Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, 12/31/2020
Zen Mountain Monastery guides us into the New Year 2021 with a Fusatsu, or renewal of vows ceremony, on New Year’s Eve. During which Shugen Roshi offers an empowering talk on the virtues of intention and vows. Pointing to the reality of intention: “the Buddha was enlightened to the profound, radical truth, that intention is karma, intention is action that has consequence”. Roshi illuminates the great power of mind, which can be used haphazardly to solidify our position in samsara and cause unimaginable suffering in the world. Yet that same mind has the capacity to be free of all attachments through intention.