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A Quarter Century of Compassionate Practice: Celebrating 25 Years

January 2025 marks 25 years since the incorporation of Compassionate Ocean Zen Center. This is an opportunity for us to pause, reflect, and celebrate the journey of the many members of our sangha and the countless lives touched by our practice together. Throughout the year we will hold events to honor this milestone.

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Compassionate Ocean is named in deep appreciation of Jikai Dainin Katagiri Roshi, one of the pioneers who brought Zen practice to the West. Joen and Michael spent many years studying and practicing with Katagiri Roshi. “Jikai” means “compassion ocean,” pointing to the boundless reality that sustains all things. Like the ocean, this reality is vast and giving, offering life to all without condition. This is the heart of our practice—a life rooted in gratitude and connection to the whole.

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The Center had modest beginnings. In the early 1990s Joen O’Neal developed a program called “Talk, Tea, and Meditation” to support people facing illness and hardship. She subsequently met Jon Kabat-Zinn and learned about the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program he had developed, which with his encouragement she and Michael began to offer in the Twin Cities. Out of this grew a group of people who chose to continue to practice together, and this became Compassionate Ocean Zen Center. Joen and Michael O’Neal, the Center’s guiding teachers, have since offered MBSR more than 100 times each, introducing about 3,000 people to the transformative practice of mindfulness.

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From its earliest days Compassionate Ocean has been a sangha—a community. What began as a few people gathering in borrowed rooms has grown into a vibrant community. In 2002 our Center purchased a building in Northeast Minneapolis, and in 2014 the complete renovation of this space was concluded. Due to the contributions of many kinds from many people over many years, we have a truly lovely practice space, reflecting the dignity and beauty of the practice itself.

Guiding Teachers Joen and Michael bring decades of study and deep commitment to this path. Their practice includes time with a number of revered teachers in addition to Katagiri Roshi, including practice periods in residence with Thich Nhat Hanh. Joen is one of the most senior ordained Zen priests in the region, and she has guided many students through lay ordination and priest training, further planting seeds of Zen practice in the Midwest. At Compassionate Ocean Joen and Michael have together presented over 100 different study courses on Buddhist teachings, as well as daily meditation sessions, introductory programs, and in-depth retreats and practice periods.

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Zen, as an expression of the Buddha way, is always bigger than we imagine. It is always "waiting" for us to enter more deeply. When we do this, we ourselves become deeper and bigger and more whole. We come home to our true self, and live our lives on this basis. This is what a Zen center is for, and what Compassionate Ocean is dedicated to.