Guest Teacher Jon Joseph on The Great Koan No!
November 12, 2019 @ 7:30 pm PST - 9:00 pm PST
Tonight’s guest speaker is Jon Joseph.
Topic: The Great Koan No: An Invitation to Establish Intimacy With Our World
Koans are ancient accounts of exchanges between teachers, students and their surroundings, which have some mysterious power to provide us with an invitation for freedom and transformation. In the Zen tradition, the most fundamental of the gateway koans is just this No. “Does a dog have Buddha Nature, or not?”, asked a student of the teacher, and the teacher simply replied “No.” No, as a koan, has no shade of meaning ~ negative, positive, or neutral ~ and because it has no meaning, it has the power to make us free. To rediscover again and again the intimacy we have always enjoyed with our universe, but have not always appreciated.
About Jon Joseph:
Jon Joseph, Roshi is the practice leader of San Mateo Zen (www.sanmateozen.org), and holding teacher for Desert Lotus Zen (www.desertlotuszen.org) in Phoenix. He began sitting Zen over 40 years ago with a group of high school friends, led by their Spanish teacher. Jon then took his practice to the logging camps and fishing villages of Alaska and to the redwoods of California’s North Coast. After college, Jon traveled to Kamakura, Japan, where he studied for eight years with Yamada Koun Roshi at the SanUn Zendo. In the late 1980s, Jon returned to San Francisco and New York as a technology financial analyst, and took up koan practice with John Tarrant, Roshi, the founder of Pacific Zen Institute (www.pacficzen.org). Tarrant Roshi (Bring Me the Rhinoceros) and Pacific Zen have become known for their innovative use of the ancient koans to transform our lives in the present world. In 2012 Tarrant Roshi gave Jon permission to teach. In 2016 Jon received full transmission.
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Teacher Page.
Insight Meditation South Bay offers two weekly meditation groups—Tuesdays evenings we offer an open drop-in sitting group in Mountain View, and Thursdays we offer structured courses in Saratoga.
The Tuesday sitting group meets every Tuesday evening for a meditation and Dhamma talk in Mountain View. The principal teacher is Shaila Catherine and guest speakers are featured regularly. Thematic series are periodically presented, but whether or not a topic has been advertised in advance, Shaila or a guest teacher will lead the sitting and offer teachings. See also weekly sitting.
Newcomers are always welcome. To help newcomers get acquainted with mindfulness meditation and IMSB, a senior member or teacher offers a beginner’s orientation beginning at 6:30 on the first Tuesday of each month.
IMSB relies upon the generosity of participants to support our teachers and cover organizational expenses. Dana is a word in the ancient Pali language that describes donations, offerings and generosity. Two bowls will be available at an event to practice dana for the teacher and IMSB; we encourage you to give joyfully and generously, according to your resources and means. IMSB is a 501(c) (3) organization. All donations are tax deductible as permitted by law.
