Bearing Witness Blog

Sally Kealy, co-editor

Bernie Glassman, co-editor

The Bearing Witness Blog compiles the latest news of the Zen Peacemakers Sangha involved in Socially Engaged Spirituality.  It willl also keep you informed on Bernie’s Journey’s to the Field which bring him to different parts of the world touched by war, poverty and genocide including relevant articles from the fields he is going to. Also included are Bernie’s teachings and opinions.  We warmly invite you to join the conversation.

Roshi Anne Seisen Saunders voted in as the new President of the White Plum Asanga

Posted by on May 7, 2013 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Roshi Anne Seisen Saunders has been voted in as the President of the White Plum Asanga during its annual meeting in May 2013. She replaces Roshi Gerry Shishin Wick, the 3rd President, who served in that role for 6 years. Roshi Anne Seisen Saunders is the founder and head teacher of Sweetwater Zen Center. She has been practicing and teaching Zen Buddhism for over 30 years. Seisen was a student of the late Taizan Maezumi Roshi and is a Dharma successor of Roshi Bernie Glassman from whom she also received Inka (Roshi status.) The White Plum...

read more

Koans on the Three Tenets of the Zen Peacemakers

Posted by on Apr 11, 2013 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Roshi Eve Myonen Marko and I (Bernie Glassman) have started a Koan System based on  the Three Tenets of the Zen Peacemakers.  We will probably wind up with two different sets of koans (hers and his) and I have posted my initial thoughts on this koan system. The Three Tenets of the Zen Peacemakers  Entering the stream of Socially Engaged Spirituality, I vow to live a life of: Not-knowing, thereby giving up fixed ideas about ourselves and the universe Bearing witness to the joy and suffering of the world Loving actions towards ourselves...

read more

What are Bearing Witness Retreats? – Bernie Glassman

Posted by on Mar 27, 2013 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

In the days of Shakyamini Buddha, during the rainy season, Buddha would stop his meandering and spend time with his monks and nuns in one locale. In Japanese this period is called Ango, a period in space and time of peace. In English we use the word retreat to often mean “getting away from the issues of the world.” A Bearing Witness Retreat is becoming one with the “issues of the world.” A Zen Meditation Retreat is to bear witness to the wholeness of life. I use the word “plunge” for my Bearing Witness Retreats. To plunge into the...

read more

What is Enlightenment?-Bernie Glassman

Posted by on Mar 19, 2013 in Uncategorized | 1 comment

The word Buddha means the Awakened One. Awaken to what? My opinion is that we awaken to the Oneness of Life, the One Body. That is my opinion of enlightenment. This awakening keeps deepening and deepening. What do I mean by deepening? Most of us are enlightened to the Oneness of our own body. I think that my arms, my legs, my face, etc. are all part of One Body. In fact I generally act according to that opinion without thinking about it. It is very natural to do so and, in fact, if I didn’t act that way, people might say I am...

read more

The Three Tenets of the Zen Peacemakers

Posted by on Mar 6, 2013 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Not-knowing is the first tenet of the Zen Peacemakers. Not-Knowing is entering a situation without being attached to any opinion, idea or concept. This means total openness to the situation, deep listening to the situation. It is the role of the Bodhisattva to bear witness. The Buddha can stay in the realm of not-knowing, the realm of blissful non-attachment. The Bodhisattva vows to save the world, and therefore to live in the world of attachment, for that is also the world of empathy, passion, and compassion. Ultimately, she accepts all the...

read more

A Place at the Table

Posted by on Mar 5, 2013 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

A Place at the Table is produced by Participant Media, which has a history of making slickly-produced documentaries that take on large issues, and this film is no different as it touches on multiple topics like subsidies for industrial farms, the social stigma of accepting food donations, the effects hunger has on early childhood development, school meal programs and the pathetic amount the government allots per child per meal, and a lot more, featuring interviews with people like food activist Marion Nestle, Top Chef‘s Tom Colicchio,...

read more

Report From Journey to Sri Lanka

Posted by on Feb 14, 2013 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Sarvodaya, Sri Lanka’s biggest charity, is dedicated to making a positive difference to the lives of rural Sri Lankans. Their grassroots movement reaches 15,000 villages in 34 districts with 1,500 staff throughout Sri Lanka. The Founder, A. T. Ariyaratne and Bernie have been friends and have shared ideas for 30 years. In January, 2012, Bernie, Grant Couch, Sensei Francisco Paco Lugoviña, Iris Katz and Tani Katz visited Sarvodaya in Sri Lanka. They met with various leaders of Sarvodaya to discuss banking, educational and general finance...

