John Tarrant (born 1949) is a Western Zen teacher, currently director of the
Pacific Zen InstituteThe Pacific Zen Institute, previously California Diamond Sangha, is a Zen Buddhist practice center with several affiliate centers in the lineage of John Tarrant—formerly of the Sanbo Kyodan school of Zen...
in
Santa Rosa, CaliforniaSanta Rosa is the county seat of Sonoma County, California, United States. As of January 1, 2008, the population of Santa Rosa was approximately 161,496 residents...
.
Biographical Portrait
Tarrant was raised in rural
TasmaniaTasmania is an Australian island and state. It is located south of the eastern side of the continent, from which it is separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania – the 26th largest island in the world – and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 500,000 ,...
, Australia. This was for all practical purposes a nineteenth century upbringing, without the use of wired electricity or indoor plumbing. His earliest influences included the Catholic Church and particularly the Latin Mass, Australian Aboriginal culture, and a passion for English literature, especially poetry. Tarrant was awarded a scholarship to attend the
Australian National UniversityThe Australian National University, commonly abbreviated to ANU, is a public teaching and research university located in Canberra, Australia, the federal capital city...
, the premier Australian institution of higher learning, where he earned a dual degree in Human Sciences and English Literature.
Before and after his college experience, Tarrant worked at many jobs, ranging from working as a laborer in an open-pit mine, to commercial fishing the Great Barrier Reef. Eventually he also worked as a lobbyist for the Aboriginal land rights movement.
He was introduced to
BuddhismBuddhism, as traditionally conceived, is a path of salvation attained through insight into the ultimate nature of reality. It encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha...
in the Tibetan tradition but quickly found his spiritual home in
Zen BuddhismZen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism, translated from the Chinese word Chán. This word is in turn derived from the Sanskrit dhyāna, which means "meditation" ....
. Tarrant moved to Hawaii to study Zen with the renowned social justice activist and Zen master,
Robert Baker AitkenRobert Baker Aitken Roshi is a Zen teacher practicing in the Harada-Yasutani lineage living in retirement in O'ahu, Hawaii since 1996. He is former head abbot and roshi of the Honolulu Diamond Sangha in Honolulu, Hawaii, which he had led and co-founded with his late wife Anne Hopkins Aitken since...
. He eventually became Aitken Roshi's first
DharmaThe term , is an Indian spiritual and religious term, that means one's righteous duty or any virtuous path in the common sense of the term. A Hindu's Dharma is affected by a person's age, class, occupation, and sex. In Indian languages it can be equivalent simply to "religion", depending on context...
successor. At about this time he moved to California to complete his PhD in Psychology from the Saybrook Institute and where he established the California Diamond Sangha, which would eventually become the
Pacific Zen Institute.
Dharma Career
John Tarrant's reputation as a writer and poet grew with contributions to several publications, including among various journals the books
Beneath a Single Moon: Buddhism in Contemporary American Poetry and
What Book? Buddha Poems From Beat to Hiphop.
Tarrant's own books include his controversial book
The Light Inside the Dark and the widely received
Bring Me the Rhinoceros.
He has become one of the most interesting and creative of North American
koanA kōan is a story, dialogue, question, or statement in the history and lore of Zen Buddhism, generally containing aspects that are inaccessible to rational understanding, yet may be accessible to intuition...
masters, through his many
talks and essays published in periodicals and around the web, as well as through his book
Bring Me the Rhinoceros: and Other Zen Koans To Bring You Joy.
Dharma Lineage and Heirs
Tarrent's Zen lineage comes through the Harada-
YastuniHaku'un Yasutani is the religious name of Ryōkō Yasutani , a Zen Buddhist monk. He was the founder of the Sanbo Kyodan Zen Buddhist sect. He was born in Japan's Shizuoka Prefecture and ordained as a Zen monk at a Sōtō temple at the age of 13...
lineage of Zen whose root organization is called
Sanbo KyodanSanbo Kyodan is an independent lay school of Japanese Zen in the Soto tradition, employing approaches from both the Rinzai and Soto schools...
:
Daiun Sogaku Harada (13 Oct 1871-12 Dec 1961)
Hakuun Ryoko YasutaniHaku'un Yasutani is the religious name of Ryōkō Yasutani , a Zen Buddhist monk. He was the founder of the Sanbo Kyodan Zen Buddhist sect. He was born in Japan's Shizuoka Prefecture and ordained as a Zen monk at a Sōtō temple at the age of 13...
(5 Jan 1885-28 Mar 1973)
Kyozo Koun Zenshin YamadaYamada Koun Zenshin , or Koun Yamada, was the former leader of the Sanbo Kyodan lineage of Zen Buddhism, the Dharma heir of his teacher Yasutani Haku'un Ryoko...
(Mar 1907-13 Sep 1989)
Robert Chotan Gyoun AitkenRobert Baker Aitken Roshi is a Zen teacher practicing in the Harada-Yasutani lineage living in retirement in O'ahu, Hawaii since 1996. He is former head abbot and roshi of the Honolulu Diamond Sangha in Honolulu, Hawaii, which he had led and co-founded with his late wife Anne Hopkins Aitken since...
(19 Jun 1917-)
John Nanryu Ji'un-ken Tarrant (14 Aug 1949-)
Among Tarrant's Dharma heirs are:
David WeinsteinDavid Weinstein may refer to:*David E. Weinstein, Carl S. Shoup Professor of Japanese Economy at Columbia University*David F. Weinstein, United States politician*David Weinstein , American musician and composer...
located at
PZIThe Pacific Zen Institute, previously California Diamond Sangha, is a Zen Buddhist practice center with several affiliate centers in the lineage of John Tarrant—formerly of the Sanbo Kyodan school of Zen...
's
OaklandOakland is the eighth-largest city in the U.S. state of California and a major West Coast port city, located on San Francisco Bay about eight miles east of the City of San Francisco. Oakland is a major hub city for the Bay Area subregion collectively called the East Bay, and it is the county seat...
Zendo branch site;
Joan Sutherland, head of the
Open Source Network;
James Ishmael FordJames Ishmael Ford is an American Zen Buddhist priest and Unitarian Universalist minister. He was born in Oakland, California on July 17, 1948...
, founder and senior teacher of the
Boundless Way Zen network;
Daniel Terragno, of
Rocks and Clouds Zendo.
Dharma Teaching
One popular quotation, which signifies Tarrant's contribution to Western Zen is:
"What is the mind like if it’s not occupied with plans and schemes, and fears that the plans and schemes will fail? What if your unexamined beliefs were to fall away and you were to live without them, and also to live without the thought that you had given anything up?"