Model of conscious leadership.

As a dharma practitioner on the path we can often times struggle to integrate our meditation with our daily life. Training in mind and awareness cultivates a state of preparedness and responsiveness on the cushion that we slowly learn how to bring out into our daily activities. As we learn to work with this sense of preparedness, we need to learn how to live authentically and contribute meaningfully to the world around us. 

The five elements of conscious leadership create a framework to integrate your practice with your daily life. By working with each of these elements you encounter resistance and limits in your own body, mind and emotions. Pay attention to that resistance and hesitation. As you become familiar with each of these elements, you will see where you are grasping to aspects of your experience or shutting down. Acknowledging these obstacles and perceived barriers gives you something tangible to work with in your meditation. In this way, our meditation supports our daily life and our daily activities fuel our meditation.

The result of a practice that integrates both meditation and your daily life is a willingness to have an grounded, fluid and truthful connection with the world around us. We awaken to the very presence that dwells in the heart of the human condition. All of these elements are included within the single sphere of unborn bodhicitta, our ever-present primordial state of authentic presence that is open, available and responsive. 

Leading the next generation.

Encourage curiosity and questions.  Create a sense of wonder and awe.

Build connections.  Start dialogue.  Promote conversation.  Give them resources. 

Send them on their way in search of an answer. Ask them to share their findings.

Challenge them to go deeper, see connections, draw out implications.

Ask them to contribute.  What do they see?  What questions do they still have?

Keep going. 

Who's next?

Space to fail.

My teacher, Younge Khachab Rinpoche, has been extremely generous with me. 

He trusts me a lot, and I work hard because of that trust. 

He told me back in 2006 to start a local Sangha in Seattle.  I wasn't ready.  Sure I knew the teachings, I knew the meditation techniques, I knew the uniqueness of the lineage and the impact these teachings have.  I knew the mechanics, but I wasn't ready to lead.  I was just settling into my own practice, how was I to lead and help others? 

In 2007 we had a small, intimate group of Dharma practitioners.  A close-knit Sangha that was committed to practice.  Rinpoche told me to start a public meditation group.  I wasn't ready.  I was more comfortable leading a group.  I was more comfortable setting a course and leading discussions, answering questions.  But I wasn't ready to put myself out there.

In 2008 we started a public meditation group at Embrace the Moon.  Kim Ivy was generous to open up her community, to provide us a space to do work that we were passionate about.  That was a tremendous learning curve for me, to have to teach a wide variety of students with a diverse range of meditation experience.  That experience is invaluable.  That experience deepened my practice because I still had a lot of work to do. 

Rinpoche, more than any other person I know, gave me the space to fail.  He pushed me, tore down my boundaries.  He never let me get comfortable.  He always exposed me, made me vulnerable.

Trusting someone enough to give them the space to fail, what more of a guide could we hope for?  

How do we be that person for those that come after us?