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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240520T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240520T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20240514T173238Z
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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
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240513T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240513T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
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
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240506T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240506T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20240423T232147Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240507T225708Z
UID:10001706-1715018400-1715023800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: What Is Hidden in Deep Midnight? with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:In deepest midnight before the light of moonrise\, we meet someone\,\nand though we do not recognize them\, we need not be concerned.\nHidden\, deeply hidden\, we long for the beauty of olden times. \n—First of Dongshan’s Five Ranks \nDongshan’s Five Ranks form the final collection of koans in Pacific Zen’s curriculum. The first rank recognizes darkness and shadow in our lives: the dirt\, the mud\, the smelly garbage. It is this dark matter that of necessity accompanies us in our search for light in the universe. \nIn our koan it is the time of the third watch\, around midnight\, the time of deepest night. The moon promises to rise\, but even the least bit of light has yet to appear. In that darkest night we meet our most painful self though we do not yet recognize that person. We should not draw away—we must attend. In our witnessing we feel the recesses of our heart and an unfathomable longing for the beauty of olden times. \nIn many cultures and faiths\, the rotting\, decayed earth of the soul is appreciated as vital ground for spiritual and emotional growth. Rather than avoiding it\, we feel the darkness and allow it to touch us. \nIn the world of alchemy\, the nigredo (blackness) is the initial state of the materia prima\, primordial matter\, having been cooked and purified in a first step toward reaching the “philosopher’s stone” of illumination. \nChristian mysticism deems “the dark night of the soul” a similarly necessary step\, as outlined in the The Cloud of Unknowing\, a 14th-century work written by an unknown monk”\n\nFrom the first time you lift your heart to God with stirrings of love\, you will find only a darkness\, a cloud of unknowing … Whatever you do\, this darkness and the cloud are between you and your god\, and hold you back from seeing him clearly by the light of understanding in your reason and from experiencing him in the sweetness of love in your feelings … And so prepare to remain in this darkness as long as you can\, always begging for he who you love; for if you are ever to feel or see him … it must always be in this cloud and this darkness.” \n(translation: A.C. Spearing) \nTwo centuries later the Spanish mystic John of the Cross published a poem entitled Dark Night of the Soul (La Noche Oscura del Alma) that begins in darkness and ends with two lovers—we might assume one of them was God—asleep together in the light-filled embrace of Lover and Beloved. \nOn a dark night\,\nKindled in love with yearnings\n–oh\, happy chance!–\nI went forth without being observed\,\nMy house being now at rest. \nIn darkness and secure\,\nBy the secret ladder\, disguised\n–oh\, happy chance!–\nIn darkness and in concealment\,\nMy house being now at rest. \nIn the happy night\,\nIn secret\, when none saw me\,\nNor I beheld aught\,\nWithout light or guide\, save that which burned in my\nheart. \nThis light guided me\nMore surely than the light of noonday\nTo the place where he (well I knew who!) was awaiting me–\nA place where none appeared. \nOh\, night that guided me\,\nOh\, night more lovely than the dawn\,\nOh\, night that joined Beloved with lover\,\nLover transformed in the Beloved! \nUpon my flowery breast\,\nKept wholly for himself alone\,\nThere he stayed sleeping\, and I caressed him\,\nAnd the fanning of the cedars made a breeze. \nThe breeze blew from the turret\nAs I parted his locks;\nWith his gentle hand he wounded my neck\nAnd caused all my senses to be suspended. \nI remained\, lost in oblivion;\nMy face I reclined on the Beloved.\nAll ceased and I abandoned myself\,\nLeaving my cares forgotten among the lilies. \n(translation: Edgar Allison Peers) \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-31-7/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Nightscape_500x375.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240429T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240429T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20240409T005401Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240501T174750Z
UID:10001701-1714413600-1714419000@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ZEN LUMINARIES: Saving the Earth\, Helping the People: A Spiritual and Political Journey – Jon Joseph\, John Tarrant & David Weinstein Co-host a Conversation with Governor Jerry Brown
DESCRIPTION:Official Short Bio\n \nEdmund G. Brown Jr. was born in San Francisco on April 7\, 1938. He graduated from St. Ignatius High School in 1955 and entered Sacred Heart Novitiate\, a Jesuit seminary. He later attended the University of California\, Berkeley\, graduating in 1961 before earning a J.D. at Yale Law School in 1964. \nIn 1998\, Brown was elected Mayor of Oakland and California Attorney General in 2006. He was elected to a third gubernatorial term in 2010 and to a historic fourth term in 2014. While Brown was Governor\, California also established nation-leading targets to protect the environment and fight climate change and by 2045\, the state will generate 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources and achieve carbon neutrality. \nHe currently serves as chair of the California-China Climate Institute housed at UC Berkeley\, executive chair of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and on the board of the Nuclear Threat Initiative. Brown lives in Colusa County with his wife Anne Gust Brown and two dogs. \nsource: https://www.jerrybrown.org/about \n\nWe’re in an increasingly Manichaean thought world. We’re not thinking of different policies\, but good and evil. There’s a lot of talk about good and evil. And that makes it very hard to talk to people who are under the rubric of evil. How do you justify talking to them? And yet not talking to them is unthinkable from a global management point of view. \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-john-tarrant-david-weinstein-co-host-a-conversation-with-former-governor-jerry-brown/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Jerry-Brown-ranch_500x375-1.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240422T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240422T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20240417T005140Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240423T234424Z
UID:10001685-1713808800-1713814200@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: The Who of Jerry Brown with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:Join us for a preview of Governor Jerry Brown’s Monday April 29 Luminaries visit.  \nWe will sit with and share about the koan\, Who Am I? \n\n‘Who am I?’ is one of the iconic inquiry koans of Zen. Who is Jerry Brown? Jesuit novitiate. California Secretary of State\, Attorney General\, and four-term Governor. Zen aspirant\, assistant to Mother Teresa. Mayor of Oakland. Rancher in the oak hills of California. \nJerry Brown is one of the most fascinating public servants of our era; he remains a passionate advocate for nuclear disarmament\, environmental protections\, and education reform. Jerry’s life has been one of both spiritual contemplation and political action\, all in hopes of making the world better for others. \nFrom recent interviews: \n“Politics is a power struggle to get to the top of the heap. Calcutta and Mother Teresa are about working with those who are at the bottom of the heap. I came to see them as no different from myself\, and their needs as important as my needs. And you’re there to serve them\, and in doing that\, you are attaining as great a state of being as one can.” \n“Studying Zen in Japan with Koun Yamada and Enomiya LaSalle—both were extraordinary men. Ignatian meditation is about forming images. Zen is more severe; you simply sit on a cushion and breath in and out; I did that for ten hours a day while in retreat. Zen is a different kind of experience. It does not have a doctrine; it is not even part of Buddhism. Attention in meditation transcends any denomination.” \n“Our number one challenge in the world today is the threat of nuclear war. There has not been enough political debate on this. What if the war in Ukraine would break into nuclear war? China andTaiwan\, Iran\, North Korea? We’ve gotta live on Planet Earth. A war with China is unthinkable. A balloon is not a problem.” \n“Since the 1970s\, I have been saying the major factor in reversing global warming is to stop using oil\, promote electric or hydrogen cars\, build efficient houses\, and change shipping … it is about challenging the human race to transform\, to ask them to do what has never been done before.” \n“For me\, religious experience is cultivating an “ecology of mind” by watching nature\, animals\, watching dreams. Last year\, on our ranch in Colusa\, we picked over a ton of olives. Just taking the fruit from the tree\, being on the land\, off the electric grid\, no cell coverage\, no television. Just watching the moon coming up\, wax and wane\, being aware of what went before\, gives a sense of what is coming after. It somehow feels good; it gives me hope. I am really enthusiastic; I love each day when I get up.  And at night\, I walk my dogs and look at the stars.” \n—Governor Jerry Brown \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation.\nAll are welcome. Register to participate. \nJon Joseph Roshi\nDirector of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-31-6-5/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Jerry-Brown-Portrait_500x375.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240415T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240415T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20240411T004603Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240412T234129Z
