Ocean Mind Sangha

Drawing upon both Buddhist teachings and Christian tradition, in this talk, Zuisei invites us into ritual of affirming our own existence— owning our strength, practicing gratitude for aliveness, and standing in our divine power. “What mighty strength is causing you to arise today and everyday? What miraculous power is responsible for your existence? Allowing you to be here now, in this time and place, in this opportunity?”

Compassion, or Karuna, is the second of the Four Immesurables, and is described as the wish that all beings experience happiness and well-being. Yet the wish for others to be well is not a passive “hoping” — but a deep recognition that our suffering is bound inextricably to the suffering of others. Compassion calls us to love not from a place of charity, but from a place of recognizing our shared humanity. Zuisei says: “Buddhism says all beings are interdependent, which means we’re more than equal. We are one and the same. Great beings with many hands and eyes. We are Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, the one who hears the cries of the world. The one who responds to that which needs to be taken care of, that needs to be healed.”

Lovingkindness, the wishing of happiness to ourselves and others, is the first of the Four Immeasurables. In this talk, Zuisei explores what it means to embody lovingkindness in a world that can be harsh, isolating, and far from “kind.” We all have within us the capacity to be kind and loving— states of being that are actually intrinsic— we are just too often conditioned out of it in our dominant culture. Yet life is too short to not work towards cultivating these qualities, or, remembering how to inhabit them.

This talk is part two of two exploring the Fourth Bodhisattva Vow: The Buddha Way is unattainable; I vow to attain it. In this talk, Zuisei elaborates on the importance of letting go of our desire for a future state or an outside thing, and to instead come into our direct experience—to open to what is right here. She says, “Instead of putting our effort on attaining, we focus on practicing. Instead of having living in our out of fear of what might be, we focus on living.”

This talk is part one of two on the fourth Bodhisattva Vow: The Buddha Way is unattainable; I vow to attain it. To commit to this path is to commit to walking a road without end—there is no finish line. And as Zuisei says, this is actually good news: “It’s exactly this vastness that leads to our sense of belonging, of rightness. Actually, it doesn’t lead to it— it is it.”

This talk explores the third Bodhisattva Vow: The dharmas are boundless; I vow to master them. To vow to master the dharmas is to undertake the commitment to studying the Way for our whole lives— understanding that despite the fact that we can never learn it all, it is our obligation to try. “I vow to be rent open, my heart laid bare. I vow to stand defenseless, yet awake in the face of reality. I vow to truly not know, that I may know ever more deeply. I vow to regard you, and when I can’t to regard you, and when I won’t, to regard you, and to let you regard me. Because I finally see that our lives depend on it.”

This talk explores the second Bodhisattva Vow: Desires are inexhaustible, I vow to put an end to them. Zuisei explains that this vow is not about suppressing what is pleasurable; rather, it asks us to look at how we cling to our desires and in turn create suffering for ourselves and others. This vow calls us to let go of conditioning that makes us feel separate, and instead to focus on our shared humanity so we can work toward building a just and equitable world.

This talk explores the first Bodhisattva Vow: Beings are numberless; I vow to save them. What does it mean to save another being? What does it mean to relieve someone else’s suffering? As Zuisei explains, “… a bodhisattva enables others to be released from suffering by releasing his or her own suffering. By recognizing another’s pain as my own pain…by trusting that the best medicine is to turn to another and ask, ‘How can I help you?’”

No one is free until everyone is free. To take the Bodhisattva Vows is to commit fully to liberating all beings—despite of the insurmountability of the notion of ending all suffering. In this introductory talk to a series exploring the Four Bodhisattva Vows, Zuisei explains why commitment to the path of a Bodhisattva is essential— why we cannot give up, even in a world with so much suffering and oppression. “To save the environment and this planet? Impossible. To establish racial, gender, sexual, and age equality? Impossible. To put an end to poverty and hunger? Impossible.” Yet we vow to fulfill these vows, because we understand it is the only way to free ourselves and others from suffering.

Giving or dana paramita invites us to move outside of our conditioning, which primes us toward scarcity and individualism, and into an understanding that we are actually living in the midst of abundance. That’s why dana paramita is the first of the perfections— it is something that all of us can do, and the gift we offer touches not only others, but also ourselves.

“Who will teach me how to live?” a student asks in Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life.In this talk, Zuisei speaks on the seventh paramita—truthfulness—and its critical place on the path to cultivating freedom for ourselves and for all beings.Only each one of us can learn from our own expression, our own actions, skillful or not. But because every time we set down a mark, take an action, we affect the whole world, we’re actually saying that teaching ourselves how to live is the same as everything—every creature and every thing—teaching us.Recorded at Zen Mountain Monastery 02/28/2016

Lovingkindness, one of the Four Imeasurables, is also the ninth of the ten paramis or paramitas (perfections). In this talk Zuisei speaks of the hunger we all have for love and warmth, for the touch, the regard, of another human being. We are hungry to belong and to know ourselves as part of a whole. Lovingkindness for ourselves can teach us that we have never been apart, never been broken. That is why we’re able to offer immeasurable love to ourselves and others.

To cultivate equanimity is to cultivate a stable quality of mind that is not swayed by externalities— it is strong, peaceful, and easeful in every moment. In this talk, Zuisei says: “It’s not unfeeling, it’s not uncaring, it’s not cold or distant or even protected. It is unshakeable. It is a mind free of suffering.”This talk is part of a series of talks on the Ten Paramitas.

