, MacArthur Fellowship\, and Wallace Stevens Award. \nAmong the early influences on Hass’s work were the Chan-Zen leanings of Beat poets Gary Snyder\, Allen Ginsberg\, and Lew Welch. Later\, Hass would publish The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho\, Buson\, and Issa (1994). Hass also translated and worked closely with Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz for many years. \nFrom the introduction to Hass’s Essential Haiku: \nWhat is in these poems [haiku] can’t be had elsewhere. About the things of the world\, and the mind looking at the things of the world\, and the moments and the language in which we try to express them\, they have unusual wakefulness and clarity. Perhaps the best way to get to it … is to read them as plainly and literally as possible. In the end\, the best advice to readers of the poems may be the advice Basho gave his writers: “Prefer vegetable broth to duck soup.” \nFrom the great haiku poet Kobayashi Issa (d. 1827): \nDon’t worry\, spiders\nI keep house\ncasually. \nExcept from Hass’s eight-page poem\, “Santa Barbara Road\,” in his book\, Human Wishes: \nHousehold verses:“Who are you?”\nthe rubber duck in my hand asked Kristin\nonce\, while she was bathing\, three years old.\n“Kristin\,” she said\, laughing\, her delicious\nname\, delicious self. “That’s just your name\,”\nthe duck said. “Who are you?” “Kristin\,”\nshe said. “Kristin’s a name. Who are you?”\nthe duck asked. She said\, shrugging\,\n“Mommy\, Daddy\, Leif.” \n\nReading a poem by Robert Hass is like stepping into the ocean when the temperature of the water is not much different from that of the air. You scarcely know\, until you feel the undertow tug at you\, that you have entered into another element. \n—Poet Stanley Kunitz \nRobert Hass was born in San Francisco in 1941 and grew up in San Rafael. In the midst of the 1950s Bay Area poetry scene\, Hass entertained the idea of becoming a beatnik. He graduated from Marin Catholic High School in 1958. When the area became influenced by East Asian literary techniques\, such as haiku\, Hass took many of these influences up in his poetry. \nHass is the author of nine poetry collections\, winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize\, winner of the William Carlos Williams Award\, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award\, and the Pulitzer Prize. He served as the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry from 1995 to 1997\, and as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2001 to 2007. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2002. \nRobert Hass is the Distinguished Professor in Poetry and Poetics at the University of California Berkeley. \nsource: Wikipedia\, Library of Congress \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 $50—250. \n 
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/zen-luminaries-jon-joseph-in-conversation-with-poet-robert-haas/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Rober-Hass_500x375.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240805T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240805T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20240730T203217Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240801T214503Z
UID:10001790-1722880800-1722886200@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Growing Horns on Your Head
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\nTrying to explain\, you regretfully grow horns on your head:\nBe wary of the desire to search for the Buddha.\nIn this time of vast emptiness\, there is no one who can know\,\nso why head south in search of the many sages?\n \n     –Dongshan’s second set of Five Ranks\, fifth verse. \nThis is the final poem in the second set of Dongshan’s Five Ranks\, a series of poems that we use as a final stage in our formal koan curriculum. For me\, this poem is an admonition on how to pursue our practice and lives at whatever stage we find ourselves. \nIn koan study\, we say “show rather than tell.” That merely means in addressing a koan we accept its singular invitation to join in the play of everyday life. It is an invitation to open our hearts. \nIn Dongshan’s verse\, there is no need to explain (and grow horns)\, there is no need to search for the Buddha\, who after all\, is right here. The time of vast emptiness is our time\, and it is a world of not knowing. Moment by moment\, we and the universe appear fresh and new. So why go seeking all those sages who have nothing to add? \nJoin us. \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-35-2/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/ox_500W.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240729T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240729T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20240723T172549Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240725T232401Z
UID:10001760-1722276000-1722281400@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Ordinary Beings and Buddhas Don't Mingle
