Summary: Episode Description: Joshin frames this wonderful talk around Case Nineteen from The Gateless Gate known as "Ordinary Mind is the Way." The koan starts: Joshu asked Nansen,"What is the Way?" Nansen answered, "Everyday, ordinary mind is the Way." Joshu asked "If everyday, ordinary mind is the way. How shall I direct myself to it?" Nansen said "if you try to direct yourself toward it, you are going in exactly the wrong direction." Joshin explains what is meant by ordinary mind and how should be present, accepting what life has to offer, moment to moment. "Every day reminds us that we don't have to run around looking for something special. We just have to turn around and look at our everyday ordinary lives." 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.
