Online Dharma Classes and Buddhist Study with Zuisei Goddard
Welcome to the online study hub for Ocean Mind Sangha. Here, you can register for all live, interactive dharma classes offered online with Guiding Teacher Zuisei Goddard.
Study the dharma closely with Zuisei, OMS guest teachers, and the sangha. Each class introduces and clarifies how the traditional Buddhist teachings apply to our lives today. Open to everyone—we invite you to bring your attention, questions, and unique experience to each Buddhist study.
Scroll down to view our upcoming schedule and join our next session. Thank you for your practice and support. We look forward to practicing with you.
Banner photo by 和 平
What
Understanding Emptiness (Shunyata)
and Its Role in Our Lives
with Zuisei Goddard
When
Saturday, May 30
9 AM–10 AM | Zazen & Daisan (optional)
10–12 PM | Buddhist Study
Cost
Tiered Pricing
Supporting $50 | Sustaining $25 | Scholarship $15
This class has ended. For more about Emptiness in Zen click here.
Buddhist Study Series Lotus Sutra III
What
Lotus Sutra Series | Live Online
with Zuisei Goddard
Includes access to all previous Lotus Sutra class recordings
When
Saturdays, June 13 (past) & July 11, 2026 (EDT)
9 AM–10 AM | Optional Zazen
10–12 PM | Buddhist Study
Cost
Tiered Pricing
Supporting $50 | Sustaining $25 | Scholarship $15
This class has ended.
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Please make sure to have a copy of the Lotus Sutra (translated by Burton Watson) and read the sections before each session. Below are optional texts for the class:
The Threefold Lotus Sutra: A Modern Translation for Contemporary Readers
The Engaged Eightfold Path as a Restorative Process
with Rev. Liên Shutt
What
The Engaged Eightfold Path as a Restorative Process | Live Online
with Rev. Liên Shutt
Hosted by Zuisei and led by Rev. Liên Shutt. Register to receive Zoom link.
When
Wednesdays, July 15, 22, & 29, 2026 (EDT)
7–7:30 PM | Zazen Optional
7:30–9 PM | Eightfold Path with Rev. Liên Shutt
Cost
Tiered Pricing
Supporting $55 | Sustaining $40 | Scholarship $25
Do The Four Noble Truths seem like just another Buddhist list to memorize? Or are they a meaningful and relevant teaching that we can apply to our lives now?
What are “truths”? How do we learn them? How do familial, cultural, and institutional systems promote, validate, or even teach us to unknowingly collude? Join Ocean Mind Sangha’s three-part series led by Rev. Lien Shutt to learn how her Engaged Four Noble Truths can reflect our multi-dimensional, lived experiences and help us practice amid oppressive structures toward liberation. We’ll do this through reading and practice of selected teachings from Home is Here: Practicing Antiracism with the Engaged Eightfold Path.
Note: Our tiered pricing allows us to offer dana to our visiting teachers and lets participants contribute as they’re able. If you have questions about our financial framework or would like to offer a different donation, please reach out. We’ll be happy to help you.
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The series will cover what Rev. Liên frames as the three essential aspects of healing:
Acknowledging what is.
Knowing what shifts are especially needed, and
Learning how to put those shifts into practice.
These are then applied to the three parts of the book. At each meeting, we’ll engage with various aspects from each of these sections:
Part I: Seeing the World As-It-Is
Part II: What the World Needs Now
Part III: Realizing the Wholeness of the World
Download the class outline (pdf) here. Reading the chapters in each of these sections before each meeting session is recommended. Meditations, mindful reflections, and Q&A sessions will be used throughout the 3-part series to see how Rev. Lien’s reframed expansions from the traditional Buddhist teachings can support an engaged practice, enlivening us with agency.
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REV. LIÊN SHUTT (she/they) is a priest lineage holder in the Shunryu Suzuki tradition. She received her meditation training in the Insight and Soto Zen traditions in the United States, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam. They are the guiding teacher of Access to Zen, an inclusive, anti-oppression sangha and nonprofit in the San Francisco Bay Area. Visit AccessToZen.org for ways to connect.
Living an Ethical Life: The Buddhist Precepts
What
Living an Ethical Life: The Buddhist Precepts
with Zuisei Goddard | Live Online
Register to receive Zoom link.
When
Saturday, August 8, 2026 (EDT)
9 AM–12 PM
| Break |
2 PM–4 PM
Cost
Tiered Pricing
Supporting $55 | Sustaining $40 | Scholarship $25
What does it mean to take refuge in and commit to a life guided by the precepts—the moral and ethical teachings of Buddhism—and what do these teachings tell us about ourselves and the world?