UID:10001684-1713204000-1713209400@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: Ducks Say it Upside-Down with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nIt is nice to occasionally experience the universe as incredibly silly\, to see the world as a vast field of play. In even the most dire of circumstances\, at times we can taste a quality of suchness and light\, one that existed before we attached the definitions “pain” and “struggle.” \nIn one of our recent Pacific Zen gatherings we talked about jokes\, about improbable joy\, and the play of the universe. A joke that popped into my mind: the very first one I learned as a young child. It is a silly one that I like to spring onto my family once a decade or so\, to a chorus of groans. \nIt was interesting that as I sat with it\, the childhood joke took on the quality of a koan: simple\, clear\, repetitive\, and yet somehow alive without holding a particular meaning. And during the session\, a surprising synchronicity emerged: A joke about ducks came up and then the famous Yunmen koan\, Upside-Down Statement: \nA monk asked Yunmen\, “When it’s not the present intellect and it’s not the present phenomena\, what is it?”\nYunmen responded\, “Say something upside down.” \n(Blue Cliff Record Case 15) \nIt was almost as if the whole forum\, along with Yunmen himself\, had written the child’s joke: \nQuestion: “Why do ducks fly upside down?”\nAnswer: “So they can quack up!”\n \nIt doesn’t make any sense but that is why it is so alive. \nSometimes the nonsensical are the funniest of jokes.  \nA couple weeks ago our neighbors joined us for dinner and brought along a young distant cousin who had recently moved from New York to North Carolina. The young man\, in his early thirties\, had studied philosophy for some years and spoke of different philosophical streams of thought with great eloquence. I was entranced. He had just finished his first Zen retreat at a nearby center and had some questions about practice. For some reason I felt rather taciturn and only added a few thoughts about Zen\, while the others chatted on about it. He asked about koans\, and I mentioned Yanguan’s Rhinoceros: \nOne day Yanguan called to his attendant\, “Bring me my rhinoceros-horn fan.” T\nhe attendant said\, “The fan is broken.”\nYanguan said\, “If the fan is broken\, then bring me the rhinoceros.”  \n(Blue Cliff Record Case 91) \nI had read that koan dozens\, perhaps hundreds\, of times. This time I found it irrepressibly funny and began to laugh loudly\, wholly out of character with the tone of our discussion. Everyone at the table looked at me and I felt a little embarrassed. Perhaps you had to have been there. \n—Jon Joseph \nArt: Eniko Eget \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-31-6-4/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Ducks-Upside-Down_500x375.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240408T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240408T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20240402T180905Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240405T184943Z
UID:10001683-1712599200-1712604600@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: Hazy Moon of Enlightenment with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nMarie Howe’s Jack and the Moon talks about how one night she was awakened by her dog Jack\, who was yelping strangely. Annoyed\, she let him out\, and he sat on the lawn staring at the bright moon. \nWhen he didn’t come\, I ended up on the couch\,\nwrapped in a shawl\, and dozed for I don’t know how long …\nthen woke\, went quietly to the door and said quietly\, Jack.\nIt was then he turned and came in\, cold and calm\, soaked with the moon. \nWe mammals\, small and large\, have been fascinated with the moon for all the ages. This morning\, in the predawn darkness\, I dropped off my partner\, who is flying to Texas with her sister to soak in the moon’s totality in front of the sun. They say that in the darkness of a full eclipse\, the temperature drops and the stars shine in the sky\, if only for a few minutes. \nThe ancient Greeks believed that the goddess Selene drove a chariot across the night sky\, and that Artemis\, huntress and protector of women in childbirth\, wore a crescent moon on her helmet. In Chinese mythology\, the moon is inhabited by a white Jade Rabbit representing purity\, selflessness and sacrifice. \nIt is safe to say that Chan-Zen is more of a moon-practice than a sun-practice. In the classic koan collection\, The Blue Cliff Record\, “moon” is mentioned over one hundred times\, while “sun” only a quarter of that. The “hazy moon of enlightenment” was one name the ancients had for awakening: the light of the moon is always shining\, even through the clouds and the dust. \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-31-6-3/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/solitaryBrightness-MoonCALENDAR.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240401T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240401T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20240319T233425Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240329T202734Z
UID:10001666-1711994400-1711999800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: Does a Robot Dog Have Buddha Nature with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nA monk asked Zhaozhou\, “Does a dog have buddha nature?” Zhaozhou answered\, “No!” The monk replied\, “All sentient beings have buddha nature. Why would a dog not have it?” Zhaozhou said\, “Because it has karmic consciousness.” \nAnother monk asked\, “Does a dog have buddha nature?” Zhaozhou answered\, “Yes!” The monk replied\, “If it has\, why then is it still stuffed into a bag of skin?” “Because though it knows\, it deliberately transgresses\,” said Zhaozhou. \n—Entangling Vines Case 46 \nWell\, perhaps a flesh-and-blood dog does or doesn’t have buddha nature\, but what about a robotic dog that runs around on artificial intelligence? Boston Dynamics makes such a dog\, which they’ve named “Spot.” \nThe old-fashioned dog\, man’s best friend\, presents only a nominal threat to their human masters. And a growing number of scientists are warning of growing threats from AI robots\, which are gaining brains and power at an extraordinary pace. Does a robot—generative artificial intelligence—have buddha nature\, or not? \nI recently asked a friend if she thought AI has buddha nature: “A robot is soul-less\, heartless. There is no way it can have buddha nature.” Then I asked ChatGPT\, the AI app\, to weigh in on the subject. “Buddha nature is considered to be the inherent nature of all beings\, which includes robots if they are considered beings … ultimately the answer to this question may depend on one’s definition of buddha nature and what is considered to be a ‘being’ capable of possessing it\,” the app smartly responded. \nA Zen monk in Vermont is deeply engaged in this question\, according to a recently article in The Atlantic Monthly. Soryu Forall has become something of a spiritual advisor to the AI-design community\, holding talks and retreats for researchers and developers from OpenAI\, Google DeepMind and Apple. He hopes his followers can “embed the enlightenment of the Buddha into code\,” according to the article. Says Forall\, creating AI with a spiritual path “is perhaps the most important act of all time.” \nThe risks of superintelligence are becoming better known\, but they may not so much risk life—existential risk—as risk the quality of life. AI\, dependent on their databases of Large Language Models (LLMs) for understanding\, have a tendency to magnify existing gender and ethnic biases. Chat bots unleashed on social media will change public opinion by greatly amplifying false messages over truthful ones. \nA longer term problem\, some scientists believe\, is the possibility that humans will lose the skill of interacting with other humans when AIs become teachers\, caregivers\,and personal confidants. \n“People will be disconnecting themselves from humanity\,” Jerry Kaplan\, an adjunct Stanford professor of artificial intelligence says in his new book\, Generative Artificial Intelligence: What Everybody Needs to Know\, “By interposing a machine\,” he adds\, “it is kind of a strong word\, but I call it ‘emotional pornography.’” Even so\, Kaplan believes the development of AI and its positive social impact on education\, healthcare and the law to be “one of the most important inventions in human history. It’s impact on humanity will be absolutely astonishing.” He ends\, “I am genuinely grateful that I have lived to see this moment happen.” \nBack to Spot\, the robot dog. Three weeks ago\, the Massachusetts State Police sent their AI dog (“Fido”) into a house where a shooter was holed up. It went up two flights of stairs and then down into the basement where they were hiding. The shooter opened fire on Spot\, disabling it. That the dog was able to locate the shooter may have saved human lives. Unfortunately\, it was an existential crisis for Fido. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation.\nAll are welcome. Register to participate. \nJon Joseph Roshi\nDirector of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-31-6-2/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/TinRobot_500x375.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240327T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240327T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20231122T181952Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240403T235247Z
