BEARING WITNESS RETREAT

Information Session for Bearing Witness
at Auschwitz / Birkenau

Each November, Zen Peacemakers returns to Auschwitz-Birkenau to sit together and bear witness. This session is an open hour to ask about that practice — what the week actually asks of you, and what it might ask of us together. It is for anyone considering the retreat, and equally for those already registered who are holding questions.

Wednesday, September 2nd
12:00 - 1:00 pm US Eastern
Online - Open Q&A - All are Welcome

Register Here

There’s great power in the place
where life and death come together.

- Eve Marko

This November, Zen Peacemakers from all walks of life will come together to bear witness in Auschwitz, a place that has become a monument to intolerance. We invite you to join us.

Scholarships are available,
and guidance for Raising a Mala to support travel and retreat costs.

Zen Peacemakers Auschwitz-Birkenau
Bearing Witness Retreat

November 15 - 21, 2026
Oświęcim, Poland

LEARN MORE AND REGISTER HERE

ONE DAY PLUNGE

MORE INFO HERE

PEACEMAKERS CIRCLE

HOW THE BUDDHIST SANGHA ORGANIZED ITSELF TO SUPPORT UKRAINE
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23RD
12:00 PM US EASTERN

The presentation will involve a story about how we as a Buddhist community gathered spontaneously out of fury and compassion from the very first days of war told by a few active members, by Ukrainian volunteers through short videos, and from a Ukrainian singer whose town, Kherson, is almost destroyed.

More Info Here

PEACEMAKERS CIRCLE

ART, ACTIVISM, AND THE PRACTICE OF PEACE
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29TH
1:00 PM US EASTERN

Both Zen and art-making are practices of transformation. They broaden seeing, soften understanding, and expand the field of our actions and speech. This second conversation between poet Jane Hirshfield and Geoff Shoun O' Keeffe will continue the dialogue about art-making and activism, the ways that creative heart-mind increases compassion, and the perennial question of meeting the difficult with tenderness, humility, and courage. The conversation will include also hearing some poems, and the final half hour will be a time for question and answer with the group as a whole.

More Info Here

PEACEMAKERS CIRCLE

THE LONG CONVERSATION: A LIFE TRANSLATING CHINA’S MOUNTAIN POETS - WITH RED PINE
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7TH
12:00 PM US EASTERN

Bill Porter, known to many readers as Red Pine, describes translation as a conversation with the dead — a phrase that also became the title of a documentary about his life and work. Every poem is a person who once stood somewhere, saw something, and wrote it down. The translator’s task is to come close enough to hear them, then let them speak.

In this Peacemakers Circle, Bill will share from that long conversation: the Zen hermit Stonehouse, the eccentric Han-shan of Cold Mountain, and other poets he has spent decades translating and accompanying. Each poem carries its own story — the poet’s life, the mountain where it was written, and the difficult, intimate work of carrying its meaning into English.

REGISTER FOR FREE HERE

ZEN PEACEMAKERS SERIES

INTRODUCTION TO SKANDHA PRACTICE
A SIX SESSION COURSE WITH KEN BYALIN
STARTING MONDAY SEPTEMBER 14
12:00 US EASTERN

“Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, doing deep Prajna Paramita, perceived the emptiness of all five conditions and was freed from pain.”

The skandhas are the “five conditions” named in the Heart Sutra — the elements through which we construct and experience our lives.

In this free six-session course, participants will spend one week with each of the five skandhas, exploring them not as abstract Buddhist concepts, but as living aspects of moment-to-moment experience.

More Information Here

ZEN PEACEMAKERS SERIES

AGING: RENEWING THE MYSTERY
A MONTHLY GATHERING WITH ROSHI EVE MARKO
2ND TUESDAY EACH MONTH

Aging: Renewing the Mystery will be a monthly Zoom gathering investigating themes and issues many of us face as we get older. Topics will include forgiveness, fear of dependence, illness and death, simplicity, regret, loneliness, the changing faces of love, and others that come from participants.

More Information Here

CORE TRAINING

INTRODUCTION TO MEDIATION
SEPTEMBER 21st
12:00 - 1:00 PM US EASTERN

Human beings have been practicing mindfulness or meditation for millennia. It is a natural activity for us, like sleep, or walking, or moving about. Often, this practice is part of a religious or spiritual tradition, taking on many varied forms. And many of us meditate unaffiliated with any doctrine or lineage. We will offer a basic, introductory training in meditation, unattached to any specific tradition, that participants can put into personal practice immediately. It has been said, “Stillness answers every question.” Let’s explore that together.

REGISTER FOR FREE

WAY OF COUNCIL

Council is one of our most important core Zen Peacemaker practices. We share Council during our Bearing Witness retreats almost every day. In Council, we come together in a small group in a profound way. We create a shared liminal space that is safe, confidential, and perhaps sacred. We each listen and speak from the heart, encountering and experiencing one another gently and with awareness. We are not solving problems, debating issues, or making plans. We are making a healing space for each of us to hear and be heard, see and be seen.