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\nOrdinary beings and Buddhas don’t mingle together.\nMountains by nature are high\, and waters by nature are deep.\nThe infinite distinctions\, the endless differences reveal—\nwhere partridges sing\, the myriad flowers bloom. \n—Dongshan’s Five Ranks\, Fourth Verse of Second Set \nIn this verse by one of the great Chan-Zen masters and poets of the Tang era\, the ordinariness of the world is revealed as the natural way of things. Buddhas and ordinary beings don’t mingle because we can’t distinguish them. \nNaturally\, mountains are high and waters deep. Even the endless ways in which we separate ourselves from the world—the ten thousand differences and thousand distinctions—are not wrong\, not a problem. It is that very delusion and dark matter that makes a place for partridges to sing and flowers to bloom. \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-34-5/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/buddha-statue.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240722T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240722T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20240716T164421Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240718T233734Z
UID:10001759-1721671200-1721676600@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Riding Backward on the Jade Elephant
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\nA flower blooms on a dead tree; a spring outside of time.\nRiding backward on a jade elephant\, we chase a dragon-deer with wings.\nNow hidden beyond endless mountains\, the moon is white and the breeze clear as a pleasant day breaks. \nIn this third verse of the second grouping of Dongshan’s Five Ranks we visit a fantastical\, dreamlike landscape that stands outside of time. The tree that was once old and dead is now freshly revived with spring flowers. The powerful jade elephant serves as our mount\, as we sit backward\, chasing the mythical kirin: part horse\, dragon\, and deer. She is a gentle messenger of good luck\, peace and prestige. Hidden deep in the mountains\, we are fortunate enough to see the moon bright\, the air clear\, and a beautiful dawn breaking. \nThis is not a dream\, Dongshan is saying. This is our life. \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-34-4/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/elephant.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240715T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240715T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20240709T232738Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240712T173533Z
UID:10001758-1721066400-1721071800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Who Calls You Home from the Rough Mountains?
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\nFor whom do you bathe and make yourself beautiful?\nThe sound of the cuckoo calls me home.\nA hundred flower blossoms fall\, but the call is not stilled.\nI go deeply into the rough mountains\, and the call is there.   \nThese arrestingly beautiful lines\, the seventh verse in the two five-verse collection called Dongshan’s Five Ranks\, are some of the most lovely and poignant poetry in all of Chan-Zen. Why do we make ourselves beautiful by bathing and putting on makeup?  \nThe hauntingly gorgeous call of the cuckoo is our constant companion. It follows us home\, it watches as we witness the hundred flower blossoms fall. It accompanies us as we trek deeply into the rough and broken peaks. This poem tells us\, in a gorgeous and gracious way\, that wherever we find ourselves\, we are not alone\, either among the flowers or in the rough and broken mountains. \nJoin us. \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-34-3/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Cuckoo-Bird.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240708T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240708T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20240627T204845Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240705T191511Z
UID:10001757-1720461600-1720467000@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Finding the Sacred Dynasty
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\nThe way of the sage king of Yao came from the Dharma\,\nHe bowed respectfully as he ruled the people.\nWhen he passed through the marketplace from end to end\,\nHe found the sacred dynasty there. \nThis is the second cycle of five poems from The Record of Dongshan\, which appear soon after the Five Ranks. While less formal in structure\, these five\, called “Paying Homage and Enlightenment”\, are equally rich in their poetic expression. This second grouping was added to our curriculum a century ago by Harada Sogaku\, our ancestral teacher. \nAs we enter into the dharma with humility\, we give reverence to all things. If we can visit the marketplace of our lives ~ with all of its dust\, crowds\, opinions\, and noises ~ with openness\, we\, as the sage kings of Yao\, may discover our own sacred dynasty \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-34-2/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Marketplace-in-Constatinople.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240701T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240701T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20240510T225234Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240807T183729Z
UID:10001722-1719856800-1719862200@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ZEN LUMINARIES: No-Gate Gateway and The Blue Cliff Record: Jon Joseph in Conversation with Poet & Translator David Hinton
