Bernie Glassman & Alan Senauke & Joan Halifax: 08-22-2014: Engaged Buddhism, Radical Chaplaincy: Bearing Witness in the Streets, Serving in the Field, Part 1

Summary: Series Description In this weekend retreat, Bernie-Roshi searchingly, tenderly, uproariously probes lessons from a life of contemplative social action -- of expanding experiments in the interconnectedness of life. Roshi Joan Halifax and Sensei Alan Senauke also participate throughout the weekend, including in a panel discussion with Bernie. Episode Description: Bernie-Roshi reflects on three periods of his life, each marked by stepping beyond limited "clubs" into ever wider and less sure circles of caring engagement. He speaks of nonduality as not-knowing, freedom to think and feel outside grooved categories -- a state provoked both by Zen koans and by "plunges" into deeply unfamiliar circumstances. He takes several questions from the audience and confides the exciting new insight he had just yesterday. Roshi Joan prefaces Bernie's talk with an appreciation of her teacher. BIOs: Roshi Bernie Glassman, the founder of the Zen Peacemakers, evolved from a traditional Zen Buddhist monastery-model practice to become a leading proponent of social engagement as spiritual practice. He is internationally recognized as a pioneer of Buddhism in the West and as a founder of Socially Engaged Buddhism and spiritually based Social Enterprise. He has proven to be one of the most creative forces in Western Buddhism, creating new paths, practices, liturgy and organizations to serve the people who fall between the cracks of society. 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. Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D in medical anthropology in 1973. She has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions, including Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, University of Virginia Medical School, Duke University Medical School, University of Connecticut Medical School, among many others. She received a National Science Foundation Fellowship in Visual Anthropology, and was an Honorary Research Fellow in Medical Ethnobotany at Harvard University. From 1972-1975, she worked with psychiatrist Stanislav Grof at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center on pioneering work with dying cancer patients, using LSD as an adjunct to psychotherapy. After the LSD project, she has continued to work with dying people and their families and to teach health care professionals as well as lay individuals on compassionate care of the dying. She is Director of the Project on Being with Dying and Founder and Director of the Upaya Prison Project that develops programs on meditation for prisoners. For the past twenty-five years, she has been active in environmental work. She studied for a decade with Zen Teacher Seung Sahn and was a teacher in the Kwan Um Zen School. She received the Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh, and was given Inka by Roshi Bernie Glassman. A Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order, her work and practice for more than three decades has focused on applied Buddhism. Her books include: The Human Encounter with Death (with Stanislav Grof); Shamanic Voices; Shaman: The Wounded Healer; The Fruitful Darkness; Simplicity in the Complex: A Buddhist Life in America; Being with Dying; and Wisdom Beyond Wisdom (with Kazuaki Tanashashi). To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Engaged Buddhism Radical Chaplaincy Series: All 8 Parts