John Tarrant

teacher at the San Mateo Zen community in California.

John studied with Yamada Cohen, Roshi in Japan, and John Tarrant, Roshi in California.

John was given initial permission to teach in 2012, and in 2016, he received full Dharma transmission.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

What was Aiken Roshi like?

It was, um, very interesting, sort of, sort of stiff, but, um, many ways, but, um, tremendous, I don't know, transmitter of the Dharma, for sure.

You know, all the work he did, as many books and the training periods and the people he taught, which very fortunately he taught John Tarrant.

And John Tarrant became my teacher when I returned from Japan.

Just sit and do your practice and don't expect anything from the practice.

So after that visit, the next person I went to see was John Tarrant.

So now we've got from Alabama.

One extreme to the other.

After a meeting between Brian Epstein and George Martin, an audition was arranged.

And so, in June of 1962, John, Paul, George, and Pete traveled to London for the session.

At the end of July, George Martin offered the Beatles a recording contract with Parlophone Records.

In August, Ryan Epstein met with Pete Best and informed him that the group was going to change drummers.

There's this passage from this book called The Light Inside the Dark.

Zen Soul and the Spiritual Life.

It's by the Zen teacher John Tarrant.

And he kind of uses this kind of, it's kind of like a metaphor for this blaming or self-critical mind that we have.