Pacific Zen Institute Creek Zen Center

Buddhist meditation is something to do, not to believe, so the measure of it is always related to what is happening to your mind and your life. It is a practice—something you do over and over again, as in, “I’m practicing the guitar” or “I’m practicing my computer game.” If you practice meditation in this regular way, Buddhism has a mysterious and unpredictable healing power. By mysterious, I mean that while the effect of meditation is more or less as advertised, you are on a journey that does not reveal all its features at once, and even the destination is uncertain…From “Surprises on the Way”, an article by John Tarrant about some of the features of meditation practice. It appeared in Shambhala Sun magazine in May, 2008.

I’m interested in Zen as a way that transforms the mind. This makes me an innovator. I studied and taught Zen in a classical manner for about 15 years before developing new ways of introducing koans that even people with no experience of meditation can find useful. I’m not so interested in Zen as a set of rules and procedures. My experiments have led me to trust people more than once I did, and to teach people to trust their own moves. They seem find freedom more natural than I had imagined.For a couple of decades I did Jungian dream work and I have a PhD in psychology. I helped design the pioneering mind-body curriculum in Integrative Medicine at The University of Arizona at Tucson. It was intended to develop a culture for change in medical education. I also helped design the curriculum at Duke Integrative Medicine.