PEACEMAKERS CIRCLE

Join Zen Peacemakers
for a Peacemaker Circle with poet Jane Hirshfield Tuesday, September 29th

Art, Activism, and the Practice of Peace:
A Conversation with Jane Hirshfield
Today! Tuesday, September 29th
1:00 PM US EASTERN

REGISTER HERE

PEACEMAKERS CIRCLE

I was a Zen monk who didn’t know Zen
so I chose the woods for the years I had left
a robe made of patches over my body
a belt of bamboo around my waist
mountains and streams explain Bodhidharma’s meaning
flower smiles and birdsongs reveal the hidden key
sometimes I sit on a flat-topped rock
after midnight cloudless nights when the moon fills the sky

— Stonehouse (Shih-wu), translated by Red Pine.

Join Zen Peacemakers on Wednesday, Oct 7th for a Peacemaker Circle with Red Pine

The Long Conversation:
A Life Translating China’s Mountain Poets with Red Pine
Wednesday, October 7th
12:00 - 1:30PM 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. Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe will host, with time for questions and conversation.

REGISTER FOR FREE

PEACEMAKERS CIRCLE

Reflections of an Interspiritual Contemplative Christian
with Stephen Hatch
Wednesday, October 21st
12:00 - 1:30 US Eastern

In this talk, Stephen Hatch, a practitioner of Christian Mysticism for 45 years, reflects on his multi-faceted spiritual journey.

His path began with a Baptist upbringing, led to training with Father Thomas Keating and an identification with the wisdom of Christian Mysticism, and then to embracing Protestant Mysticism, including the Quaker heritage of the Pennsylvania Brintons on his mother’s side. He has developed a Nature-based Contemplative Christianity, which he calls Wilderness Mysticism.

REGISTER FOR FREE

CORE TRAININGS

Introduction to the Way of Council with Ken Byalin
Monday, October 19th
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM EDT

Council is one of our most important core Zen Peacemaker practices. We share Council nearly every day during our Bearing Witness Retreats.

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. In this introduction, we will briefly present the history of Council, explain the guidelines we use, and then experience a short Council session together.

REGISTER FOR FREE

ZEN PEACEMAKERS SERIES

Aging: Renewing the Mystery
A Monthly Gathering with Roshi Eve Marko
2nd Tuesday of 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.

LEARN MORE HERE

We are also offering an “Aging Council” the 4th Wednesday of each Month.
Open to everyone.

Oct 28th: Peacemakers Council - Aging Council with Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe

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 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)

Oct 5th: Mental Health Professionals & Caregivers with Dr. Iris Dotan Katz
Oct 16th: Women Only Council
Oct 28th: Peacemakers Council - Aging Council with Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe

A PRAYER FOR PEACE

Hello Family!

Our dear Lakota relative, Violet Catches, inviteS Zen Peacemakers from all around the world to join on the Fourth Friday of each 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

Fourth Fridays at 1:00pm EDT
Join: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89008592778

Zen Peacemakers Affiliate

NEW AFFILIATE SPOTLIGHT
Mountain Cloud Zen Center

Our mission is to awaken, liberate, and protect all beings.

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: Mountain Cloud Zen Center is a lay Sanbo Zen practice community dedicated to awakening, liberation, and reducing suffering through Zen practice and compassionate engagement with the world. Founded in 1985, the Center offers zazen, teachings, sesshin, community practice, and programs that integrate contemplative practice with social and ecological responsibility. Its recent Ecodharma Residency brings Buddhist practice and the Three Tenets—Not-Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Taking Action—into direct relationship with environmental and social crises, while land stewardship workshops put these principles into practice through care for local trees, soils, trails, and ecosystems. Across its programs, Mountain Cloud emphasizes loosening fixed identities, deepening connection with others and the natural world, and allowing skillful action to arise from attentive, compassionate presence.

Where: Santa Fe, United States, and online.
mountaincloud.org

TAKING ACTION

The Earth sustains all life. Caring for her is caring for ourselves.

With the Three Tenets, we respond:

• Not-Knowing: Meeting the climate crisis without rushing to easy answers.

• Bearing Witness: Spending time in threatened places and feeling their truth.

