How is an enlightened compassion the essence of our “impossible" suffering?

In this profound talk, Dr. Kritee explores case 21 of the Mumonkan, where a student asks Zen Master Yunmen "What is the essence of Buddhism?" and the master answers: "Kanshiketsu"—toilet stick. Through personal stories about extremely hard (impossible) life situations and sitting with a friend facing breast cancer, Sensei Kanko illustrates how the most challenging suffering can get transmuted on our spiritual path. She offers tools for working with life's inevitabilities of old age, sickness, and death—from recognizing the universality of our experience, to finding support in community, to accessing the vast inner space offered by meditation. She goes deeper and asks us to draw from Zen Buddhist, Indigenous, and Tibetan traditions which teach that our deepest spiritual potential lies in facing our greatest suffering to access the great compassion within. Using the touching example of 96-year-old Joanna Macy dying peacefully with playfulness, this talk invites us to discover how the things we desperately want to eliminate might be gateways to the sweetness we are literally made of.

Sensei Kanko gave this talk during a half day meditation in July 2025.

Thank you for listening to the Boundless in Motion podcast. You can access more information about our programs and retreats by going to www.boundlessinmotion.org or www.kriteekanko.com

How do we cultivate deeper trust in life when everything seems to be falling apart? What does it mean to "proceed on from the top of a hundred-foot pole" - to let go just when we think we've learned to control some aspects of life.

In this powerful talk on the last day of silent May 2025 Zen retreat, Sensei Kanko explores the profound teaching of trusting the universe and releasing our grip on comfort and control. Drawing on inspiring examples - from Dipa Ma who could sit for seven days without moving to a contemporary practitioner's complete surrender to Kali - she illuminates how limitless trust in life is the essence of enlightenment. Making a crucial distinction between trusting the divine/natural order and accepting injustice and toxicity created by humans, Kanko offers practical wisdom for maintaining both trust and healthy boundaries. Through personal stories and the metaphor of learning to "kin" with nature, she shows how deepening our trust allows us to act with compassion even as we navigate these times of polycrisis.

Sensei Kanko gave this talk on the final day of the May 2025 Zen retreat (sesshin).

Thank you for listening to the Boundless in Motion podcast. You can access more information about our programs and retreats by going to www.boundlessinmotion.org or www.kriteekanko.com

Using the example of the Babemba tribe’s harm resolution ceremony, Sensei Kritee explores “What if a wise response to our current times is to expand our vision and perception beyond the limits of a single human lifetime?”

Babemba tribe has unlimited belief in the fundamental goodness of all human beings. Where does such deep belief come from? They don’t start lashing out in fear and anger at people who cause harm. They actually remind people of their goodness when individuals end up causing harm. How does such a “beloved community” get created?

The intense times of polycrisis that we are living in are constantly making us contract our awareness and focus only on immediate survival. But what if, instead of listening to these messages from autocratic capitalist systems causing harm to our planet and vulnerable beings, the trust in life would come from expanding our awareness wider and deeper across time and space? What if we are not limited to the short timelines of a single human lifetime and not limited to a human-centric worldview? What if we are limitless in our trust that there are dimensions and beings far beyond what we can see and observe with our human eyes? When we embrace this wider perspective of the universe, we can develop a deep trust in life and have our small human life be a part of the larger process without doing what we can do in this lifetime.

In this talk, Sensei Kanko explores different approaches to living life that are rooted in Indigenous worldviews and practices that connect humans with the natural world and with “Mu” (Shunyata). These worldviews and practices help us trust the fundamental goodness of all human beings.

Sensei Kanko gave this talk during a May 2025 Zen retreat (Sesshin).

Thank you for listening to the Boundless in Motion podcast. You can access more information about our programs and retreats by going to www.boundlessinmotion.org or www.kriteekanko.com