UPCOMING COUNCILS (click on title to learn more & register)

Tuesday, August 11th - The Way of Council with Kineret Ando Yardena
Monday, August 17th - Mental Health Professionals & Caregivers Council
Friday, August 21st - Women Only Council

AFFILIATE EVENT

The Bodhisattva Path in Action: How Buddhism, Politics, and Social Engagement Serve Democracy

The event will reflect on how the Dharma’s teachings on non-harming, interdependence, wise speech, and compassion can help us:

• Respond to today’s realities with wisdom rather than reactivity.

• Communicate across political differences without losing heart.

• Take meaningful action while avoiding further polarization.

• Ground civic engagement in the Bodhisattva path of awakening and service.

• Tara Brach, Ben Connelly, and Kaira Jewel Lingo

“We hope that participants will leave the town hall with the answers to several questions,” said Trisha Stotler, IMCW Events Consultant. “How can we participate in this political moment without hardening our hearts? How do we stand up for what matters while remaining grounded in compassion, wisdom, and respect for our shared humanity?”

REGISTER HERE

A PRAYER FOR PEACE

Hello Family!

Our dear Lakota relative, Violet Catches, would like to invite Zen Peacemakers from all around the world to join on the Fourth Friday of the month at 1:00 pm US Eastern Time, to offer prayers for peace. Participants will be encouraged to offer prayers from their faith tradition, culture, and in their language.

In peace & gratitude-

Michel Engu Dobbs

Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89008592778

Zen Peacemakers Affiliate

NEW AFFILIATE SPOTLIGHT
Awakening Dharma

Fostering awakening and its embodiment in worldly life.

Zen Peacemakers is a network of independent organizations on five continents. Each of them came to this work on their own path; introducing them is how the network becomes visible to itself.

What they do: Awakening Dharma is the teaching community of Stephen Mugen Snyder, Roshi, who teaches in both the Zen and Theravāda traditions. In their own words, they continue a 2,500-year-old lineage of practice “through the application of authentic, rigorous Buddhist and modern practices.” Mugen Roshi’s teaching centers on the brahmavihāras — lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity — as immersive practice. They offer one- to three-week meditation retreats, most now online and some in person in Michigan and Indiana, a monthly mentoring program, Liberating the Heart and Self, and Monthly Sangha Gatherings open to anyone.

Where: United States, and online.
https://zenpeacemakers.org/affiliates/awakening-dharma/

TAKING ACTION

Equality across gender is not just policy—it is lived dignity.

Through the Three Tenets, we practice:

• Not-Knowing: Releasing assumptions about gender roles and identities.

• Bearing Witness: Listening to the realities of women, non-binary, and LGBTQ+ people.

• Taking Action: Supporting advocacy, shelters, and empowerment programs.

Daily Practice: Notice your language, bias, and choices. Practice equality in small daily encounters.

Get Involved: Connect with organizations advancing gender equity and safety.

Learn more here: https://zenpeacemakers.org/taking-action-home/taking-action-gender-equality

✨ Explore the Taking Action initiative — discover how you can serve, connect, and be inspired by the work already unfolding in your communities.
👉 Explore More

❤️ Your gift helps bring the Three Tenets to life.
👉 Donate Here

ZAZEN

Experience a connection with your personal landscape through the transformative power of online meditation sessions with the Zen Peacemakers. Whether you're part of a local sangha or other spiritual community, we invite you to join us in this virtual space where we can gather across geographies and time zones.

Join us for these online meditation sessions and experience the profound benefits of collective mindfulness. The Zen Peacemakers are here to support you on this transformative journey.

Monday - Friday
10:00 - 10:40 am US Eastern
MORE INFO HERE

HAIKU

Monthly Haiku Page
Please participate in our Haiku Poetry Challenge

ENTER HERE

OFFERING

The Bernie Koans

Edited by: Ken Byalin, Francisco "Paco" Lugovina, Christopher Panos

‘It’s just my opinion, man’, as Bernie would say. We all have our opinions about Roshi Bernie Glassman.  To some of us, he is the stern head monk at Zen Center of LA; to others, he is the socially engaged Buddhist who built up the Greyston Bakery and Foundation.  To others he is the founder of Zen Peacemakers International and the instigator of bearing witness plunges on the city streets and at Auschwitz and to others he is the clown, the founder of the Order of Disorder.  He is all of these and more.  As the stories in the book show, he is Bernie, the mensch, who spent his life feeding the hungry ghosts of society and teaching that Zen is to realize the oneness and interconnectedness of life.
 
-Gerry Shishin Wick, grateful Dharma brother and disciple of Roshi Bernie

PURCHASE HERE

BEARING WITNESS RETREAT

There’s great power in the place
where life and death come together.

- Eve Marko

This November, Zen Peacemakers from all walks of life will come together to bear witness in Auschwitz, a place that has become a monument to intolerance. We invite you to join us.

Scholarships are available,
and guidance for Raising a Mala to support travel and retreat costs.

