Mindful Leadership With Marc Lesser

Marc speaks with Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks, about how leaders can enhance effectiveness through mindfulness, time management, and Zen philosophy. This episode challenges conventional leadership models and offers practical insights to spark creativity and resilience. A must-listen for anyone looking to lead authentically and build thriving teams.

New Name. Same Wisdom. Fresh Season. We’re excited to announce that Zen Bones is now Mindful Leadership with Marc Lesser — and Season 2 launches Thursday, May 8th! This season brings powerful new conversations on what it truly means to lead with mindfulness, emotional intelligence, and heart. If you’ve been on this journey with us, thank you. If you’re just joining—welcome. Follow the show and tune in May 8th!  

In this Practice episode, Marc begins with a short guided meditation on ways to cultivate a sense of awe, wonder, and warmheartedness as the path of finding your authentic power. He then gives a short talk on power as an expression of the heart, of compassion, and as a way of being clear and effective, while also identifying ways that we give our personal power away.   Today's Zen puzzler comes from a famous Zen question: "What is the teaching of a lifetime?"

There is no shortage of frustration in our daily lives. In this episode, we begin with a short meditation, followed by a short talk about effective ways to shift from frustration to acceptance and appreciation. Marc shares one of his favorite poems by Tony Hoagland. Today's Zen puzzler comes from the teachings of Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki. Marc helps the listener unpack various ways to consider and answer the question: What is the most important point for you right now?

Joel Makower is a world leader in the field of sustainable business and its relation to climate change. Marc and Joel share a heartening conversation about how sustainability gives Joel hope, and how to shift from overwhelm and despair to committed and engaged activism. Joel invites young leaders and entrepreneurs to not settle for vague answers and to truly believe and work toward a better future. He highlights the power of community during these times and affirms how there are more of us who care about the health of this planet than those who do not. Joel Makower is chairman and co-founder of GreenBiz Group, a media and events company focusing at the intersection of business, technology and sustainability. For more than 30 years, through his writing, speaking and leadership, he has helped companies alig pressing environmental and social issues with business success. Makower has written more than a dozen books, including Strategies for the Green Economy, The Green Consumer, The E-Factor: The Bottom Line Approach to Environmentally Responsible Business and Beyond the Bottom Line: Putting Social Responsibility to Work for Your Business and the World. In 2010, Makower was awarded the Hutchens Medal by the American Society for Quality, and in 2014, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the International Society of Sustainability Professionals.

This episode begins with a short guided meditation, then Marc gives a short talk based on a famous Zen dialogue in which a student asks, "Why must it be this way?" referring to a crow eating a dead frog. The Zen teacher responds "It's for your benefit. And you caused it." Marc addresses and unpacks this mysterious and practical dialogue that is meant to open our hearts and minds. For this episode's Zen Puzzler, Marc plays with the question, "What is Zen?" and goes deeper into the question of why things must be a particular way.

Parker J. Palmer is a writer, speaker, and activist who focuses on issues in education, community, leadership, spirituality, and social change. In this episode of the Zen Bones Podcast, Marc and Parker explore the creative tension between what is and what is possible, the art of perspective taking, and how to find wholeness in a challenging world. Parker shares how his hard experience with depression gave birth to several books, what he aspires to now, how his experiences in a Quaker intentional community showed him a way to transform economic inequality, and how creating safe spaces and tapping into your inner wisdom is a key component in enabling social change.

How are you designing, and living your life? In this episode Marc begins with a short guided meditation. Then he unpacks the teachings of Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki who says "The more you practice meditation, the more you will be interested in your everyday life." and "You will discover what is necessary and what is not; what part to correct and what part to emphasize more." Marc reads and comments on a poem by William Stafford called Just thinking. This episode's Zen puzzler is Ordinary Mind Is the Way. How to design your life - with your ordinary, extraordinary mind.

Jane Hirshfield is one of the world's most celebrated poets. The New York Times describes her as "among the modern masters." Jane and Marc have been friends since their days as young Zen students living at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. During this intimate and enlightening conversation, Jane describes what brought her to Zen practice and her life-long ourney to poetry. They discuss and Jane reads her poetry about optimism, surprise, and embracing the fullness of the world. Jane Hirshfield's writing is “some of the most important poetry in the world today,” according to the New York Times, and described as "among the modern masters" by The Washington Post, is one of American poetry's central spokespersons for concerns of the biosphere. Lay-ordained in Soto Zen in 1979 during her eight years spent in full-time residential practice, including three years of monastic practice at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in California's Ventana Wilderness, she explores transience and interconnection, shared fate and interiority, with equal allegiance. A former Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and the founder in 2017 of the online and traveling installation Poets For Science, Hirshfield is the author of nine collections of poetry, including most recently Ledger (Knopf, 2020).

Working skillfully and effectively with difficulties and challenges. Training ourselves to meet and transform difficulty. Marc begins with a short guided meditation followed by a talk on the topic of meeting challenge. This session's Zen puzzler is "Can you step from the top of a one hundered foot pole?" - a traditional Zen teaching about doing what looks impossible.

