The New Monastics

Sensei Joshin Byrnes is a Zen priest and teacher in the White Plum lineage of Soto Zen; earlier in life he was in the Dominican Order of the Catholic Church. In 2017 he founded Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Community in Vermont and virtually to be a hub for community-engaged Zen practice. Alongside his religious vocation, Joshin spent much of his career working for social change nonprofits in the areas of HIV/AIDS and prevention, child welfare, homelessness, and community based philanthropy.

In this episode, Deepa and Daniel center their dialogue with Joshin on the concept of literal and metaphorical cooking in Zen and Sufism, the home traditions of Joshin and Deepa respectively. Together they explore: grandmother-cooked family meals, Zen master Dogen's Instructions to the Cook, various metaphors of 'cooking your life, 'kissing' the parts of ourselves we may consider 'garbage,' the way our attitude and energy affect food, Dogen's 'three minds,' prasad  (food offerings), being more connected to taste apart from eating, the multi-sensory nature of food, Joshin's experience of taking communion on a 'street retreat,' the 'community living room' at BLMZC, potlucks, fasting and the increased appreciation it brings, skillful hunger as opposed to destructive hunger, insatiable appetites for spiritual experience, finding a balance of 'spices,' ritualistically feeding hungry ghosts, Mevlana Rumi's poetic imagery of cooking, Deepa's experience of learning to 'whirl' with the Mevlevi Order of Sufism, learning to want the unwanted, Dogen getting schooled by an old Zen cook, 'slender sadness,' and the Zen concept of 'one taste.'

If you’re interested in residential practice at Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Community send a note to info@BLMZC for more information.

Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Community

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Robert Wing Sensei is the founder of the Mountain Warrior Institute, Warrior of the Heart seminars, and the director of Wise Actions. As an Aikido practitioner, Wing Sensei is a student of both Koichi Kashiwaya Sensei and Hiroshi Ikeda Shihan, and founder of the Aikido curriculum at Naropa University, where he continues as the senior teacher of its Aiki-ken and Aiki-Jo club on campus in Boulder, Colorado.

In this episode, we talk with Wing Sensei about three types of language (representational, immediate, and structural), Aikido as a structural language, the asking of ‘physical questions’ in the martial arts, ‘internal martial arts,’ the meaning of ‘ai’ (harmony) and ‘ki’ (energy), ‘effective distance’ and ‘joining’ in Aikido, the idea of conflict and ‘entering and turning’ into it, fighting and not-fighting, his seminar 'the Art of Hosting Important Questions,' and centering and the effective use and right application of power.

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Rabbi Tirzah Firestone is a fellow student of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, an author and psychotherapist focusing on intergenerational trauma, and one of the senior rabbis of the Jewish Renewal movement. Tirzah is the author of Wounds into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma, The Receiving: Reclaiming Jewish Women’s Wisdom, and the newly republished With Roots in Heaven: One Woman’s Passionate Journey into the Heart of Her Faith.

In this episode, we talk about the evolution of Tirzah's work on intergenerational trauma, pros and cons of the popularization of the concept of 'trauma,' Tirzah's recent teaching trip to Berlin amidst the rise of Neo-Fascist politics, Jewish & Israeli reactions to the events of Oct. 7th as an unhealthy trauma response, the conflation of Jewish identity with Jewish nationalism, the search for authority in the opinions of Reb Zalman (Tirzah and Netanel's teacher), Reb Zalman's desire to pray across dividing lines and include God in worldly decisions and problems, the 'seeds' we inherit from our ancestors and which we choose to water, the potentially transformative impact of psychologically based ancestral healing, and the image of the two cherubs atop the Holy of Holies as a metaphor for masculine/feminine balance.

You can learn more about Tirzah and her work on her website.

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Rory McEntee is the the President and Executive Director of Charis Foundation for New Monasticism and Interspirituality, which he co-founded with Netanel Miles-Yépez and Adam Bucko. Rory holds a Ph.D. in Theological and Philosophical Studies in Religion from Drew University, has co-authored The New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Living, and authored the forthcoming The Sacred/Secular Binary: Challenging the Divide in University Culture and Democratic Societies. 

In this episode, we look at the different ways in which people are ‘interspiritual’ today and how interspirituality is not separate from historical religious traditions. We also explore the ’spiritual-but-not-religious,’ an interspiritual path, the idea of ‘depth’ in spirituality, the sacred/secular binary, and meeting God in everything. We then look at inter spiritual practice, the vertical and horizontal aspects of Charis Meditation, Charis Circles and the possibilities of interspiritual community, as well as the  Charis Snowmass Dialogues, and the twelve Charis Community Vows.

