Pacific Zen Institute

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Pacific Zen Institute

We use Zen koan meditation, art and conversation toward this end. Other centers and groups can be found on our website, pacificzen.org.

PZI operates from the simple yet profound discovery that awakening can happen in this very life, at this very moment, rather than in some other life at some other time. Our two main centers are The Santa Rosa Creek Zen Center at santrarosazen.org, and Rockridge Meditation Community at oaklandzen.org. After 20 years of teaching koans in a classical way, John Tarrant, the founder of PZI, developed a new way of teaching koans in a setting that requires no experience with meditation or Zen. The emphasis is on taking one step into freedom. Everything we do is directed to that end. We hold 7-day and 1-day retreats devoted to freeing the mind. We also have small group seminars on koans. As a community we help deepen one another's practice, often without really trying. PZI holds weekly gatherings online see pacificzen.org/events

02/28/2026

On a dusky evening late in Winter, early in Spring, a woman found herself entering a temple. Just why is hard to know.

But a seat had waited for her, and as she tucked in her legs and heard the chorus of soft breathing, her own breath seemed to join in, and this intrigued her.

Then teacher began to speak:

"There’s a Buddha of infinite light in your own body," he said.

Once that Buddha appears, mountains, rivers, trees, and the whole earth suddenly shine with a great light. To see this, you have to look inside your own heart.

This, too, was intriguing. "That doesn’t sound so hard," thought the woman.

Join us Sunday for a tale of awakening to the ordinary brilliance of each and everything. It's nice to remember it's not so hard.

—Tess Beasley, Roshi

Register for Sunday Zen with Tess Beasley & Friends – March 1st – 10:30am PT in the PZI Online Temple – Link in comments!

*Registration is FREE for members and guests, or you may elect to donate $10. Dana gratefully accepted.

02/23/2026

Tonight on Pacific Zen Luminaries!

Denise Fujiwara, one of Canada’s leading contemporary dance artists, joins host Jon Joseph Mon, Feb. 23rd at 6pm PT.

She has won numerous awards for her highly creative choreography and dance, most recently in 2025 the Canada Council’s Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts and Lifetime Achievement, recognizing “the highest artistic merit and career achievement by a professional artist in music, theatre, or dance.”

Denise’s nearly half-decade in performance dance began in the 1970s as Canadian champion on the Rhythmic Gymnastics National Team. She went on to co-found the Toronto Independent Dance Enterprise (TIDE), where she performed for over a decade. In 1991 she founded Fujiwara Dance Inventions to support her solo performances that toured throughout Canada, the US, Europe, South America, and Asia. And in 1997 helped found CanAsian Dance, where she remained involved for twenty-five years.

Some of her many original performances have been influenced by the avant-garde Japanese dance called Butoh, which she began studying under Tokyo master artist Natsu Nakajima in the early 1990s.

“Butoh,” she writes, “challenged the very foundations of my understanding of what dance is.”

Her singular performance known as Eunoia, a multimedia adaptation of Christian Bök’s award winning book of poetry, sold out its Toronto debut, was nominated for several awards, and continues to tour ten years later.

Denise has been an active member of the Pacific Zen Institute for nearly fifteen years. On retreat with PZI, she often leads participants in an exploration of the embodiment of Zen through her lens of contemporary dance.

Follow the link in comments to register and receive your link for tonight's event!

02/21/2026

Special Event – Deep Sit Sunday Zen: Like a Buffalo Through a Window

This Sunday we'll extend the temple hours for another deep sit, silence to sink into your bones.

As the mind settles and we pass through the usual chatter and obsessions, more space appears and like stars in the relief of dusk, more interesting questions come into view.

Wondering itself, and the mystery of our own consciousness, becomes less a problem to corral than simply a pleasure to investigate and companion.

Clarity appears and vanishes again, and slowly, slowly, we notice we're alive and beyond resolution.

One teacher put it like this:

Wuzi said, “It’s like a buffalo passing through a latticed window. Its head, horns, and legs all pass through, but why can’t its tail?”

The tail can be all that remains unanswered in our hearts; the annoying or destructive habits of mind and body we just can't seem to break. It can be all we wish we'd somehow done differently; but to hold it as a given, and come to know its blessing, is the generosity of practice.

Of this case in the Gateless Gate Collection, Wumen penned the verse:

If it passes through, it falls into a ditch;
if it turns back, it will be lost.
This tiny little tail —
what a strange and wonderful thing it is!

Join us for a morning out on the Great Plains.

