In this episode, Roshi John Tarrant takes up a series of bright gate koans from The Blue Cliff Record, all featuring one of the greatest Zen masters of all-time, Yunmen.

At the root of these dharmakaya koans lies the question of consciousness, or what Yunmen describes as: what is that light that everyone has?

Chock-full of awakening stories from ancient China to modern day, this talk showcases Zen Buddhism's earthy, humorous, and joyful exploration of the wonders of existence.

Listen in to learn more about finding your own light.

“Look around. This is your temple of the Blue Cliff.” – John Tarrant. 

Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/14

Today, Roshi John Tarrant speaks about peach blossoms and the end of doubt.

Everyone has a light inside.

What is this light that everyone has?

Can you see the silvery threads connecting all koans?

Listen to this episode to learn to trust the moment, yourself, and the darkness.

“So many problems disappear when you realize you are already in the temple.” – John Tarrant.

Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/13

In this episode, Roshi Allison Atwill offers insight into Zen's signature transmission beyond words and letters.

Telling the story of infamous Japanese Zen Master, Ikkyu Sojun, and his ambivalence toward transmission, Atwill describes how our particular awakening is always tailor-made to the circumstances of our lives. It always comes through the door we least expect, and dissolves whatever sense of separation we've held in place throughout our lives.

Listen to learn more about the nature of awakening and how we are always receiving transmission.

"We are always receiving transmission." - Allison Atwill.

Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/12

As we become more intimate with the world, it shares its secrets with us. As we become less certain, new pathways appear.

At first, we are reaching for the beautiful and timeless world. We practice and suddenly we find that it just surrounds us and we are not reaching any more.

In this episode, Roshi John Tarrant takes up a deep, strange koan in which a student asks Yunmen, "Where do all the Buddhas come from?" And, Yunmen answers: "East mountain walks on the water."

Pondering the inevitable questions that appear as part of koan study, like where do we come from, and what is the source of this existence we find ourselves part of, Tarrant considers the traditions of Zen and Haiku as well as hippopotamuses.

What do we do when everything we are holding onto falls down?

Listen in to learn more.

"The whole universe is in the glimpses." - John Tarrant.

Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/11

In this episode, Roshi Tess Beasley speaks about the nature of self-consciousness and how the koan path slowly guides us through the process of discovering our part in it all.

It also ferrets out our strategies for making a separate self that cannot bear the intimacy of awakening.

If we imagine that we are "us", it can be difficult to stare into someone's eyes for a long time until we envision ourselves as the night sky.

When we forget to be ourselves our true nature can appear.

"There is something nourishing and almost healing about seeing things as they are." - Tess Beasley.

Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/10

Join Roshi Allison Atwill to explore awakening as a great voyage, one that is entirely your own, and yet in which you are somehow accompanied by the entire universe.

Atwill tells the riveting story of one sailor's solo journey around Cape Horn and reveals how, in the end, he gives up on the mind that races and compares, and turns toward Tahiti...a beacon for his true nature.

What does it mean to give up on the project of improving and protecting the self? How does Zen Buddhism help us navigate a path to freedom?

Each person takes the voyage of awakening alone and in some sense entirely accompanied by the universe." - Allison Atwill.

Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/09

In this episode, Roshi John Tarrant tackles the first great gate of koan study, in which a student asks, "Does a dog have Buddha nature or not?" And, Zhaozhou simply answers, "No," (translated as "Mu" in Japanese, and "Wu" in Chinese).

Exploring the vivid commentaries that accompany this foundational koan case, including instructions to "cut off the mind road" and "make your whole body a mass of doubt," Tarrant speaks about entering deeply the very trouble we usually seek to avoid, and the modesty of setting down our most treasured defenses against it. Being clever, being important, being tough won't help. It's when all this falls away that freedom appears.

How then should you work with this? Listen to find out.

"For the practice of Zen it is imperative that you pass through the barriers set up by the founding teachers." - John Tarrant.

Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/08

In this episode, Roshi John Tarrant takes up a koan from The Gateless Gate collection in which the Buddha tells his attendant, "That person is like a fine racehorse who runs at the mere shadow of a whip."

Tarrant investigates our relationship to suffering, describing the four kinds of horse metaphors in Zen Buddhism, ranging from the one who runs at the mere shadow of the whip to the one who must be whipped to the bone.

Noting how everyone wants to be the best horse, but Buddha's compassion actually arises for the worst, Tarrant reveals the unexpected joy and wholeness found in our "worst horse" moments. After all, it is the very worst horse who reaches enlightenment in the end.

Listen for stories and reflections on embracing the worst horse.

"We often give away our life hoping for a later improved version." - John Tarrant.

Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/07