UID:10001615-1711562400-1711567800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ZEN LUMINARIES: The Asking: New and Selected Poems – Jon Joseph & Friends in Conversation with Poet & Essayist Jane Hirshfield
DESCRIPTION:Join Jon Joseph & Friends on Wednesday for a lively conversation with special guest  Jane Hirshfield. All are welcome. Register to participate. Dana and donations grateful accepted. \n\nJane Hirshfield is an American poet\, essayist\, and translator. Hirshfield is also a Buddhist who received precepts at San Francisco Zen Center in 1979. Hirshfield’s poetry reflects immersion in a range of poetic traditions. Polish\, Scandinavian\, and Eastern European poets have been particularly important to her\, along with the poetry of Japan and China. \nIt is arguable that the riddle\, the existential joke of being\, of meaning\, of Dickinson’s ‘prank of the Heart at play on the Heart\,’ is as powerful a source as song for the lyric poem. Central to Hirshfield’s vision is a kind of holy delight that is at the heart of riddles and koans. \n—Lisa Russ Spaar (American poet) \nFrom her interview with Tricycle Magazine in Fall 2023: \nJane Hirshfield on “asking”:  “How now go on?” is a question more and more in awareness. It has several faces. One is\, “How can I keep opening my eyes to each morning’s fresh news?” One is\, “What can I do to be helpful in turning the world’s tiller in a different direction?” One is\, “How to counter despair and my simple\, profound disappointment in the course of our culture over my lifetime?” \nThe shift from fixity\, assertion\, and shouting into a spirit of asking and dialogue is itself the key. Asking turns the heart-gate from closed to open. What a gift\, a life’s bi-directional Q&A with the immeasurable What-Is. My advice to young writers is often: “Open the window a little wider than you feel comfortable.” My advice in practice is to ask each thing\, event\, person you meet\, “What is your teaching?” \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 range is $10 for PZI Members and $12 for Non-Members\, but the scale is sliding depending on one’s ability to contribute. We also greatly appreciate Patrons\, who help support the program with larger gifts of $50—500. \n\n 
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/zen-luminaries-poet-essayist-jane-hirshfield-in-conversation-with-jon-joseph/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/JaneHirshfield_CALENDAR500x333.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240318T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240318T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20240312T200840Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240315T192752Z
UID:10001680-1710784800-1710790200@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: Our Improbable & Singular Caffe Latte Life with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nMoment by moment\, non-stop flow. \nThat is the response given by Touzi when asked to explain Zhaozhou’s answer to the question\,“Does a newborn baby have consciousness?” Zhao replied\, “It is like tossing a ball on rushing waters.” \n(Blue Cliff Record Case 80) \nTheoretical physicist Brian Greene points out that given the billions of years in time and likely trillions of galaxies in space\, how profoundly improbable and singular it is for us to enjoy a latte at a sidewalk café in Manhattan. Or anywhere else. That gift is the inconceivable grandeur of the non-stop flow. \nLast week I found myself hiking in Death Valley\, California\, a field of planetary extremes. With an elevation of -282 feet\, it is one of the lowest points on terrestrial earth\, and with annual rainfall of only 1.5 inches\, it is historically one of the driest. Given its lack of vegetation and bowl shape\, lying between two mountain ranges\, Death Valley is also the hottest recorded place on earth at 134° F (56.7° C). \nVariability is its other extreme. In the past six months\, Death Valley has received 4.5 inches of rain\, twice generating a lake—the ranger quipped\, “It is really a short-lived puddle\,”—about two miles wide by four miles long and two feet deep. Each “puddle event” supposedly happens once every thousand years\, geologists figure. \nYesterday morning I hiked through the Pacific Coast Range above Jenner\, which lies at the mouth of the Russian River. The weather now sunny and clear after weeks of rain; my daughter invited me to join her mushroom-hunting class taught by a local mycologist. We spent several hours crawling through the bishop pine and tanoak forest\, kicking up muddy duff and peeking under logs in search of edible mushrooms. One wag offered\, “Aren’t all mushrooms edible?” and\, seamlessly\, the teacher came back\, “Yes\, but only once.” The life of a mushroom is a brief two weeks; it too is the non-stop flow. \nThe infinite space and micro-rhythms of our lives meet here\, in the ordinary cup of caffé latte\, matcha green tea\, and kombucha (an acquired taste for me). The linked bits\, the all of them\, are like a river to be appreciated\, appreciated\, appreciated moment by moment. \nGreene says there was a long period before humans appeared in the universe\, and there will be a long period after our species is gone. He called it\, “Our brief flicker within the brief flicker.” He says\, “On the one hand\, it could be debilitating to imagine an eternal future of nothing. On the other\, if we flip our perspective around\, we allow ourselves the chance to explore\, to love and to illuminate. Wow! How wonderful is that?!” \n—Jon Joseph \nThe Sweetness of Apples\, of Figs \nby Jane Hirshfield\, from her newest book\, The Asking: New and Selected Poems \nIn Bellini’s Painting\,\nthe usual angel\nis not present\,\nonly a man\nopening his chest\nto the world of\nsimple sheep\nand goose and hare\nin the strange light.\nBook and skull\,\nthe two wooden sandals\,\nlie forgotten\nbehind the open-lattice door.\nEven his pin-pricked\nhands\, it seems\, forgotten.\nAgain the holy striving\nhas given way\nto ordinary joy.\nIt is mostly blues\,\na little reddish-brown\,\nsome green. \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-32/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Cafe-latte-life_500x375.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240311T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240311T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20240306T180744Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240311T200155Z
UID:10001664-1710180000-1710185400@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: Mysterious Radishes with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nIn his classic work\, The Gift; How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World\, Lewis Hyde posits the qualities of a true gift: It is not one gained through effort\, it is artistic and mysterious in nature\, and it only realizes its greatest value if freely passed on to others. Think music\, art\, and poetry. \nOne of the most valuable gifts\, particularly in indigenous societies\, notes Hyde\, is food. “Another way to describe the notion of the gift is to say that a gift must always be used up\, eaten\,” he writes. “Food is one of the most common images for the gift because it is so obviously consumed.” \nA student asked Zhaozhou\,\n“Teacher\, I have heard that you have personally seen Nanquan. Is this true or not?”\nZhou responded\, “They grow big radishes around here.” \n—Blue Cliff Record Case 30 \nWhen I read this koan\, as I have done many times\, I think of how Zhou is giving the inquiring student a tremendous gift: one of plain radishes. Zhou’s gift is not created through his own effort; it appeared from some mysterious source\, as most koans do. It is artistic and strangely magical. And it is appreciated in the moment while being gifted forward for the good of the many. After all\, we are still talking about this gift exchange 1\,300 years after it first occurred. \nA couple of years ago I got a seed packet of daikon (大根)\,“large root” in Japanese) in my Christmas stocking. I planted the seeds early the next summer. Perhaps it was too hot or maybe I should have sprayed on some Neem oil\, but only a couple of daikon grew and they were wormy and pretty much inedible. After a long period of benign neglect\, I pulled out the survivors which by then had gone to seed\, and threw their stalks in the compost bin where they moldered for many months. \nLast fall I spread the mulch on three fallow vegetable beds. In early winter after the first rains\, I noticed a new weed carpeting my garden. The weeds grew larger\, and when I pulled one up\, a slender daikon root came out of the soil. To my astonishment I now had a winter garden absolutely stuffed with large\, gorgeous daikon. \nThus far I have gifted about twenty pounds of this radish harvest to neighbors\, friends and family\, and am only about half done (call if you can use some!). The daikon appeared of themselves from the mysterious source. They have been in motion\, arriving as seeds and departing into the gift exchange as wonderful radishes. And they will be wholly consumed\, as soup\, pickles\, and condiments. They are a simple gift\, one of mystery and wonder and value. Something like the gift of our lives\, I think. \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-31-5/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Mayumi-carrot-bike_500x375.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240304T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240304T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20240224T002640Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240305T001029Z
