Bearing the bandages, water and sponge,
Straight and swift to my wounded I go...
I onward go, I stop,
With hinged knees and steady hand to dress wounds,
I am firm with each, the pangs are sharp yet unavoidable,
One turns to me his appealing eyes—poor boy! I never knew you,
Yet I think I could not refuse this moment to die for you, if that would save you.
- Walt Whitman
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
Love Letter from Auschwitz
Excerpts from Love Letter from Auschwitz by Peter Kuhn, originally published in The Mindfulness Bell.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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