Summary: Episode Description: Brian opens Upaya's Winter Practice Period, The Way of a Bodhisattva, with this rich talk centered on Dogen's short essay, The Four Embracing Dharmas or, The Bodhisattva's Four Methods of Guidance. A bodhisattva is someone who has chosen to deeply explore their life in order to help others deeply explore theirs, and to mutually awaken. Dogen's essay is framed as a set of practices for aspiring bodhisattvas to take up. These four practices are: giving or generosity, kind speech, beneficial action, and identity action. After suggesting that these practices might be viewed as "disruptive technologies" which shake up the status quo and awaken us from our slumber, Brian touches upon each of the four practices, paying particular attention to the practice of giving. He closes the talk with a series of provocative questions: What would you give to yourself and to others if you thought it could change the course of human suffering? What would you say if you knew that what you said would never be forgotten by those who heard it? What would you say if you thought that your speech could change the destiny of a nation? What would you do if you believed in the marrow of your bones that everything you do is an act of oneness, benefiting yourself and others together? How would you walk through this world and through your life if you could let go of everything that separates you from others and feel completely connected? 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.