DESCRIPTION:Boundless wind and moon are the eye within the eye\,\nlimitless heaven and earth the lamp beyond the lamp.\nA million homes amid dark willows and lit blossoms:\nknock on any gate anywhere\, and someone will answer.\n\n—Preface to The Blue-Cliff Record \nDavid Hinton writes in his introduction to his newly published translation of The Blue Cliff Record: \nThere are no answers\, only depths … But the depths—oh my\, the depths are wondrous indeed! For those depths are beyond the words and explanations and understanding that answers normally entail—and there\, anything and anywhere is the answer: willow seed fluff swarming sunlit through afternoon skies\, hummingbird probing blue-violet iris blossoms veined gold\, someone answering a knock at the courtyard gate … \nA commentary on Hinton’s translation of the Wumenguan: \nNo-Gate Gateway is one of the masterpieces of Chinese literature … No-Gate (i.e.\, the author) continually criticizes and ridicules the masters\, undermining their teaching. He acknowledges their mastery and insight\, chooses a tale that illustrates that insight at the deepest possible level\, and right there\, he’s created the perfect place to dismantle their teaching\, thereby redoubling the original sangha-case’s (koan’s) deconstruction of logical thought and explanation. \nNo-Gate Gateway’s native philosophical context extends back over two millennia prior to its composition. And yet it remains remarkably contemporary to us\, for as we will see it is an empirically grounded spirituality that weaves human consciousness into landscape and cosmos at profound levels. \n\nDavid Hinton has published numerous books of poetry and essays\, and many translations of ancient Chinese poetry and philosophy that create contemporary works of compelling literary power\, while also conveying the actual texture and density of the originals. These books are all informed by an abiding interest in deep ecological thinking\, in exploring the weave of consciousness and landscape. \nThis work has earned wide acclaim and many national awards\, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and both of the major awards given for poetry translation in the United States: the Landon Translation Award (Academy of American Poets) and the PEN American Translation Award. Most recently\, Hinton received a lifetime achievement award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. \nI’ve been translating classical Chinese poetry for many years\, and slowly over those years I’ve come to realize that in translation I’ve stumbled upon a way to think outside the limitations not just of the mainstream Western intellectual tradition\, but also of my own identity\, a way to speak in the voice of ancient China’s sage-masters\, and for them to speak in mine.\n\n—from Hunger Mountain \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 $50—250. \n 
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/zen-luminaries-the-no-gate-gate-and-the-blue-cliff-record-jon-joseph-in-conversation-with-poet-translator-david-hinton/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/David-Hinton_500x375.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240624T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240624T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20240620T164633Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240626T172919Z
UID:10001730-1719252000-1719257400@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Returning Home – The Fifth of Dongshan’s Five Ranks
DESCRIPTION:Not deciding it is or it isn’t; do you have the courage to be at peace with this?\nEveryone wants to leave the endless changes\,\nbut when we’ve finished bending and fitting our lives\,\nwe come back to sit by the charcoal fire. \nThe last of Dongshan’s Five Ranks includes a theme older than humanity itself: return after a long and arduous journey\, to settle down by the warmth and security of home. I recently finished one of the great modern translations of Homer’s The Odyssey by Emily Wilson. \nFor ten years Odysseus fought against and finally sacked the city of Troy\, and for another ten years he struggled on his long and winding path back home. When he got there\, Odysseus found his home to be both profoundly changed and essentially unchanged. \nThus is the inconceivable challenge and beauty of our lives. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation.\nRegister 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-33-3/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/traveling-home_500W-1.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240617T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240617T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20240603T213933Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240617T185407Z
UID:10001729-1718647200-1718652600@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Heaven in This Natural Realm
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nWhen two swords cross\, retreat is no longer possible.The skillful master is like a lotus in the fire.Naturally\, without a reason\, we desire to ascend to the heavens. \n—The Record of Dongshan\, 114This is the fourth of the Five Ranks credited to Dongshan Liangjie (d. 869)\, one of the great masters of the Tang Dynasty and cofounder of the Caodong (Soto) school of Chan/Zen. This fourth verse is titled “Going within the Phenomena.” \nThe Five Ranks are gorgeous in their poetic complexity yet utterly simple in their basis: form and emptiness weave and unweave in the tapestry of the present. For over two centuries\, these five stanzas have served as the final koans of the Linji/Rinzai koan curriculum first established by Hakuin Ekaku (d. 1798)\, a curriculum Pacific Zen still uses