Pacific Zen Institute

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Santa Rosa, CA
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

02/07/2026

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.

01/10/2026

Only The Young Beauty Knows About Her Love Affair

It’s not for anyone else that we meditate, or eat or drink or look at the olive tree or watch the mountain stream run white.

The taste of life is just for you, you have entered the secret life.

All evening, the sound of rain.
At midnight, raccoons
pass under the bare apricot tree

Register for SUNDAY ZEN with John Tarrant & Friends – January 11th – 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.

01/09/2026

Registration now open for PZI's Winter 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 eight weeks of unlimited access to two morning meditations, Mondays–Fridays, January 12th through March 6th.

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

All are welcome. Join us!

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

01/03/2026

Traveling by Moonlight

Waking just after 1am, I see deer grazing in the white night of the full moon. They're digging patiently, expertly, anciently for grass tucked under the blanket of snow. Their coats are thick and the world is quiet.

The flue bangs closed without effort, the house happy to keep warm, and large ears turn to face the darkness.

Everything stands open and intimate. Nothing need be accounted for or understood.

When all the thoughts in your head are all used up, why does joy remain?

Join us Sunday to find out as we feel our way into the year appearing.

—Tess Beasley, Roshi

Register for SUNDAY ZEN with Tess Beasley & Friends – January 4th – 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.

12/27/2025

Eternity Draws Near – With A Special Extended Meditation Series

Whether through billowing clouds, rushing rivers, or softly falling snow, eternity uncloaks itself as the mind grows still. We come to recognize each and every bit of things as alive and unfolding, and discover that we, too, are inextricable from the great magic trick of existence.

Sh*tou Xiquan, one of Zen's great founding ancestors, tells us in Taking Part in the Gathering:

Each thing by nature has worth,
but we notice it is shaped by its circumstances.
Things fit together like boxes and lids,
while the absolute is like arrows meeting in mid-air.
When you let these words in, you encounter the ancestors;
Don’t limit yourself to your own small story.

In these last days of the year, all that's been and all that's to come find each other in the dark for a cuddle and a dance. Nothing is certain, and with any luck, we just might have a dream.

Join us this Sunday for a special extended meditation series by candlelight, and then at 10:30 PT we'll gather for stories, music, and whatever the Tao may have in store.

—Tess Beasley, Roshi

Register for SUNDAY ZEN with Tess Beasley & Friends – December 28th – 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.

12/20/2025

Everyone! There’s Nothing to Worry About. Try to See That!

Ultimately, how is it? Everyone, there’s nothing to worry about. Try to hold it up to view.

There was a modern Zen teacher who would ask, “What is it?” It felt like a kind of harassment, but amusing. Eventually someone would say, “It’s this! Just this!”
And the teacher would say, “Very good.”
Later he would ask for more. He wanted to hear, “Only just this.”
And then everyone would relax until he was driven to ask for a new way to say, “It’s all here already.”

But right now, there’s nothing to worry about. The year is heading into the solstice and ‘Chrissie’ as the Australians say.

In the dark and silence and quiet there is nothing to worry about.

Join us on Sunday and let’s not worry together.

—John Tarrant, Roshi

Register for SUNDAY ZEN with John Tarrant & Friends – December 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.

12/17/2025

Silence: Winter Sesshin 2026

Winter retreat is a chance to make tea in your own kitchen and turn your home into a temple. You might discover that your whole house is sacred. The house is happy to have you doing meditation and actually loves you.

Join us online in the silence of retreat.

Silence has secret powers. To meet silence is to enter the deepest questions and the deepest kindness. It befriends our dreams. Just to step into the quiet of retreat is to find healing for troubles. We feel how much we are held by our friends who know about silence.

At winter retreat, even one sitting wipes away regrets and fears. When we awaken, the universe is our friend.

Join us online. Turn your home into a temple.

—John Tarrant

Registration now open! Follow the link in comments for retreat details and to register.

We look forward to greeting you in the Online Temple!

Address

P. O. Box 2972
Santa Rosa, CA
95405

Telephone

+15105249575

Website

http://www.pacificzen.org/

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