• Taking Action: Joining efforts in conservation, regeneration, and climate justice.

Daily Practice: Walk gently, reduce waste, honor the land beneath your feet.

Get Involved: Volunteer with reforestation, clean water, or climate advocacy groups.

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

✨ 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

Dear friends, our annual Bearing Witness Retreat in Auschwitz-Birkenau is just two months away.

Register now and make your travel plans 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

support the retreat and diversity of those attending through scholarships by donating here

Rebus

By Jane Hirshfield

You work with what you are given,
the red clay of grief,
the black clay of stubbornness going on after.
Clay that tastes of care or carelessness,
clay that smells of the bottoms of rivers or dust.

Each thought is a life you have lived or failed to live,
each word is a dish you have eaten or left on the table.
There are honeys so bitter
no one would willingly choose to take them.
The clay takes them: honey of weariness, honey of vanity,
honey of cruelty, fear.

This rebus—slip and stubbornness,
bottom of river, my own consumed life—
when will I learn to read it
plainly, slowly, uncolored by hope or desire?
Not to understand it, only to see.

As water given sugar sweetens, given salt grows salty,
we become our choices.
Each yes, each no continues,
this one a ladder, that one an anvil or cup.

The ladder leans into its darkness.
The anvil leans into its silence.
The cup sits empty.

How can I enter this question the clay has asked?

_

Source: Given Sugar, Given Salt (HarperCollins Publishers Inc, 2001)

Join Zen Peacemakers on Tuesday, September 29th for a Peacemaker Circle with poet Jane Hirshfield

Art, Activism, and the Practice of Peace:
A Conversation with Jane Hirshfield
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. Join Poet Jane Hirshfield and Geoff Shoun O’ Keeffe for a 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.

Jane will also read some of her poems and there will be time for question and answer with the group as a whole.

Register Here

Jane Hirshfield is an American poet, essayist, and translator and member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, known as one of American poetry’s central spokespersons for the biosphere and recognized as writing some of the most important poetry in the world today. Her award-winning work through collections poems, essays, newspapers and literary journals has been translated into over fifteen languages.

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.

Register 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

PEACEMAKERS CIRCLE

Reflections of an Interspiritual Contemplative Christian
with Stephen Hatch
Wednesday, October 21st
12:00 - 1:30 US Eastern

In this talk, Stephen Hatch, a practitioner of Christian Mysticism for 45 years, reflects on his multi-faceted spiritual journey.

His path began with a Baptist upbringing, led to training with Father Thomas Keating and an identification with the wisdom of Christian Mysticism, and then to embracing Protestant Mysticism, including the Quaker heritage of the Pennsylvania Brintons on his mother’s side. He has developed a Nature-based Contemplative Christianity, which he calls Wilderness Mysticism.

Register for Free Here

ZEN PEACEMAKERS SERIES

Aging: Renewing the Mystery
A Monthly Gathering with Roshi Eve Marko
2nd Tuesday of 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

We are also offering an “Aging Council” the 4th Tuesday of each Month.
Open to everyone.

Sept 22nd: Peacemakers Council - Aging Council with Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe

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 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)

Oct 5th: Mental Health Professionals & Caregivers with Dr. Iris Dotan Katz
Oct 16th: Women Only Council
Oct 27th: Peacemakers Council - Aging Council with Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe

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
Mountain Cloud Zen Center

Our mission is to awaken, liberate, and protect all beings.

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: Mountain Cloud Zen Center is a lay Sanbo Zen practice community dedicated to awakening, liberation, and reducing suffering through Zen practice and compassionate engagement with the world. Founded in 1985, the Center offers zazen, teachings, sesshin, community practice, and programs that integrate contemplative practice with social and ecological responsibility. Its recent Ecodharma Residency brings Buddhist practice and the Three Tenets—Not-Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Taking Action—into direct relationship with environmental and social crises, while land stewardship workshops put these principles into practice through care for local trees, soils, trails, and ecosystems. Across its programs, Mountain Cloud emphasizes loosening fixed identities, deepening connection with others and the natural world, and allowing skillful action to arise from attentive, compassionate presence.

