Genpo Roshi

Dennis Genpo Merzel Roshi is a revolutionary in the tradition of the old Zen Masters — who so embodied Buddhist teaching that they were able to revitalize and transform it for their own day and age. Genpo works to communicate the Buddha's teachings in a way that is readily accessible to Westerners and relevant to our everyday life, to help us shed anxiety and fear and learn to live more purposeful, compassionate and joyful lives. He is the author of books and publications including The Eye Never Sleeps, Beyond Sanity and Madness, 24/7 Dharma, and The Pah of The Human Being, and his latest book, Big Mind/Big Heart: Finding Your Way; he's also created several DVDs. Born in Brooklyn N.Y., Genpo grew up in Southern California and earned a Masters degree in education from the University of Southern California. He was ordained as a Zen monk under Zen Master Taizan Maezumi in 1973. Completing formal Koan study in 1979 he became Maezumi Roshi's second Dharma Successor in 1980, the first being Bernie Tetsugen Glassman. He received Inka (final seal of approval as Zen Master) from Roshi Glassman in 1996, thereby becoming one of a small group of Westerners recognized as lineage holders in both the Soto and Rinzai Zen traditions. In 1982 Genpo Sensei began teaching throughout Europe and founded the international group he named the Kanzeon (Love and Compassion) Sangha, centered in Salt Lake City, Utah, with affiliates in France, Holland, Poland, Belgium, Germany, England, and Malta. For more about Genpo Roshi, visit bigmind.org

A therapist friend recently joked with me that everyone outside a relationship is hoping to get in one, and everyone in a relationship is either trying to change his or her partner and/or get out completely. Sex and relationships are no different from any other aspect of our lives in that it’s all about how we deal with what is presented to us. To be truly happy — and like anything else at which we want to excel — it requires practice, patience and maturity. And a lot of mistakes made as sincerely as possible.

In our society we’re very concerned about how little we care, how selfish and greedy we are. We realize that we need to care more, we need to have more compassion, we need to have more empathy, we need all that.

We are all born with the unborn Buddha Mind, what I call Big Mind/Big Heart, an inner awareness that we are connected with others and our environment — literally One Mind. But something happens as we grow up; we begin to separate ourselves from the rest of the world. We trade the Big Heart-Mind we are born with for another mind that centers around the small self. That self then becomes our number one preoccupation.