UID:10001667-1709575200-1709580600@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: Stone Woman Dreaming with Guest Host Jordan McConnell
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n6–7:30 pm Pacific Time \n\nA monk asked Hongzhi\, “What about the ones who’ve gone?” \nHongzhi said\, “White clouds rise to the top of the valleys\, blue peaks lean into the empty sky.”\nThe monk asked\, “What about the ones who return?”\nHongzhi said\, “Heads covered in white hair\, they leave the cliffs and valleys.\nIn the dead of night they descend through the clouds to the market stalls.”\n“What about the ones who neither come nor go?”\n“The stone woman calls them back from their dream of the world.”  \n(PZI Miscellaneous Koans\, Case 34) \nLast week we visited five dreams the Buddha had before his great enlightenment: \n—Lying on the great earth as his couch\n—A creeper growing skyward from his navel;\n—White grubs with black heads crawling on his legs\n—Four birds of different colors alighting on his feet and turning white\n—Walking in a mountain of dirt without getting soiled \nThese dreams of the Buddha got me deeply considering my own dreamworld. \nI seem to dream a lot and our Pacific Zen teachers often appear in them. In a recent dream\, I was at a retreat held deep in some very high mountains like the Himalayas. It was a really secluded place\, and there was snow everywhere on the ground. As I was leaving the retreat house\, I realized I was in my underwear. On the way out\, I met Tess Beasley and Amaryllis Fletcher\, and gave each of them a hug\, saying “Nothing concealed here!” We all had a great laugh. I walked out the front door onto a snowy mountainside but found that somehow everything was covered in six inches of water. I was supposed to meet David Weinstein for dinner but the water slowed me down. Then John Tarrant came by. \nOnce in another dream\, Chan master Linji tried to get me to throw my pants in the river. I wouldn’t do it and then quicker than I could stop him\, he picked up my pants and ran away with them. I was yelling at him to come back: I needed my wallet and keys and they were in the pants. He kept laughing and ran off\, leaving me standing there. \nI’ve written plenty of songs in my dreams\, but for some reason I seldom seem to recall them. One morning\, slowly waking\, I remembered a fragment of a dream song\, which went\, “You\, you. You. You\, you confuse me.” I laid in bed for ten minutes\, still half asleep\, thinking “This song is gonna be so great!” When I was more awake\, I picked up my guitar and started to play the song. Only then\, fully awake\, did I realize that it made no sense whatsoever. \nHowever\, there was one singer-songwriter\, Townes Van Zandt\, who famously wrote “If I Needed You\,” perhaps his most popular song\, while in a dream. It’s a beautiful love song\, but it also has this strange little reference to his two parrots\, named Loop and Lil. In the song\, the parrots agree that the lady in the song is “a sight to see.” \nThe lady’s with me now\nSince I showed her how\nTo lay her lily\nHand in mine\nLoop and Lil agree\nShe’s a sight to see\nA treasure for\nThe poor to find …  \nWould you come to me\nAnd ease my pain?\nIf you needed me\nI would come to you\nI would swim the seas\nFor to ease your pain \nLoop and Lil agree\, the Stone Woman was a sight to see. \n—Jordan McConnell \nNote: Jon Joseph returns next week on March 11th. \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. All are welcome. Register to participate. \nJon Joseph Roshi\,\nDirector of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/on-break-monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-10-3/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Jordan-Closeup_500x375.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240226T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240226T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20240221T174146Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240304T184645Z
UID:10001649-1708970400-1708975800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: Our Dreams Are Buddha's Dreams with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:In last week’s Zen Luminaries visit with psychiatrist and author Mark Epstein\, we covered a number of fascinating subjects: What might bring people to Buddhist practice\, the therapist-patient work in the room as a field of awareness\, the good enough mother and good enough Buddhist\, and learning from “the lords of the underworld\, the uncrowned and exiled kings of the unconscious.” \nWhat we did not have time to cover was the importance of dreams in our growth process. \nIn his book\, The Trauma of Everyday Life\, Mark investigates a segment of the Buddha Story that is not often told: five dreams of the Buddha had before his enlightenment. Mark writes of these five dreams as being “catalytic for the Buddha’s growth and development … simply speaking\, they showed him that he could be kind … with the help of his dreams\, he had awakened to his true nature\, and his true nature\, to his surprise\, was a relational one.” \nThe dreams are as follows: \n(1) While still an unenlightened bodhisattva\, he dreamed the great earth was his couch; Himalaya\, king of mountains\, was his pillow; his left hand lay in the Eastern Ocean\, his right hand lay in the Western Ocean\, his feet lay in the Southern Ocean. \n(2) A creeper grew up out of his navel and stood touching the clouds. \n(3) White grubs with black heads crawled from his feet to his knees and covered them. \n(4) Four birds of different colors came from the four quarters\, and\, as they alighted at his feet\, they all became white. \n(5) He walked upon a huge mountain of dirt without being fouled by the dirt. \nMark quotes psychologist Michael Eigen: “The Talmud says every dream is an unopened letter from God. We don’t open\, or are unable to open\, too many of these letters. But sometimes a letter haunts us.” \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. All are welcome. Register to participate. \nJon Joseph Roshi\,\nDirector of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-31-4/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Buddhas-dreams_500x375.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240221T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240221T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20230810T232714Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240228T030951Z
UID:10001465-1708538400-1708543800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ZEN LUMINARIES: The Zen of Therapy – Jon Joseph in Conversation with Author & Psychiatrist Mark Epstein
DESCRIPTION:To work something through means to change one’s view; if we try instead to change the emotion\, we may achieve some short-term success\, but we remain bound by forces of attachment and aversion to the very feelings from which we are struggling to be free. \n—Mark Epstein \n\nOfficial Short Bio \nDr. Mark Epstein is a psychiatrist in private practice and the author of numerous books about the interface of Buddhism and psychotherapy\, including Thoughts without a Thinker\, Going to Pieces without Falling Apart\, Going on Being\, Open to Desire\, Psychotherapy without the Self\, The Trauma of Everyday Life\, and Advice Not Given.  \nHis recent book\, The Zen of Therapy\, reflects on one year of sessions with his patients\, observing how the therapy relationship is a spiritual friendship where a therapist can help patients realize that there is something magical\, something wonderful\, and something to trust running through their lives\, no matter how fraught. \nFor years\, Dr. Epstein kept his beliefs as a Buddhist separate from his work as a psychiatrist. Content to use his training in mindfulness as a private resource\, he trusted that the Buddhist influence could\, and should\, remain invisible. But as he became more forthcoming with his patients about his personal spiritual leanings\, he was surprised to learn how many were eager to learn more. \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 range is $10 for PZI Members and $12 for Non-Members\, but the scale is sliding depending on one’s ability to contribute. We also greatly appreciate Patrons\, who help support the program with larger gifts of $50—$250. \n\nJoin us on Wednesday for a lively conversation with special guest Mark Epstein. All are welcome to join in for meditation and conversation. Register to participate.
