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Photos: Patch of Grass to Abundant Harvest!

by Ari Pliskin on September 8th, 2010
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Deerfield Academy’s boys lacrosse team helping set the garden fence posts.

On Earth Day April 2010, we broke ground on a 1/4 acre garden at the Montague Farm. Now in September we are harvesting and serving organic vegetables every week to 60-70 people at our Montague Farm cafe free community meals.

This garden was created by many people: Karen Idoine, Ike Eichenlaub, Laurie Smith, Tim Raines, Doug Donnell, Janice Frey, Bonnie Bloom, Dan Smith, Charlie Kerrigan, Henry Marshall, Kanji Ruhl, and the Greenfield Farmers Co-operative Exchange. The fabulous Big Brothers/Big Sisters crew (Ashley, Brooke, and Rachel) and the Deerfield Academy lacrosse team and their coach Jan Flaska have been instrumental. Rosalind Jiko McIntosh has coordinated nurturing of the garden since June.

Cucumbers, zucchini, basil, cilantro and carrots being harvested right now. Volunteers to maintain the garden and process the harvest are very welcome.

A plot of grass transformed into the Montague Farm Zen House garden

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Tim Raines on the first round with the rototiller in April.
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After the Deerfield Academy lacrosse team helped dig a fence trench and set the poles.
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Karen Idoine and the chicken wire fence in mid May.
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At last, early plantings in June!

Abundant Crops
Abundance in August!

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Sit-For-Change on September 18.

by Ari Pliskin on September 8th, 2010

This one is from our friends at the Buddhist Peace Fellowship:

September 18th is quickly approaching and Sit-for-Change is gaining momentum!

Sit-for-Change is an innovative event weaving together contemplative practice and fund-raising – both of which are important parts of creating a stable, dynamic, and powerful movement for social change.

Sit-for-Change is like a walk-a-thon… you can help us raise funds by getting people to pledge you to do contemplative practice for 108 minutes on September 18th.  You can also support this event by pledging one of us!


Come sit with us!

The BPF community will sit together in Berkeley, and around the country, to care for ourselves while caring for the world.

It’s a day for you to practice mindfulness and awareness, while supporting the work of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, and our event partner, Center for Transformative Change.

On September 18th, spend 108 minutes in practice – sitting with us in Berkeley or on your own, practicing yoga or walking meditation, or whatever activity nourishes you – and invite your friends and family to participate and/or to sponsor your activity.

You can also support BPF Community Sit for Change by pledging for one of our staff members or friends. Or you can simply make a donation to support BPF.

sit for change logo

Thank you again for all that you do, and for being a part of our community.

with deep bows,
Sarah Weintraub

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Bearing Witness to Anti-Muslim Sentiment at Ground Zero.

by Ari Pliskin on September 8th, 2010

This invitation below is from Patrick Groneman at the Interdependence Project (IDP).  I enjoyed meeting Patrick, first when I participated in an IDP action and then at the Symposium for Western Socially Engaged Buddhism.  I am pleased to see that he is incorporating the Zen Peacemakers tenet of Bearing Witness into his participation in events related to the construction of a mosque at Ground Zero.

Bearing Witness is the second of the three tenets of the Zen Peacemakers: Not-Knowing, Bearing Witness and Loving Actions.  As Patrick explains, Bearing Witness is about non-reactivity.  It is about avoiding knee-jerk reactions based on assumptions or political dogma.  From a sense of Not-Knowing, we Bear Witness to the joy and suffering around us.  We really listen to the Muslims trying to build the mosque and to those who oppose it.  We allow ourselves to feel what they feel.  Coming from this space, we take Loving Actions that heal ourselves and others.  Wish I could be there!

“This Saturday, on the 9th Anniversary of the Sept. 11th Terrorist attacks members of the Tea Party will be holding a rally to express disapproval of a planned mosque and Muslim cultural center near the former site of the world trade centers.  Various groups and individuals will be holding a counter protest, organized by the International Action Center, to express solidarity and refute what they view as a racist sentiments coming from the Tea Party movement.

I will be meditating at this rally, first marching with the the Unity and Solidarity movement from city hall at 1pm, and then finding a place to sit during the main protest at 2pm. I invite anyone to come join me in this sitting.

I will be holding a sign that reads “Bearing Witness”, which will be my approach for this rally.   There are deep wounds that exist on both sides of this debate, and regardless of how I feel personally about this issue, I wish to inject a component of non-judgement into the event.

“Bearing Witness” is one of the principles of the Zen Peacemakers, it is meant to encourage non-reactivity in potentially volatile situations.  When confronted with situations in which we would normally react, what happens when we look closely at the reactive impulse instead?

I don’t know what will happen, but I invite you to join me. Please send me an e-mail if you would like more info, or if you know for sure that you would like to participate.

dynamic.expression@gmail.com

Secondarily, if someone is interested in beginning the day marching with the Tea Party group and meeting up in the middle to meditate, I think we could learn a lot by sharing our experiences.