Zen Peacemakers Auschwitz-Birkenau
Bearing Witness Retreat

November 15 - 21, 2026
Oświęcim, Poland

LEARN MORE AND REGISTER HERE

ONE DAY PLUNGE

MORE INFO HERE

PEACEMAKERS CIRCLE

HOW THE BUDDHIST SANGHA ORGANIZED ITSELF TO SUPPORT UKRAINE
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23RD
12:00 PM US EASTERN

The presentation will involve a story about how we as a Buddhist community gathered spontaneously out of fury and compassion from the very first days of war told by a few active members, by Ukrainian volunteers through short videos, and from a Ukrainian singer whose town, Kherson, is almost destroyed.

More Info Here

PEACEMAKERS CIRCLE

ART, ACTIVISM, AND THE PRACTICE OF PEACE
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29TH
1:00 PM US EASTERN

Both Zen and art-making are practices of transformation. They broaden seeing, soften understanding, and expand the field of our actions and speech. This second conversation between poet Jane Hirshfield and Geoff Shoun O' Keeffe will continue the dialogue about art-making and activism, the ways that creative heart-mind increases compassion, and the perennial question of meeting the difficult with tenderness, humility, and courage. The conversation will include also hearing some poems, and the final half hour will be a time for question and answer with the group as a whole.

More Info Here

PEACEMAKERS CIRCLE

THE LONG CONVERSATION: A LIFE TRANSLATING CHINA’S MOUNTAIN POETS - WITH RED PINE
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7TH
12:00 PM US EASTERN

Bill Porter, known to many readers as Red Pine, describes translation as a conversation with the dead — a phrase that also became the title of a documentary about his life and work. Every poem is a person who once stood somewhere, saw something, and wrote it down. The translator’s task is to come close enough to hear them, then let them speak.

In this Peacemakers Circle, Bill will share from that long conversation: the Zen hermit Stonehouse, the eccentric Han-shan of Cold Mountain, and other poets he has spent decades translating and accompanying. Each poem carries its own story — the poet’s life, the mountain where it was written, and the difficult, intimate work of carrying its meaning into English.

REGISTER FOR FREE HERE

ZEN PEACEMAKERS SERIES

INTRODUCTION TO SKANDHA PRACTICE
A SIX SESSION COURSE WITH KEN BYALIN
STARTING MONDAY SEPTEMBER 14
12:00 US EASTERN

“Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, doing deep Prajna Paramita, perceived the emptiness of all five conditions and was freed from pain.”

The skandhas are the “five conditions” named in the Heart Sutra — the elements through which we construct and experience our lives.

In this free six-session course, participants will spend one week with each of the five skandhas, exploring them not as abstract Buddhist concepts, but as living aspects of moment-to-moment experience.

More Information Here

ZEN PEACEMAKERS SERIES

AGING: RENEWING THE MYSTERY
A MONTHLY GATHERING WITH ROSHI EVE MARKO
2ND TUESDAY EACH MONTH

Aging: Renewing the Mystery will be a monthly Zoom gathering investigating themes and issues many of us face as we get older. Topics will include forgiveness, fear of dependence, illness and death, simplicity, regret, loneliness, the changing faces of love, and others that come from participants.

More Information Here

CORE TRAINING

INTRODUCTION TO MEDIATION
SEPTEMBER 21st
12:00 - 1:00 PM US EASTERN

Human beings have been practicing mindfulness or meditation for millennia. It is a natural activity for us, like sleep, or walking, or moving about. Often, this practice is part of a religious or spiritual tradition, taking on many varied forms. And many of us meditate unaffiliated with any doctrine or lineage. We will offer a basic, introductory training in meditation, unattached to any specific tradition, that participants can put into personal practice immediately. It has been said, “Stillness answers every question.” Let’s explore that together.

REGISTER FOR FREE

WAY OF COUNCIL

Council is one of our most important core Zen Peacemaker practices. We share Council during our Bearing Witness retreats almost every day. In Council, we come together in a small group in a profound way. We create a shared liminal space that is safe, confidential, and perhaps sacred. We each listen and speak from the heart, encountering and experiencing one another gently and with awareness. We are not solving problems, debating issues, or making plans. We are making a healing space for each of us to hear and be heard, see and be seen.

UPCOMING COUNCILS (click on title to learn more & register)

Tuesday, August 11th - The Way of Council with Kineret Ando Yardena
Monday, August 17th - Mental Health Professionals & Caregivers Council
Friday, August 21st - Women Only Council

A PRAYER FOR PEACE

Hello Family!

Our dear Lakota relative, Violet Catches, would like to invite Zen Peacemakers from all around the world to join on the Fourth Friday of the month at 1:00 pm US Eastern Time, to offer prayers for peace. Participants will be encouraged to offer prayers from their faith tradition, culture, and in their language.

In peace & gratitude-

Michel Engu Dobbs

Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89008592778

Zen Peacemakers Affiliate

NEW AFFILIATE SPOTLIGHT
Awakening Dharma

Fostering awakening and its embodiment in worldly life.

Zen Peacemakers is a network of independent organizations on five continents. Each of them came to this work on their own path; introducing them is how the network becomes visible to itself.

What they do: Awakening Dharma is the teaching community of Stephen Mugen Snyder, Roshi, who teaches in both the Zen and Theravāda traditions. In their own words, they continue a 2,500-year-old lineage of practice “through the application of authentic, rigorous Buddhist and modern practices.” Mugen Roshi’s teaching centers on the brahmavihāras — lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity — as immersive practice. They offer one- to three-week meditation retreats, most now online and some in person in Michigan and Indiana, a monthly mentoring program, Liberating the Heart and Self, and Monthly Sangha Gatherings open to anyone.