How often do we contemplate the inevitability of our own mortality? The Buddha taught that as humans, we are of the nature to grow old, to get sick, to die, to become separated from all things dear to us, and that our actions are our only true belongings. These teachings, called the Five Remembrances, point directly to the fragile and impermanent nature of life. As Zuisei says in this talk on the Five Remembrances: “This is not a pessimistic teaching. It’s not meant to bring you down— quite the opposite. It’s meant to remind you of the preciousness of human life. It’s meant to give us a way to fully appreciate the gift that we’ve been given, so that we can live completely. So we can keep our eye on what’s most important.”

In the eighth talk in this series of ten talks on the paramitas or perfections, Zuisei speaks on determination as “the unshakeable resolve to do whatever benefits others.” Determination helps us to keep moving forward and keep discovering what there is to uncover along this path. It is a fierce commitment to realizing our potential and awakening, despite all hardship and possible resistance.

In this last talk in the series of ten talks on the paramitas or perfections, Zuisei speaks on prajna paramita, also known as the perfection of wisdom, and the Mother of all Buddhas.Zuisei says, “[With wisdom] we can practice more skillfully, more effectively. We see that in this construct of the self, there are no rafters, no ridge pole, no house builder. If every time we pull a brick or two and when the house begins to wobble, we rush in to build it back up, then it becomes impossible to see. So it takes a certain kind of determination to tear up the house beam by beam and not hesitate when things begin to look a little bare.”To move towards the cultivation of prajna paramita is to bravely embrace bare emptiness— total freedom.

In the fifth talk in this series of ten talks on the paramitas or perfections, Zuisei speaks about our relationship to diligence or discipline and its place in and importance for the path. Instead of seeing discipline as doing what we have to do because it’s ‘good for us,’ we can think about it as the exercise of self power—as wanting to do what we have to do. This means aligning our actions with a deep desire and a carefully thought-out intent. Diligence is not a vague sense of responsibility or actions that come out of our fear of consequences, but the practice of being in harmony with ourselves and our environment.

In the fourth talk in this series of ten talks on the paramitas or perfections, Zuisei speaks of meditation as the practice of seeing ourselves in the totality of our beings. Meditation is about exercising both sharp concentration and clear seeing. It is recognizing that there is much in our lives that is extraneous but, as the author of the Cloud of Unknowing says, there is one thing that is necessary. What is that one thing?

In the third talk in this series of ten talks on the paramitas, Zuisei speaks on the importance of renunciation: “What if we think of renunciation as the protest against anything that gets in the way of our clear seeing? Renunciation of noise, of distraction, of self-serving thoughts, of doubt, of arrogance, of greed and fear and laziness, harshness and the need to control.”

In all lineages and throughout all time, there have been seekers of truth and light. In this talk, Zuisei speaks on the cultivation of love on the spiritual path that comes from a place of listening, investigating, and taking compassionate action. “What you hold, may you always hold.What you do, may you always do and never abandon. But with swift pace, light step, unswerving feet,so that even your steps stir up no dust,may you go forward securely, joyfully, and swiftly, on the path of prudent happiness.”-St. Clare of Assisi, Early Documents

In the second talk in this series of ten talks on the paramitas or perfections, Zuisei speaks on the importance of cultivating virtue as a quality that brings us to regard all beings fully. So instead of thinking of virtue as purity, we can think of it as a careful, loving, seeing of all things and all beings. This kind of seeing involves a letting go, an emptying of ourselves so we can meet another fully.

Paramita in Sanskrit is translated as “gone to the beyond”, or “gone to the other shore.” It is is also known as “perfection,” in the sense of “wholeness” or “completeness,” and refers to a set of qualities that are based on the realization and cultivation of wisdom. In the first talk in this series of ten talks on the Paramitas, Zuisei speaks on the importance of cultivating patience: “Patience arises out of seeing what is. It’s accepting what is. It’s not opposing what is. It’s enduring what is. Patience is not fighting, not rejecting or resenting or begrudging. Patience is wholeheartedly embracing reality.”

Recorded at Zen Mountain Monastery, 08/28/2015

Recorded at Zen Center of New York City, 08/02/2015

Recorded at Zen Mountain Monastery, 06/26/2015

Recorded at Zen Center of New York City, 06/07/2015

Recorded at Zen Mountain Monastery, 05/31/2015

Recorded at Zen Mountain Monastery, 04/24/2015

When we turn towards ourselves with intimacy and commitment, we are drawn into a more honest, complete look at who we are and what life is. In this talk, Zuisei speaks on the integrity of following the path. “As you know, the only thing you need to do this is your body and your mind. A cushion helps, a little inspiration now and then, a teacher definitely helps…But ultimately all that it takes is for you to turn the light around, to be willing to get close.”

To truly understand ourselves requires both our own individual investigation and also the support of our community. Our practice will naturally draw us closer in to looking at who we are, and holding those insights and continuing to stay committed to practice requires the knowing that we are not alone on this path.

Equanimity is the fourth of the Four Immeasurables, four virtues that also include loving-kindness, compassion, and sympathetic joy.In this pointed talk after the 2016 presidential election, Zuisei Sensei speaks of equanimity in relationship to the practice of taking refuge in the Three Treasures of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. She also offers an expression of welcome that became incorporated into Zen Mountain Monastery’s Inclusion Statement.