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/zen-luminaries-jon-joseph-in-conversation-with-author-psychiatrist-mark-epstein/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/zen-of-therapy_500x375.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240219T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240219T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20240126T043950Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240307T224749Z
UID:10001650-1708365600-1708371000@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY NOTE: The Zen of Therapy and a Hidden Kindness – Monday Note from Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:From The Zen of Therapy: \nBuddhist contemplation is a kind of therapy\, after all; its whole orientation is toward relieving people of needless and self-inflicted psychological suffering. And psychotherapy\, like meditation\, is at base an inquiry into the nature of the self. The more you examine your experience\, the more mysterious and elusive the self becomes …  \nFreud famously proclaimed that the best he could do for people was to take them from a state of neurotic misery and return them to one of common unhappiness\, while the Buddha promised freedom from both. But when it came right down to it\, both sensed salvation in a clear-eyed and realistic appraisal of the human condition\, enhanced by a healthy dose of uncertainty. \nI realized that a spa treatment is often what people want from meditation—and that it was often being sold as such—but I could tell from my own meditations that relaxation\, while an occasional benefit\, was not always accessible on demand. For me\, meditation had come to mean being with my own mind no matter what state it was in. In this way\, it was closer to psychotherapy than I had initially thought. \nIf it is going to be of any help\, we have to actively engage with [meditation] as an art rather than subjecting ourselves to it solely as a science. A goal-oriented approach\, whether it is to calm the mind\, relax the body\, or achieve some kind of transcendental experience\, is antithetical to meditation’s greater purpose. For me\, the trust and intimacy of the psychotherapeutic relationship was to become instrumental in helping to bring this greater purpose into focus. \nThere is much to be learned from the lords of the underworld\, the uncrowned and exiled kings of the unconscious. \nAt certain points I sound like a traditional psychodynamic therapist\, unpacking the childhood origins of a patient’s persistent negativity. At other times\, I continue to offer explicit meditation instruction\, hoping to guide someone away from their mind object with its recurrent loops of shame and blame. In still others I am reaching for something else\, something my years of meditative practice have inched into my consciousness\, the sense that there is an accessible vitality\, present from birth\, underlying our accrued personalities. In these more unconventional sessions\, I use whatever I can to break through a patient’s defenses or to shine a light on a patient’s unexplored natural intelligence. \nAbout Mark Epstein \nMark Epstein\, MD\, a clinical psychiatrist based in New York City\, is a leading author on the subject of interweaving modern psychotherapy and ancient Buddhist meditation. His bestselling books include Thoughts without a Thinker\, Going to Pieces without Falling Apart\, Going on Being\, and most recently\, The Zen of Therapy: Uncovering A Hidden Kindness in Life. Mark received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard University and is currently Clinical Assistant Professor at New York University. He has been a practicing Buddhist\, primarily in the Vipassana tradition\, for fifty years. \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US for on Wednesday for our Zen Luminaures evening with Mark Epstein. Register to participate. All are welcome. Donations gratefully received to support our wonderful guests. \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/on-break-monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-9/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Mark-Epstein_500x375.jpeg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240212T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240212T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20240202T185101Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240307T224512Z
UID:10001648-1707760800-1707766200@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY NOTE: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective – Monday Note from Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:Psychiatrist Mark Epstein\, M.D.\, Author of The Zen of Therapy joins us next week to discuss psychotherapy from a Buddhist perspective:\nMark Epstein\, M.D.\, is a clinical psychiatrist practicing in New York City and is perhaps the leading scholar on the joining of modern psychotherapy and ancient Buddhist meditation. He is the author of numerous books about the interface of Buddhism and psychotherapy: Thoughts without a Thinker\, Going to Pieces without Falling Apart\, Going on Being\, and most recently\, The Zen of Therapy; Uncovering A Hidden Kindness in Life.  \nMark received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard University and is currently Clinical Assistant Professor in the Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis at New York University. He has been a practicing Buddhist\, primarily in the Vipassana tradition\, for fifty years. \nThe Zen of Therapy\, a warm\, profound and clear-eyed memoir of a year in his consulting room prior to the pandemic\, the psychiatrist and author—and practicing Buddhist—Mark Epstein aims at something meatier. He seeks to uncover the fundamental wisdom both (psychotherapy and Buddhist) worldviews share\, and to show\, as a practical matter\, how it might help us wriggle free from the places we get stuck on the road to fulfillment. \n—Oliver Burkeman\, The New York Times Book Review \nA psychiatrist with forty years of practice in psychotherapy and meditation shows how both can achieve the same goal: to reclaim the kindness that’s at the core of all of us. Epstein draws on a lifetime of personal and professional experience to deliver a profound and optimistic examination of the links between psychotherapy and meditation. Drawing on influences as diverse as psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott\, the Dalai Lama\, and composer John Cage\, Epstein offers a warm and accessible explanation of topics that defy easy explanation. \n—Kirkus Reviews on The Zen of Therapy\n \nEpstein\, a New York City psychiatrist trained in classical Freudian methods\, has studied Buddhist meditation in India and Southeast Asia. In a highly personal\, thoughtful\, illuminating synthesis\, he draws on his own experience as therapist\, meditator and patient in an unusual attempt to integrate Western psychotherapy and Buddha’s teachings on suffering\, delusion\, wisdom and nonattachment. \n—Publishers Weekly on Thoughts Without A Thinker \n***** \nCome join us on the 21st. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. All are welcome. Register to participate. \nJon Joseph Roshi\,\nDirector of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-31-3/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Mark-Epstein_500x375.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240205T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240205T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20240126T044644Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240311T185123Z
UID:10001647-1707156000-1707161400@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN:  Isn't This the Sound? A Night of Celtic Pub Music in the Zendo
DESCRIPTION:With Harpist Delphine Moss\, Guitarist Jordan McConnell and Rose Joseph \nAt the words\, “Cypress tree in the garden\,” Yuanwu was suddenly enlightened.\nHe went outside and saw a rooster fly to the top of a railing\, beat its wings and crow loudly.\nHe said to himself\, “Isn’t this the sound?”  \n—Pacific Zen Miscellaneous Koan \nListen to the Audio \nSeveral weeks ago I attended a multi-media performance given by harpist Delphine Griffith\, who with my daughter Rose recorded their version of the Pacific Zen Four Vows. Delphine had just returned from three months studying and playing harp in southern Ireland and Scotland. For me\, the video\, music and lyrics from the show resonated with the very heart of Zen: sunshine through rain\, loves found and lost\, cattle trails and seashore\, scones\, Guinness and whiskey … \nIt is a grand tradition in Irish and Scottish pubs for musicians to join jam sessions which often break up only when the sun begins to peek over the hayfields. Guitarist Jordan McConnell has engaged in such Celtic pub tours more than a dozen times. Here are a few of Jordan’s thoughts on that kind of amazing musical collaboration\, which involves hundreds of songs over dozens of hours: \n“We would be in the middle of a piece of music and I’m thinking to myself\, ‘Something’s about to change\, but I’ve no idea what’s coming up.’ There is this funny thing where people will be looking around for a key that will unlock a tune. Usually all that’s needed are a couple of notes at the beginning and the gate opens. Then my hand goes to where it needs to be and my mind just follows along. All of a sudden\, the whole melody is accessible; it was in my body somewhere. How cool!” \nFrom the introduction to Delphine’s SoundCloud account: \n“I have no idea what I’m doing—but maybe somewhere along the way I’ll find something … and maybe it’ll resonate with you … and maybe you’ll come along for the journey.” \nSome lyrics from one of Delphine’s Moss Collective songs\, Pocket Hearts: \nKaleidoscopic patterns of seaweed\, rocks and sand\nThe end of the Great Auk on the Kerragh Island\nA cottage made of shells/fuchsia flower bells\nSand in our hair\, clouds in our eyes\nAnd the soft waves of the rising tide/the soft waves of the rising tide\nWe’re flying in by the seat of our pants/blown in by the wind\nFueled by chips\, scones\, butter\, Guinness\, whiskey and gin\nDancing on the tables\nStomping on the ground\nIn the pubs till 4 am that’s where we’ll be found\nWith our hearts on our pockets/with our hearts sewn on our pockets\nWith our hearts sewn on our back pockets \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. All are welcome. Register to participate. \nJon Joseph Roshi\,\nDirector of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-31-2/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Rose-Harpist_500x375.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240129T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240129T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20240124T184309Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240124T184607Z
UID:10001628-1706551200-1706556600@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ON BREAK: MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:NO MONDAY ZEN MEETING TODAY \nJon Joseph is in Winter Sesshin. Join us next on February 5! \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-7-2/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/wooden-bucketCALENDAR500x350.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240122T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240122T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20231120T212622Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240123T231140Z
UID:10001614-1705946400-1705951800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:Zen Luminaries: A Fire Runs Through All Things – Jon Joseph in Conversation with Filmmaker\, Writer & Zen Teacher Susan Murphy
DESCRIPTION:Susan Murphy Roshi is the founding teacher of Zen Open Circle in Sydney and has served as guiding teacher for two decades. She also guides Melbourne Zen Group and Mountains and Rivers Zen\, Hobart\, in Australia. Susan has been affiliated with Pacific Zen and its associates since the mid-1980s. She received transmission from John Tarrant in 2001. She works as a writer\, freelance radio producer and film director\, and previously served as a university lecturer in film studies. \nIn addition to several books on film\, Susan’s books include Upside-Down Zen\, A Direct Path into Reality; Minding the Earth\, Mending the World: Zen and the Art of Planetary Crisis; and Red Thread Zen: Humanly Tangled in Emptiness. \nHer most recent book is A Fire Runs Through All Things: Zen Koans for Facing the Climate Crisis. \nAs in a fairy tale\, we have the impossible task of saving the earth. We know that there are sensible things that are good to do but we must also do what we haven’t thought of—seeing our lives and the earth with fresh eyes. \nSusan Murphy is steeped in Zen and the indigenous understanding of the Australian bush. She is an artist who can turn toward the dark forces and find a golden path. This alchemical skill makes her the right guide for the impossible tasks and inconceivable problems we face. She’s a true and terrific guide. The Red Queen said to Alice\, “It’s jam yesterday and jam tomorrow\, but never jam today.” Susan’s book is jam today. May you read it with joy. \n—John Tarrant \n\nMore about Susan Murphy \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 range is $10 for PZI Members and $12 for Non-Members\, but the scale is sliding depending on one’s ability to contribute. We also greatly appreciate Patrons\, who help support the program with larger gifts of $50—500. \n\nJoin us on Monday for a lively conversation with special guest Susan Murphy. All are welcome to join in for meditation and conversation. Register to participate.
