The Youth are a pillar
And a national symbol
They are a ray of light
And the future of the whole country
Without them
It means
A house without foundation
And with no entry point (door)
My point is
They can create peace
And can shape the future
Our beautiful land
They can illuminate it
They are Immutable flowers
That can benefit the people
-Hiba Mohamed Hassan, 19, Somalia, from Poems for Peace, unicef
BEARING WITNESS RETREAT
Bearing Witness to Racism in America 2025
April 24, 2025 - April 28, 2025
It has long been our desire to create a bearing witness retreat around America’s racial history – as seen through the eyes of African Americans. The intention has always been to engage without becoming a tourist; to seek unity without ‘othering’ those with whom we Bear Witness.
This year we plan on walking the grounds of a deep history in the expansion of slavery, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights movement – Selma and Montgomery.
We intend our Plunge in Alabama to be personal and transformative, with attendees coming away with an emotional and heart connection with the people, places, and events we witness.
We hope you can join us.
FILM SERIES
I Am Not Your Negro
Purchase a ticket to for on-demand viewing between Feb 12 - March 14, 2025
Cost: $5.49 via KINEMA, proceeds go towards supporting our Bearing Witness Retreats
Working from the text of James Baldwin’s unfinished final novel, director Raoul Peck creates a meditation on what it means to be Black in the United States.
Purchase Tickets Here
Due to distribution limitations, tickets are only available within the U.S.A.
WAY OF COUNCIL
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.
UPCOMING COUNCILS (click on title to learn more & register)
Tuesday, March 11th - Listening to All Voices
Friday, March 21st - Women Only Council
PEACEMAKER CIRCLE
Activity and Stillness: Practice to Avoid Becoming the Problem We’d Like to Solve
Thursday, March 6th, 12pm Eastern Time, Zoom
Join a presentation by Peter Coyote: “Suzuki Roshi once said that for those of us who live outside the monastery, ‘You must be very patient.’ I’d add not only with others, but with yourself as well and the difficulties of understanding that we are often the unwitting collaborators in participating in the problems we’d like to end. Politics is the study and practice of relationships between people and that seems to me a good working definition of Buddhism (if we include the old illusory, mischief-inducing ‘self’) and we don’t lose sight of the precepts as we try to support positive change.”
SERIES EVENT
EARTHING: A 5-Part Series on Not Squandering our Planet
First Session: Thursday, March 13th, 2pm Eastern Time, Zoom
Join David Loy for the first session in a 5-part Series: The New Bodhisattva Path. More and more of us realize the multiple ecological crises and their fast unfolding, tipping point after tipping point. At the same time, more and more of us engage in environmental education, resistance against more destruction, fostering and healing the Earth. Zen Peacemakers around the world are bearing witness and taking action from not-knowing to support the preservation and regeneration of our home sphere, to embody hands-on compassion as Ecosattvas. In this five part series of events we want to deepen our practice as Earth Stewards, share global perspectives and local experience, and invite you to join our Ecosattva community.
CORE TRAINING
The Three Tenets with Sensei Jim Daikan Bastien
Monday, March 10th, 12pm US Eastern Time, Zoom
Bernie Glassman articulated the Three Tenets of the Zen Peacemakers early in the evolution of the organization. But these three, simple, profound, vows or commitments can also be taken as a complete practice for our life:
I will embody Not Knowing, thereby giving up fixed ideas.
I will Bear Witness, opening my heart to the joy and suffering of life.
I will take Loving Action arising out of not-knowing and bearing witness.
We can practice and manifest our true selves in every situation and with everything that arises, using the Three Tenets. This is a lifelong practice, one we never complete on our hourlong session we will present and describe the Three Tenets and have time to take your questions.
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. Following is an introduction to the Sangha for Ukraine
Sangha for Ukraine
Compassion for Ukraine Mission: The Compassion for Ukraine community maintains a daily gathering to open our minds and hearts, and radiate compassion to all who are suffering as a result of the invasion and the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Our daily practice is based on traditions and practices of Buddhist meditation and mind training, with a focus on the practice of tonglen. In addition to our practice, we bear witness to the impacts of the war and learn from our Ukrainian friends about their experience and concerns, and about Ukrainian history and culture. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE
TAKING ACTION - Prison Outreach
Letter Writing Campaign
Compassion Prison Project has been told by several prison residents that nothing brightens their day more than hearing their name called during mail call.
They have also heard from letter writers on the outside that their lives have been deeply enriched by the relationships they’ve cultivated with the incarcerated men and women with whom they communicate. Expressive writing can be therapeutic and healing and can also cultivate a sense of belonging and connection.
CPP is always looking for volunteers to join their letter writing campaign. Please fill out the volunteer form and let them know that you’d like to write to someone living in a prison.
CPP is a grassroots, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
May we fulfill our vows to free and save all sentient beings.
JOIN ZEN PEACEMAKERS TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT PRISON OUTREACH
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
Peacemakers Podcast—a space where compassion, action, and deep listening come together. Presented by Zen Peacemakers, this podcast explores the transformative power of the Three Tenets: Not-Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Taking Action.
Join us as we engage with activists, spiritual leaders, and people just like you who embody the principles of peacemaking in their lives and work. Through their stories, we uncover the challenges and insights that arise when we step into the unknown, witness suffering, and respond with wisdom and love.
Whether you're a longtime practitioner or new to these teachings, we invite you to listen deeply, reflect, and discover how peacemaking can become a way of life.
Let’s walk this path together.
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