Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast

Episode Description: This joint Dharma talk, offered during Upaya's Being with Dying program, centers around the universal feeling of helplessness, the feeling of "not being able to help myself or others," with particular focus on how helplessness impacts the health care system. Cynda begins the talk by presenting a clinical case in which helplessness arose in both caregivers and family members. She draws upon this case to discuss how we carry helplessness in our bodies and feelings, and also to discuss the profound personal and systemic consequences of unrelieved helplessness. Tony then addresses ways in which helplessness can be transformed. He suggests that two particular processes are crucial, which can be developed in our contemplative practice. The first process involves becoming more aware of our experiences of helplessness and how these experiences progress in our bodies and minds. The second process involves taking a "metacognitive perspective" on situations of helplessness. This view of a situation "as if from outside" can help us to reevaluate and transform the situation. Tony also addresses a practical model of working with helplessness, called RENEW: Recognize helplessness, Embrace helplessness, Nourish yourself, Embody constructive engagement, and Weave a new response. Cynda finally applies these transformational tools to the clinical case with which she opened the talk. Bio: Tony Back, MD, is Director of Palliative Care at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, an outpatient consultation service, and Professor of Medicine/Oncology at the University of Washington. His academic research focuses on improved patient-clinician communication. He is also head of a gastrointestinal oncology practice in the Seattle area, and an Affiliate Member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Dr. Back received his bachelor’s degree from the Humanities Honors Program at Stanford University and his MD from Harvard Medical School. Cynda Hylton Rushton, PhD, RN, FAAN, is the Anne and George L. Bunting Professor of Clinical Ethics and Professor of Nursing and Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University and the Berman Institute of Bioethics. She is also Program Director for the Harriet Lane Compassionate Care Program. A clinician, educator, researcher and advocate for compassionate health care with nearly 30 years of nursing experience, Dr. Rushton’s work focuses on clinical ethics, palliative and end-of-life care, particularly for children, as well as integrated organizational change and leadership. She has led numerous initiatives to cultivate contemplative practices that foster awareness, inquiry and resilience in complex health care settings and to address the detrimental effects of moral distress on clinicians, patients and families. She received her nursing degrees from the University of Kentucky and Medical University of South Carolina,and her doctorate in nursing from the Catholic University of America with a concentration in bioethics. She was a Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow.

Episode Description: This Dharma talk, offered on the Buddha's birthday in the Burmese Buddhist tradition, is, appropriately enough, about the Buddha: the myth of his life, the story of his "enlightenment" or awakening, and what we can learn from these...

Episode Description: This Dharma talk, offered by Upaya's Maia Duerr, is an exploration of the word "practice." What does it mean to practice? How does a formal spiritual practice, such as Zen, relate to our lives "off the cushion?" What does it mean to "practice with" something, such as a person, thought, or reality in the world? Maia investigates these questions first, by suggesting what practice is and is not, second, by discussing the Zen tradition's Three Pure Precepts as they relate to her own personal experiences, and third, by exploring what it means to "practice with imperfection," to practice as an imperfect human being in an imperfect world. Maia closes her talk with a poem by Mary Oliver and extracts a line from this poem to sum up what practice means. Practice, for Maia, is about "being wild with the okay-ness of it all." Bio: Maia was the director of Upaya's Buddhist Chaplaincy Training Program from its inception in 2008 until 2014. Maia is an anthropologist, writer, and editor. In 2012, she received lay ordination from Roshi Joan Halifax as a lay Buddhist chaplain. She is also a student in the Soto Zen lineage of Suzuki Roshi, and has lived and practiced at the San Francisco Zen Center, where she received jukai from Victoria Shosan Austin in 2008. From 2004-2008, Maia worked at the Buddhist Peace Fellowship where she served as executive director and editor of Turning Wheel magazine. From 2002-2004, Maia was the research director of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she led a study on the use of meditation and other contemplative practices in secular settings. She is the author of a number of articles on this topic, including "The Contemplative Organization," published in the Journal of Organizational Change Management. Maia's writing can be found on her blog, The Liberated Life Project. She is also the author of a blog on socially engaged Buddhism called The Jizo Chronicles