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/zen-luminaries-a-fire-runs-through-all-things-jon-joseph-in-conversation-with-filmmaker-writer-zen-teacher-susan-murphy/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Susan-Murphy_500x375.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240115T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240115T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20240109T224340Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240116T170951Z
UID:10001630-1705341600-1705347000@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: Congruent with the Earth – with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:Join us on Monday to discuss deep ecology and Susan Murphy’s new book\, A Fire Runs Through All Things: Zen Koans for Facing the Climate Crisis\, in preparation for her visit in our Luminaries Series on January 22nd. \nExcerpts from Susan Murphy’s book: \nKoans offer no solace to the mind that would divide the world in order to manage the pain of experience. Nor do they direct a course of action. They merely lay before us the true breadth and open nature of every moment—the “formless field of benefaction.” After that it’s up to you and me. The privilege and weight of this responsibility is great. \nI once heard Aunty Beryl Carmichael\, a Ngiyampaa elder in Darling River country in New South Wales\, Australia\, put it simply: “Reality is connectedness. If you’re not in connectedness\, you’re not in reality.” \nCaller on a podcast: “What do you mean by interconnected?” Pause\, then the podcast guest\, an ecologist\, responds: “There is a species of moth in Madagascar that drinks the tears of sleeping birds.” \nThere is no way to “save the Earth\,” which is already complete in every moment. To save the Earth\, just risk at last belonging to it\, being complete with it. \nThe indigenous term “Country” is a richly unfolding koan that unfolds us. It is a matter resolved only in its embodiment. I take it as a koan posed to our fragile time. \nCountry says to just bring reality—the obdurate\, irreplaceable rhinoceros itself—back whole and alive. In Country\, as in Zen practice\, there is a willingness to be unmade\, fit to meet the task of congruence with a planet in perilous crisis. \nAs Tyson Yunkaporta\, the cheeky Aboriginal philosopher\, notes\, “If you’re not laughing\, you’re not learning.” \nThe extraordinary David Banggal Mowaljarlai\, painter\, teacher\, storyteller\, and linguist\, was a senior Law-holder of the Ngarinyin people in West Kimberley. He called the joy of the awake\, skin-to-skin recognition of “Country” yorro yorro\, translating this as “everything standing up alive\, brand-new.” \n—Susan Murphy \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-30-3/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/DreamTurtle_500x375.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240108T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240108T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20231227T181800Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240116T170431Z
UID:10001629-1704736800-1704742200@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: Where Do We Go When We Dream? with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:When you’re free from birth and death\, you know where to go.\nWhen your four elements separate into sleep and dreams\, where do you go? \n—Doushuai’s Three Barriers (amended)\, Gateless Gate Case 47 \nEssential in older traditions\, including the “primitive” ones\, is the idea that the soul separates from the body during sleep. It wanders then\, a wandering which means … its attention is not fixed on the aims of the day. \n—James Hillman\, The Dream and the Underworld \nLast week I visited Corey Hitchcock\, a PZI friend who is gravely ill. She has not taken food or water for some time and was markedly diminished since my last visit. Yet she still shone with a kind of light. \nCorey gestured for me to pull up a chair. I sat close and took her hand\, which was soft and warm. Her daughter was there\, saying Corey was a bit loopy from the morphine. Corey began our conversation talking about the “crazy cancer” she had\, and something about monkeys in a tree. I looked at her daughter to interpret. We all chuckled together. \nSoon she closed her eyes and fell asleep. As I sat holding Corey’s hand\, it would occasionally twitch\, like the hands of sleeping infants and puppies. My friend was dreaming\, leaning on the gate that separates life and death. \nWhere do we go when we enter dreamland? Talking with her teacher a week ago\, Corey mentioned how for some months leading up to her diagnosis she felt as though her ‘self’ was dissolving into the environment around her. Sitting with her\, I felt the continuity of things\, the community of things\, the intimacy of things. \nMy friend was still asleep a half hour later when I put down her hand\, kissed two fingers and touched her forehead and left. \n—Jon Joseph \nimage credit: original artwork by Corey Hitchcock \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-30-2/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Coreydreaming_500x375.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240101T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240101T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20231129T182319Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231227T181927Z
UID:10001618-1704132000-1704137400@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ON BREAK: Monday Zen with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:NO MONDAY ZEN MEETING TODAY \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-6/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/wooden-bucketCALENDAR500x350.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20231225T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20231225T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20231117T201029Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231117T201029Z
UID:10001600-1703527200-1703532600@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ON BREAK: MONDAY ZEN with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:NO MONDAY ZEN MEETING TODAY \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-29-2/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/wooden-bucketCALENDAR500x350.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20231218T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20231218T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20231212T181635Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231215T182630Z
UID:10001599-1702922400-1702927800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: Three Vipassani Find Koans! A Panel Discussion on Vipassana & Koan Zen Hosted by Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nMonday Zen with Jon Joseph\n—Three Vipassani Find Koans!\nA Panel Discussion on Vipassana and Koan Zen\nwith Special Guests Teachers Susan Pollak\, Doug Phillips and Ewen Arnold\nHosted by Jon Joseph Roshi\nMonday Eve\, 6–7:30 pm PST \nIn recent years\, Pacific Zen’s creative koan sangha has been blessed with a number of distinguished Vipassana\, or “insight\,” meditation teachers. The two schools have fundamentally different Buddhist roots: Vipassana stems from the Sri Lankan and Southeast Asian Theravada (School of the Elders) while Chan-Zen comes from the Northeast Asian Mahayana (Great Vehicle) tradition. Some argue that Chan-Zen is not even Mahayana but Chinese Daoist in origin. \nI have many questions for our friends who will be joining us in a panel this coming Monday: \nAs a Vipassana teacher\, what attracted you to koan work?\nHow have you found koan work to be similar to or different from Vipassana?\nIs the “insight” in Koan Zen the same as “insight” in Vipassana?\nAre there any koan teachings that you integrate into your Vipassana practice?\nWhat Vipassana techniques do you bring into your Zen teaching? \n \nSusan Pollak is the author of six books on mindfulness meditation. She co-founded the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion at Harvard Medical School-Cambridge Health Alliance\, and for ten years served as president of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy. Susan has a private psychotherapy practice in Cambridge and writes the Psychology Today blog\, “The Art of Now—Essential Skills for Mindfulness\,” and is currently studying koans primarily in the White Plum Asanga tradition. \nDoug Phillips is a koan teacher in the broader Pacific Zen school. In the late 1970s he began meditation with Maurine Stewart\, a student of Soen Nakagawa. On her death in 1990\, he began to study both Korean Seon (Zen) and Vipassana with Larry Rosenberg\, who gave Doug transmission in 2003. He then returned to koan practice with James Ford in the Tarrant-Aitken line of Zen\, and received Inka Shomei in 2017. Doug has long worked as a therapist and co-leads the Empty Sky Sangha in Lexington\, Massachusetts and West Cornwall\, Connecticut. \nEwen Arnold worked for some decades as an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher in England\, Ethiopia\, Sri Lanka\, and Oman\, where he was also a master dive instructor.  In 1997 he traveled to the Nilambe Buddhist Meditation Centre in Kandy\, Sri Lanka\, where he became a student of Godwin Samararatne. When Godwin passed away in 2000\, Ewen visited other Indian Buddhist centers and later returned to Nilambe Centre. Since 2015 Ewen has served as a Vipassana teacher for foreign students. He first joined Pacific Zen as a koan student in 2020 after reading John Tarrant’s Bring Me the Rhinoceros.    \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. All are welcome. Register to participate. \nJon Joseph Roshi\,\nDirector of San Mateo Zen Community \n\n 