extensively today. \nThe poems\, rich in their imagery\, are said to describe our progression along the path to awakening. In the first poem it is midnight and there is no moonlight. In the second we realize that the face of the old woman is nothing other than our own. In the third we walk the path of emperors\, one without dust and garbage. In the fourth we actively take up a sword\, burning like a lotus on fire\, and find ourselves naturally desiring an ascent to the heavens. \nWhen we read any koan\, poem\, or myth\, we often encounter bits that stand out and speak to us\, shiny objects that say\, “Come closer\, look at me\, play with me.” Sometimes they hook us and refuse to let go. The third line was just such an ornament with my latest reading: Who doesn’t want to ascend to heaven? And yet in the most natural way\, our current circumstances are already that which we seek. \nLet’s look at the constituent Chinese characters: \n宛 just like /  然 as such /  自oneself /  有is /  衝 important point/ 天 heaven/ 気 breath\, desire \nThese characters highlight the subtle or obscure qualities prized in classic Chinese and Japanese. Where are the subjects? Is that an object or an adjective? Is the verb merely “is”? To better understand the time-honored associations and meanings\, I translated the commentary by Hakuun Yasutani (Dokugo: Goi-Sanki-Sanju-Jukai\, 1977)\, our ancestral teacher. \nThe first two characters\, “just like” and “as such\,” add a natural quality to that which follows. David Hinton (who is visiting our Pacific Zen Luminaries Series on July 1st)\, often discusses 自然\, the simple characters for “nature.” Both appear—though transposed—in the above poem line. The word “nature” refers to both the natural world and “the nature”—Buddha nature—which animates the universe. \nWithout loss or gain\, struggle or effort\, we see that ascending to heaven is realizing that from the very first we are already there: “This very place is the Lotus Land\, this body the Buddha\,” to quote Hakuin. \nIn recent weeks the facts of aging and illness have come home to me. A friend’s partner died of a heart attack climbing off a treadmill following a stress test. A friend’s brother suffered life-threatening arrhythmia while driving home. I myself got a skin cancer carved out of my head. \nDongshan\, in this final line\, is saying that this is how things should be. This is the natural way of things; even the hard bits are pieces of heaven. \nYasutani writes\, “If you become a politician\, just be a politician\, if a merchant\, just a merchant. If you are a sick person\, just be sick. We can’t escape our ascension to heaven by somehow looking to change our circumstances.” \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. Jon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community \n 
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-33-2/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/skylanterns_500x375.jpg
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240610T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240610T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20240520T230749Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240520T230749Z
UID:10001739-1718042400-1718047800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ON BREAK: Monday Zen with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:NO MONDAY ZEN MEETING TODAY \nJon Joseph is in sesshin today\, returning to Monday Zen on June 17th. \nHope to see you then! \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/on-break-monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-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
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240603T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240603T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20240404T000152Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240807T180120Z
UID:10001700-1717437600-1717443000@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ZEN LUMINARIES: Jon Joseph & Friends in Conversation with Poet Marie Howe
DESCRIPTION:Marie Howe’s poetry shines with a kind of clear and beautiful light of the ordinary. She somehow captures the simple yet eternal and graceful moment: Sitting with a dying brother\, rushing on errands with a daughter\, letting in the whining dog late at night. In Howe’s poetry these are opportunities for us to awaken to our true humanity. \nJoin us this Monday night. \nThe Singularity (fragment) \n … would that we could wake up to what we were\nwhen we were ocean\, and before that\nto when sky was earth\, and animal was energy\, and rock was\nliquid\, and stars were space\, and space was not\nat all—nothing\,\nbefore we came to believe humans were so important\nbefore this awful loneliness.\nCan molecules recall it?\nWhat once was? Before anything happened?\nNo I\, no we\, no one\, no was\nno verb     no noun\nonly a tiny tiny dot brimming with\nis is is is is \nAll everything home. \nThe Gate\n\nI had no idea that the gate I would step through\nto finally enter this world\nwould be the space my brother’s body made. He was\na little taller than me: a young man\nbut grown\, himself by then\,\ndone at twenty-eight\, having folded every sheet\,\nrinsed every glass he would ever rinse under the cold\nand running water.\nThis is what you have been waiting for\, he used to say to me.\nAnd I’d say\, What?\nAnd he’d say\, This—holding up my cheese and mustard sandwich.\nAnd I’d say\, What?