Every day we choose how we show up for ourselves and one another in our actions, words, and thoughts. Understanding the precepts can guide us as we navigate our lives, even when the choices we face are difficult. Join this class to experience the precepts as an essential resource in modern life. Your questions and insight are always welcome in these live sessions.
This class is open to everyone, and it is required for formal students at OMS before taking jukai (receiving the precepts).
Chan Practice of Silent Illumination
with Rebecca Li
September 23, 2026
What
Silent Illumination | Live Online
with Rebecca Li
Register to receive Zoom link.
When
Wednesday, Sep 23, 2026 (EDT)
7–9 PM | Guided meditation &
Dharma study with Rebecca Li
Cost
$10 | Suggested $15
Ocean Mind Sangha welcomes Guest Teacher Rebecca Li. In this class, she will discuss how to engage in the Chan practice of Silent Illumination in sitting meditation and in daily life, and how this practice allows us to free ourselves from suffering regardless of what happens in life. The class will begin with a session of guided meditation, followed by a talk that ends with a Q&A.
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Dr. Rebecca Li, a Dharma heir in the lineage of Chan Master Sheng Yen, is the founder and guiding teacher of Chan Dharma Community. She began practicing with Master Sheng Yen in the mid-1990s and, after his passing in 2009, trained with John Crook and Simon Child, two of Master Sheng Yen’s lay Dharma heirs, from the U.K. She received full Dharma transmission from Simon Child in 2016. She teaches meditation and Dharma classes, gives public lectures, and leads retreats in North America and Europe. Her talks and writings can be found at www.rebeccali.org, Tricycle and Lion’s Roar. Rebecca is also a sociology professor and lives with her husband in New Jersey. She is the author of Allow Joy into Our Hearts: Chan Practice in Uncertain Times, and her book Illumination: A Guide to the Buddhist Method of No-Method was published in 2023 by Shambhala Publications.
Buddhist Study Series:
Koan Practice for Real Life
What
Fall Ango Buddhist Study Series | Live Online
with Zuisei Goddard
4-Part Study of Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life by Guo Gu
Register to receive Zoom link.
When
Wednesdays, Sep 30, Oct 7, 14 & 28, 2026 (EDT)
7–7:30 PM | Zazen Optional
7:30–9 PM | Dharma study with Zuisei
Cost
Tiered Pricing
Supporting $75 | Sustaining $50 | Scholarship $25
In this 4-part series Guiding Teacher Zuisei Goddard will address koan practice in the Zen Buddhist tradition. This course will study Guo Gu’s dharma text Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life. Each class will begin with a 30-minute period of zazen. Recordings will be provided for any missed session. Required for Ango Participants.
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If you are interested in taking up koan practice and want to know more about how it works, this course is for you. If you practice with koans already and want to deepen your appreciation of this powerful practice, join us!
Join us also if you’re looking for a new perspective on koans, or want to gain familiarity with the Zen and Chan traditions. We look forward to practicing with you.
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A koan is an apparently paradoxical statement, question, or exchange meant to “short-circuit” the intellectual process in order to bring the student to realization of ultimate reality.
Taking the koan into meditation, the student sits deeply with it, letting go of rationalization to directly apprehend its point, which then needs to be presented to the teacher. The student-teacher relationship is essential for koan study, developing over time as the student practices with a series of koans.
This practice traces its roots to Tang Dynasty China, where exchanges between teachers and students began to be recorded and used as formal teaching tools.
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Passing Through the Gateless Barrier: Koan Practice for Real Life by Guo Gu
Reading each of the following sections before each meeting session is strongly recommended.Sep 30- Introduction: Anatomy of a Koan
Oct 7- Case 1: Zhaozhou’s Dog
Oct 14- Case 5: Xiangyan Is Up in a Tree and Case 6: The World Honored One Holds Up a Flower
Oct 28- Case 29: Not the Wind, Not the Flag and Case 42: A Young Woman Comes Out of Samadhi
Additional Reading (Optional): The rest of the book and Sitting with Koans by John Daido Loori
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Zuisei Goddard is a writer and lay Zen teacher based in Panama City, Panama. She is the guiding teacher of Ocean Mind Sangha, a mostly virtual community of Zen practitioners, and the author of Still Running: The Art of Meditation in Motion and the children’s book Weather Any Storm. She writes regularly for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review and Buddhadharma.
Zuisei completed her koan training under her teacher, Geoffrey Shugen Arnold Roshi, and received dharma transmission from him.