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-29-5/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Theravada_500x375.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20231211T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20231211T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20231205T172746Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231212T174212Z
UID:10001612-1702317600-1702323000@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: Regrets\, I've Had a Few – with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:After Bodhidharma left\, Duke Zhi asked the Emperor\, “Your Majesty\, do you know who that was?”\n“I don’t know\,” said the Emperor.\n“That was the great bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara\, bringing to you the mind seal of the Buddha.”\nThe Emperor was filled with regret and wanted to send a messenger to ask Bodhidharma to come back.\nThe Duke said\, “There’s no point\, Your Majesty. Even if everyone in the country went after him\, he wouldn’t return.” \n—The Blue Cliff Record\, Case 1 (translation Sutherland and Tarrant) \nThough I have read this koan hundreds of times over the years\, recently I found that it was Emperor Wu’s deep regret\, an abiding feeling that he had failed in his encounter with Bodhidharma (and wanted a do-over)\, that I found most moving. \nEmperor Wu’s “not getting it\,” may not have been a fail at all; perhaps it was his most generous gift to the world. \nThis first case of the Blue Cliff is one of the greatest koans of the major Song collections\, including The Gateless Barrier and The Book of Serenity. The koan addresses merit: Seeking recognition for his good deeds\, the Emperor tells Bodhidharma about the many monks he has supported and temples he has built. Bodhidharma responds that Wu has generated “No merit whatsoever.” \nIt expounds the boundless. Challenging the red-bearded barbarian\, the Emperor then asks\, “What is the first principal of the holy teaching?” Bodhidharma responds\, “Vast emptiness; nothing holy.” \nIt offers an openness of being. Angered at Bodhidharma’s first two answers\, the Emperor demands: “Who is this standing before me?” Bodhidharma replies\, “I don’t know\,” and leaves. \nLater\, when the Emperor realizes whom he has just met\, he is deeply sorry. When Bodhidharma died\, the Emperor wrote the following inscription for his memorial monument: “What a shame! I saw him without seeing him\, I met him without meeting him; I still regret this deeply.” \n“Regrets\, I have had a few\,” sings Frank Sinatra. I have felt that countless times. And not just a bit. Not supporting my mother enough in her later years. Not taking the risk to go to that last dokusan. Buying\, and then not selling\, crappy investments (far too many times). \nBut “not getting it” is as important as “getting it.” When in college\, I lived for a time in a kind of spiritual commune called The Internal School\, in Arcata\, California. It was a four-story\, century-old building constructed of massive old growth redwood beams. Every Asian martial art and new age meditation method seemed to go through there: Kung Fu\, Aikido\, Transcendental Meditation\, The Sufi Choir\, Swami Muktananda (his bathtub water was later sold)\, and Zen. \nI had a friend from the Internal School who took a week-long training sponsored by the Arica Institute\, a human potential movement group. She came back from the training sobbing\, breaking down in tears: “I was the only one by the end of the training who did not ‘get it.’” My heart felt so heavy for her. I wanted her to “get it”—I want all of us to get it. I guess that’s why I teach. \nBut is there anything missing here? Is there anything to get? In Baizhang’s Fox\, an old priest gives an answer to a monk’s question\, and because it was wrong\, finds himself reborn as a fox for five hundred lives. Huangbo\, Baizhang’s student\, asks the teacher\, “What  would happen if every time the priest answered\, he made no mistakes?” Baizhang told Huangbo to come closer; Huangbo came up and gave him a slap. \nThe master clapped his hands\, laughing aloud. “I thought the barbarian’s  beard was red\, but here is the red-bearded barbarian!” We can only do it our way. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nCOME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation\, dharma talk and conversation. All are welcome. Register to participate. \nJon Joseph Roshi\,\nDirector of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-29-4/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/emperorWU_500x375.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20231204T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20231204T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20231128T172252Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231211T203626Z
UID:10001598-1701712800-1701718200@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: Universe at Play with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:The path to Cold Mountain is laughable.\nA path\, but no sign of cart or horse …\nAnd now I’ve lost the shortcut home.\nBody asking shadow\, \nHow do you keep up? \n—Cold Mountain Poems \nA friend of mine was an English teacher in Sri Lanka for a while\, running an elementary school class sponsored by the British Consulate. The class stayed together for about three years\, and through their long familiarity developed a classroom culture of play\, of silliness. The students would get up on their desks and dance\, and sometimes he would come in to find the furniture completely shuffled around. When the class finally split up\, the kids gave him a card: “To the silliest teacher in the world\, from the silliest class in the world.” \nHe recalls\,“It really made me free. I could be just who I was and they could be just who they were. We could not do life wrong.” Such a simple but profound realization is still fresh for him decades afterward\, the result of play. \nThese last weeks\, we have been visiting with Pang family koans in the PZI Open Temple. This ninth-century family of four was a pretty playful Chan-Zen tribe. One day while crossing a bridge\, Layman Pang fell down along with all the baskets he had been carrying. His daughter Lingzhao immediately fell down next to him\, saying\, “I’m helping.” “Luckily\, no one was looking\,” said Pang. \nIn sesshin\, I must confess that I found the most playful leadership role to be Head of Practice. Sitting for long\, quiet hours in the zendo with everyone\, the HOP may occasionally make comments called “encouraging words” that are intended to help people move across the frontier from stillness to activity. Pretty quickly I found that shouting words like\, “Hang in there!” or “Life and death are a serious matter!” were not all that fun. \nInstead\, I began to say whatever came to mind\, like\, “If you won’t do it for yourself\, do it for the baby seals!” Or at noon\, with everyone in the zendo quietly waiting for the lunchtime gong to sound\, I crawled across the floor\, exiting the zendo barking like a dog. One time in the deeply quiet zendo I shouted\, “Marsupial!” The zendo became even more quiet and then erupted in outrageous laughter. I went to my room and laughed and cried for several hours. The world was at play; not one thing was out of place. \n—Jon Joseph \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-29-3/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/playing-in-the-rain._500x375.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20231127T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20231127T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20231121T184550Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231126T173343Z
