Brooklyn Zen Center

The beings who have this wish and commitment – to realize perfect understanding for the welfare of all beings – when those beings enter into Samadhi, their vow goes with them. So in that sense, the Bodhisattva Samadhi (or what I would call zazen) – I consider the zazen that I am recommending and encouraging is Bodhisattva Samadhi. And that Bodhisattva Samadhi, that zazen, is a vow. It’s an open, relaxed, buoyant, undistracted vow: to gather the entire ocean of Buddha’s teachings, for the welfare of all beings.

My experience in the undoing patriarchy group very much affirms that for me – that we come together to create a space where we can talk about how we harm, how we are harmed, share stories of brokenness. And the sharing of it reveals a wholeness there, a healing. And when that’s set in motion, compassion flowers out of that. Almost like it rushes into the space that’s created in that holding. It’s like just the act of allowing our full selves to come out enables us to meet others in a full way, completely. And then we act from there. Bodhisattvas help bodhisattvas become bodhisattva. It happens across time – like this koan from the 11th century- and then across space and within spaces like the sangha.

Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.

The focus of the Bodhisattva Samadhi is the Bodhisattva wish, the Bodhisattva aspiration: to make Buddhas for the welfare of the world. And then there is that aspiration, you can also, in a sense, vow and commit to that aspiration. So the aspiration, and the commitment of the aspiration, is at the center of the Bodhisattva Samadhi.

Rev. Francisco (Paco) Genkoji Lugoviña, Sensei is a Teacher & Priest in the White Plum Lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi & The Zen Peacemaker Order. Rev. Daiken Nelson, Sensei is a Teacher & Priest in the White Plum Lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi & The Zen Peacemaker Order.

Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.