The End and the Beginning (excerpt)
Wisława Szymborska
The End and the Beginning Wisława Szymborska Translated by Stanisław Barańczak and Clare Cavanagh After every war someone has to tidy up. Things won't pick themselves up, after all. Someone has to shove the rubble to the roadsides so the carts loaded with corpses can get by. … Someone, broom in hand, still remembers how it was. Someone else listens, nodding his unshattered head. But others are bound to be bustling nearby who'll find all that a little boring. From time to time someone still must dig up a rusted argument from underneath a bush and haul it off to the dump. Those who knew what this was all about must make way for those who know little. And less than that. And at last nothing less than nothing. Someone has to lie there in the grass that covers up the causes and effects with a cornstalk in his teeth, gawking at clouds.
Dear friends, our annual Bearing Witness Retreat in Auschwitz-Birkenau is just two months away.
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
and/or
support the retreat and diversity of those attending through scholarships by donating here
FEATURED EVENT
ART, ACTIVISM, AND THE PRACTICE OF PEACE: A CONVERSATION WITH JANE HIRSHFIELD
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.
Join Zen Peacemakers on Tuesday, September 29th for a second conversation between poet Jane Hirshfield and Geoff Shoun O’ Keeffe as they 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.
During the program, Jane will also read some of her poems and there will be time for question and answer with the group as a whole.
Jane Hirshfield is an American poet, essayist, and translator and member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, known as one of American poetry's central spokespersons for the biosphere and recognized as writing some of the most important poetry in the world today. Her award-winning work through collections poems, essays, newspapers and literary journals has been translated into over fifteen languages.
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
THE LONG CONVERSATION: A LIFE TRANSLATING CHINA’S MOUNTAIN
POETS - WITH RED PINE
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7TH
12:00 PM US EASTERN
Bill Porter, known to many readers as Red Pine, describes translation as a conversation with the dead — a phrase that also became the title of a documentary about his life and work. Every poem is a person who once stood somewhere, saw something, and wrote it down. The translator’s task is to come close enough to hear them, then let them speak.
In this Peacemakers Circle, Bill will share from that long conversation: the Zen hermit Stonehouse, the eccentric Han-shan of Cold Mountain, and other poets he has spent decades translating and accompanying. Each poem carries its own story — the poet’s life, the mountain where it was written, and the difficult, intimate work of carrying its meaning into English.
ZEN PEACEMAKERS SERIES
INTRODUCTION TO SKANDHA PRACTICE
A SIX SESSION COURSE WITH KEN BYALIN
STARTING MONDAY SEPTEMBER 14
12:00 US EASTERN
“Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, doing deep Prajna Paramita, perceived the emptiness of all five conditions and was freed from pain.”
The skandhas are the “five conditions” named in the Heart Sutra — the elements through which we construct and experience our lives.
In this free six-session course, participants will spend one week with each of the five skandhas, exploring them not as abstract Buddhist concepts, but as living aspects of moment-to-moment experience.
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 Tuesday of each Month.
Open to everyone.
Sept 22nd: Peacemakers Council - Aging Council with Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe
CORE TRAINING
INTRODUCTION TO MEDIATION
WITH LISA GAKYO SCHAEWE
SEPTEMBER 21st
12:00 - 1:00 PM US EASTERN
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.
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)
Sept 17th: Ecosattva Council with Kathleen Hoêtsu Battke
Sept 18th: Women Only Council
Sept 22nd: Peacemakers Council - Aging Council with Geoff Shōun O'Keeffe
Oct 5th: Mental Health Professionals & Caregivers with Dr. Iris Dotan Katz
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
Zen Peacemakers Affiliate
NEW AFFILIATE SPOTLIGHT
Mountain Cloud Zen Center
Our mission is to awaken, liberate, and protect all beings.
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: 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: Santa Fe, United States, and online.
https://www.mountaincloud.org/
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 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