read more

Receive the Dude and the Zen Master

Posted by on Jan 15, 2013 in Uncategorized | 4 comments

Receive the Dude  and  the Zen Master

I met the Dude on DVD sometime in the late 1990s. A few years later I met Jeff Bridges in Santa Barbara and we started hanging, as he likes to put it, often while smoking cigars. Jeff has done movies from an early age; less known, but almost as long-standing, is his commitment to ending world hunger. I was an aeronautical engineer and mathematician in my early years, but mostly I’ve taught Zen Buddhism, and that’s where we both met. Not just in meditation, which is what most people think of when they hear Zen, but the Zen of action, of...

read more

Israeli Engaged Dharma

Posted by on Jan 14, 2013 in Uncategorized | 15 comments

Israeli Engaged Dharma

In the past 6 months our group was intensively involved in two campaigns of big concern for our Palestinian partners and friends: In Deir Istiya, farmers received notices ordering to uproot 2,000 olive trees planted on their private land. The reason given for this order was that the area was declared by Israel as a natural reserve 30 years ago and so planting of new trees was illegal. In Al- Walaja, where the separation barrier is being built by Israel on village land, it was we who discovered that the Jerusalem municipality was about to...

read more

Dec 2012 Journey to Israel and Palestine

Posted by on Jan 13, 2013 in Uncategorized | 5 comments

Dec 2012 Journey to Israel and Palestine

by Eve Myonen Marko—– We go to the West Bank on December 21. December 21 is Bernie’s and my anniversary. It’s also the winter solstice, and this year it marks the end of the Mayan calendar and the beginning of something new. I don’t think there’s an end without a beginning. Our friends, Iris and Tani Katz, drive us from Jerusalem to meet up with Sami Awad, the head of Holy Land Trust and a nonviolence trainer and activist. Sami asked us not to go to his office in Bethlehem, but instead get to the Tent of Nations near the...

read more

Bearing Witness Blog

Sally Kealy, co-editor

Bernie Glassman, co-editor

The Bearing Witness Blog compiles the latest news of the Zen Peacemakers Sangha involved in Socially Engaged Spirituality.  It willl also keep you informed on Bernie’s Journey’s to the Field which bring him to different parts of the world touched by war, poverty and genocide including relevant articles from the fields he is going to. Also included are Bernie’s teachings and opinions.  We warmly invite you to join the conversation.

Roshi Anne Seisen Saunders voted in as the new President of the White Plum Asanga

Posted by on May 7, 2013 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Roshi Anne Seisen Saunders has been voted in as the President of the White Plum Asanga during its annual meeting in May 2013. She replaces Roshi Gerry Shishin Wick, the 3rd President, who served in that role for 6 years. Roshi Anne Seisen Saunders is the founder and head teacher of Sweetwater Zen Center. She has been practicing and teaching Zen Buddhism for over 30 years. Seisen was a student of the late Taizan Maezumi Roshi and is a Dharma successor of Roshi Bernie Glassman from whom she also received Inka (Roshi status.) The White Plum...

read more

Koans on the Three Tenets of the Zen Peacemakers

Posted by on Apr 11, 2013 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Roshi Eve Myonen Marko and I (Bernie Glassman) have started a Koan System based on  the Three Tenets of the Zen Peacemakers.  We will probably wind up with two different sets of koans (hers and his) and I have posted my initial thoughts on this koan system. The Three Tenets of the Zen Peacemakers  Entering the stream of Socially Engaged Spirituality, I vow to live a life of: Not-knowing, thereby giving up fixed ideas about ourselves and the universe Bearing witness to the joy and suffering of the world Loving actions towards ourselves...

read more

What are Bearing Witness Retreats? – Bernie Glassman

Posted by on Mar 27, 2013 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

In the days of Shakyamini Buddha, during the rainy season, Buddha would stop his meandering and spend time with his monks and nuns in one locale. In Japanese this period is called Ango, a period in space and time of peace. In English we use the word retreat to often mean “getting away from the issues of the world.” A Bearing Witness Retreat is becoming one with the “issues of the world.” A Zen Meditation Retreat is to bear witness to the wholeness of life. I use the word “plunge” for my Bearing Witness Retreats. To plunge into the...

