PAMELA AYO YETUNDE: In your tradition, what is leadership? What does it look like?
MYOKEI CAINE-BARRETT: One thing I think about is the role of being the example, the one who is first to try to follow the teachings and to live up to the bodhisattva vows we recite. I think, when you do that, you don’t have to actually lead. People will follow simply because they see the benefit that occurs in your life from practicing the teachings.
VEN. PANNAVATI: My master would call that “no fake talk.”
BLAYNE HIGA: In our tradition, we have a phrase, jishin kyo ninshin, which means to secure one’s own entrusting heart to the dharma and guiding others to do the same. We, as priests of the tradition, first need to secure our own spiritual center, using the dharma as our guide and guiding others to that same deep entrusting to the dharma, to the Buddha. We are people who come alongside others to face the future together, to face whatever challenges are before us together.
KAKUMYO LOWE-CHARDE: The way we practice with leadership is that we try to ensure that everyone is a leader. Leadership is letting the deep significance of the situation matter to us, and investing willingness and effort into it. Being a dharma teacher implies that we’ve cultivated skill in specifically using the dharma to express that effort.
PAMELA AYO YETUNDE: Some people might be surprised to hear that none of you said a good leader is someone who guides others toward themselves. How can you be a good leader, but also not center yourself as the guide?
BLAYNE HIGA: The dharma is our guide. Ultimately, we are not the ones who lead. It’s the dharma itself that we are helping people to encounter. That is the true focal point of our communities.
MYOKEI CAINE-BARRETT: I think that’s one of the hardest things one has to do, to not center self, because it’s easy to get caught up in “I’m the authority.” But if we really understand our Buddhist practice, we are all essentially one; we’re all connected. The buddha in me is the same as the buddha in you. The dharma we share is the same. That approach is more gratifying. I don’t want to use the word self-serving, but it serves all of us that we can see each other in the mirror of our own lives.
As we’re working together, I don’t have to be perfect or wiser or anything like that. I can be just a good friend, whatever a person needs. If I’m doing my practice correctly, my life responds. It’s not really me. It’s more that. The teachings of the Buddha, the dharma, are able to flow through my