UID:10001589-1701108000-1701113400@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: A Wild River of Music with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nThis past week\, Pacific Zen’s Jordan McConnell has been playing his amazing guitar in a Manitoba Opera called Li Keur\, Reil’s Heart of the North. Billed as “a celebration of Métis (mixed Indigenous and Euro-American) women\, language\, and culture\,” it is the first full-scale Indigenous-led opera presented on a Canadian mainstage. Jordan accompanied the lead fiddler\, together with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. \nThe storyline is narrated by a Métis grandmother\, a descendant of French fur trappers (called Voyageurs) and First Nations women\, telling the rich tale of family to her granddaughter. More broadly\, it is the story of the Métis peoples of Canada. The grandmother\, who was sold to an English settler by her father\, killed the settler and escaped to join the resistance movement organized by Louis Riel (d. 1885). Riel was later deemed an insurrectionist and executed by the British colonists. \nAt one point the granddaughter stops and says she can’t go on\, the story is too painful. “It’s pretty harrowing stuff\,” says Jordan. “I’ve never done a performance like this before. It’s not just the opera\, but the feeling I had of being part of the Indigenous cast as one of their community.” \nThe anthem of the Métis nation is the Red River Jig\, a fiddle tune and dance number with Indigenous origins back to the early 19th century. This music figures centrally in the Li Keur opera. Says Jordan\, “By playing that music\, by being accepted by the that community\, I’ve come a bit to know what it means to be Métis.” \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-28-5/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/metis-river.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20231120T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20231120T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20231113T201611Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231118T025027Z
UID:10001588-1700503200-1700508600@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:MONDAY ZEN: Crazy Joy with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER\n\nBest-selling science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson has his whole adult life trekked the Sierra Nevada in California. He has taken well over one hundred trips into those mountains and he writes in The High Sierra\, A Love Story: \nAt the start of a trip\, I sometimes laugh out loud. That feeling is one of the things I want to write about … crazy love. Some kind of joy. \nWhat is it to feel the gift of joy? Where does it come from? Dare we share in another’s joy? \nThe great master Yuanwu\, who provided commentary for a collection of koans called The Blue Cliff Record\, was living at Wuzu’s temple when he had a sudden understanding of the light that shines in all things. Full of gratitude to his teacher\, Yuanwu took a stick of incense to Wuzu and gave him the following poem: \nThe golden duck vanishes into the golden brocade\,\nWith a country song the drunk comes home from the woods\,\nOnly the young beauty knows about her love affair. \nWuzu responded\, “I share your joy.” \nI think we feel the deepest joy when we cross over unknown and unknowable frontiers\, when we meet the inconceivable. \nFor some years\, I saw sesshin retreats as a kind of struggle. It was a grim battle to beat down my ego and realize my Buddha nature. I remember one time\, as I was headed off to a retreat\, my young daughter said to me gayly\, “Daddy\, have a good time!” I snorted to myself\, “Honey\, you don’t understand\, I am headed into war.” But things have since changed. \nOne time during sesshin I was in the dokusan line\, watching the wavering light of a candle on the altar. The dokusan schedule was running late\, and folks in the zendo set off for dinner. I could hear people standing in line\, taking up plates and beginning to serve themselves. I realized that it was me—my most intimate self—that they were eating. Tears welled up in my eyes. It was a joyful sharing. \nThis week in our PZI Open Temple\, we heard this verse by Polish poet Anna Swir: \nPriceless Gifts \n(translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Leonard Nathan) \nAn empty day without events.\nAnd that is why\nit grew immense\nas space. And suddenly\nhappiness of being\nentered me.\nI heard\nin my heartbeat\nthe birth of time\nand each instant of life\none after the other\ncame rushing in\nlike priceless gifts. \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-28-4/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.pacificzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/crazyJoyCALENDAR.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20231115T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20231115T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20230810T223153Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231130T221559Z
UID:10001464-1700071200-1700076600@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ZEN LUMINARIES: Jon Joseph in Conversation with Author Kim Stanley Robinson
DESCRIPTION:A PZI Zen Online Event hosted by Jon Joseph Roshi\nNovember 15th\, 2023\nWednesday Evening\, 6–7:30 pm PST\nOur mind is nothing other than mountains\, rivers\, and the great earth\, the sun\, the moon and the stars. \n—Eihei Dogen\, Shobogenzo \nWith the release of The Ministry for the Future\, best-selling author Kim Stanley Robinson has become the most closely followed voice in science and climate fiction today. Called by The New York Times\, “the last great utopian\,” Stan’s vision of the future is fearsome yet ultimately optimistic in its belief that the human race will learn to cooperatively address its growing existential challenges. \nThough not formally religious\, Stan’s spiritual guiding light for decades has been Zen Buddhism\, and Buddhist themes of consciousness\, non-duality and attention illuminate his writing and life. The work of deep-ecology poet Gary Snyder inspired him to become a writer\, and he was later heavily influenced by mystical leanings of Ursula K. LeGuin and Philip K. Dick. \n“What has persisted out of my interest in Zen\,” Stan says\, “is its devotion to treating the world as sacred in daily life.” He adds\, “Chop wood\, carry water” could just as easily be “run five miles\, write five pages.” Gardening\, washing dishes\, looking after little children\, “this puts a spark into things\, a glow around them.” \n—Jon Joseph \n\nAnd because we are alive\, the universe must be said to be alive. We are its consciousness as well as our own. We rise out of the cosmos and we see its mesh of patterns\, and it strikes us as beautiful. And that feeling is the most important thing in all the universe—its culmination\, like the color of the flower at first bloom on a wet morning. \n―Kim Stanley Robinson\, from his book\, Green Mars \n\nOfficial Short Bio \nKim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer. He is the author of more than twenty books\, including the international bestselling Mars trilogy\, and more recently\, New York 2140\, Aurora\, Shaman\, Green Earth\, and 2312\, a NYT bestseller nominated for all seven of the major science fiction awards. \nRobinson works with the Sierra Nevada Research Institute\, the Clarion Writers’ Workshop\, and UC San Diego’s Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination. His writing has been translated into twenty-five languages and has won a dozen awards\, including the Hugo\, Nebula\, Locus\, and World Fantasy awards. In 2008\, he was named a “Hero of the Environment” by Time magazine. \nHis novel\, The Ministry for the Future\, was selected as one of Barack Obama’s “Favorite Books of 2020” and one of Bill Gates’ “Five Great Books for the Summer” in 2022. His most recent book\, The High Sierra: A Love Story\, is a non-fiction exploration of Robinson’s years spent hiking and camping in the Sierra Nevada mountains\, one of the most compelling places on Earth. \n\nJon Joseph (rt)\, Kim Stanley Robinson\n  \nJoin us on Monday for a lively conversation with special guest Kim Stanley Robinson. All are welcome. Register to participate. \n 
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/zen-luminaries-jon-joseph-in-conversation-with-author-kim-stanley-robinson/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20231113T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20231113T193000
DTSTAMP:20260426T135651
CREATED:20231108T164447Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231108T181350Z
UID:10001587-1699898400-1699903800@www.pacificzen.org
SUMMARY:ON BREAK: Monday Zen with Jon Joseph
DESCRIPTION:NO MONDAY ZEN TODAY \nJon Joseph is hosting a Zen Luminaries event on Wednesday\, November 15th\, with Special Guest Kim Stanley Robinson.\n \nYou may register here for Zen Luminaries. \nHope to see you soon! \n(Jon will be back November 20th for his regular Monday Zen meeting.) \n\nJon Joseph Roshi\n  \n  \nJon Joseph Roshi\, Director of San Mateo Zen Community
URL:https://www.pacificzen.org/event/monday-zen-with-jon-joseph-28-3/
LOCATION:PZI Online Temple
CATEGORIES:PZI Zen Online
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