Episode Description: Due to technical difficulties, the audio for this Dharma talk offered by Alan Wallace was lost. However, Alan offered several Power Point slides that closely paralleled his talk. These are presented here in lieu of an audio presentation. The pith of Alan's talk surrounds the cultivation of conative intelligence, or the cultivation of wise desires and intentions, in order to develop true happiness and to be of maximal benefit to one's self and others. Bio: B. Alan Wallace began his studies of Tibetan Buddhism, language, and culture in 1970 at the University of Göttingen in Germany and then continued his studies over the next fourteen years in India, Switzerland, and the United States. Ordained as a Buddhist monk by H. H. the Dalai Lama in 1975, he has taught Buddhist meditation and philosophy worldwide since 1976 and has served as interpreter for numerous Tibetan scholars and contemplatives, including the Dalai Lama. After graduating summa cum laude from Amherst College, where he studied physics and the philosophy of science, he returned his monastic vows and went on to earn his Ph.D. in religious studies at Stanford University. He then taught for four years in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and is now the founder and president of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies. He has edited, translated, authored, and contributed to more than thirty books on Tibetan Buddhism, medicine, language, and culture, and the interface between science and religion.

Episode Description: This is the fourth and final Dharma talk offered during the spring sesshin, and the last of two by Joshin Brian Byrnes. Brian opens with a recap of what he covered in his first talk (part 2 of this series), which was an explication of the first half of Dogen's essay Recommending Zazen to all People (Fukanzazengi). He then resumes his commentary on the second half of the essay. Brian closes with a beautiful extended guided meditation. For Series description and Teacher BIOs, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Spring Sesshin 2014: All 4 Parts

Episode Description: This is the third talk offered during the spring sesshin and the second by Shinzan Palma. Shinzan opens this talk with some words of encouragement on this third, and often most challenging, day of sesshin. He then moves into finishing his commentary on Hakuin's poem Song of Zazen, which he began in part 1 of this series. He closes the talk with a guided meditation on five contemplations to "let go" of the self as we move into the final days of sesshin. For Series description and Teacher BIOs, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Spring Sesshin 2014: All 4 Parts

Episode Description: This is the second Dharma talk offered during the spring sesshin, and the first of two by Joshin Brian Byrnes. In this talk, Brian first explores an English translation of an early Buddhist text, the sutra on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, or Satipatthana Sutta. Through studying the sutra, we see that practicing with the "body" is hugely important in practice, in addition to our "heart" and "mind." In fact, for Brian, it is only through entering into our bodies that we can deeply enter into our thoughts, emotions, and points of view. Brian next delves into the text he will focus on in this talk and his second talk (part 4 of this series): Dogen's Fukanzazengi or, Recommending Zazen to all People. We see many similarities between Dogen's text and the Four Foundations of Mindfulness sutra. With participation from the retreatants, Brian comments on about half of the text. He will discuss the remaining portion of the text in part 4 of this series. For Series description and Teacher BIOs, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Spring Sesshin 2014: All 4 Parts

