dharmadoctors.org

(Aug 14, 2009 — Aug 19, 2009 at the Upaya Institute and Zen Center, http://www.upaya.org/programs/event.php?id=196)

Using the Five Buddha Family Mandala as a base, we explore practices, processes, and perspectives on how the capacity for servant-leadership is culitivated by bearing witness to the charnel grounds of life.  This brave practice forms the base for socially-engaged practice, social change work, and peacemaking. 

Servant-leadership focuses on the role of the leader as steward of the all resources, human and otherwise, associated with an organization, be it a family, community, corporation or government. Servant-Leadership emphasizes collaboration, trust, empathy, and the ethical use of power. The objective of Servant-Leadership is to enhance the growth of individuals and increase teamwork and personal involvement in actualizing integrity, as the Servant-Leader is a servant first, and leads in order to better serve others, not to increase their own power.

Using an array of mindfulness and awareness practices, we learn how to track the relational field, to recognize what is occurring energetically and emotionally with others, and to recognize what is needed to facilitate engagement, compassionate service and change. We explore the components of systems theory, complex interactions, feedback loops, and the dynamics of stasis and chaos that are always present in the mind as well as in groups. Finally, we explore the Drama Triangle, the practice of bearing witness, and Marshall Rosenberg’s Non-violent Communication as fundamental in the functioning of an effective Servant-Leader.

Sensei Fleet Maull Fleet Maull, M.A., Ph.D. candidate, is a senior student of Trungpa Rinpoche, and an ordained priest and Sensei (Zen Teacher) in the Zen Peacemakers Sangha. He has been practicing Buddhism for 30 years and teaching the same for over 20 years. Fleet is a leading prison activist and the founder of two national organizations, Prison Dharma Network and the National Prison Hospice Association which promote contemplative spirituality and compassionate end-of-life care in our prisons and jails. He is an adjunct faculty member at Naropa University, where he directs the activist training components of the Masters in Engaged Buddhism program; teaches courses in engaged spirituality, contemplative social action and peacemaking; and directs the Institute for Transformative Justice. Working as a management consultant, Fleet trains business and nonprofit leaders in the arts of genuine relationship and authentic leadership. Fleet currently serves as the Director for Peacemaker Community Colorado and Co-Director of Colorado Peacemaker Institute and Upaya Chaplaincy Training Program with Roshi Joan Halifax. Roshi Joan Halifax is Co-abbot of Upaya Zen Center, and has worked in the field of end of life care for forty years, worked with those who are incarcerated, and is a Buddhist innovator and social activist.