Upaya Dharma Podcasts - The Bodhisattva's Embrace Series: All 5 Parts

This is another nice series of podcasts from Upaya Zen Center, in this case they were presented as part of the Buddhist Chaplaincy Training curriculum. Alan Senauke looks at how to be of service to people in crisis, especially those who are marginalized in some way. This is incredibly relevant to the work I do, and maybe it is for you as well.

The Bodhisattvas Embrace Series: All 5 Parts

Recorded: Friday Aug 17, 2012

The 5 part series   The Bodhisattva’s Embrace   is now published.

You can access the desired part of the series by clicking on its link below:

• The Bodhisattva’s Embrace (Part 1A)
• The Bodhisattva’s Embrace (Part 1B)
• The Bodhisattva’s Embrace (Part 2)
• The Bodhisattva’s Embrace (Part 3)
• The Bodhisattva’s Embrace (Part 4, last part)

Here is part 1A of the series:

Alan Senauke: 08-12-2012: The Bodhisattva’s Embrace (Part 1A)

Speaker: Alan Senauke

Recorded: Sunday Aug 12, 2012

Series Description: This program is part of our Buddhist Chaplaincy Training curriculum but is also appropriate for anyone wishing to explore how to be of service from a place of practice.

In this series, Alan asks how we attend to the needs of people in crisis, particularly when these people are part of “marginalized” populations. Working in jails, prisons, hospitals, and other institutional settings, we are meeting at the intersection of personal difficulty and structural violence. The rough edges of systemic suffering are facts of life; it is easy to fall into anger, hopelessness, or despair.

Alan works with a simple set of dharma tools drawn from the Buddha’s early teachings and expanded in the Zen tradition as a framework for exploring how to bring our practice to our own lives and to the endless challenge of living in society. He explores the the interdependence of self and other; mindfulness of systemic oppression and privilege that might be hidden from us; the need to be an ally or kalyanamitta for others and to find allies for ourselves.

Teacher Biography: Hozan Alan Senauke is vice-abbot of Berkeley Zen Center in California. He lives at BZC with his wife, Laurie, and their two children. 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.

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