Series Description: Sesshin literally means to "gather the heart/mind." It is an intensive zen meditation retreat done in community that allows us to deepen our practice through daily sitting meditation, walking meditation, silent meals, work practice, and dharma talks. In this sesshin, co-led by Upaya priests Shinzan Palma and Joshin Brian Byrnes, we explore in particular the zen practice of sitting, or "zazen," through two texts: Hakuin's poem "Song of Zazen" and Zen Master Dogen's "Recommending Zazen to all People." We engage with the texts through daily Dharma talks and then allow the words to sink in as we practice zazen together. Episode Description: This is the first of four Dharma talks offered during the spring sesshin, and the only one given to the public as well as to retreat participants. In it, Shinzan briefly explains what "sesshin" means and how the theme of this particular sesshin will revolve around some fundamental teachings on "zazen," or sitting meditation practice. Shinzan will focus on Zen Master Hakuin's (17th/18th C Japan) poem Zazen Wasan or, Song of Zazen. For the remainder of the talk, Shinzan offers his commentary on roughly the first half of the poem. He will comment on the second part of the poem in his second Dharma talk (part 3 of this series). Bios: Shinzan Jose Manuel Palma was born in Veracruz, Mexico. He has been practicing Zen since 1996. He met his former teacher, Korean Zen Master Samu Sunim in Mexico City and trained under his guidance for 8 years. He did a residential training for 4 years at the Zen Buddhist Temple in Toronto, Canada and was ordained as a novice priest by Samu Sunim in 2004. After leaving Canada, he was invited by Roshi Joan Halifax to come to Upaya in 2006. Shinzan asked Roshi to be her student and he was re-ordained as a Priest in 2007 by Roshi Joan Halifax. Since then, he has been at Upaya practicing with the community. He is now the Head Priest and Temple coordinator, giving guidance to the residents on Zen training. He became Dharma holder on March, 2010. He has a sincere and strong heart committed to the Dharma. Joshin Brian Byrnes is a novice priest at Upaya Zen Center and president and CEO of the Santa Fe Community Foundation. He worked at the Boston AIDS Action Committee, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and was CEO of the Vermont Community Foundation and Managing Director at Tides Foundation. His nonprofit career spans over twenty years, where he has led complex organizations through profound change processes, organizational growth, and repositioning them for increased social impact, financial sustainability, and organizational learning. Currently, he is involved with a number of of national philanthropic projects including being the chair-elect of CFLeads: Community Foundations Leading Change, and is a member of the Community Foundation Leadership Team at the Council on Foundations. His academic background includes undergraduate and graduate work in philosophy at St. Meinrad College, theology at the Aquinas Institute at St. Louis University, early music performance at New England Conservatory of Music, and medieval musicology at New York University. He has also studied and practiced organizational development with Peter Senge (The Fifth Discipline), and has been trained in Organizational and Relationship Systems Coaching. He is cultivating a “back and forth” practice, moving between the zendo and the larger world of social service, organizational leadership, and social engagement. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Spring Sesshin 2014: All 4 Parts

Episode Description: In this wide-ranging talk, Brian weaves together stories from three wisdom traditions: the Passover story from Judaism, the Christian story of Easter, and the Four "Ennobling" Truths from Buddhism. For Brian, these three stories contain the very pith of their respective traditions. Brian explores how these stories speak about human suffering, presenting suffering as something that must be "plunged into" as opposed to avoided or denied. Brian first discusses the Passover story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt and toward liberation in the "promised land." He then touches upon the story of the great agony, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus, and finally speaks about suffering in the Buddhist tradition. In each case, suffering is seen as a deeply human reality, inexplicable, perhaps even unjust, but nonetheless a part of the "whole works," something that must be fully known as we mature spiritually. Bio: Joshin Brian Byrnes is a novice priest at Upaya Zen Center and president and CEO of the Santa Fe Community Foundation. He worked at the Boston AIDS Action Committee, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and was CEO of the Vermont Community Foundation and Managing Director at Tides Foundation. His nonprofit career spans over twenty years, where he has led complex organizations through profound change processes, organizational growth, and repositioning them for increased social impact, financial sustainability, and organizational learning. Currently, he is involved with a number of of national philanthropic projects including being the chair-elect of CFLeads: Community Foundations Leading Change, and is a member of the Community Foundation Leadership Team at the Council on Foundations. His academic background includes undergraduate and graduate work in philosophy at St. Meinrad College, theology at the Aquinas Institute at St. Louis University, early music performance at New England Conservatory of Music, and medieval musicology at New York University. He has also studied and practiced organizational development with Peter Senge (The Fifth Discipline), and has been trained in Organizational and Relationship Systems Coaching. He is cultivating a “back and forth” practice, moving between the zendo and the larger world of social service, organizational leadership, and social engagement.

