WEDNESDAY, COMMUNITY NIGHT Apr.25th, 7-9pm Excavating Your Meditation with David Weinstein 'The thousand hands and eyes of compassion.' What is compassion? I would like to think that it is something that I have, but what is it? I believe my meditation practice helps me deepen and cultivate compassion, but what is it? It feels like compassion is something that is part of who I am from the beginning and because of that, the question arises as to whether it is cultivation that is necessary, or excavation. Excavation reveals the layers that have been accumulated on top of what is there from the beginning. As in archaeological excavation, careful attention to the soil that is moved gives valuable information. Similarly, in the 'excavation' of a meditation practice, the layers of thought and habits that are revealed give us valuable information too. That information helps us to know how to use the hands and eyes of our compassion. David WHAT IS RMC COMMUNITY NIGHT? Community Night is a chance to practice meditation in action, in the midst of our lives. Eating and drinking and conversing together is a unique opportunity to notice the way the practice of paying attention is present, or not, where the 'rubber' of our practice meets the 'road' of our life. Becoming intimate with the workings of our heart/mind while sitting quietly is helpful, but, if it isn't present in our day to day lives, what's the point? Community Night is a chance to do that in a safe environment. It is also a time to discover and strengthen connections between each other and the community that is the container of our practice. Each time we gather to practice together is a time that we can do that, not just once a month on Community Night. We purposely place a break between quietly sitting together and the group conversation about the koan, as a way to provide that opportunity during each of our gatherings, whether on Wednesday nights or Sunday mornings. On Community Night we save that for after the meditation and group discussion and are able to luxuriate in each other's company for a bit longer than usual. 
SATURDAY, Apr.28th, 8am - 10:30am
Individual Conversations with David Weinstein, Roshi on your meditation practice. No experience necessary. People will be invited in for a conversation in the order in which they arrive. For those who can't make it on Saturdays, it is possible to schedule appointments with David at other times of the week. Contact David Dana gratefully accepted. SUNDAY April 22nd. 9:30am-12pm
Entering the Disaster Museum with Rachel Boughton 
SUNDAY Apr. 29th, 9:30-12pm - Making Your Mind a Question Mark with David Weinstein 'What is Zen? - The heart of the one who asks.' The word "Zen" is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word "Chan", which is the Chinese pronunciation of the Sanskrit word "Dhyana". The word "Dhyana" means meditation. So, the question becomes 'What is meditation?' As there are many different kinds of medicine, there are many different kinds of meditation. In the kind of meditation called 'Zen koan meditation' the heart of the practice is the cultivation of the questioning mind. The instruction I received from the first koan meditation teacher that I met was "Make your mind a question mark." Just a question mark. No content to the question, just the questioning mind, open and receptive. In that way the question "What is Zen?" becomes "What is the question?", which becomes, 'What is your question?' David 
All PZI RETREATS, RETREATS
SAVE THESE RETREAT DATES FALL SESSHIN 2018 - Oct. 14-19 @ Mt Madonna WINTER SESSIN 2019 - Jan.14-20th @ Santa Sabina OPEN MIND Retreats 2018 @ Commonweal Center, Bolinas, CA • Summer – August 16-19 • Winter – November 29–December 2 _________________________________________________ 
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New @ RMC - Retreats
The Heart of Wisdom:
PZI's Summer, Long Retreat with John Tarrant & Friends June 11-17, 2018 St. Clare's Retreat Center Soquel, CA The Queen of Heaven, Avalokiteshvara, hears our cries, and with great tenderness leans down into our world, and says, Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Form is exactly emptiness, emptiness is exactly form. And out of these words Zen begins. They are the Big Bang of our spiritual tradition. Under their power, the distance between our intimate lives, and the vastness of the universe that holds us, disappears. Our koans, awakenings, stories, teachings, wisdom paths, and consolations are all born from her mysterious words. MORE INFO OR REGISTER NOW! _____________________________________________________ Creating a Culture at PZI - Articles, Talks, Blogs & Notes from Our Larger Communit
John Tarrant at the Big Ears Festival last month in Tennessee.
NEW Issue Spring 2018:
With Each Stitch the World Spews Flames PZI's online magazine of zen and the arts. Read the issue and check out our guidines to learn more about Submissions now welcome! Inextinguishable Fire by Chris Gaffney Where There’s Light There’s Fire In this carving, above, we find Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten catching some serious rays from the sun god Aten. Akhenaten is sometimes credited with instigating monotheism. This god, God, is shown in upper right in orb form. Aten’s rays appear as the source of all being. Our notions of fire, heat, and light all arise from that which we now call the sun. Every form of religion involves a sun deity. Since perception shapes conception, it would be surprising to find a culture where the solar presence was not prominent. Belief systems would certainly be influenced by that which fashioned the tissue of our eyes, their optics tuned over many millennia to be most sensitive to those wavelengths that the sun casts most brightly. MORE 
New PZI Zendo: Rio Del Mar Meditation Community 2nd & 4th Sundays every month 10:30am -12pm NOTE: Our regular sessions will resume May 13th at our new Zendo! 640 Hillcrest Dr, Felton, Ca. Please RSVP Illana Berger. More here 
A Wonderful Gift Anytime - Support PZI
Pacific Zen Institute presents an exclusive DVD offer Standing at the Blue Cliff - Now discounted @ $50. for members & $65. for non-members. 
Scenes from an extraordinary retreat with two Zen masters, John Tarrant and Joan Sutherland and a chance to support PZI's ongoing work. 
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