Vanessa Zuisei Goddard

Vanessa Zuisei Goddard (born 1973) is a Mexican American Zen Buddhist teacher.

She is a writer, editor, former monastic, and author of the book Still Running: the Art of Meditation in Motion Her writings have been featured in Tricycle Magazine, Lion’s Roar, Buddhadharma, and Parabola.

Now based in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

She currently serves as Tricycle Magazine's Teachings Editor and is the Guiding Teacher of Ocean Mind Sangha.

Shortly after graduating from college, Zuisei entered into Zen training at Zen Mountain Monastery with her first teacher—also founder and abbot of the monastery—John Daido Loori.

Zuisei lived and trained there full-time for twenty-four years, mostly as a monastic, and later as a lay practitioner and teacher.

She led retreats, meditation workshops and began working with Zen students one on one.

She received dharma transmission (authorization to teach) from her teacher and current abbot of the monastery, Geoffrey Shugen Arnold.

After leaving the monastery, Zuisei resided and taught in New York City before relocating to Playa del Carmen in the south of Mexico.

She continues to teach worldwide as the Guiding Teacher at Ocean Mind Sangha via virtual classes, retreats, and one-on-one sessions with newcomers and informal and formal students.

While at Zen Mountain Monastery she also fulfilled various editorial roles and served as creative director and director of operations for Dharma Communications, the monastery's outreach arm overseeing its websites, journals, books, and various print materials.

Her writing has been featured in the Buddhist journals Lion’s Roar, Buddhadharma and Parabola, and she is a regular contributor at The Buddhist Review: Tricycle Magazine.

She joined Tricycle as their Teachings Editor in the winter of 2021.