read more

What is Enlightenment?-Bernie Glassman

Posted by on Mar 19, 2013 in Uncategorized | 1 comment

The word Buddha means the Awakened One. Awaken to what? My opinion is that we awaken to the Oneness of Life, the One Body. That is my opinion of enlightenment. This awakening keeps deepening and deepening. What do I mean by deepening? Most of us are enlightened to the Oneness of our own body. I think that my arms, my legs, my face, etc. are all part of One Body. In fact I generally act according to that opinion without thinking about it. It is very natural to do so and, in fact, if I didn’t act that way, people might say I am...

read more

The Three Tenets of the Zen Peacemakers

Posted by on Mar 6, 2013 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Not-knowing is the first tenet of the Zen Peacemakers. Not-Knowing is entering a situation without being attached to any opinion, idea or concept. This means total openness to the situation, deep listening to the situation. It is the role of the Bodhisattva to bear witness. The Buddha can stay in the realm of not-knowing, the realm of blissful non-attachment. The Bodhisattva vows to save the world, and therefore to live in the world of attachment, for that is also the world of empathy, passion, and compassion. Ultimately, she accepts all the...

read more

A Place at the Table

Posted by on Mar 5, 2013 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

A Place at the Table is produced by Participant Media, which has a history of making slickly-produced documentaries that take on large issues, and this film is no different as it touches on multiple topics like subsidies for industrial farms, the social stigma of accepting food donations, the effects hunger has on early childhood development, school meal programs and the pathetic amount the government allots per child per meal, and a lot more, featuring interviews with people like food activist Marion Nestle, Top Chef‘s Tom Colicchio,...

read more

Report From Journey to Sri Lanka

Posted by on Feb 14, 2013 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Sarvodaya, Sri Lanka’s biggest charity, is dedicated to making a positive difference to the lives of rural Sri Lankans. Their grassroots movement reaches 15,000 villages in 34 districts with 1,500 staff throughout Sri Lanka. The Founder, A. T. Ariyaratne and Bernie have been friends and have shared ideas for 30 years. In January, 2012, Bernie, Grant Couch, Sensei Francisco Paco Lugoviña, Iris Katz and Tani Katz visited Sarvodaya in Sri Lanka. They met with various leaders of Sarvodaya to discuss banking, educational and general finance...

read more

Receive the Dude and the Zen Master

Posted by on Jan 15, 2013 in Uncategorized | 4 comments

Receive the Dude  and  the Zen Master

I met the Dude on DVD sometime in the late 1990s. A few years later I met Jeff Bridges in Santa Barbara and we started hanging, as he likes to put it, often while smoking cigars. Jeff has done movies from an early age; less known, but almost as long-standing, is his commitment to ending world hunger. I was an aeronautical engineer and mathematician in my early years, but mostly I’ve taught Zen Buddhism, and that’s where we both met. Not just in meditation, which is what most people think of when they hear Zen, but the Zen of action, of...

read more

Israeli Engaged Dharma

Posted by on Jan 14, 2013 in Uncategorized | 15 comments

Israeli Engaged Dharma

In the past 6 months our group was intensively involved in two campaigns of big concern for our Palestinian partners and friends: In Deir Istiya, farmers received notices ordering to uproot 2,000 olive trees planted on their private land. The reason given for this order was that the area was declared by Israel as a natural reserve 30 years ago and so planting of new trees was illegal. In Al- Walaja, where the separation barrier is being built by Israel on village land, it was we who discovered that the Jerusalem municipality was about to...

read more

Dec 2012 Journey to Israel and Palestine

Posted by on Jan 13, 2013 in Uncategorized | 5 comments

Dec 2012 Journey to Israel and Palestine

by Eve Myonen Marko—– We go to the West Bank on December 21. December 21 is Bernie’s and my anniversary. It’s also the winter solstice, and this year it marks the end of the Mayan calendar and the beginning of something new. I don’t think there’s an end without a beginning. Our friends, Iris and Tani Katz, drive us from Jerusalem to meet up with Sami Awad, the head of Holy Land Trust and a nonviolence trainer and activist. Sami asked us not to go to his office in Bethlehem, but instead get to the Tent of Nations near the...

read more