—Tess Beasley, Roshi

Schedule (ALL TIMES PACIFIC):

9AM – 11AM – Meditation & Music with Open Temple Leaders
11AM – 12PM – Meditation, Poetry & Reflections with John Tarrant, Tess Beasley & Friends

Register for Deep Sit Sunday Zen: Like a Buffalo Through a Window – February 22nd – 9:00am PT in the PZI Online Temple – Link in comments!

*Registration is FREE for members and guests, or you may elect to donate $10. Dana gratefully accepted.

02/16/2026

Next Monday on Pacific Zen Luminaries!

Denise Fujiwara, one of Canada’s leading contemporary dance artists, joins host Jon Joseph Mon, Feb. 23rd at 6pm PT.

She has won numerous awards for her highly creative choreography and dance, most recently in 2025 the Canada Council’s Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts and Lifetime Achievement, recognizing “the highest artistic merit and career achievement by a professional artist in music, theatre, or dance.”

Denise’s nearly half-decade in performance dance began in the 1970s as Canadian champion on the Rhythmic Gymnastics National Team. She went on to co-found the Toronto Independent Dance Enterprise (TIDE), where she performed for over a decade. In 1991 she founded Fujiwara Dance Inventions to support her solo performances that toured throughout Canada, the US, Europe, South America, and Asia. And in 1997 helped found CanAsian Dance, where she remained involved for twenty-five years.

Some of her many original performances have been influenced by the avant-garde Japanese dance called Butoh, which she began studying under Tokyo master artist Natsu Nakajima in the early 1990s.

“Butoh,” she writes, “challenged the very foundations of my understanding of what dance is.”

Her singular performance known as Eunoia, a multimedia adaptation of Christian Bök’s award winning book of poetry, sold out its Toronto debut, was nominated for several awards, and continues to tour ten years later.

Denise has been an active member of the Pacific Zen Institute for nearly fifteen years. On retreat with PZI, she often leads participants in an exploration of the embodiment of Zen through her lens of contemporary dance.

Follow the link in comments to register and receive your link for the event.

02/14/2026

SUNDAY ZEN with John Tarrant & Friends: Sitting Alone In My Old Clothes

In the empty room, the spring wind—
sitting alone in my old clothes,
blossoms whirl around me.

Our lives are transitory and everything we meet is, well, vast as well as transitory.

We notice the haze of spring blossoms, the moon, and the infinity of the night stars.

The Zen word for all this is ‘Emptiness’ which covers the dreamlike quality of our days, the way they seem to be transparent, and beautiful. Suffering, yearning and delight are all in one spring rainstorm.

Join us this Sunday for an exploration of freedom inside of the whirl of the world.

—John Tarrant, Roshi

Register for Sunday Zen with John Tarrant & Friends – February 15th – 10:30am PT in the PZI Online Temple – Link in comments!

*Registration is FREE for members and guests, or you may elect to donate $10. Dana gratefully accepted.

02/12/2026

The Hazy Moon of Spring: 1-Day East Coast Retreat with Tess Beasley, John Tarrant & Allison Atwill

Though you find clear waters ranging to the vast blue sky in autumn;
How can it compare with the hazy moon on a spring night?
Most people want to have it pure white,
But sweep as you will, you cannot empty the mind.

~ Keizan (Aitken & Yamada translation)

Each year Spring graces a barren New England, and never a moment too soon.

Tiny green shoots open the gates for new life to come; the gentle Woodland Pewees, tails bouncing, carry fresh mud to their nests under the eves.

With the burst comes frenzy and frost and a chorus of creatures happy to be alive. In us, too, a flurry of fresh energy and uncertainty, and the chance to keep dreaming the world along.

Join us for this one-day maiden voyage of meditation, reflection, and companionship at White Rock Barn in Washington, CT.

Register for 1-Day East Coast Retreat in Washington, CT – March 28th – Link in comments!

02/07/2026

Knowing How to Beat the Drum

So often the contents of the mind become worn out, but what to do with ourselves if we're not chasing them around anymore or asking what they mean?

An old Chinese teacher, Hoshan, spoke about it like this:

“Studying—we call that ‘hearing’; completing study is called ‘getting nearer’. Going beyond both of these is what we mean by ‘truly going beyond’.”

A student stepped out of the assembly and asked, “What’s truly going beyond?”

Hoshan replied, “Knowing how to beat the drum.”

Join us Sunday for meditation, music to die for, and an exploration of just what Hoshan means with all this drum business.

—Tess Beasley, Roshi

Register for Sunday Zen with Tess Beasley & Friends – February 8th – 10:30am PT in the PZI Online Temple – Link in comments!

*Registration is FREE for members and guests, or you may elect to donate $10. Dana gratefully accepted.

