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

06/22/2026

Tonight on Pacific Zen Luminaries!

Mario Poceski is a professor of Buddhist studies and Chinese religions at the University of Florida. Before pursuing his academic career, he studied for ten years as a monk (ordained name Cheng Chien Bhikshu) in a Hong Kong Buddhist monastery.

Dr. Poceski earned a PhD in East Asian Languages and Cultures from the University of California, Los Angeles (2000), and has served as a visiting professor or fellow at Komazawa University (Japan), Stanford University, the National University of Singapore, the University of Hamburg (Germany), Fudan University (China), and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany).

He is a preeminent scholar of early Chan-Zen, focusing on Mazu Daoyi. His numerous publications include The Record of Mazu and the Making of Classical Chan (2015), Ordinary Mind as the Way (2007), and Sun Faced Buddha: The Teachings of Ma-tsu and Hungchou School of Ch'an (2001).

Join us tonight at 6pm Pacific!

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

06/20/2026

June 21st Sunday Zen: The Lineage Holds Us

In meditation, the lineage holds us. At first, my job was just to meditate to show up in the spaciousness. Then I put burdens down and changed without planning to.

Next, the ancestors began to appear in dreams and the intimacy of daily life. The lineage in turn teaches us...Hakuin, and old Chinese men and women. Also even my father, now in the dream time.

Then the ancestors asked me to hold the lineage. It seemed to be a lot, but they sent dreams and people who would help. I became used to the magic of that. Sometimes the tradition asked me to do things, often I had to make up the tradition myself—with my friends.

So that’s Father’s Day.

Join us!

—John Tarrant Roshi

Register for Sunday Zen June 21st – 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.

06/15/2026

Next Monday on Pacific Zen Luminaries!

Mario Poceski is a professor of Buddhist studies and Chinese religions at the University of Florida. Before pursuing his academic career, he studied for ten years as a monk (ordained name Cheng Chien Bhikshu) in a Hong Kong Buddhist monastery.

Dr. Poceski earned a PhD in East Asian Languages and Cultures from the University of California, Los Angeles (2000), and has served as a visiting professor or fellow at Komazawa University (Japan), Stanford University, the National University of Singapore, the University of Hamburg (Germany), Fudan University (China), and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany).

He is a preeminent scholar of early Chan-Zen, focusing on Mazu Daoyi. His numerous publications include The Record of Mazu and the Making of Classical Chan (2015), Ordinary Mind as the Way (2007), and Sun Faced Buddha: The Teachings of Ma-tsu and Hungchou School of Ch'an (2001).

Join us next Monday at 6pm Pacific!

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

05/30/2026

MAY 31st Deep Sit Sunday Zen: Each Being Is an 8,000 Foot Precipice

Meditation can’t be praised enough.
The benefits of generosity and discipline,
prayer, self-reflection, and practice,
have their source in meditation.

With what we gain from just one sitting,
all our crimes are wiped away.

—Hakuin Ekaku

Enlightenment happens inside this life that we have. It’s not some other more satisfactory life with special conditions. So you set off!

You go through one archway, and then you go through a second, and then a third archway, and eventually your worries fall away, though you didn’t ask them to, all desperation falls away and any cause of suffering in the mind is illuminated. Life after life you have been doing this and it’s not a surprise that you come eventually to the Buddha, who is sitting on an ordinary zafu smiling, and Buddha says, “Yes, that’s it, you are doing it alright, just do zazen like that!” and happiness comes over you.

Meditation is also extra good if you do it together with friends.

—John Tarrant Roshi

Join us this Sunday as we take up the koan:

Each being’s eternal radiance appears before you.
Each being is an 8,000 foot precipice.

—Miaozong

Register for Deep Sit Sunday Zen May 31st – 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.

05/18/2026

Tonight on Pacific Zen Luminaries!

Roshi Joan Jiko Halifax is one of the most influential Zen teachers of our time. Her work has included studies of shamanic rites in indigenous communities, civil rights organizing, and working with the dying and imprisoned.