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Dr. Judith Simmer-Brown is Professor Emeritx of Religious Studies at Naropa University, where she has been on the faculty since 1978. She has practiced Tibetan Buddhism for almost 50 years and is a direct student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. She serves on the steering committee of the American Academy of Religion’s Contemplative Studies Group, and has published widely on Tibetan Buddhism, women in Buddhism, interreligious dialogue, and contemplative studies. 

In this episode, we explore the ins-and-outs of interreligious dialogue, the historic Buddhist-Christian Dialogues at the Naropa Institute, the retreats held before and after those dialogues, the dialogue of theology and devotion, public and private dialogue, ‘interreligious’ and ‘interspiritual’ dialogue, the development of the first course in Interreligious Dialogue at Naropa and its skills-based approach, the cultivation of good dialogues and dialoguers, as well as personal cultivation of one’s spiritual life.

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Ramon Parish, a returning guest, is associate professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Naropa University and works on climate justice initiatives with his wife Michelle Gabrieloff-Parish.

In this episode, we discuss ‘radical futures’—novel ideas of how humanity will evolve into the future—looking at ethno-spiritual futurism (in particular, Afro-futurism, Sun Ra, and the idea of a servant class), the potential impacts of media and AI (artificial intelligence) on human consciousness and development, a spiritually-informed futurism after the Agricultural Revolution, evolutionary and sacred models of human development and maturity, the categories of sacred and the profane, the needs of the individual and the collective, science and magic, customized bodies and environments, science fiction and Frank Herbert’s Dune series, science and scientism.

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In this episode, we have a roundtable discussion of spiritual issues with educator Carla Burns. In Part I, we talk about how to slow down and make the ’space’ to hold complexity in our society. In Part II, we discuss the film The Martian and what it has to say about humanity and humanity’s needs. And in Part III, we explore the idea of our planet’s consciousness and how it is expressed today.


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In this episode, Netanel plays hooky, and Daniel is joined by Deepa Patel, a teacher of Inayati Sufism, partner of the Charis Foundation, and recurring guest, to share poems close to each of their hearts.

In the course of reading and reflecting on the poems listed below, they explore coping with harrowing world events, honoring the preciousness of lost lives, unity consciousness as a reservoir of strength, being lifted out of impotence, the action of stillness, the 'hard work' and courage of becoming oneself, the mental prisons in which we trap ourselves, singing our unique 'song,' the power of poetry, embracing the all-possible, following the seed of our longing, the 'cookie-cutter nature' of Capitalism vs. the revolution of individuality, the silence between words, the purifying effect of our authenticity being challenged, humility and inspiration in the face of great practitioners, and how all 'rays bow before the Sun.' 

List of Poems Read:

ON ANOTHER PANEL ABOUT CLIMATE, THEY ASK ME TO SELL THE FUTURE AND ALL I’VE GOT IS A LOVE POEM — Ayisha Siddiqa

The Scripture of The Golden Eternity [Verses 64-66] — Jack Kerouac

Now I Become Myself — May Sarton

Untitled — Patrizia Cavalli (Tr. Geoffrey Brock)

Go to the Limits of Your Longing — Ranier Maria Rilke

The Imposter — Shaykh Ahmad Al-Alawi (Tr. Martin Lings)


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The Venerable Dr. Pannavati Bhikkuni is the founder of Heartwood Refuge, an intentional spiritual community in North Carolina, and abbess of Embracing Simplicity Hermitage, a 21st century trans-lineage Buddhist Order. A former Christian pastor, the Venerable Pannavati is often thought to be the only fully-ordained African-American woman in the Theravada tradition of Buddhism. She is also ordained in the Mahayana tradition and has Vajrayana empowerments and authorization to teach.

In this episode, we explore the Venerable Pannavati’s journey from Evangelical Christianity to a trans-lineage Buddhism, discussing the methods of transformation of consciousness, simple and complex religious perspectives, the serving of different needs and capacities on the spiritual path, a ‘relational’ and ‘American Buddhism,’ trans-lineage Buddhism, syncretism and a Ri-me approach to ecumenism, sectarianism in Buddhism, the ordination of Theravadan Buddhist nuns, legacy and leaving no footprints, new inter spiritual language, and the ‘Dharma Gospel’ of Dharma Voci.

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Dharma Voci's Album: Invocation

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In this episode, we do a retrospective on a dialogue that took place in 1974 during the first summer session of the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. The dialogue was called “Psychology East and West” and explored a number of differences in understanding and approach to the notion of ego between so-called “Western psychology” and what were then thought of as “Eastern” spiritual traditions. The participants included the well-known spiritual teachers, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Ram Dass, as well as the co-founder and Vice-President of Naropa, John Baker, and the therapist, Jim Green. The dialogue was moderated by Duncan Campbell.

The full dialogue can be heard on the Ram Dass — Here and Now podcast: Ep. 112, The Notion of Ego with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

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