Where: United States, and online.
https://zenpeacemakers.org/affiliates/awakening-dharma/

TAKING ACTION

Equality across gender is not just policy—it is lived dignity.

Through the Three Tenets, we practice:

• Not-Knowing: Releasing assumptions about gender roles and identities.

• Bearing Witness: Listening to the realities of women, non-binary, and LGBTQ+ people.

• Taking Action: Supporting advocacy, shelters, and empowerment programs.

Daily Practice: Notice your language, bias, and choices. Practice equality in small daily encounters.

Get Involved: Connect with organizations advancing gender equity and safety.

Learn more here: https://zenpeacemakers.org/taking-action-home/taking-action-gender-equality

✨ Explore the Taking Action initiative — discover how you can serve, connect, and be inspired by the work already unfolding in your communities.
👉 Explore More

❤️ Your gift helps bring the Three Tenets to life.
👉 Donate Here

ZAZEN

Experience a connection with your personal landscape through the transformative power of online meditation sessions with the Zen Peacemakers. Whether you're part of a local sangha or other spiritual community, we invite you to join us in this virtual space where we can gather across geographies and time zones.

Join us for these online meditation sessions and experience the profound benefits of collective mindfulness. The Zen Peacemakers are here to support you on this transformative journey.

Monday - Friday
10:00 - 10:40 am US Eastern
MORE INFO HERE

HAIKU

Monthly Haiku Page
Please participate in our Haiku Poetry Challenge

ENTER HERE

OFFERING

The Bernie Koans

Edited by: Ken Byalin, Francisco "Paco" Lugovina, Christopher Panos

‘It’s just my opinion, man’, as Bernie would say. We all have our opinions about Roshi Bernie Glassman.  To some of us, he is the stern head monk at Zen Center of LA; to others, he is the socially engaged Buddhist who built up the Greyston Bakery and Foundation.  To others he is the founder of Zen Peacemakers International and the instigator of bearing witness plunges on the city streets and at Auschwitz and to others he is the clown, the founder of the Order of Disorder.  He is all of these and more.  As the stories in the book show, he is Bernie, the mensch, who spent his life feeding the hungry ghosts of society and teaching that Zen is to realize the oneness and interconnectedness of life.
 
-Gerry Shishin Wick, grateful Dharma brother and disciple of Roshi Bernie

PURCHASE HERE

There’s great power in the place
where life and death come together.

- Eve Marko

This November, Zen Peacemakers from all walks of life will come together to bear witness in Auschwitz, a place that has become a monument to intolerance. We invite you to join us.

Scholarships are available,
and guidance for Raising a Mala to support travel and retreat costs.

Zen Peacemakers Auschwitz-Birkenau
Bearing Witness Retreat

November 15 - 21, 2026
Oświęcim, Poland

LEARN MORE AND REGISTER HERE

Peacemakers Circle

LIVING AWAKENESS
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5TH
12:00 PM US EASTERN

Following a significant awakening experience, qualities of awakenness will spontaneously manifest in one's behavior. In this gathering we will directly experience practice qualities of awakeness. The gathering will consist of a dharma talk, Q&A, and guided mediation touching into manifest qualities of awakeness.

More Info Here

NEW AFFILIATE SPOTLIGHT
Awakening Dharma

Fostering awakening and its embodiment in worldly life.

Zen Peacemakers is a network of independent organizations on five continents. Each of them came to this work on their own path; introducing them is how the network becomes visible to itself.

What they do: Awakening Dharma is the teaching community of Stephen Mugen Snyder, Roshi, who teaches in both the Zen and Theravāda traditions. In their own words, they continue a 2,500-year-old lineage of practice “through the application of authentic, rigorous Buddhist and modern practices.” Mugen Roshi’s teaching centers on the brahmavihāras — lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity — as immersive practice. They offer one- to three-week meditation retreats, most now online and some in person in Michigan and Indiana, a monthly mentoring program, Liberating the Heart and Self, and Monthly Sangha Gatherings open to anyone.

Where: United States, and online.
https://zenpeacemakers.org/affiliates/awakening-dharma/

Peacemakers Circle

HOW THE BUDDHIST SANGHA ORGANIZED ITSELF TO SUPPORT UKRAINE
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23RD
12:00 PM US EASTERN

The presentation will involve a story about how we as a Buddhist community gathered spontaneously out of fury and compassion from the very first days of war told by a few active members, by Ukrainian volunteers through short videos, and from a Ukrainian singer whose town, Kherson, is almost destroyed.

More Info Here

Peacemakers Circle

ART, ACTIVISM, AND THE PRACTICE OF PEACE
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29TH
1:00 PM US EASTERN

Both Zen and art-making are practices of transformation. They broaden seeing, soften understanding, and expand the field of our actions and speech. This second conversation between poet Jane Hirshfield and Geoff Shoun O' Keeffe will continue the dialogue about art-making and activism, the ways that creative heart-mind increases compassion, and the perennial question of meeting the difficult with tenderness, humility, and courage. The conversation will include also hearing some poems, and the final half hour will be a time for question and answer with the group as a whole.

