Aspiration in the Fire of Our Times: SPP2025 (Part 3)

In this first Zazenkai day of Spring Practice Period, Sensei Monshin delivers a poignant talk in her naturally calm and lighthearted way. Monshin reflects on this opportunity to practice and asks us to remember what brought us here, what is our deep intention that keeps us aligned with ourselves? This invitation is woven into Monshin’s musing on the “Bodhisattva ideal”, quoting Norman Fischer: “We have to take ourselves less seriously as the person we think we are, and more seriously as the Bodhisattva we surely are.” The talk invokes images of ascending and descending Bodhisattvas, cosmic timeframes where birds erode mountains with silk once per century, and the paradox of being both “this old lady in robes that mostly look like an unmade bed” and a vessel for boundless compassion. Monshin broadens our potential, reminding us that our job is beautifully simple: “to continue to wake up and care for beings in our kind of messy way as best we can.” Through devoted practice, we discover that Bodhisattvas are not who we think they are – they’re as close as our neighbor, waiting to say good morning. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.