Dharma Talks
Interviews & Podcasts
Meet a Teacher: Joshin’s Interview with Tricycle Magazine
Togetherness has always meant a lot to Joshin Byrnes.
Creating the Future Interview with Joshin: Creating Change by Being Open to Each Other
Joshin Byrnes talks about the power (and the personal practice) of being open to our fellow community members. Listen here.
New Monastics Interview with Joshin
Brian Joshin Byrnes talks about the power (and the personal practice) of being open to our fellow community members. Listen here.
The Vowing Mind Interview with Joshin: Returning to Relational Intimacy in Times of Trouble
How can you stay present to a world that breaks your heart open—without hardening or turning away? What is right action when there is no right answer?...
Faith & Money Network Interview: Bearing Witness: Joshin Byrnes on embracing mutual discovery and care as a practicing Zen Peacemaker
Interview by Brittany Wilmes from Faith & Money Network | November 7, 2023 Sensei Joshin Byrnes is the founder and guiding teacher of the Bread...
Sharon Salzberg interviews Joshin
For episode 128 of the Metta Hour Podcast, Sharon speaks with Sensei Joshin Byrnes for the Real Change Series. Joshin is a Zen priest, teacher,...
Interview with Joshin by Ian White Maher
Listen to the interview of Ian White Maher with Joshin Byrnes https://ianwhitemaher.com/joshin-byrnes-sensei/
Selected Writings
How to Practice Just Sitting
We don’t sit in order to become a buddha—we sit because we already are one. Brian Joshin Byrnes on the Zen practice of shikantaza.Photos by A. Jesse Jiryu DavisPublished in Lion's Roar | 22 September 2025 “If you want to travel the Way of buddhas and Zen...
It’s Time to Redefine “We”
How, asks Joshin, do we as Buddhists come into genuine contact with the people and places we reject? I sit with a lot of questions about the future of Buddhism, and as I do, it occurs to me that all the future is already right here, in what we’re doing right now....
Buddha Bows to Buddha
In a world on fire, we need to connect with each other to care for each other. Brian Joshin Byrnes explains how practice can help us come together and recognize one another as buddha. PUBLISHED IN LION'S ROAR July 31, 2025 On the altar in our zendo, two nearly...
New Year’s Intentions
New Year's Intentions - A Note from Joshin Onward in Love! May each of us who wants peace on earth Make a commitment to transform the anger, hatred and violence in our own hearts. May each of us who wants a world without conflict, Make a commitment to resolve, in our...
Blurred Vision and Love
I was recently asked to articulate my vision for Gather and Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Community. I hesitated for a minute, experiencing a little glitch in my brain. I had two thoughts bumping into each other: one centered around the traditional settings of Dharma talks,...
Loving Kindness Meditation in a Time of War and Aggression
I listened quietly to a European news agency report from the streets on the war in the Ukraine. So many stories about how the ordinary and uncomplicated routines of taking children to school and going to work were violently disrupted. How the simple everyday joys of...
A Song of Every Being
From a distance the world looks blue and green, and the snow capped mountains white. From a distance the ocean meets the stream, and the eagle takes to flight. From a distance, there is harmony, and it echoes through the land. It's the voice of hope. It's the voice of...
Forty-nine or Fifty? Bearing Witness to Every Life Lost
June 18, 2016 Published in Tricycle Magazine | June 24, 2016 In the days following the terrible mass shooting in Orlando there were vigils and protests all over the country. We were remembering the 50 people who died, as reported in the headlines of the New York Times...
Plunge In and Open Wide
A Street Retreat Reflection by Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Community resident, Willie Kunert Departing out of Penn Station on the train, as I rushed through the crowds to catch the train, I found myself wondering, “Who am I?” There are whiffs of an eerie underworld in the...
We Vow to Realize Its True Meaning
The following is an excerpt from Joshin on the Street Retreat he did in Albuquerque. Dear Brothers and Sisters, This is just a gentle reminder to all of you to practice good self care in these days of transition out of street retreat and back into the realities of...
Embrace of the Bodhisattva
To our modern ears the word "embrace" might seem a bit sentimental. But I like that Dogen used it back in 1243 to talk about the four ways a Bodhisattva caringly engages with suffering in her midst. To embrace something means to encircle, surround, and to wrap your...
True Belonging
Zen Master Dogen says that "Enlightenment is the intimacy of all things." Every moment and everything is included in it. Of course, this means all the things and people that we love. Right now, I love summer in Vermont! The intimacy of all things also includes those...