More Info Here

Core Trainings

INTRODUCTION TO ZEN PEACEMAKING
MONDAY, AUGUST 10TH
12:00 PM US EASTERN

Our approach to Peacemaking is unique. As we practice the Three Tenets of Not Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Taking Action, we commit to not taking fixed positions, to embracing wholeness and unity, to setting a place at the table for everyone. In a world of conflict, suffering, and violence, how do we make peace in this way. Please join us to learn about Zen Peacemaking.

More Info Here

WAY OF COUNCIL

Council is one of our most important core Zen Peacemaker practices. We share Council during our Bearing Witness retreats almost every day. In Council, we come together in a small group in a profound way. We create a shared liminal space that is safe, confidential, and perhaps sacred. We each listen and speak from the heart, encountering and experiencing one another gently and with awareness. We are not solving problems, debating issues, or making plans. We are making a healing space for each of us to hear and be heard, see and be seen.

UPCOMING COUNCILS (click on title to learn more & register)

Tuesday, August 11th - The Way of Council with Kineret Ando Yardena
Monday, August 17th - Mental Health Professionals & Caregivers Council
Friday, August 21st - Women Only Council

A PRAYER FOR PEACE

Hello Family!

Our dear Lakota relative, Violet Catches, would like to invite Zen Peacemakers from all around the world to join on the Fourth Friday of the month at 1:00 pm US Eastern Time, to offer prayers for peace. Participants will be encouraged to offer prayers from their faith tradition, culture, and in their language.

In peace & gratitude-

Michel Engu Dobbs

Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89008592778

TAKING ACTION

Equality across gender is not just policy—it is lived dignity.

Through the Three Tenets, we practice:

• Not-Knowing: Releasing assumptions about gender roles and identities.

• Bearing Witness: Listening to the realities of women, non-binary, and LGBTQ+ people.

• Taking Action: Supporting advocacy, shelters, and empowerment programs.

Daily Practice: Notice your language, bias, and choices. Practice equality in small daily encounters.

Get Involved: Connect with organizations advancing gender equity and safety.

Learn more here: https://zenpeacemakers.org/taking-action-home/taking-action-gender-equality

✨ Explore the Taking Action initiative — discover how you can serve, connect, and be inspired by the work already unfolding in your communities.
👉 Explore More

❤️ Your gift helps bring the Three Tenets to life.
👉 Donate Here

ZAZEN

Experience a connection with your personal landscape through the transformative power of online meditation sessions with the Zen Peacemakers. Whether you're part of a local sangha or other spiritual community, we invite you to join us in this virtual space where we can gather across geographies and time zones.

Join us for these online meditation sessions and experience the profound benefits of collective mindfulness. The Zen Peacemakers are here to support you on this transformative journey.

Monday - Friday
10:00 - 10:40 am US Eastern
MORE INFO HERE

HAIKU

Monthly Haiku Page
Please participate in our Haiku Poetry Challenge

ENTER HERE

OFFERING

The Bernie Koans

Edited by: Ken Byalin, Francisco "Paco" Lugovina, Christopher Panos

‘It’s just my opinion, man’, as Bernie would say. We all have our opinions about Roshi Bernie Glassman.  To some of us, he is the stern head monk at Zen Center of LA; to others, he is the socially engaged Buddhist who built up the Greyston Bakery and Foundation.  To others he is the founder of Zen Peacemakers International and the instigator of bearing witness plunges on the city streets and at Auschwitz and to others he is the clown, the founder of the Order of Disorder.  He is all of these and more.  As the stories in the book show, he is Bernie, the mensch, who spent his life feeding the hungry ghosts of society and teaching that Zen is to realize the oneness and interconnectedness of life.
 
-Gerry Shishin Wick, grateful Dharma brother and disciple of Roshi Bernie

PURCHASE HERE

Zen Peacemakers Auschwitz-Birkenau
Bearing Witness Retreat

Auschwitz-Birkenau is not an easy place to approach,
especially when you are being called,
to make whole.

Synchronized Gatherings Across Sites of Nazi Persecution and Genocide

Zen Peacemakers invites our Affiliates, European Peacemakers, and friends to join in a shared act of remembrance across Europe.

This is a shared practice held across distance — a way for people in different places to enter the same field of remembrance, presence, and bearing witness.

Participants may gather at one of the suggested locations, or name another local site during registration: a camp, sub-camp, transit site, memorial location, rail site, or nearby place of historical significance.

Learn More - Click Here

Peacemakers Circle

Join The Lotus Institute’s Dr. Peggy Rowe Ward and Emanuel Ward, son of Dr. Larry Ward, for an intimate gathering centered on Morning Night, Larry’s posthumously published collection of poetry.

