Vanessa Zuisei Goddard

Vanessa Zuisei Goddard is a writer and Zen teacher based in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. She trained full-time at Zen Mountain Monastery from 1995 to 2014, fourteen of those years as a monastic. In 2018 she received dharma transmission (authorization to teach) from Geoffrey Shugen Arnold Roshi, abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery and Head of the Mountains and Rivers Order.     

For the last ten years, Zuisei has been leading retreats and workshops on a wide range of teachings on Buddhism and meditation—and  also for children, teenagers, and adults—all with special emphasis on the power of stillness and silence to transform our lives.

Zuisei’s articles have appeared in Tricycle, Lion’s Roar, Buddhadharma, and Parabola. Currently she is working on a book about faith, belief, and contemplation and her first book, Still Running: The Art of Meditation in Motion, was released by Shambhala Publications in August of 2020.