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Roshi John Tarrant explores the intersection of the art of haiku and silence. In this episode, he shows how the vastness of the universe is always ready to emerge out of our very own heart-mind. How do we convey this? Listen to this episode as we grapple with the marvel of being alive and the sense of vastness of things. We muse on what comes out of the silence and consider how to teach and learn from the Dharma. Darkness is a stillness, too." - John Tarrant. Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/31

As the year comes to a close, "the Guanyins" -- Roshis Allison Atwill, Tess Beasley, Michelle Riddle, and Sarah Bender -- team up to tell a wintery Christmas tale of wonder. Holidays often come with difficulties, but also have the potential of opening the heart into unexpected moments of healing. Listen to a story of reconciliation, surprise, and the blessing that emptiness can bring to any season. Happy New Year! "Zen sees awakening as a kind of miracle." - Tess Beasley. Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/30

In this episode, Roshi John Tarrant shares a wondrous and humorous rendition of an old fairytale about the Golden Bird and Buddha Nature. Explore how it is never our most treasured or heroic attitudes that lead us through the gates of awakening; it is far simpler than that. Tarrant reminds us that, with just one sitting, all our crimes are wiped away. Listen to this episode to learn about the benefits of generosity and discipline, and how we can best manage our expectations of desire and fulfillment. "Everybody wants to be the best horse, but the worst horse is interesting." - John Tarrant Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/29

Thanksgiving and the whole notion of gratitude can bring along complicated feelings. In this episode, Roshi John Tarrant shares an old story about a miserable student convinced that he is beyond help. The teacher he finds tells him she'll offer him a practice but only if he promises to take it up for a whole year, no questions asked. It goes terribly, but even that turns out perfectly in the end. Gratitude is far more mysterious than we give it credit for, and impossible to fabricate. Like awakening itself, it arises by itself as we move deeper on the path. "We don't oppose anything that rises in the heart or mind." - John Tarrant. Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/28

In this episode, Roshi John Tarrant shares an old Zen story about navigating impossible times and realizing how life carries us even when it's tough. "For thirty years, I've been just getting by," says the teacher in question, "but I've never lacked for salt or sauce." What makes the salt and sauce of our lives? Listen to this moving and joyful exploration of how, no matter our circumstances, it is a good life, and that we, too, never lack for salt or sauce. "Slowly the dharma just soaks into you." - John Tarrant. Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/27

Being lost has a transformative beauty to it. Being lost is a gateway to the extraordinary, as it brings about the possibility of not knowing who we are. Listen to this episode as Roshi John Tarrant discusses the importance of being tossed out of our certainties and discovering something far more strange and true. The final evening of sesshin in the bath. "We can't object to the path or ourselves." - John Tarrant. Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/26

During our journey of existence, we lose and find our true nature. It's amazing what we know once we allow ourselves to know it. What magic happens when koans start talking to each other? In this episode, Roshi Tess Beasley discusses the game of hide-and-seek we are constantly playing with ourselves, others, and everything. "There is some idea that things belong to us, but they certainly don't. That goes for our inner lives as well." - Tess Beasley. Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/25

What does it mean to be in the bath of awakening? We somehow always have a reluctance to immerse ourselves completely, which is the very thing that holds it at bay. In this episode, Roshi Jess Cardin talks listeners through another water koan from The Blue Cliff Record in which the teacher recounts the "subtle touch reveals the light in everything." What do you hold in reserve? What keeps you feeling outside of things or difficult to reach? Listen from deep in sesshin. "Once I am in the bath, I can look back and see that I was always in the bath." - Jesse Cardin. Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/24

The stone drenched with rain points the way. In this episode, Roshi Allison Atwill speaks on a koan born of a haiku by Japanese poet Santoka Taneda. What does it mean to be drenched in our own lives and experiences? This episode invites listeners into the constant downpour that is the universe itself. "It is a promising moment when we give up trying to control our situation; not to get our of the rain, but to let it soak through us." - Allison Atwill. Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/23

We are all walking through the valley holding our lanterns. What is the Way? What do the valley and the lantern represent? Koans allow us to stop chasing. When we are not chasing things, we can experience freedom and delight. When you relate to something outside of yourself, you can be free. Listen to this episode as Roshi John Tarrant muses on having the mind of a dead log. "The whole of your life has a nobility and truth to it." - John Tarrant. Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/22

With realization, all things are one family. Without realization, all things are separate and disconnected. In this episode, Roshi John Tarrant talks about the empathy of meditation and its lack of opposition. Meditation assists in undoing the structures the mind makes. We can let go of control and let the koans carry us. Listen in to learn about the hidden allies we have in our lives and why the small self is always trying to be something. "The tradition teaches itself and teaches people to teach it." - John Tarrant. Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/21

Today, Roshi Allison Atwill shares a poem about our intrinsic ability to always carry light and silence. In this episode, she explains how the original silence is always with us and within us. What are the elemental termas of Tibetan Buddhism? How can we apply these termas to meditation practice? We can learn and teach from the silence and the light that we each have within. "Awakening always appears in our actual life." - Allison Atwill. Learn more about this episode of Meeting the Inconceivable at https://www.pacificzen.org/20

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