Wednesday, July 29th
12:00 PM US Eastern

Reserve your Spot

WAY OF COUNCIL

Council is one of our most important core Zen Peacemaker practices. We share Council during our Bearing Witness retreats almost every day. In Council, we come together in a small group in a profound way. We create a shared liminal space that is safe, confidential, and perhaps sacred. We each listen and speak from the heart, encountering and experiencing one another gently and with awareness. We are not solving problems, debating issues, or making plans. We are making a healing space for each of us to hear and be heard, see and be seen.

UPCOMING COUNCILS (click on title to learn more & register)

Wednesday, July 29th - Way of Council
Saturday, August 1st - The Way of Council with Aus-NZ Peacemaker Council
Tuesday, August 11th - The Way of Council with Kineret Ando Yardena
Monday, August 17th - Mental Health Professionals & Caregivers Council
Friday, August 21st - Women Only Council

A PRAYER FOR PEACE

Hello Family!

Our dear Lakota relative, Violet Catches, would like to invite Zen Peacemakers from all around the world to join on the Fourth Friday of the month at 1:00 pm US Eastern Time, to offer prayers for peace. Participants will be encouraged to offer prayers from their faith tradition, culture, and in their language.

In peace & gratitude-

Michel Engu Dobbs

Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89008592778

TAKING ACTION

Equality across gender is not just policy—it is lived dignity.

Through the Three Tenets, we practice:

• Not-Knowing: Releasing assumptions about gender roles and identities.

• Bearing Witness: Listening to the realities of women, non-binary, and LGBTQ+ people.

• Taking Action: Supporting advocacy, shelters, and empowerment programs.

Daily Practice: Notice your language, bias, and choices. Practice equality in small daily encounters.

Get Involved: Connect with organizations advancing gender equity and safety.

Learn more here: https://zenpeacemakers.org/taking-action-home/taking-action-gender-equality

✨ Explore the Taking Action initiative — discover how you can serve, connect, and be inspired by the work already unfolding in your communities.
👉 Explore More

❤️ Your gift helps bring the Three Tenets to life.
👉 Donate Here

ZAZEN

Experience a connection with your personal landscape through the transformative power of online meditation sessions with the Zen Peacemakers. Whether you're part of a local sangha or other spiritual community, we invite you to join us in this virtual space where we can gather across geographies and time zones.

Join us for these online meditation sessions and experience the profound benefits of collective mindfulness. The Zen Peacemakers are here to support you on this transformative journey.

Monday - Friday
10:00 - 10:40 am US Eastern
MORE INFO HERE

HAIKU

Monthly Haiku Page
Please participate in our Haiku Poetry Challenge

ENTER HERE

OFFERING

The Bernie Koans

Edited by: Ken Byalin, Francisco "Paco" Lugovina, Christopher Panos

‘It’s just my opinion, man’, as Bernie would say. We all have our opinions about Roshi Bernie Glassman.  To some of us, he is the stern head monk at Zen Center of LA; to others, he is the socially engaged Buddhist who built up the Greyston Bakery and Foundation.  To others he is the founder of Zen Peacemakers International and the instigator of bearing witness plunges on the city streets and at Auschwitz and to others he is the clown, the founder of the Order of Disorder.  He is all of these and more.  As the stories in the book show, he is Bernie, the mensch, who spent his life feeding the hungry ghosts of society and teaching that Zen is to realize the oneness and interconnectedness of life.
 
-Gerry Shishin Wick, grateful Dharma brother and disciple of Roshi Bernie

PURCHASE HERE

Remember

Joy Harjo

Remember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the star’s stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is.
Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is the
strongest point of time. Remember sundown
and the giving away to night.
Remember your birth, how your mother struggled
to give you form and breath. You are evidence of
her life, and her mother’s, and hers.
Remember your father. He is your life, also.
Remember the earth whose skin you are:
red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth
brown earth, we are earth.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,
listen to them. They are alive poems.
Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the
origin of this universe.
Remember you are all people and all people
are you.
Remember you are this universe and this
universe is you.
Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember language comes from this.
Remember the dance language is, that life is.
Remember.

A PRAYER FOR PEACE

Hello Family!

Our dear Lakota relative, Violet Catches, would like to invite Zen Peacemakers from all around the world to join on the Fourth Friday of the month at 1:00 pm US Eastern Time, to offer prayers for peace. Participants will be encouraged to offer prayers from their faith tradition, culture, and in their language.

In peace & gratitude-

Michel Engu Dobbs

Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89008592778

Zen Peacemakers Auschwitz-Birkenau
Bearing Witness Retreat

Auschwitz-Birkenau is not an easy place to approach,
especially when you are being called,
to make whole.

Synchronized Gatherings Across Sites of Nazi Persecution and Genocide

Zen Peacemakers invites our Affiliates, European Peacemakers, and friends to join in a shared act of remembrance across Europe.

This is a shared practice held across distance — a way for people in different places to enter the same field of remembrance, presence, and bearing witness.

Participants may gather at one of the suggested locations, or name another local site during registration: a camp, sub-camp, transit site, memorial location, rail site, or nearby place of historical significance.

Learn More - Click Here

Peacemakers Circle

Join The Lotus Institute’s Dr. Peggy Rowe Ward and Emanuel Ward, son of Dr. Larry Ward, for an intimate gathering centered on Morning Night, Larry’s posthumously published collection of poetry.