Sharon Salzberg has become America's meditation teacher. In this episode Sharon talks about places of resistance as "tight spots" and methods of transforming resistance to more openness and freedom. Marc and Sharon discuss the practice of loving kindness as well as shame, an emotion that has positive and negative qualities. They discuss the power of presence and the role of meditation. Sharon Salzberg is a New York Times bestselling author and teacher of Buddhist meditation practices in the West. In 1974, she co-founded the Insight Meditation Society at Barre, Massachusetts. Her emphasis is on Vipassanā (insight) and mettā (loving-kindness) methods, and has been leading meditation retreats around the world for over three decades. Her books include Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness, A Heart as Wide as the World, and Real Happiness - The Power of Meditation: A 28-Day Program among others.  

We are all ordinary human beings living in an ordinary world. And yet...we are also sacred, extraordinary beings, living in an extraordinary, sacred world. Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki describes that we usually only see one side and ignore what is sacred and mysterious. During this session we have a short guided meditation, follwed by a talk on living in both the ordinary and sacred world. Today's Zen puzzler is based on a traditional Zen koan -- a buffalo goes through a window, and every part of it goes through, except for the tail. Why doesn't the tail go through?

MaryAnne Howland, storyteller, entrepreneur and social change agent, talks about the game-changing work that she is doing for justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. Mary and Marc talk about the power of belonging and mindful listening and about the importance of dreaming. MaryAnne Howland is the founder and CEO of Ibis Communications, a branding marketing solutions firm in Nashville, Tennessee. The success of her business has been recognized by the Clinton administration and she has attended several summits at the White House. In 2012, she launched the Global Diversity Leadership Exchange, a forum to facilitate dialogue on diversity, sustainability, and inclusion, which has held annual summits at the New York Stock Exchange and the United Nations.

"The real miracle isn't to walk on water. The real miracle is to walk right here on Earth" according to Vietnamese Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh. In this episode a short guided meditation is followed by a teaching, emphasizing shifting from busyness to being more focused, engaged, and spacious. The practice of spaciousnes is essential in today's complex world. The Zen puzzler is based on a traditional Zen koan -- Is the flag moving, the wind moving, or is it your mind that is moving?

Marc and Dr. Dan Siegel discuss the deep inner work of awareness, the power of belonging, and the illusion of the self and shifting from me to "we." Dan shares a meditation practice that he calls the "Wheel of Awareness." Daniel Siegel, MD, is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and the Founding Co-director of its Mindful Awareness Research Center. He is also the Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute, an organization that focuses on the development of mindsight, teaches insight, empathy, and integration in individuals, families and communities.  He is a bestselling author of several books, including Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence, Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human, and The Developing Mind.

What surprises you about your life right now? For me, the answer is "everything!" Enjoy this short talk and meditation on the power of surprise, a guided meditation, followed by a puzzler. Today's puzzler is: A statement made by Zen teacher Dogen, from the 13th century: To study yourself is to go beyond yourself" -- exploring what that means and how it can support your wellbeing.

Marc and Peter explore Peter’s story of how he came to his acting path, as well as his path to Zen practice. They talk about "precise forms for a flexible mind" vs. "flexible forms for a precise mind", meditation, the power of ritual, the liberating effect of mask work, as well as bringing Zen practice into everyday life. Peter Coyote has performed as an actor for some of the world’s most distinguished filmmakers, including: Barry Levinson, Roman Polanski, Pedro Almodovar, Steven Spielberg, Walter Hill, Martin Ritt, Steven Soderberg, Diane Kurys, Sidney Pollack and Jean Paul Rappeneau. He is an ordained Buddhist priest who has been practicing for 34 years. Mr. Coyote has been engaged in political and social causes since his early teens and is a long time passionate advocate for wildlife and wild nature.

Marc begins with a guided meditation, followed by a short talk on impermanence as a path toward joy. "The evanescence of things is the reason why you enjoy your life" according to the Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki. Recognizing and embodying the fleeting nature of our lives is a way to practice with finding more appreciation and joy in everything we experience. The episode closes with a bi-weekly Zen Puzzler: Where is the place where there is no hot and no cold?

Marc sits down with his friend Leo Babauta. Leo is the founder of one of the most interesting and successful blogs on the internet called Zen Habits. He's also the author of several books, including The Power Of Less. Marc and Leo talk about meaning and meaningful work and the question how Zen practice can be integrated with, and support, our work and our lives. Leo also offers some powerful practices, especially around finding grounding in the body in the midst of uncertainty. Leo Babauta is a simplicity blogger and author. He created Zen Habits, a Top 25 blog with a million readers, which chronicles and shares what he’s learned while changing a number of habits. He’s also a best-selling author, husband, father of six children, and a vegan. In 2010 he moved from Guam to California, where he leads a simple life. A student of Zen, Leo is on a mission to help the world open through uncertainty training. 

Today Marc is speaking with Dr. Elizabeth Lindsey, a cultural anthropologist, and the first female fellow and Polynesian explorer of the National Geographic Society. Marc and Elizabeth discuss the importance of being your authentic self, and the path and power of wayfinding. They also talk about a favorite saying of one of Elizabeth’s indigenous mentors: “we have lots of clocks but little time.” Elizabeth offers a song/prayer of healing. Dr. Elizabeth Lindsey is a cultural anthropologist and an award-winning filmmaker who travels to the world’s most remote regions to protect indigenous knowledge. She is an advocate for social, environmental, and cultural justice. She is also the first female fellow and Polynesian explorer of the National Geographic Society.