Not everyone can get to a teacher or a sangha.  Everyone can read books on Zen, and if you have a computer, you can download dharma talks.  I want everyone to be able to work with koans.

I have worked with koans for years now, but PZI does something innovative (actually, historically, PZI is returning to the way koans were worked in China before you were born) by making the koans a public case.  John Tarrant holds koan seminars, in which people are invited to discuss what the koan is doing for them AT THAT MOMENT.  For me, hearing people work through koans gave me confidence that I was not doing it wrong, and in fact, that I was doing it exactly right for me.  I want others to have that gift.  Not just those in Santa Rosa or the Bay Area of California, but for all our readers in India, Norway, Germany, England, Ireland, Spain, France, Bolivia, Japan, and most of the 50 united states (I am looking at YOU North and South Dakota.  And New Hampshire.  That's right, I know you are ignoring me). 

My idea is to post a koan online twice a month.  On occasion, there will be commentary by a Zen Roshi.  Anyone who reads this blog can participate, and post what they notice in the comments section.  This koan group would be open to anyone, and the comments public to the world.  In this way, your practice can touch the whole world, and the whole word can touch your practice. 

"In general I'd like you to think of the Dharma as something to be passed around and encouraged, more than as a secret property" - John Tarrant