In peace,

Patrick”

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How to Rid a Major City of Plastice Bags.

by Ari Pliskin on September 8th, 2010

Plastic BagsInterdependence Project Executes Day of Action.

Icebreaker

I entered the Interdependence Project (IDP) meeting at their Bowery location on No Impact Day with a sense of anticipation. IDP joined an initiative to rid New York City of plastic bags. As someone who has been following them online, I was glad to see that they were hosting events on the weekend when I was visiting New York City for my sister’s birthday. As we went around the room sharing one word about how we felt, I was comforted to learn that I wasn’t the only one who felt anxious, excited and curious.


Collaboration

Listening to Colin

Colin and event participants

IDP hosted this event in collaboration with Colin Beavan, a.k.a. No Impact Man. Colin emphasized that it was the folks in the room who organized the day of action and not him. He stressed that we shouldn’t be attached to particular outcomes, but should pay attention to how people react to us and how we react to the experience. After he got things rolling, he handed things over to the group and left the room.

The participants included a range of experience in social service and activism. One woman who works at an alternative school considered how she could get her students involved. She wanted to win and she was eager to get out and take action instead of just talking about it. Another woman shared a wealth of experience from Green Peace organizing. My partner turned out to work in development at an old settlement house.

Strategy

There was a certain vitality and freshness in the room. There was open space for everyone’s contribution. I shared some ideas from my experience canvassing against George W. Bush in 2004 and people welcomed them, even though I plopped in after they had been preparing for at least a week.

We came up with last-minute strategy tweaks to the existing plan of going out in pairs of two and requesting store clerks and managers to consider switching from automatically offering customers plastic bags to asking first if they are needed. If appropriate, we asked if the store would consider taking steps towards eliminating plastic bags altogether- a major campaign embraced by IDP.

Hitting the streets

Store Clerk

Ari and store clerk

The fear and anxiety was quickly transformed into exhilaration and with every uninterested or hostile comment, I was ready to learn, smile and move on, just like my days canvassing. The first woman we talked to (pictures) was friendly and sympathetic and invited us to leave fliers.Pamphlets

Reflection

Coming back, we shared our experiences. A few people’s descriptions really reminded me of the ethos of what we call a Bearing Witness Plunge at the Zen Peacemakers. Colin noted that we developed a palpable conviviality between us. Thanks IDP!

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Buddhist Group Builds Multi-Class Community

by Ari Pliskin on September 7th, 2010

Montague Farm Zen House has Deep Local Roots

Karen Kisui Werner

I met Karen while living at the Zen Peacemakers farm as a Seminary student in 2008.  She was part of the local Sangha who sat with Seminary students in the Zendo.  I was inspired by her leadership in the community economies movement and very excited when she was hired to direct the Montague Farm Zen House.  She has lived in the region for many years and has close connections with several local groups. I experienced the benefits of Karen’s generously sharing her connections first-hand.  When I returned to Montague last December, she introduced me to the Brick House Community Resource Center where I’ve volunteered weekly since.

It has also been a great joy to get to know regulars at our weekly community meals as Karen has partnered with other service agencies to build a core group of service providers and service recipients who come to our meals.  I write “service” while cringing, because the Montague Farm Café blurs the line between server and recipient, as all of us attend the meal to be fed in one way or another.

In the Zen Houses panel at the Symposium for Western Socially Engaged Buddhism, Karen explained how the stone soup is an important practice and symbol of the Montague Farm Café.  Every week, Café participants are invited to contribute to a pot with a stone in it.  Some add drawings or notes to the “soup”.  Some contribute dollar bills and others contribute larger sums.  With the Café, Karen creates as open and alive of a container as she can, responding to others’ ideas and making the best meal possible out of the ingredients available.  In the process, she tries to remember the importance of fun as she practices service with love and dignity.

Want to experience the Zen House?  Check out our residence training program.  You can also support the Zen Houses and view this presentation by purchasing DVD’s of this panel.

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From Rural Poverty to Green Buddhism

by Ari Pliskin on September 7th, 2010

Appalachian Zen House Breaks Cycle of Hopelessness.

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Steve Kanji Ruhl

I was first introduced to Kanji and Bernie through podcasts that I listened to while wandering around on the other side of the planet in Argentina.  Bernie was teaching a Harvard Divinity School class in 2007.  Students took part in envisioning Zen Houses.  I couldn’t bear thoughts of returning to the 9-5 grind and the Zen House vision provided me with an opportunity to improve my meditation discipline and also give back to the community.  It gave me an alternative.  In one discussion on the podcast, Kanji asked whether a Zen House could be rural, for example, in his native Pennsylvania.  Bernie was thinking more of urban houses.  However, after graduating as Harvard’s first Buddhist Master of Divinity and completing the Zen Peacemakers Seminary (along with me), Kanji founded the Appalachian Zen House (the first Zen House) in central Pennsylvania.