Wednesday, July 29th
12:00 PM US Eastern

Reserve your Spot

WAY OF COUNCIL

Council is one of our most important core Zen Peacemaker practices. We share Council during our Bearing Witness retreats almost every day. In Council, we come together in a small group in a profound way. We create a shared liminal space that is safe, confidential, and perhaps sacred. We each listen and speak from the heart, encountering and experiencing one another gently and with awareness. We are not solving problems, debating issues, or making plans. We are making a healing space for each of us to hear and be heard, see and be seen.

UPCOMING COUNCILS (click on title to learn more & register)

Wednesday, July 29th - Way of Council
Saturday, August 1st - The Way of Council with Aus-NZ Peacemaker Council
Tuesday, August 11th - The Way of Council with Kineret Ando Yardena
Monday, August 17th - Mental Health Professionals & Caregivers Council
Friday, August 21st - Women Only Council

TAKING ACTION

Spiritual traditions are many, yet the divisions we experience are not only between them, they are also within us, in the ways we hold views and define what is “true” or “other.” Through the Three Tenets, we begin here. Not-Knowing invites us to loosen our attachment to fixed ideas about religion and belief. Bearing Witness brings us into direct relationship with the practices, rituals, and lived experiences of others. Taking Action arises within this encounter, not from agreement, but from staying present in difference.As we engage across traditions, in dialogue, shared practice, or collaboration, we begin to notice our own assumptions, our preferences, our subtle habits of separation. In that moment, there is an opportunity to remain present and meet one another more openly.This may look like participating in interfaith initiatives, building relationships across traditions, or working together to address shared needs. The work is not about resolving difference, but about how we meet it.
Learn more here: https://zenpeacemakers.org/taking-action-home/taking-action-interfaith

✨ Explore the Taking Action initiative — discover how you can serve, connect, and be inspired by the work already unfolding in your communities.
👉 Explore More

❤️ Your gift helps bring the Three Tenets to life.
👉 Donate Here

ZAZEN

Experience a connection with your personal landscape through the transformative power of online meditation sessions with the Zen Peacemakers. Whether you're part of a local sangha or other spiritual community, we invite you to join us in this virtual space where we can gather across geographies and time zones.

Join us for these online meditation sessions and experience the profound benefits of collective mindfulness. The Zen Peacemakers are here to support you on this transformative journey.

Monday - Friday
10:00 - 10:40 am US Eastern
MORE INFO HERE

HAIKU

Monthly Haiku Page
Please participate in our Haiku Poetry Challenge

ENTER HERE

OFFERING

The Bernie Koans

Edited by: Ken Byalin, Francisco "Paco" Lugovina, Christopher Panos

‘It’s just my opinion, man’, as Bernie would say. We all have our opinions about Roshi Bernie Glassman.  To some of us, he is the stern head monk at Zen Center of LA; to others, he is the socially engaged Buddhist who built up the Greyston Bakery and Foundation.  To others he is the founder of Zen Peacemakers International and the instigator of bearing witness plunges on the city streets and at Auschwitz and to others he is the clown, the founder of the Order of Disorder.  He is all of these and more.  As the stories in the book show, he is Bernie, the mensch, who spent his life feeding the hungry ghosts of society and teaching that Zen is to realize the oneness and interconnectedness of life.
 
-Gerry Shishin Wick, grateful Dharma brother and disciple of Roshi Bernie

PURCHASE HERE

Zen Peacemakers Auschwitz-Birkenau
Bearing Witness Retreat

Auschwitz-Birkenau is not an easy place to approach,
especially when you are being called,
to make whole.

Synchronized Gatherings Across Sites of Nazi Persecution and Genocide

Zen Peacemakers invites our Affiliates, European Peacemakers, and friends to join in a shared act of remembrance across Europe.

This is a shared practice held across distance — a way for people in different places to enter the same field of remembrance, presence, and bearing witness.

Participants may gather at one of the suggested locations, or name another local site during registration: a camp, sub-camp, transit site, memorial location, rail site, or nearby place of historical significance.

Learn More - Click Here

Peacemakers Circle

In 1986, I was first introduced to the phrase, “Taking your practice off your cushion,” by Thich Nhat Hanh. That has been a wonderful koan to me for the past 40 years. A year later I began studying Japanese Psychology. Naikan Therapy offers a path to questioning the stories we carry with us and seeing our relationships with others through a different lens. In our time together, and through stories, maxims and poetry, I hope to share with you ideas and principles from Japanese Psychology and explore, in dialogue, whether, and how, this might fit into your own life and spiritual path in the Zen Peacemakers tradition.

Wednesday, July 15th
12:00 PM US Eastern

Reserve your Spot

Gregg Krech has been studying and teaching Japanese Psychology for 39 years. He is the author of five books including “Tunneling for Sunlight: Living Wisdom from Buddhism and Japanese Psychology to Cope with Difficult Times”. His work has been featured in THE SUN magazine, Tricycle, SELF, Utne Reader, Counseling Today, Cosmopolitan and on Public Radio. He is the Director of the ToDo Institute in Vermont.