Where: Santa Fe, United States, and online.
mountaincloud.org

TAKING ACTION

The Earth sustains all life. Caring for her is caring for ourselves.

With the Three Tenets, we respond:

• Not-Knowing: Meeting the climate crisis without rushing to easy answers.

• Bearing Witness: Spending time in threatened places and feeling their truth.

• Taking Action: Joining efforts in conservation, regeneration, and climate justice.

Daily Practice: Walk gently, reduce waste, honor the land beneath your feet.

Get Involved: Volunteer with reforestation, clean water, or climate advocacy groups.

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

✨ 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

Dear friends, our annual Bearing Witness Retreat in Auschwitz-Birkenau is just two months away.

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

and/or
support the retreat and diversity of those attending through scholarships by donating here

FEATURED EVENT

ART, ACTIVISM, AND THE PRACTICE OF PEACE: A CONVERSATION WITH JANE HIRSHFIELD

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.
Join Zen Peacemakers on Tuesday, September 29th for a second conversation between poet Jane Hirshfield and Geoff Shoun O’ Keeffe as they 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.

During the program, Jane will also read some of her poems and there will be time for question and answer with the group as a whole.

Register Here

Jane Hirshfield is an American poet, essayist, and translator and member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, known as one of American poetry's central spokespersons for the biosphere and recognized as writing some of the most important poetry in the world today. Her award-winning work through collections poems, essays, newspapers and literary journals has been translated into over fifteen languages.

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.

Register 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.

Register for Free Here

ZEN PEACEMAKERS SERIES

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

We are also offering an “Aging Council” the 4th Tuesday of each Month.
Open to everyone.

Sept 22nd: Peacemakers Council - Aging Council with Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe

CORE TRAINING

INTRODUCTION TO MEDIATION
WITH LISA GAKYO SCHAEWE
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

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 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)

Sept 17th: Ecosattva Council with Kathleen Hoêtsu Battke
Sept 18th: Women Only Council
Sept 22nd: Peacemakers Council - Aging Council with Geoff Shōun O'Keeffe
Oct 5th: Mental Health Professionals & Caregivers with Dr. Iris Dotan Katz

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
Mountain Cloud Zen Center

Our mission is to awaken, liberate, and protect all beings.

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: Mountain Cloud Zen Center is a lay Sanbo Zen practice community dedicated to awakening, liberation, and reducing suffering through Zen practice and compassionate engagement with the world. Founded in 1985, the Center offers zazen, teachings, sesshin, community practice, and programs that integrate contemplative practice with social and ecological responsibility. Its recent Ecodharma Residency brings Buddhist practice and the Three Tenets—Not-Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Taking Action—into direct relationship with environmental and social crises, while land stewardship workshops put these principles into practice through care for local trees, soils, trails, and ecosystems. Across its programs, Mountain Cloud emphasizes loosening fixed identities, deepening connection with others and the natural world, and allowing skillful action to arise from attentive, compassionate presence.

Where: Santa Fe, United States, and online.
https://www.mountaincloud.org/

TAKING ACTION

The Earth sustains all life. Caring for her is caring for ourselves.

With the Three Tenets, we respond:

• Not-Knowing: Meeting the climate crisis without rushing to easy answers.

• Bearing Witness: Spending time in threatened places and feeling their truth.

• Taking Action: Joining efforts in conservation, regeneration, and climate justice.

Daily Practice: Walk gently, reduce waste, honor the land beneath your feet.

Get Involved: Volunteer with reforestation, clean water, or climate advocacy groups.

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

✨ 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

FEATURED EVENT

ART, ACTIVISM, AND THE PRACTICE OF PEACE: A CONVERSATION WITH JANE HIRSHFIELD

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.
Join Zen Peacemakers on Tuesday, September 29th for a second conversation between poet Jane Hirshfield and Geoff Shoun O’ Keeffe as they 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.

During the program, Jane will also read some of her poems and there will be time for question and answer with the group as a whole.

Register Here

Jane Hirshfield is an American poet, essayist, and translator and member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, known as one of American poetry's central spokespersons for the biosphere and recognized as writing some of the most important poetry in the world today. Her award-winning work through collections poems, essays, newspapers and literary journals has been translated into over fifteen languages.

