New Year’s Haiku
by Matsuo Bashō
New Year’s Day—
sun on every field
is beloved.
TAKING ACTION
From Bearing Witness to Taking Action
Zen Peacemakers live by the Three Tenets: Not-Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Taking Action.
When we let go of certainty, we begin to truly see.
When we see, our hearts move us to respond.
Taking Action invites us into that response — a growing web of service and connection around the world. Together, we are building a map of compassion in motion — one that connects individuals, communities, and organizations embodying the practice of contemplative social action.
By 2026, this living map will feature over 20,000 global organizations offering meaningful volunteer opportunities in areas such as environmental care, racial equity, prison outreach, and more.
✨ 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
Weekly Spotlight: Alabama Interfaith Refugee Partnership
We are a diverse group of individuals, religious leaders, members of faith communities, and community organizations who have come together for the purpose of helping refugees and asylum seekers, in light of the current migration crisis that has displaced millions of people.
OUR GOAL
Our goal is to support refugees and asylum-seekers locally and globally by:
Educating the community and elected officials about the current refugee crisis and the process of refugee resettlement
Advocating for policies that address the root causes of the refugee crisis, and that increase U.S. support for refugees; and
Providing direct support for refugees and asylum-seekers in the United States and in the Birmingham community
Birmingham, Alabama, USA
BEARING WITNESS RETREAT
Bearing Witness to Racism in America
Montgomery & Selma, Alabama | April 23–28, 2026
Registration is now open for the 2026 Bearing Witness to Racism in America retreat.
This retreat invites participants into a deep contemplative journey through Montgomery and Selma — places where the legacy of racial violence, resistance, and resilience is still very much alive.
This retreat is not about standing at the edge of history to change the world. It is about allowing the experience to change us — to see ourselves as the other,
and the other as ourselves.
Retreat details:
April 23–28, 2026
Montgomery & Selma, Alabama
Learn more: www.zenpeacemakers.org/programs/racism-in-america/
Alumni often tell us that returning to this retreat opens new layers of insight, responsibility, and compassion — both personal and collective. If this work continues to call to you, we warmly invite you to join us again, or to share this offering with others in your community.
With gratitude for your practice and presence,
Zen Peacemakers
Our mission is to realize our oneness and relieve suffering
through contemplative social action.
PEACEMAKER CIRCLES
Taking Action
Wednesday, January 7th, 12pm Eastern Time, Zoom
Our third tenet is taking loving action from not knowing and bearing witness. This vow makes Zen Peacemakers unique. This is how we engage and reach out with helping hands to relieve suffering in our troubled world. Please join us to share your work, your project, and your own taking action with others. This circle will be held monthly in 2026.
Preserving the Legacy of Zen Master, Shunryu Suzuki
Thurs., January 15th, 7:00pm US Eastern Time
Please join a presentation by David Chadwick. He will talk about how he came to practice Zen and is helping to preserve the legacy of Shunryu Suzuki and those whose paths crossed his.
CORE TRAINING
Core Training: Meditation Instruction - Lisa Gakyo Schaewe
Monday, Jan. 12th, 12pm Eastern Time, Zoom
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.
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 or 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)
Mon., Dec. 29th - The Way of Council with Annie Myoshin Markovich
Wed., Jan. 14th - Moms Council
Friday, Jan. 16th - Women Only Council
FRIENDS AND AFFILIATE EVENTS
Reading the Names of Gaza’s Lost Children
Tuesday, January 27, 2026
International Holocaust Memorial Day.
We (Etty Hillesum Cards team in cooperation with other peace activists) will hold an online ritual. In this ritual we will read the names of the children from Gaza who were killed in the last war since October 2023, (From the most updated lists)
Foundations of Wise Care: Expand your capacity to offer sustainable, joyful, and effective care.
A 9-week online workshop
Wednesdays, 3-5 pm PST
January 14 - March 11, 2026
Contemplative care is expressed in the most ordinary ways: kind speech, gentle care, patient listening, and with the skills unique to each caregiver. Each act arises to meet the need at hand, even if that takes the caregiver outside their comfort zone.
Learn More and Register Here: https://www.wisecaregiving.org/8-caregiving-foundations-workshop1.html
New Affiliate Announcement!
Join us here at https://hive.zenpeacemakers.org to explore some of the offerings of the organizations affiliated with Zen Peacemakers.
Caminho de Luz
Comunidade de Saberes e Práticas Filosóficas e Espirituais “Caminho de Luz”
Comunidade Caminho de Luz is a Brazilian religious organization dedicated to the study, practice, and promotion of diverse philosophical and spiritual traditions, with a special emphasis on the confluence of Afro-Amerindian religions (particularly Umbanda) and engaged Buddhist spirituality. Our core mission is to foster a just, compassionate, and harmonious society grounded in the principles of interdependence, decoloniality, and engaged spirituality that is both socially and ecologically conscious. We seek to create spaces for learning, healing, and compassionate action, integrating academic research and university extension projects to build bridges between ancestral wisdom and contemporary challenges.
What They Do
Our main activities are designed to integrate spiritual practice with community service and personal development:
Regular Spiritual Services: We hold weekly Umbanda religious services (”giras”) that are open to the public and free of charge, offering spiritual counseling, healing rituals, and charity work for the community.
Study and Practice Groups: We facilitate study and development groups focused on the philosophical and practical aspects of our traditions, including Afro-Brazilian wisdom, engaged Buddhism, and inter-spiritual dialogue.
Contemplative Practices: We encourage and teach contemplative practices, such as daily meditation and prayer, to cultivate inner peace, presence, and a strong spiritual foundation for our members.
Academic and Leadership Development Initiatives: This vision is actively being seeded through the academic work of our spiritual leader at the University of São Paulo (USP). His engagement in research, teaching, and university extension projects is pioneering practices and policies that foster a culture of deep listening, care, non-violence, and interdependence within the academic environment. These pilot initiatives serve as a living laboratory for our aspiration to develop future leadership programs aimed at empowering social change agents powered by Bodhisatva vows to act effectively and resiliently in the world.
São Paulo, Brazil
PEACEMAKERS PODCAST
Faith in the Night
In this episode of the Peacemakers Podcast, we walk after dark with San Francisco Night Ministry, a multi-faith community offering spiritual care on the city’s streets and phone lines. No preaching, no agenda—just presence.
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
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
Thank you for reading this week's Zen Peacemakers newsletter.
We look forward to connecting at upcoming events, on social media, and via email.
With gratitude,
The Zen Peacemakers Team






















Spotlighting Alabama Interfaith Refugee Partnership in this way is huge. Grassroots interfaith work on resettlement is one of those unsexy policy areas that actually determines whether asylum seekers get dignified landings or fall through every crack in the system. I've seen how much difference one solid comunity network makes when families arrive with literally nothing, and the intentional mix here of education, advocacy, plus direct support is the right model. That list of core goals dunno if people realize how rare it is to find groups doing all three together instead of just picking one lane.