Episode Description: A core teaching in Buddhism is that of "letting go" of the things that cause us suffering, such as our greed, delusions, and our strong sense of self. In this Dharma talk, Brian opens up this teaching in terms of practice "on" and "off" the cushion. In the first part of the talk, Brian discusses techniques from the vipassana teacher Gil Fronsdal for "letting go" of our discursive thinking while sitting in meditation. Brian presents these techniques in a helpful sequence. First, we see that what we do in meditation is beneficial: it is "useful" to let go of our thoughts. Then, we simply begin to notice our thoughts and put them down. However, because many thoughts are compelling and tenacious, we then train ourselves to actively redirect the mind to something that will bring us back to the present moment. Noticing the breath and the body can help us return to the present. Finally, we appreciate what happens when we let go of our discursive thinking, relax our minds, and simply "let things be." In the second part of the talk, Brian invites members of the audience to share their experiences of "letting go" in their lives. In the final part of the talk, Brian segues into a discussion of a sutta, or early discourse, from the Buddhist Pali Canon entitled the sutta on "effacement," also translated as the sutta on "letting go." In it, the Buddha advises one of his disciples that "letting go" does not happen on the cushion, in seated meditation, but rather in the activities of daily life. That is, it is only by acting with virtue rather than cruelty, by preserving rather than taking life, by speaking the truth rather than falsehood, and so on, that one truly lets go. In a skillful loop, however, the Buddha suggests that seated meditation practice is in fact essential for the practice of letting go in everyday life. Brian closes the talk with a poem by Mary Oliver. Bio: Joshin Brian Byrnes is a novice priest at Upaya Zen Center and president and CEO of the Santa Fe Community Foundation. He worked at the Boston AIDS Action Committee, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and was CEO of the Vermont Community Foundation and Managing Director at Tides Foundation. His nonprofit career spans over twenty years, where he has led complex organizations through profound change processes, organizational growth, and repositioning them for increased social impact, financial sustainability, and organizational learning. Currently, he is involved with a number of of national philanthropic projects including being the chair-elect of CFLeads: Community Foundations Leading Change, and is a member of the Community Foundation Leadership Team at the Council on Foundations. His academic background includes undergraduate and graduate work in philosophy at St. Meinrad College, theology at the Aquinas Institute at St. Louis University, early music performance at New England Conservatory of Music, and medieval musicology at New York University. He has also studied and practiced organizational development with Peter Senge (The Fifth Discipline), and has been trained in Organizational and Relationship Systems Coaching. He is cultivating a “back and forth” practice, moving between the zendo and the larger world of social service, organizational leadership, and social engagement.

Episode Description: This Dharma talk, offered by Sensei Alan during a zazenkai (day-long silent meditation retreat), is a wonderful concise commentary on the Zen poem Song of the Grass Hut. This poem was composed by the 8th century Chinese Zen master Shitou Xiqian. It is one of only two works known by him (the second being the Sandokai, or Merging of Difference and Unity). The talk begins with a group recitation of the poem, followed by about thirty minutes of explication of the poem, and ends with a Q&A. BIO : Alan Senauke is vice-abbot of Berkeley Zen Center (BZC) in California. Since 1991 Alan has worked with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, where he presently serves as Senior Advisor. He continues to work as a socially engaged Buddhist activist, most recently founding the Clear View Project, developing Buddhist-based resources for relief and social change. In another realm, Alan has been a student and performer of American traditional music for more than forty years.

Episode Description: Sensei Alan begins this wonderful talk by placing it in the context of other recent Upaya Dharma talks, particularly one offered by Brian Byrnes on March 26th entitled, "What Do You Do Then?" Sensei suggests that "what we do then" is what we are trained to do. Another way to view spiritual practice is as training. In the Buddhist traditions, there are many ways we train. One way is through the use of "slogans" such as the Tibetan verses on mind training, the Lojong. These mind training slogans originated with the 12th Century master Atisha, and came to the west primarily through Chogyam Trungpa ("Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness"), Pema Chodron ("Start Where You Are"), and Norman Fischer ("Training in Compassion"). Sensei Alan focuses on one of these slogans, translated by Chogyam Trungpa: "Drive all blames into one." This difficult training is about taking responsibility for everything that happens to us, but taking full responsibility without guilt or self-loathing. It is about taking ownership of our lives, while recognizing that not everything is our "fault" and that others are not free of responsibility. We habitually divest ourselves of responsibility, so this slogan is an important, albeit uncomfortable, way to train our minds. The talk concludes with an excellent Q&A and a song entitled, appropriately, "Nobody's Fault but Mine." BIO : Alan Senauke is vice-abbot of Berkeley Zen Center (BZC) in California. Since 1991 Alan has worked with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, where he presently serves as Senior Advisor. He continues to work as a socially engaged Buddhist activist, most recently founding the Clear View Project, developing Buddhist-based resources for relief and social change. In another realm, Alan has been a student and performer of American traditional music for more than forty years.

