Back
Explore every episode of the podcast Ocean Mind Sangha
Dive into the complete episode list for Ocean Mind Sangha. Each episode is cataloged with detailed descriptions, making it easy to find and explore specific topics. Keep track of all episodes from your favorite podcast and never miss a moment of insightful content.
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eight Ways of Cultivating Loving-kindness | 22 Aug 2024 | 00:27:00 | |
A talk on the eight ways of cultivatingloving-kindness | |||
| Loving-kindness As Our Ground | 14 Aug 2024 | 00:28:32 | |
A talk on the practice of metta or loving-kindness—includes a guided
meditation. | |||
| Sloth and Torpor | 17 Feb 2024 | 00:32:37 | |
Sloth and torpor is a subtle turning away of our vows, but we can always
return and re-engage with what is most important to us. | |||
| Placing Ourselves in Suchness, Part 1 | 02 Nov 2017 | 00:40:18 | |
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 liberation. | |||
| Waking | 15 Oct 2017 | 00:41:51 | |
“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 practice and presence, we choose wakefulness and seek truth. | |||
| The Call to Contemplation | 30 Sep 2017 | 00:40:10 | |
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.” | |||
| The Power of Zazen | 10 Sep 2017 | 00:39:34 | |
| Silence | 14 Aug 2017 | 00:37:32 | |
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. | |||
| Cultivating Wisdom | 28 Jul 2017 | 00:36:15 | |
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 problem. Wisdom is accepting, and therefore finding freedom in the fact that this is how things are. | |||
| Avoiding Idle Talk | 16 Jul 2017 | 00:37:33 | |
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 form of a thing, there is no one to speak about it idly, or to speak about it at all.
Words cannot express the reality. Live words can point to it, but they are not it. And yet, since we have to speak, how do we do so in such a way that we practice abstaining from thought and language that keeps us bound? How do we create space to rest in a deeper sense of knowing and trusting in our innate goodness? | |||
| Not Forgetting Right Thought | 09 Jul 2017 | 00:59:38 | |
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, I am not this, this is not myself. This— whatever this is—is not apart from me. It is not a thing, and neither am I. This means I cannot possess it, but I also cannot lose it. This means I already have everything I need.” | |||
| Practicing Samadhi | 08 Jul 2017 | 00:44:01 | |
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, awareness itself. | |||
| Exerting Meticulous Effort | 23 Jun 2017 | 00:34:29 | |
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 of freedom. | |||
| Restlessness and Worry | 14 Feb 2024 | 00:51:23 | |
Restlessness and worry roil the mind like the wind roils water, robbing it
of its calm. The antidote? Mindfulness. | |||
| Enjoying Serenity and Tranquility | 30 Apr 2017 | 00:32:59 | |
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 is.
Being equanimous doesn’t mean not feeling or not caring. On the contrary, it encourages us to care deeply without being disturbed by that caring. It means not being in conflict with one’s thoughts and emotions, with adverse circumstances, with others. Fundamentally, it comes from seeing others as ourselves.
| |||
| Knowing How to Be Satisfied | 26 Apr 2017 | 00:38:44 | |
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. | |||
| Having Few Desires | 19 Mar 2017 | 00:37:56 | |
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 way of living our lives fully. Because doing this is the most natural way to live a human life. | |||
| The Eight Awarenesses of Enlightened Beings | 19 Mar 2017 | 00:42:55 | |
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 most vivid way, the universe inside,” Zuisei Sensei says. “They speak of that place where there is no question—no question whatsoever—that you belong. Because if you yourself are the whole universe, how could you not belong?” | |||
| Human Action | 24 Jan 2017 | 00:46:52 | |
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. | |||
| The Way of Stillness and Silence | 22 Jan 2017 | 00:33:18 | |
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 to be passively waiting, it is to be full with the potential of now.” | |||
| Sympathetic Joy | 28 Dec 2016 | 00:49:35 | |
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 happiness, bring about their joy. Because when even a single atom, quark, of [a] cell gets affected— everything is.” | |||
| Equanimity (Four Immeasurables) | 15 Nov 2016 | 00:42:55 | |
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 Mountain Monastery’s Inclusion Statement. | |||
| I Arise Today | 05 Nov 2016 | 00:38:33 | |
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 (Four Immeasurables) | 16 Oct 2016 | 00:39:29 | |
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.” | |||
| Dharma Encounter: What Is Buddha? | 07 Feb 2024 | 00:55:44 | |
A live, spontaneous engagement of the dharma between teacher and students | |||
| Lovingkindness (Four Immeasurables) | 23 Sep 2016 | 00:43:03 | |
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. | |||
| The Fourth Bodhisattva Vow, Part 2 | 07 Aug 2016 | 00:34:36 | |
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.” | |||
| The Fourth Bodhisattva Vow, Part 1 | 30 Jul 2016 | 00:38:32 | |
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.” | |||
| The Third Bodhisattva Vow | 24 Jul 2016 | 00:45:03 | |
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.” | |||
| The Second Bodhisattva Vow: Seeing Desire | 19 Jun 2016 | 00:43:22 | |
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. | |||
| The First Bodhisattva Vow | 04 Jun 2016 | 00:35:53 | |
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?’” | |||
| The Four Bodhisattva Vows | 27 Mar 2016 | 00:37:34 | |
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 Paramita | 13 Mar 2016 | 00:36:43 | |
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. | |||
| Truthfulness Paramita | 28 Feb 2016 | 00:38:04 | |
“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 Paramita | 31 Jan 2016 | 00:32:28 | |
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. | |||
| Buddha's Enlightenment | 10 Dec 2023 | 00:31:36 | |
When we’re at peace within ourselves, unshakeable determination flourishes. | |||
| Equanimity Paramita | 17 Jan 2016 | 00:30:55 | |
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. | |||
| The Five Remembrances | 10 Jan 2016 | 00:31:13 | |
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.” | |||
| Determination Paramita | 09 Jan 2016 | 00:33:40 | |
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.
| |||
| Wisdom Paramita | 30 Dec 2015 | 00:40:11 | |
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. | |||
| Diligence Paramita | 12 Dec 2015 | 00:40:07 | |
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. | |||
| Meditation Paramita | 25 Nov 2015 | 00:34:42 | |
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? | |||
| Renunciation Paramita | 14 Nov 2015 | 00:32:18 | |
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.” | |||
| What You Hold, May You Always Hold | 23 Oct 2015 | 00:40:15 | |
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 | |||
| Virtue Paramita | 18 Oct 2015 | 00:38:02 | |
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. | |||
| Patience Paramita | 25 Sep 2015 | 00:36:13 | |
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.”
| |||
| Simplicity | 06 Dec 2023 | 00:39:41 | |
Simplicity is a powerful tool, a way for us to wake up to reality as it is. | |||
| Right Concentration | 02 Sep 2015 | 00:43:37 | |
Recorded at Zen Mountain Monastery, 08/28/2015 | |||
| Right Mindfulness | 11 Aug 2015 | 00:37:15 | |
Recorded at Zen Center of New York City, 08/02/2015 | |||
| Right Action | 29 Jun 2015 | 00:31:06 | |
Recorded at Zen Mountain Monastery, 06/26/2015 | |||
© My Podcast Data