There is always a certain amount of mystery to who we are and where we are.

In this episode, Roshi John Tarrant takes up a poetic case entitled Jiashan's Beautiful State of Mind.

What is your state of mind?

What is it like to be you?

"The universe is holding all of us and is all of us." - John Tarrant.

Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/19

In this episode, Roshi John Tarrant tells the story of Deshan and his transformative pilgrimage of awakening.

We are all Deshan, ready to let go of our old pile of stories.

What is it like to be on a journey?

How do we get home from a journey?

How does the journey change us?

How can we meet our journey with openness?

"Meditation is a kind of change of heart, but it is more a forgetting to carry our burdens." - John Tarrant.

Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/18

Today, Roshi John Tarrant takes listeners on a vivid imaginal journey into the depths of the Blue Dragon's cave of wisdom.

"For twenty years, I've struggled fiercely. How many times have I gone down into the Blue Dagon's cave for you?" This great question appears in Case 3 of The Blue Cliff Record, the canonical Zen Buddhism koan collection.

Tarrant offers context for the power of the Zen koan tradition, describing how the great images tap hidden reserves of the mind and open doors to awakening.

If you've ever wished to ask questions to the source of wisdom itself, this talk is for you.

"We have to submit ourselves to the current of life and be at ease." - John Tarrant.

Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/17

Today, Roshi Allison Atwill explores the bodhisattva's unique relationship with uncertainty as a healing balm for suffering.

Describing how Zen Buddhism draws from the Mahayana tradition in which the bodhisattva path means helping to awaken all beings, Atwill notes this is not a future goal to somehow be achieved but a moment-to-moment way of meeting every aspect of our own lives with sincere openness.

Your awakening has no recipe, she says. It's uniquely yours to discover as everything you've taken as a given falls away.

"You can't get paint-by-numbers for a painting that doesn't exist. And it is the same for your awakening." - Tess Beasley.

Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/16

Can we trust our own unique response to life, our own dharma?

In this episode, Roshi Tess Beasley speaks about how seductive problems are, and how frozen we can become when we think that something beyond what's already here is required.

Telling the story of Juzhi and his infamous awakening encounters, first with the Zen Buddhist nun, True World, and then with the spirit of the mountain, Beasley considers the nature of a true word and what gets in the way of expression.

Listen to learn more about how the practice of Zen Buddhism means connecting to a source greater than the small self.

"Thankfully, we have these greater forces that seem to step in when we're about to get in our own way." - Tess Beasley.

Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/15

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 offers a guided meditation on a spring koan from the canonical Blue Cliff Record. It tells the story of longtime practitioner Lingyun, wandering in the mountains on a spring day, and suddenly, really seeing peach blossoms for the first time. He writes this verse:

For thirty years I searched for a master swordsman, how many times did the leaves fall, and the branches burst into bud? But from the moment I saw the peach blossoms, I've had no doubts.

Tarrant invites listeners into their own experience of peach blossoms, not as some distant historical anecdote but as a plunge into the vivid beauty of each unfolding moment.

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.