\nAnd he’d say\, This\, sort of looking around. \n\nOfficial Short Bio \nMarie Howe is the author of five volumes of poetry\, New and Selected Poems; Magdalene: Poems; The Kingdom of Ordinary Time; The Good Thief; and What the Living Do\, and she is the co-editor of a book of essays\, In the Company of My Solitude: American Writing from the AIDS Pandemic. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker\, The Atlantic\, Poetry\, Agni\, Ploughshares\, Harvard Review\, and The Partisan Review\, among others. \nMarie Howe has been a fellow at the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College and a recipient of NEA and Guggenheim fellowships\, and Stanley Kunitz selected Howe for a Lavan Younger Poets Prize from the American Academy of Poets. In 2015\, she received the Academy of American Poets Poetry Fellowship which recognizes distinguished poetic achievement. \nShe lives in New York City and teaches at Sarah Lawrence College\, New York University\, and has taught at Columbia University. From 2012-2014\, Howe served as the Poet Laureate of New York State. \n\nMarie Howe’s poetry is luminous\, intense\, and eloquent\, rooted in an abundant inner life. Her long\, deep-breathing lines address the mysteries of flesh and spirit\, in terms accessible only to a woman who is very much of our time and yet still in touch with the sacred. \n—Stanley Kunitz \n\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 $50—250. \n 
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/zen-luminaries-jon-joseph-friends-in-conversation-with-poet-marie-howe/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marie-Howe_500x375.jpg
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240527T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240527T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20240521T174043Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240528T223256Z
UID:10001713-1716832800-1716838200@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Something from Nothing – The Poetry of Marie Howe
DESCRIPTION:Join us for a preview of the poet’s work in advance of her Zen Luminaries visit on June 3rd. \nCapturing the spiritual dimensions of everyday life \nIn Adam Moss’ new book\, The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing\, poet Marie Howe discusses several of her poems\, including the popular “Hurry\,” which features her daughter Inan when she was little. Below are snippets from her interview with Moss: \n“Everything I do is so simple\,” says Howe\, “That’s what I’m embarrassed about … It’s wild. It’s encouraging because I’m really struggling\, but here it is. When I slow down enough to feel—“ She stops herself. “The challenge of my whole life has been to slow down. I find it very difficult to be still—to endure it.” \n“If I think about [readers]\, I can’t write anything. When I write a poem\, I have to pretend no one will see it.’ \nHer best writing comes when\, says Howe\, “I am in my nightgown for days\, not thinking about anyone else. It takes a couple of days just thrashing through the brambles to get to any type of clearing\, and it’s very painful. It’s frustrating\, you see all your limitations\, but a lot of what is happening is the unconscious is just waiting to see if you mean it. I like it once I settle in\, but the borders are tough.” \nOnce she passes into the other state\, “that’s the best feeling in the world—we’re utterly ourselves and we’re nobody.” \nHurry\nby Marie Howe \nWe stop at the dry cleaners and the grocery store   \nand the gas station and the green market and   \nHurry up honey\, I say\, hurry\,   \nas she runs along two or three steps behind me   \nher blue jacket unzipped and her socks rolled down.    \nWhere do I want her to hurry to? To her grave?   \nTo mine? Where one day she might stand all grown?   \nToday\, when all the errands are finally done\, I say to her\,   \nHoney I’m sorry I keep saying Hurry—   \nyou walk ahead of me. You be the mother.    \nAnd\, Hurry up\, she says\, over her shoulder\, looking    \nback at me\, laughing. Hurry up now darling\, she says\,   \nhurry\, hurry\, taking the house keys from my hands. \n\nJon Joseph Roshi \n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation.\nRegister 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-31-10/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/mother-daugther-walk_500x375.jpg
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240520T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240520T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20240514T173238Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240517T184859Z
UID:10001708-1716228000-1716233400@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph: Speaking and Not Speaking
