We are allowed to create it, not just study it. The first takeaway are significant experience, the message that we each have a degree of appropriate agency to shape the evolution of Western Buddhism and its ministry. Two learnings of what I took with me, other than seeing smile which was a very positive experience for me, and you'll all be treated to that soon. Well I'm just going to speak for a few minutes as well the others on Zoom, and I'm going to offer some remarks about a question, what did I take with me from my time at HDS, and the Buddhist Ministry Initiative, and how have I tried to use that to impact the world? Quite a large question.

SPEAKER 1: Six of one, half dozen another. I will ad lib and just say I was a little disappointed with the mention of your book in progress, Charlie, that it's not some title like Buddhist wisdom I learned from my children, because those are some of my favorite stories studying with you, but maybe that's after this one. I'm just going to- since I'm the first Zoom speaker, can I have confirmation that you can hear me well if you're in the room? HARRISON BLUM: Thank you so much, Charlie. He mainly practices and has trained within the Insight Meditation tradition of Theravada Buddhism. One of a very small number of Buddhists to hold such a role. He has done things about embodied ministry, I know very much, and has been a director of Religious and Spiritual Life at Amherst College since 2018. So Harrison has worked as a chaplain in medical, psychiatric, and university settings.

I'll just say knowing Harrison, and his imagination about what possible Buddhist ministries might look like was a real learning experience for me, to say, that is a vision of the future that I hadn't imagined before. We might rephrase that, and say he completed his- he was doing his MDiv in the years before, and he was a key player in getting the BMI started and taking the shape that it did. SPEAKER 1: Harrison Bloom completed his MDiv at HDS in 2012, when the BMI was just getting started.

Code Talker by Ivon Blum