In 1990 she founded and continues to direct the Upaya Zen Center of Santa Fe, which runs an active calendar of meditation and cultural programs. Roshi Joan received transmission from Bernie Tetsugen Glassman, and has extensive experience with Korean, Vietnamese and Tibetan Buddhist traditions.

Join us for this fascinating conversation on the next Pacific Zen Luminaries Series!

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

05/16/2026

MAY 17th: Sunday Zen with John Tarrant, Tess Beasley, & Allison Atwill

Spring Freedom

The dinghy drifts near the bank

Blossoms shake down on our heads,

The quail cluck like ancient aunts,

The oriole shows a flash of the alchemists’ gold

But in the night a silence under everything

allows us to escape

whatever has captured us.

We are transparent in spring.

Join us this Sunday!

—John Tarrant Roshi

Register for Sunday Zen with John Tarrant, Tess Beasley, & Allison Atwill – May 17th – 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.

05/15/2026

Registration now open for PZI's Summer Open Temple!

Morning Meditation, 5 Days Weekly — FREE to PZI Members.

Wherever you are in the world, let's sit together.

Open Temple Pass gives you nine weeks of unlimited access to two morning meditations,
Mondays–Fridays, May 18th through July 17th.

Practice leaders ring the bells and hold a cushion for you.

All are welcome. Join us!

Register for PZI's Summer Open Temple – Link in comments!

05/11/2026

Next Monday Night on Pacific Zen Luminaries!

Roshi Joan Jiko Halifax is one of the most influential Zen teachers of our time. Her work has included studies of shamanic rites in indigenous communities, civil rights organizing, and working with the dying and imprisoned.

In 1990 she founded and continues to direct the Upaya Zen Center of Santa Fe, which runs an active calendar of meditation and cultural programs. Roshi Joan received transmission from Bernie Tetsugen Glassman, and has extensive experience with Korean, Vietnamese and Tibetan Buddhist traditions.

Join us for this fascinating conversation on the next Pacific Zen Luminaries Series!

Follow the link in comments to register and receive your link for next week's event.

04/25/2026

APRIL 26th Deep Sit Sunday Zen: What Is This Light That Everybody Has?

Meditation can’t be praised enough.
The benefits of generosity and discipline,
prayer, self-reflection, and practice,
have their source in meditation.

With what we gain from just one sitting,
all our crimes are wiped away.

—Hakuin Ekaku

Enlightenment happens inside this life that we have. It’s not some other more satisfactory life with special conditions. So you set off!

You go through one archway, and then you go through a second, and then a third archway, and eventually your worries fall away, though you didn’t ask them to, all desperation falls away and any cause of suffering in the mind is illuminated. Life after life you have been doing this and it’s not a surprise that you come eventually to the Buddha, who is sitting on an ordinary zafu smiling, and Buddha says, “Yes, that’s it, you are doing it alright, just do zazen like that!” and happiness comes over you.

Meditation is also extra good if you do it together with friends.

Join us this Sunday as we take up the koan:

Yunmen taught, “Everybody has a light inside. When you’re looking for it, you
can’t see; it’s obscured in the dimness. What is this light that everybody has?”

He answered his own question, “The kitchen pantry, the entrance gate.”

Then he said, “It’s better to have nothing than to have something good.”

—Blue Cliff Record, Case 86
(transl. by John Tarrant & Joan Sutherland)

—John Tarrant, Roshi

Register for Deep Sit Sunday Zen April 26th – 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.

04/11/2026

Atwill, Beasley, and Tarrant teaching on a good Sunday.

Yunmen asked the assembly, “I don’t ask about before the time of the full moon. What about after the full moon? He himself replied, “Every day is a good day.”

This koan is like a bowl; the emptiness inside is what makes it beautiful. If you don’t hold onto things, you will see that this life now is what you were born for; your kitchen is a palace, and your hallway is a palace, and you move around with a blessing on your head, a blessing that you can pass on to everyone you meet.

Join us for a good Sunday.

—John Tarrant, Roshi

Register for Sunday Zen with John Tarrant, Allison Atwill, & Tess Beasley – April 12th – 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.

Address

P. O. Box 2972
Santa Rosa, CA
95405

Telephone

+15105249575

Website

http://www.pacificzen.org/

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