March 10, 2025
Kicking off Brooklyn Zen Center’s annual Membership Drive, we’re thrilled to feature long-time member, Weishin!
Name: Weishin Huang, (He & They)
Member since: 2015
Dharma name: 僧誓 Sosei (Sangha Vow)
Home temple: Ancestral Heart
Favorite BZC program: Writing to Study the Self was illuminating in ways I didn’t expect.
Roles: Shika (Guest Manager) & Tenzo (Head Cook) at Ancestral Heart; BZC Board Member (2016–2024); Doanryo (Fukudo) at Boundless Mind Temple (Carrol St.); BIPOC Leadership Council, Ancestral Heritage Council.
Fun Fact: According to Beyoncé’s wiki, we went to high school together (alas, our paths never crossed… yet)
My story: I came to BZC nearly a decade ago through a friend. When I first walked through the door, to be honest, the Zen forms left me feeling awkward and alienated: the wall-sitting (so isolating!), the prostrating (so submissive!), the chanting (so monotone!). While I didn’t vibe with many of the seemingly cold and rigid practices, I was pleasantly surprised by many of the sangha members. Something about them made me feel like they were really “there” for me. If this strange practice churns out lovely people, I thought, maybe it’s worth sticking around for.
It was friendship that brought me to BZC. It is the spiritual friendship that keeps me at BZC.
Now, ten-ish years later, I’m still here, doing this not so strange anymore practice with many lovely people. It was friendship that brought me to BZC. It is the spiritual friendship that keeps me at BZC. Even as our sangha is confronted with another crisis, in the midst of so many crises befalling on so many in our country and around the world, the mycelium of spiritual friendship has kept me held, nourished, and grounded. On my own, it feels impossible to take it all in and take it all on. But as a community, it is still hard, but we got each other. The Palestinians I met in the West Bank instilled in me the powerful teaching of community. My time at Ancestral Heart Temple has sustained that teaching.
I’m a BZC member because it is my vow, and my dharma name, to care for our sangha – so that I am cared for, and that we are all cared for.
– Weishin Huang
Support BZC’s Spring Membership Drive by signing up for a new membership, upgrading the value of your existing one, and promoting what it means to be a member to your friends!