Episode Description: Brian begins by discussing several personal experiences which illustrate the "fundamental koan" that is the title of this Dharma talk: "What do you do then?" This question asks us to consider how we respond when we are confronted with situations that seem unsolvable and impossible to fully understand, situations such as aging, terminal illness, death, and poverty. When we face these situations and recognize the limits of our control, we face the "great silence of not knowing," and a realization that sometimes nothing can be done. In the midst of this not knowing, however, there is a danger of latching on to our spiritual vows in an abstract way, thinking that, "well, at least I can save the world." This conceptual abstraction can distract us from attending to the daily suffering all around us. We can sit in contemplation, thinking we are "saving all beings," while we disengage or "bliss out." This is not the aim of practice. We "go back to the cushion" in order to "awaken our love and compassion," for "what else is there to do?" When we are able to face all the confusion and not knowing in life with love and compassion, we begin to manifest an appropriate response to the question, "what do you do then?" The talk concludes with a brief Q&A and a reading of a passage from the Avatamsaka, or Flower Ornament, Sutra. Bio: Joshin Brian Byrnes is a novice priest at Upaya Zen Center and president and CEO of the Santa Fe Community Foundation. He worked at the Boston AIDS Action Committee, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and was CEO of the Vermont Community Foundation and Managing Director at Tides Foundation. His nonprofit career spans over twenty years, where he has led complex organizations through profound change processes, organizational growth, and repositioning them for increased social impact, financial sustainability, and organizational learning. Currently, he is involved in a number of national philanthropic projects including being the chair-elect of CFLeads: Community Foundations Leading Change, and is a member of the Community Foundation Leadership Team at the Council on Foundations. His academic background includes undergraduate and graduate work in philosophy at St. Meinrad College, theology at the Aquinas Institute at St. Louis University, early music performance at New England Conservatory of Music, and medieval musicology at New York University. He has also studied and practiced organizational development with Peter Senge (The Fifth Discipline), and has been trained in Organizational and Relationship Systems Coaching. He is cultivating a “back and forth” practice, moving between the zendo and the larger world of social service, organizational leadership, and social engagement.

Episode Description: In this inspirational and thought provoking talk, Rabbi Malka encourages us to explore what it means to age. in our later years what is our role in society and what is our responsibility both to ourselves and others. Throughout history, mankind has relied on the elders of a community to tell stories, to remind the community of who it is, to provide guidance in numerous undertakings. Their years gave them the calm reflection that balanced the dynamic of the middle. Malka frames life into three acts. The first our formative years spent with our family of origin. The second act that of a "hero's journey." And the third act where we come to understand the meaning of the first two acts and finally find an inner life. While her talk focuses on this final act, we can not dismiss the previous two. Malka encourages us to review the past, that it is not immutable, to look deeply at one's memories and experiences of our youth. Through a process of introspection we can transform this "stuff" that we have been carrying around and turn it into wisdom. We must strive to cultivate and share this wisdom for the benefit and future of everyone. BIO : Malka Drucker is the author of 21 books, including the award-winning-Frida Kahlo, Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage in the Holocaust, Grandma's Latkes and White Fire: A Portrait of Women Spiritual Leaders in America. White Fire won the 2005 PEN Southwest Book Award in non-fiction. Her highly acclaimed Jewish Holiday Series won the Southern California Council on Literature for Children Prize series. Another of her biographies, ELIEZER BEN YEHUDA: Father of Modern Hebrew won the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) Janusz Korczak Literary Competition and Frida Kahlo was chosen as an American Bookseller "PICK OF THE LISTS." She belongs to many literary organizations, including: The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, The Southern California Council on Literature for Young People, the Association of Jewish Librarians, The Authors Guild, and PEN. Ordained in 1998 from the Academy for Jewish Religion, a transdenominational seminary, Malka Drucker is also the founding rabbi of HaMakom: The Place for Passionate and Progressive Judaism, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Episode Description: In this final session, Father John, Roshi Joan and the retreat participants discuss forgiveness and offer their reflections on Beyond Right & Wrong: Stories of Justice and Forgiveness which was screened the previous evening. Father John opens the discussion by sharing a couple of stories from his own life. The first drawn from his time as a Jesuit in Northern Ireland. The second story revolving around his work assisting with the clemency of Billy Neal Moore. Roshi then relates a story from her time working in the prison system. The session concludes with some remarks from the participants.. For Series description and Teacher BIOs, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Lotus in a Sea of Fire Series: All 6 Parts