01/31/2026

Join Us for Sunday Zen + Final Morning of Winter Sesshin

This Sunday as we complete our Winter Sesshin, we'll open the temple for you to slip into deep meditation and our closing ceremony.

It's a chance to savor the silence cultivated over days companioning the zoom temple.

It's also a time to share in the joy of being alive.

Join us!

—Tess Beasley, Roshi

Register for Sunday Zen + Final Morning of Winter Sesshin – February 1st – 9:30am PT in the PZI Online Temple – Link in comments!

*Registration is FREE for members and guests, or you may elect to donate $10. Dana gratefully accepted.

Sunday Schedule:

9:30 am–10:30 am — Meditation
10:30 am–12 pm — Dharma talk, special music service & closing ceremonies

01/24/2026

Special Event - Deep Sit Sunday Zen: The Sound of One Hand

To sit is to let the universe discover you, to make room for a relief of quiet appear in your mind and heart.

To sit over time is to let yourself be held and surprised by the companionship of the world, and by the temple that emerges in your very own home.

Practice itself can take a hundred thousand forms, but at the root is simply to sit and encounter your own nature.

So, the last Sunday of each month we're going to extend our temple hours, but let the ancient bell do most of the talking.

"A single hand doesn't call out in vain," wrote Xuedou.

What is the sound of one hand?

Join us Sunday for any and all as we breathe together and listen.

—Tess Beasley, Roshi

Schedule (ALL TIMES PACIFIC):
9AM - 11AM - Meditation & Music with Open Temple Leaders

11AM - 12PM - Meditation, Poetry & Reflections with John Tarrant, Tess Beasley & Friends

Register for Deep Sit Sunday Zen: The Sound of One Hand – January 25th – 9:00am PT in the PZI Online Temple – Link in comments!

*Registration is FREE for members and guests, or you may elect to donate $10. Dana gratefully accepted.

01/19/2026

Tonight on Pacific Zen Luminaries!

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. joins host Jon Joseph & Friends to discuss his 60 years of meditation practice, prolific writing and outstanding work as a pioneer in the insight and mindfulness meditation movement.

Jon is professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he founded its world-renown Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Clinic in 1979, and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society (CFM), in 1995. Both the MBSR Clinic and the CFM are now part of UMassMemorial Health.

His work and that of his colleagues has contributed to a growing movement of mindfulness practice now used in numerous mainstream institutions throughout the world including medicine, psychology, education, social and criminal justice, sports, and technology. Over 700 hospitals and medical centers around the world now offer MBSR.

Please join us in welcoming Jon, one of the great contributors to globalization of meditation practice today.

Source: https://jonkabat-zinn.com

Follow the link in comments to register and receive your link for the event.

01/17/2026

"This is the cave where all the Buddha’s teachings have their source."

So goes the companion verse to the first Pure Vow: "I vow to do no harm."

Bodhidharma sat in a cave for nine years, allowing the whole universe to slowly appear inside. The world carried on its rending and machinations, and he felt them deeply, but came to know something generous and whole that carried him and carried everything; without gain or loss, without certainty or regret.

In taking up a practice, we too develop a relationship with a place we can turn, no matter the circumstances. Its contents are surprising and mysterious, its capacity vast and bright.

Join us Sunday for meditation, music, and stories of spelunking the ancient caves we uncover inside.

—Tess Beasley, Roshi

Register for SUNDAY ZEN with Tess Beasley & Friends – January 18th – 10:30am PT in the PZI Online Temple – Link in comments!

*Registration is FREE for members and guests, or you may elect to donate $10. Dana gratefully accepted.

01/12/2026

Next Monday on Pacific Zen Luminaries!

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. joins host Jon Joseph & Friends to discuss his 60 years of meditation practice, prolific writing and outstanding work as a pioneer in the insight and mindfulness meditation movement.

Jon is professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he founded its world-renown Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Clinic in 1979, and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society (CFM), in 1995. Both the MBSR Clinic and the CFM are now part of UMassMemorial Health.

His work and that of his colleagues has contributed to a growing movement of mindfulness practice now used in numerous mainstream institutions throughout the world including medicine, psychology, education, social and criminal justice, sports, and technology. Over 700 hospitals and medical centers around the world now offer MBSR.

Please join us in welcoming Jon, one of the great contributors to globalization of meditation practice today.

Source: https://jonkabat-zinn.com

Follow the link in comments to register and receive your link for the event.

Address

P. O. Box 2972
Santa Rosa, CA
95405

Telephone

+15105249575

Website

http://www.pacificzen.org/

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