Ocean Mind Sangha

“The Incalculable” is a chapter in the Avatamsaka or Flower Garland Sutra whose purpose is to blow open our ideas of reality. In this talk, Zuisei uses this chapter, as well as readings from Hildegard of Bingen, Master Dogen’s “Sound of the Valley Streams” and excerpts of the modern mystic’s Flora Cortois’ record of her enlightenment experience to speak of the beauty and extraordinary nature of ou...

The more we practice, the more open-hearted we become, and the more able we are to practice boundless generosity. Cultivating bodhicitta— the awakening heart—calls us to let go of our conditional giving and well-wishing, and invites us to practice extending our generosity without restraint. In this talk, Zuisei speaks on what it means to give boundlessly and wakefully, and to give what the sutras...

In the second half of her talk on Suchness, Zuisei speaks further on the nature of reality and our place in it. “Our lives are just long enough for us to ask, ‘What is this?’ and to find an answer to that question. But they are too short not to ask at all.”

Do we know things as they truly are, or as our ideas and perceptions of what they might be? In this talk, Zuisei speaks on a concept from Yogachara’s philosophies of consciousness , wherein the first field of perception is the “field of suchness”— where we perceive reality directly. Cultivating this discernment between truth and perception is an ongoing practice— one that ultimately opens us up to...

 “As long as human beings have walked on this earth, there have always been those who’ve said, ‘This is not the way. This isn’t working, it’s never worked. So let me spend my life looking for another way. Let me spend my life living another way.” In this talk, Zuisei speaks on waking up from our conditioned sleepwalking to find the innate wonder that life has to offer. Through watering seeds of pr...

The call to turn inward, towards our present-moment experience, is a call toward truth. In this talk, Zuisei explores the importance of letting our minds become still, so that when the call arrives, we can heed it. Accepting the call is saying “Yes” to reality. It’s becoming intimate with that which we know to be true, which then allows us to see how we must respond.”

Zuisei speaks of silence as the way of wonder, humility, and reverence; of noble silence as the unification of awareness. Drawing on stories and poems, she highlights the importance of silence in our increasingly noisy and harried world.

In the eighth talk in a series on the Eight Awarenesses of Enlightened Beings, Zuisei speaks on the seventh awareness: cultivating wisdom. Wisdom is the highest state we can obtain on the path—a complete integration of presence, compassion, and equanimity. It is understanding that all things—all things without exception—are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and devoid of self-nature. But this is not a...

In the seventh talk in a series on the Eight Awarenesses of Enlightened Beings, Zuisei speaks on the eighth awareness: avoiding idle talk (she changed the order of the talks in order to end with wisdom). Master Dogen said, “To totally know the true form of all things is the same as being without idle talk.” In that complete knowing, there is no room, no opportunity, for idle talk. Knowing the true...

In this mondo or question-and-answer session, Zuisei Sensei speaks on the Fifth Awareness of Enlightened Beings: not forgetting right thought. To not forget right thought is to protect and maintain the dharma and abide in the Three Treasures. And by extension, this “not forgetting” can be understood as remembering. As Zuisei explains: “Not forgetting right thought is remembering: This is not mine,...

In the fifth talk in a series on the Eight Awarenesses of Enlightened Beings, Zuisei speaks on the sixth awareness: practicing Samadhi. Samadhi, also understood as single-pointed focus, is an access point of profound awareness. With intent presence, we are able to see the arising and passing of all phenomena. Samadhi is the state in which subject and object merge. We become the breath, the koan, a...

In the fourth talk in a series on the Eight Awarenesses of Enlightened Beings, Zuisei speaks on the fourth awareness: exerting meticulous effort. Rather than over-exertion, this awareness calls us to place thoughtful intent upon what and how we practice, and it asks us that we dedicate ourselves fully to this effort. The more intent and dedication we put forth, the easier it is to abide in a space...

In the third talk in a series on the Eight Awarenesses of Enlightened Beings, Zuisei speaks on the third awareness: enjoying serenity and tranquility. Serenity, or equanimity, is a quality that the Buddha spoke of frequently. As a state of mind that fosters non-attachment, equanimity gives us the ability to be grounded, stable, and capable of holding the totality of our experience, whatever that i...

In this second talk in a series on the Eight Awarenesses of Enlightened Beings, Zuisei speaks on the second awareness: knowing how to be satisfied. In a Western culture that seems obsessed with excess and consumption, it can be a struggle to know when we are truly satisfied. Yet when we practice and take a closer look at our minds and hearts, we may find that we already have all that we need.

In this first talk in a series on the Eight Awarenesses of Enlightened Beings, Zuisei speaks on the first awareness: having few desires. The Buddha did not say have no desires. As humans, desire will occur—and discerning when it is skillful and unskillful is the practice. We don’t vow every day to put an end to desires because desires are bad. We’re vowing to put an end to that which gets in the w...

In this introductory talk to a series of eight talks on the Eight Awarenesses of Enlightened Beings, Zuisei calls forth the need to investigate this last teaching of the Buddha, according to Mahayana Buddhism. Through studying the qualities of an enlightened being, we are able to sense the possibility of liberation that is available to us all. “These sutras are describing in a very vivid way , the...

This talk, given the day after the 2017 Women’s March on Washington, speaks of the importance of transcending the labels of political, social, or environmental action to take care, through simple, compassionate human action, of the most pressing issues facing us today.

In this talk, Zuisei speaks on the power of silence and stillness to connect us to the present moment and the truth of things . In a world where we are increasingly disconnected from presence, silence is a tool—a technology, if you will—to come back to ourselves. “Silence and stillness are the ground from which clear movement and action springs forth,” Sensei says. “To be still and silent is not t...

In this talk, Zuisei speaks on the third of the Four Immeasurables— sympathetic joy. Cultivating sympathetic joy asks us to feel joy, feel joy with and for others, and to recognize the interconnected nature of our happiness. “There are times when being glad at someone else’s happiness requires that we do more than just have the wish for their happiness. It requires that we act to bring about their...

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 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 Mo...

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 pl...

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...

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...

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. Instea...