Peacemakers Circle

Join The Lotus Institute’s Dr. Peggy Rowe Ward and Emanuel Ward, son of Dr. Larry Ward, for an intimate gathering centered on Morning Night, Larry’s posthumously published collection of poetry.

Wednesday, July 29th
12:00 PM US Eastern

Reserve your Spot

WAY OF COUNCIL

Council is one of our most important core Zen Peacemaker practices. We share Council during our Bearing Witness retreats almost every day. In Council, we come together in a small group in a profound way. We create a shared liminal space that is safe, confidential, and perhaps sacred. We each listen and speak from the heart, encountering and experiencing one another gently and with awareness. We are not solving problems, debating issues, or making plans. We are making a healing space for each of us to hear and be heard, see and be seen.

UPCOMING COUNCILS (click on title to learn more & register)

Friday, July 17th - Women Only Council
Monday, July 20th - Mental Health Professionals & Caregivers Council
Wednesday, July 29th - Way of Council

Core Training

Bernie Glassman articulated the Three Tenets of the Zen Peacemakers early in the evolution of the organization. But these three, simple, profound, vows or commitments can also be taken as a complete practice for our life:

• I will embody Not Knowing, thereby giving up fixed ideas.

• I will Bear Witness, opening my heart to the joy and suffering of life.

• I will take Loving Action arising out of not-knowing and bearing witness.

We can practice and manifest our true selves in every situation and with everything that arises, using the Three Tenets. This is a lifelong practice, one we never complete on our hourlong session we will present and describe the Three Tenets and have time to take your questions.

Duration: 60 minutes - Format: Presentation

Reserve your Spot

TAKING ACTION

Spiritual traditions are many, yet the divisions we experience are not only between them, they are also within us, in the ways we hold views and define what is “true” or “other.” Through the Three Tenets, we begin here. Not-Knowing invites us to loosen our attachment to fixed ideas about religion and belief. Bearing Witness brings us into direct relationship with the practices, rituals, and lived experiences of others. Taking Action arises within this encounter, not from agreement, but from staying present in difference.As we engage across traditions, in dialogue, shared practice, or collaboration, we begin to notice our own assumptions, our preferences, our subtle habits of separation. In that moment, there is an opportunity to remain present and meet one another more openly.This may look like participating in interfaith initiatives, building relationships across traditions, or working together to address shared needs. The work is not about resolving difference, but about how we meet it.
Learn more here: https://zenpeacemakers.org/taking-action-home/taking-action-interfaith

✨ Explore the Taking Action initiative — discover how you can serve, connect, and be inspired by the work already unfolding in your communities.
👉 Explore More

❤️ Your gift helps bring the Three Tenets to life.
👉 Donate Here

ZAZEN

Experience a connection with your personal landscape through the transformative power of online meditation sessions with the Zen Peacemakers. Whether you're part of a local sangha or other spiritual community, we invite you to join us in this virtual space where we can gather across geographies and time zones.

Join us for these online meditation sessions and experience the profound benefits of collective mindfulness. The Zen Peacemakers are here to support you on this transformative journey.

Monday - Friday
10:00 - 10:40 am US Eastern
MORE INFO HERE

HAIKU

Monthly Haiku Page
Please participate in our Haiku Poetry Challenge

ENTER HERE

OFFERING

The Bernie Koans

Edited by: Ken Byalin, Francisco "Paco" Lugovina, Christopher Panos

‘It’s just my opinion, man’, as Bernie would say. We all have our opinions about Roshi Bernie Glassman.  To some of us, he is the stern head monk at Zen Center of LA; to others, he is the socially engaged Buddhist who built up the Greyston Bakery and Foundation.  To others he is the founder of Zen Peacemakers International and the instigator of bearing witness plunges on the city streets and at Auschwitz and to others he is the clown, the founder of the Order of Disorder.  He is all of these and more.  As the stories in the book show, he is Bernie, the mensch, who spent his life feeding the hungry ghosts of society and teaching that Zen is to realize the oneness and interconnectedness of life.
 
-Gerry Shishin Wick, grateful Dharma brother and disciple of Roshi Bernie

PURCHASE HERE

THE FACE I SEE EVERYWHERE

Why Barbara Wegmüller Returns to Auschwitz

There is the face of a woman, looking at me, ever since I met her eyes for the first time. She is looking at me in one of the pictures in a memorial hall in Auschwitz I, the original camp. The photo shows her as she is waiting with her children and a group of women at the selection site.…

Can we bear to look at what we have not confessed to ourselves? Can we hear what we do not know? Can we stir the ocean with the broken stick of our aspirations? Can we free all creations?

No one answer, can hold the truth of a good heart. Thus, we stopped in our Council practice when …

One reason I’m drawn to these charnel-ground-like practices is that they simply accentuate what we all deal with day-in and day-out in our lives. In this type of practice I am able to bring mindfulness and awareness to the suffering of the world and bear witness to it. We all experience charnel grou…

When I am bound inside my own skin and others are bound inside theirs, I have to defend and protect myself from them.
And when I do place myself among them, I must do it carefully, which is hard work, because I am often hurt, opposed, and thwarted by others.
But when there’s openness, no boundary between myself and others -- when it turns out that I lit…