the earth is a living thing
is a black shambling bear
ruffling its wild back and tossing
mountains into the sea
is a black hawk circling
the burying ground circling the bones
picked clean and discarded
is a fish black blind in the belly of water
is a diamond blind in the black belly of coal
is a black and living thing
is a favorite child
of the universe
feel her rolling her hand
in its kinky hair
feel her brushing it clean
-Lucille Clifton
ZEN PEACEMAKERS SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
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: Beyond Us & Them
fostering wellbeing, compassion, and social connection
Beyond Us & Them envisions a culture of social connection, engagement, and resilience that promotes mutual respect, well-being, and care and dismantles systems of oppression, exclusion, and racism.
What They Do
Beyond Us & Them offers practical, evidence-based solutions to enhance wellbeing, disrupt division, nurture relationships, and deliver tangible results.
Los Angeles, USA
Auschwitz-Birkenau Bearing Witness Retreat
November 16 - 22, 2025
This retreat is not a history lesson, a tour, or a meditation retreat. It is a deeply participatory practice of being present — with each other, with the land, and with the echoes of the past that still reverberate.
For thirty years, people from many cultures, faiths, and paths have returned to this place — a site of unspeakable suffering — to bear witness together. As shared on our programs page:
“Bearing witness is to be fully present for whatever arises, letting go of fixed ideas and holding space for transformation to occur.”
We do not come to fix or explain, but to feel, to honor, and to stand together — in love and in truth — in the face of what was, and still is.
If you feel called, we welcome you.
PEACEMAKER CIRCLES
Staying Grounded, Centered, & Sane in Challenging Times
Wednesday, Oct. 15th, 12pm Eastern Time, Zoom
We are excited to hear from long-time Zen practitioner, Sean Tetsudo Murphy, Sensei about ways that we can work with our minds during challenging times.
Neither For Nor Against: What Does Faith in America Mean?
Tuesday, Oct. 21st, 12pm Eastern Time, ONLINE via Zoom
Myobun Esther Tishman, ordained Zen teacher and interfaith chaplain, is walking across this country, from Oregon to Washington, DC, in response to the fear, chaos, and doubts that have overtaken many Americans. Myobun will share stories and learnings from the past 2100 miles, and from her 21 years in the dharma.
CORE TRAINING
Monday, Oct. 20th, 12pm Eastern Time, Zoom
Core Training: Introduction to Way of Council with Kathleen Hoetsu Battke
Council is one of our most important core Zen Peacemaker practices. We share Council during our Bearing Witness retreats most 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. In this Introduction, we will briefly present the history of Council, explain the guidelines we use, and then experience a short Council session.
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)
Friday, Oct. 17th - Women Only Council
Wed, Oct. 29th - The Way of Council with Annie Myoshin Markovich
Mon, Nov. 10th - Mental Health Professionals & Caregivers with Dr. Iris Dotan Katz
PEACEMAKERS PODCAST
In this new Peacemakers Podcast episode, poet and Zen practitioner Jane Hirshfield sits down with Geoff O’Keeffe for a luminous, grounded conversation about how poems—and practice—help us meet a fractured world. From her seven-word distillation of the dharma (“Everything changes. Everything is connected. Pay attention.”) to the vow that undergirds compassionate action, Jane invites us into a way of seeing that is precise, permeable, and tender.
A Note From Zen Peacemakers Affiliate
At Holy Land Trust, while we do not operate directly inside Gaza, we are committed to raising awareness, standing with those suffering, and calling on all people of conscience to act.
The starvation of an entire population cannot be justified. It is not collateral damage—it is a form of violence. And we believe in nonviolence. We believe in justice. We believe in the transformation of trauma into hope, and that starts with recognizing the full humanity of those being crushed by this war.
As we reflect on this moment, we ask our community to stand with Gaza—not only in prayer, but in action:
Speak out.
Share the truth.
Support organizations delivering food and medicine.
Refuse to look away.
From Bethlehem to Gaza, our struggle is one. Our hope is one. And our future depends on how we respond to the cries of the most vulnerable today.
AFFILIATE EVENTS
Bearing Witness to Life on the Streets - Los Angeles, CA
October 30, 2025 5:00 PM PDT - November 2, 2025 12:00 PM PST
Join us for a day to explore how the street affects us and how we affect the streets. Together, we will walk, listen, bear witness, eat, do council, and offer the Gate of Sweet Nectar ritual. We will have the special opportunity to hear from Tongva Cultural Collective Member Virginia Carmelo about the history of this place and her embodied wisdom. Participants will have the opportunity to gently stretch their ‘window of tolerance’ around hesitations, fears, feelings, and resistance to engaging with life – past, present, & future – on the streets!
NEW AFFILIATE ANNOUNCEMENT
To strengthen our planetary network, ZP will feature newly affiliated groups. Join HERE to explore some of the offerings of the organizations affiliated with ZP, and visit here for a full list of these groups.
Buddhist Coalition for Democracy
Mission Statement
We represent a broad coalition of Buddhists from multiple traditions and lineages and with differing political opinions—radical, progressive, liberal, centrist, conservative, and libertarian—who share the common goal of ensuring democracy’s survival. We aspire towards a society that values all of its members and believe democratic values, institutions, and processes are the best means for realizing it. As Buddhists, we are called upon to witness, respond to, and resist the ongoing systematic destruction of norms and institutions that allow free societies to flourish.
TAKING ACTION
Zen Peacemakers founder Bernie Glassman taught that practice doesn’t end on the cushion—it must move into the world. In this episode of the Peacemakers Podcast, we see how a Zen Peacemaker Affiliate, the Zen Center of Denver, brings this vision to life through their ongoing work at Metro Caring.
What emerges is a reminder that service isn’t about charity, but about belonging—creating spaces where dignity and connection flourish.
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




