PEACEMAKERS CIRCLE

WHAT WE DO WITH WHAT WE SEE - A CONVERSATION
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16TH
12:00 PM US EASTERN

In this Peacemakers Circle, Jim Hōden Fricker speaks with Jakub “Kuba” Belina-Brzozowski, a communications coordinator with the Polish Medical Mission and a poet. Kuba’s path has moved through Tibetan studies, fieldwork in Nepal, the 2015 earthquake, and humanitarian communications supporting medical work in Ukraine and other crisis settings.

Together, Jim and Kuba will explore what it means to stay close to human stories without turning suffering into a distant spectacle; how humanitarian work meets fatigue, limited attention, and the pressure to respond perfectly; and what taking action can look like when the work is collaborative, imperfect, and sustained over time.

FREE REGISTRATION 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.

Register 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.

Register for Free Here

ZEN PEACEMAKERS SERIES

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

We are also offering an “Aging Council” the 4th Tuesday of each Month.
Open to everyone.

Sept 22nd: Peacemakers Council - Aging Council with Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe

CORE TRAINING

INTRODUCTION TO MEDIATION
WITH LISA GAKYO SCHAEWE
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

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 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)

Sept 7th: Mental Health Professionals & Caregivers with Dr. Iris Dotan Katz
Sept 17th: Ecosattva Council with Kathleen Hoêtsu Battke
Sept 22nd: Peacemakers Council - Aging Council with Geoff Shōun O'Keeffe

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

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

FEATURED EVENT

ART, ACTIVISM, AND THE PRACTICE OF PEACE: A CONVERSATION WITH JANE HIRSHFIELD

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.
Join Zen Peacemakers on Tuesday, September 29th for a second conversation between poet Jane Hirshfield and Geoff Shoun O’ Keeffe as they 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.

During the program, Jane will also read some of her poems and there will be time for question and answer with the group as a whole.

Register Here

Jane Hirshfield is an American poet, essayist, and translator and member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, known as one of American poetry's central spokespersons for the biosphere and recognized as writing some of the most important poetry in the world today. Her award-winning work through collections poems, essays, newspapers and literary journals has been translated into over fifteen languages.

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.

Register 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.

Register for Free Here

ZEN PEACEMAKERS SERIES

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

We are also offering an “Aging Council” the 4th Tuesday of each Month.
Open to everyone.

Sept 22nd: Peacemakers Council - Aging Council with Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe

CORE TRAINING

INTRODUCTION TO MEDIATION
WITH LISA GAKYO SCHAEWE
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

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 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)

Sept 7th: Mental Health Professionals & Caregivers with Dr. Iris Dotan Katz
Sept 17th: Ecosattva Council with Kathleen Hoêtsu Battke
Sept 22nd: Peacemakers Council - Aging Council with Geoff Shōun O'Keeffe

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

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

Register 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.

Register Here

PEACEMAKERS CIRCLE

ART, ACTIVISM, AND THE PRACTICE OF PEACE: A CONVERSATION WITH JANE HIRSHFIELD

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.
Join Zen Peacemakers on Tuesday, September 29th for a second conversation between poet Jane Hirshfield and Geoff Shoun O’ Keeffe as they 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.

During the program, Jane will also read some of her poems and there will be time for question and answer with the group as a whole.

Register Here

Jane Hirshfield is an American poet, essayist, and translator and member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, known as one of American poetry's central spokespersons for the biosphere and recognized as writing some of the most important poetry in the world today. Her award-winning work through collections poems, essays, newspapers and literary journals has been translated into over fifteen languages.

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.

Register for Free Here

ZEN PEACEMAKERS SERIES

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

We are also offering an “Aging Council” the 4th Tuesday of each Month. Open to everyone.

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

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 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)

Sept 7th: Mental Health Professionals & Caregivers with Dr. Iris Dotan Katz
Sept 17th: Ecosattva Council with Kathleen Hoêtsu Battke
Sept 22nd: Peacemakers Council - Aging Council with Geoff Shōun O'Keeffe

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

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 …

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…