Mysteries, Yes
Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous
to be understood.
How grass can be nourishing in the
mouths of the lambs.
How rivers and stones are forever
in allegiance with gravity
while we ourselves dream of rising.
How two hands touch and the bonds will
never be broken.
How people come, from delight or the
scars of damage,
to the comfort of a poem.
Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.
Let me keep company always with those who say
“Look!” and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.
~ Mary Oliver
Evidence, 2009
RETREATS
In just over one month, Zen Peacemakers from all walks of life will gather at Auschwitz-Birkenau. We go for the same reasons now as we did at the first retreat 30 years ago: to bear witness to humanity.
Registration closes soon.
Join us in bearing witness this November.
Zen Peacemakers Auschwitz-Birkenau
Bearing Witness Retreat
November 15 - 21, 2026
Oświęcim, Poland
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Scholarships are available
contact us at retreats@zenpeacemakers.org
ZEN PEACEMAKERS MEDIA LIBRARY
New Peacemaker Circle Video
Art, Activism, and the Practice of Peace:
A Conversation with Poet Jane Hirshfield
Renowned poet, essayist, and translator Jane Hirshfield joined Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe in September for a conversation about art-making, activism, and compassion, including readings of her poems.
The recording is now available in our Media Library
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.
PEACEMAKERS CIRCLE
Bernie Glassman Memorial: “Bernie on the Street”
Saturday, October 31st
12:00-1:30 US Eastern
A Panel Discussion with Sensei Jorge Koho Mello, Sensei Mikko Ijäs, Sensei Joshin Byrnes, and Jürgen Lembke.
Join us to celebrate Bernie Glassman’s life and legacy through a discussion of his groundbreaking work with Street Retreats. Together, we’ll explore how this practice continues today and how we will carry it forward.
All are welcome to join us in remembering Bernie and reflecting on this living practice of bearing witness.
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.
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.
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 16th: Women Only Council
Oct 28th: Peacemakers Council - Aging Council with Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe
Nov 2nd: Mental Health Professionals & Caregivers with Dr. Iris Dotan Katz
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 AFFILIATES
NEW AFFILIATE SPOTLIGHT
Mountain Cloud Zen Center
Our mission is to awaken, liberate, and protect all beings.
What we 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 we are: Santa Fe, United States, and online.
Learn more at mountaincloud.org
Zen Peacemakers is a network of independent organizations on five continents dedicated to realizing our oneness and relieving suffering through contemplative social action. Together, our collective commitment to interconnectedness and compassion ripples outward far beyond ourselves, transcending all boundaries and transforming lives.
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 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. 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