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nIn the middle of nothing\, there is a road that is free of all dust.\nIf you just refrain from mentioning the emperor’s true name\,\nYou’ll be more eloquent than those of previous eras.  \n—Third of Dongshan’s Five Ranks \nThus far with the Five Ranks—which are a kind of roadmap for the process of awakening—we’ve sat in the utter darkness with all its potential (First Rank)\, seen our true face in the mirror (Second Rank)\, and now in this Third Rank begin to emerge from the world of emptiness into the world of form. This rank is called “Coming from Within the Real\,” and we are learning to embody\, to become intimate\, with that emptiness. We make it our own. \nIn the Third Rank\, the Japanese character meaning “nothing” is the same wu-mu 無 we met when a monk asked Zhaozhou\, “Does a dog have buddha nature\, or not?” Taking in that “No!” we find that the road of buddha nature—the Way—is pure\, utterly without garbage or dust.  \nYasutani Hakuun writes in his commentary\,  \nOriginally there is no self. There is no need to explain the Dharma. There are no beings to save. \nAnd what is the garbage and dust? \nEnlightenment and delusion\, sacred and profane\, gain and loss\, taking and giving\, love and hate\, belief and doubt\, and all the rest of it. \nThis path is nothing other than the path of our lives. \nIn the second line there is something important about speaking\, or not speaking\, the emperor’s true name.  \nA couple weeks ago my partner and I attended a benefit dinner. One of our guests was a longtime family friend. She looked well though she had recently spent two weeks in the hospital dealing with cancer. We got caught up on family and travels. Then she said\, “You know\, I was in the hospital recently.” I did know\, I told her. I said something benign and we moved on to other topics. Later I realized she may have been inviting me to better understand what she was feeling and going through: an invitation to go deeper. It was one I did not accept. \nGrowing up\, my family was not big on exploring or discussing our feelings. “Boys don’t cry\,” my father would say. “Shut up or I’ll give you something to really cry about!” was another line we heard when the six kids (all of us in eight years) joined in a symphony of screaming and fighting. \nAt my 50th birthday party\, I was feeling particularly grateful to the many friends and family who showed up. As I stood to give a short thank-you speech\, I began to choke up. From out in the crowd\, my mother yelled\, “Oh suck it up\, Joseph!” It’s not that emotions were forbidden in my family—they just often went uncommunicated. We did not mention the name of the emperor\, we did not accept the invitation. \nBut that is not a wrong thing. It is just a thing\, Dongshan is saying in the third line. There is an eloquence in the humanity of being imperfect: bungled invitations\, muffled communications\, unexpressed emotions.  \nYasutani writes that this line makes reference to a story about the 7th century orator Li\, who was so skilled in debate that he could vanquish his opponent in just a couple of phrases. That is us: in some way\, no matter what we say\, it has a kind of light and beauty in it. Boys do cry. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi \n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation.\nRegister 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-31-9/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Speaking_500x375.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240513T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240513T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T103725
CREATED:20240507T165223Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240510T184700Z
UID:10001707-1715623200-1715628600@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: You Come Upon an Ancient Mirror – with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nAn old grandmother sleeps in late\,\nAnd awakens to find an ancient mirror.\nClearly\, she sees her own face.\nIn the future she will refrain from losing herself \nin the shadows of her mind. \n—Second of Dongshan’s Five Ranks \nThis second rank is called “The Real within the Apparent\,” written in the 9th century by Dongshan\, the founder of the Caodong (Soto) Chan-Zen School. His Five Ranks present a kind of lyrical roadmap of the process of awakening. \nIn my translation I use the term “old grandmother” for 老婆 (J. ro-ba) rather than “old crone” or “old woman\,” because to me it sounds more intimate. My children used to call their grandmother (my mother) “Mima\,” while some of their cousins called her “Baba.” \nYasutani Hakuun (White Cloud)\, our ancestral teacher\, writes in his 1986 posthumously-published book The Five Ranks that the old grandmother represents our phenomenal world (apparent) while the mirror is our essential nature (real). Yasutani warns us\, however\, against holding onto this dualism. “Subject and object\, self and other\, just don’t exist once our eyes are open. Always and everywhere\, there is a grace that is completely showing itself. And in that showing there is no awakening or delusion.” \nHe compares the last line to the Buddhist tale of Endayatta\, in which a woman wakes up one morning and looks in the mirror\, and for some reason does not see her own image. She runs about crazed\, looking for her head\, and it is only when friends restrain her and give her a knock to the head does she realize she had it all along. \nOccasionally I dream of Mima in that liminal space between waking and sleeping. Once\, she snuck into a family gathering to be with her children and grandchildren again. Another time I saw her smiling brightly\, along with my father\, while we were visiting colleges back east\, as if to say her granddaughters would do just fine when they left home. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi \n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation.\nRegister 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-31-8/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/meetingTrueSelf-MirrorCALENDAR.jpg
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