Dharma Encounter: The Next Buddha (Draft)
Photo by Sippakorn Yamkasikorn
What does it mean, that as Thich Nhat Hanh once said, the next Buddha might not be a person, but a sangha? What does it mean to realize that Buddha? And what role does the sangha play in our waking up—particularly now, with everything that’s happening in the world?
These are the questions that Zuisei invites her students to answer in this dharma encounter. We’re always dependent on one another, so how do we skillfully navigate our relationships so that our actions express love and not hate, wisdom and not delusion?
This dharma encounter marked the conclusion of the 2025 spring ango in the Ocean Mind Sangha, and it took place at the end of our in-person sesshin.
This talk was given by Zuisei Goddard.
Transcript
This transcript is based on Zuisei's talk notes and may differ slightly from the final talk.
Dharma Encounter: The Next Buddha
Good morning. Today we are doing dharma encounter, shosan, and with it, we’re concluding our 2025 spring ango in the Ocean Mind Sangha—our fourth, after roughly four years of practicing together as a sangha. And it’s thanks to all of you that we’re here today. Thanks to your practice and aspiration.
Now, shosan: sho means little or small; san is a meeting or consultation. So, shosan is a brief public meeting with the teacher. Dharma encounter evolved in Song dynasty China as a meeting between teacher and students that gave everyone an opportunity to learn from one another, particularly the expression of dharma. Daisan is of course private, and it’s meant to be private. Shosan gives all of us the opportunity to see how teacher and student might work together to point to and express the dharma in a live way.
In Japan, shosan became ritualized. The students knew the theme beforehand and prepared their answers, which were also offered in a prescribed way. Which had its purpose—repetition and memorization are both important aspects of learning. But they don’t compare to realization. Once you see something for yourself, no one can take it from you. It’s easier to use it and adapt it to the circumstances of your life. And so, today, you don’t know what I’m going to ask. I don’t know what you will say, and this makes for a true meeting of minds and of the dharma.
As many of you know, recently I’ve been talking about practice and training and the difference between the two. My first teacher, Daido Roshi, used to say: practice is what you do, training is what happens to you. Meaning, practice is what you do in the privacy of your own mind. You practice being with the breath, you practice being mindful throughout your day, you practice the precepts and the paramitas and the four vows. You practice returning when you become distracted. Training is what we do together. I ask you to step forward and be jikido, be doan, be the cook, be the shuso, and you respond by fulfilling this role, whether or not you feel ready for it. Training stretches you beyond what you think you can do, creating an important and necessary tension. You think you can’t, and then you do it, and then you see, Oh, yes I can. You grow a little. Then I ask you to stretch again, I can’t, I can’t; Yes, you can; Oh, yes, I can, Okay. This is how we embody our true capacity, our vastness. We were always that large, we were always capable—training gives us the opportunity to see that. It’s similar to the tension between practice and aspiration. Aspiration makes you reach—that’s why it should be larger than your perceived limit. Practice is what helps you to get there.
I’ve also been speaking about the challenges and opportunities of the training forms that we use in the Ocean Mind Sangha, a primarily virtual practice space. Recently, someone was sharing with me their concerns about online practice. Primarily, that something might be lost when we don’t practice face to face in the three-dimensional world. Daido Roshi used to say of doing dokusan, “I have to smell you.” My response to that student was that a few years ago, I shared this same concern. If someone had said to me when I left the monastery, that this is how I’d be teaching, I’d have said No way! You’re crazy! But I began teaching again during the pandemic, where the causes and conditions were such, that virtual practice was the only thing we had.
Then the pandemic faded into the background of our lives, but I saw the opportunity to reach people I wouldn’t otherwise reach, and my life circumstances shaped up in such a way that teaching remotely suited me, and so I continued—we continued. And what I saw and still see, is that a screen is no barrier as long as the person is practicing sincerely. That that is the most important thing. You have shown me, time and time again, that when the practice is strong, and the aspiration is clear, there’s no obstacle to waking up, to transforming your mind and your life, and that these forms—which the Buddha couldn’t have dreamed of—become opportunities. On top of that, they make our in-person gatherings that much sweeter. The strength of Buddhism—the reason it’s continued to thrive after generations—is its ability to adapt to the circumstances it finds itself in. And so here we are, using everything at our disposal to awaken.
This weekend, each of you did a lot of work, put in a lot of effort, to come here, to set aside this time, and to take care of all the things we needed to take care of to create our traveling zendo. You brought the instruments and the statues, the oryoki bowls, the food. I know it would have been easier to pay a bit more and have the retreat center cook for us, but that would have made it even harder for some people to get here. And that wouldn’t have given us the opportunity to truly practice silence during the weekend, and for each of us to take responsibility for a little piece of this retreat, for making it happen. This way, we’re all participating, we’re all invested, we’re all working together. This way, we’re a sangha taking care of each other.
We can practice alone, up to a certain point, but we must train together—and, we must wake up together. It’s the only way to do it. None of us can realize ourselves by ourselves. So, thank you for being willing to stretch and to serve.
Now, given all that, my questions to you for this dharma encounter are:
Thich Nhat Hanh once said:
It is possible the next Buddha will not take the form of an individual. The next Buddha may take the form of a community, a community practicing understanding and lovingkindness, a community practicing mindful living. And the practice can be carried out as a group, as a city, as a nation.
In other words, the next Buddha might not be a person, but a sangha. What does that mean to you? And if we take this to be true, what does it mean to realize that Buddha? What role does the sangha play in your waking up—particularly now, with everything that’s happening in the world? What does that waking up look like on the ground, day to day, in your life?
Komyo will come up first. Please do a standing bow, then kneel and say what you’d like to say; then another standing bow at the end, which you can do with the next person. The rest of you can come up one by one, whomever would like to do so. But do come forward; don’t think about it too much—just stretch. Let’s help each other wake up.
[Dharma encounter]
The next Buddha may take the form of a community, a community practicing understanding and lovingkindness, a community practicing mindful living.
We don’t have to know deep, philosophical Buddhist teachings to create a Buddha field. We don’t have to know doctrine to be respectful and kind. We do have to put effort into being awake and present and caring, because life comes at us fast. So we have to learn how to slow down enough to really see, really hear, really feel—in order to build what I call an ethics of care.
The scholar Louis Massignon called this “the science of compassion.” The ability to put yourself in another’s shoes, another’s mind, another’s experience, and from this, see life as they do, and therefore respond with care, with at least some degree of understanding. Every time you’re asked to be your breath, to be Mu, to be a cypress tree, this is what you’re learning to do—to get out of your own way so you can see the world from another perspective. Because when we do, we begin to care, not just for ourselves, but for everything.
So it’s not a small thing, what we’re doing here. Daido Roshi used to say, “It’s the most important thing any of us will ever do with our lives.” And you know what? I agree.
May your life go well.
Explore further
01 : How to Be a Noble Friend with Zuisei Goddard
02 : Buddhist Practice: Just Love Them by Zuisei Goddard
03 : Dharma Encounter: What is Buddha? with Zuisei Goddard
Dharma Encounter: The Next Buddha, a sesshin talk by Zen Buddhist teacher Zuisei Goddard.