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

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