Meeting the Inconceivable | Zen Koans, Dreams & the Creative Life

In the Sea of Ise, 10,000 ft. Down [EP 2]


Listen Later

Koans transform us through immersion and saturation, by dissolving the usual boundaries we keep between us and the world. If you have an unanswerable question, the koan is designed to open it.

Today's episode explores a koan from the Miscellaneous Collection that poses:

In the Sea of Ise, 10,000 feet down, lies a single stone. I want to pick up that stone without getting my hands wet.

Roshi John Tarrant offers a guided meditation down through the ship wrecks, strange creatures, and unimaginable depths of our lives, showing how koans offer a kind of imaginative mindfulness by bringing attention to reality beneath the level of our usual thoughts.

This koan brings images and sensations with it. There’s water, earth, depth, sinking, light from above, pressure, breath, moving in the dark, finding, meeting, meeting yourself, rising up, shallowness, an impossible feat, getting immersed, and being untouched. Also, foxes.

Listen to this episode for a full experience of one of the great Japanese koans.

"The sweetness in the path of using a koan, is that it assumes that we can change." - John Tarrant.

Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/02

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Meeting the Inconceivable | Zen Koans, Dreams & the Creative LifeBy Pacific Zen Institute

  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5

5

18 ratings


More shows like Meeting the Inconceivable | Zen Koans, Dreams & the Creative Life

View all
Radiolab by WNYC Studios

Radiolab

44,010 Listeners

Fresh Air by NPR

Fresh Air

38,453 Listeners

WTF with Marc Maron Podcast by Marc Maron

WTF with Marc Maron Podcast

29,984 Listeners

The Moth by The Moth

The Moth

27,231 Listeners

The Rachel Maddow Show by Rachel Maddow, MSNBC

The Rachel Maddow Show

36,983 Listeners

Tricycle Talks by Tricycle: The Buddhist Review

Tricycle Talks

359 Listeners

Conversations with Tyler by Mercatus Center at George Mason University

Conversations with Tyler

2,429 Listeners

Sounds True: Insights at the Edge by Tami Simon

Sounds True: Insights at the Edge

1,853 Listeners

Heart Wisdom with Jack Kornfield by Be Here Now Network

Heart Wisdom with Jack Kornfield

1,466 Listeners

Pod Save America by Crooked Media

Pod Save America

87,199 Listeners

The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

112,376 Listeners

The Zen Studies Podcast by Domyo Burk

The Zen Studies Podcast

378 Listeners

This Jungian Life Podcast by Joseph Lee, Deborah Stewart, Lisa Marchiano

This Jungian Life Podcast

1,629 Listeners

The Bulwark Podcast by The Bulwark

The Bulwark Podcast

12,261 Listeners

The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show

16,144 Listeners