In the Zen Houses panel at the Symposium for Socially Engaged Buddhism, Kanji explained how overcoming obstacles growing up in central PA influenced his embrace of Green Buddhism as a path to breaking generations of rural poverty.  After completing seminary, he returned to his home town and, working with fellow Seminary graduate Jiko McIntosh,  networked and laid infrastructure for Zen House programs including green jobs, education and sustainable agriculture.  He did this work in a region where laid-off workers seek double shifts at Wal-mart, where resntful war veterans without health insurance are too ashamed to ask for help and where drugs and violence plague the lives of youth.

Many of the same problems effect Franklin County, the home of Zen Peacemakers Head Quarters and the Montague Farm Zen House.  Want to experience that Zen House?  Check out our residence training program.  You can also support the Zen Houses and view this presentation by purchasing DVD’s of this panel.

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Catholic Worker to Buddhist Entrepreneur

by Ari Pliskin on September 7th, 2010

Kathe McKenna’s Haley House Serves as Model for Zen Houses

Kathe McKenna

Kathe McKenna

In the Zen Houses panel at the Symposium for Western Socially Engaged Buddhism, Kathe McKenna explained that after she finished college in the 1960’s, abuses violating civil rights moved her to fight back.  She got involved in radical Christian groups, eventually finding a home with the Catholic Workers in Boston.  In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus says “You who are blessed…For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.”  Catholic Workers took this literally.  When Kathe and her future husband John saw men starving and drunk on the street, they saw ambassadors of God.  They brought the men to their apartment and fed them slowly building a atypical soup kitchen where guests are welcomed with dignity.  Kathe explained how years of sharing her purse and heart wore on her and continued injustice angered her.  It was the non-violent message of Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhists who gave her an alternative to joining the Weather Men and eventually, vajrayana Buddhist practice came to play a very significant role in her life.

In her search to expand the Haley House Soup kitchen and low-income housing into social enterprise, she sought contact with Bernie Glassman.  As Greyston became an inspiration for the Haley House Bakery Café, Haley House became an inspiration for Zen Houses.  Today, Kathe and other Haley House community members (including Christians, Buddhists and others) recognize that their spiritual practice has meant a lot to their development.  They wonder how they could provide support for inner development to the people who come to Haley House seeking food and community.

I interned at Haley House for nine months after completing the Zen Peacemakers Seminary in Montague, MA.  During that time, Kathe and I and others introduced Buddhist practice as an option for community members.  With Kathe as an advising board member to the Zen Peacemakers, I have been pleased to return to Montague and take part in the creation of a community meal on our own campus.

Want to experience the Zen House?  Check out our residence training program.  You can also support the Zen Houses and view this presentation by purchasing DVD’s of this panel.

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Zen Houses Establish Service-Based Dharma Center

by Ari Pliskin on September 7th, 2010

Zen Houses Panel

Karen Kisui Werner, Steve Kanji Ruhl, Kathe McKenna, Eve Myonin Marko

Symposium Hosts Share Contribution to Engaged Buddhist Practice.

Writing about the Zen Houses panel of the Symposium for Western Socially Engaged Buddhism is hard for me because I sincerely believe that Zen Houses are the best thing the planet has going for it. How can I be sincere without overstating my case? Zen Houses are dharma centers whose practice of social service is just as central as meditation. My faith in Zen Houses does not imply that I believe that Zen is for everyone, but rather my belief that when we choose to live more communally, simply and sustainably, integrating forgotten members of society into our circle, then we address problems of global warming, poverty, consumerist malaise and poor health. That’s why I joined the Zen Peacemakers in Montague, MA.

In the Zen Houses panel, I was inspired once again by four leaders whose heart, intelligence and dedicated work have educated me as I’ve worked with them for the past two years. They each approach the Zen House from a different perspective: two as inspirations and models and two as founding directors of more recent endeavors. Kathe McKenna founded the Haley House in Boston as a Catholic Worker House to pick up homeless men off the street and provide them with warm meals and companionship. Moderator Eve Marko was a member of the Zen community led by Bernie Glassman who established the Greyston Foundation, a cluster of social enterprise and service organizations that greatly reduced poverty in Yonkers, NY. More recently Steve Kanji Ruhl founded the Appalachian Zen House and Karen Kisui Werner began serving as the founding director of the Montague Farm Zen House. Like the widespread Catholic Worker houses and the acclaimed Greysotn Foundation, the Zen Houses provide a place for the practice of service as integrated within a broader spiritual tradition. Panelists discussed their personal paths to this work as well as their unique visions for realizing it.

Want to experience the Zen House?  Check out our residence training program.  Support the Zen Houses by purchasing DVD’s of this panel.

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American Buddhists and Worker Justice: A Call to Action

by Maia Duerr on September 6th, 2010

A slightly different version of this post originally appeared on The Jizo Chronicles on September 6, 2010 (Labor Day).
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Mushim Ikeda-Nash is a dharma teacher, diversity consultant, writer, and editor who lives in Oakland, CA. She is a core teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center (also in Oakland).

For many years, Mushim wrote a “Family Practice” column in Turning Wheel that was one of the most beloved parts of the magazine. She has a gift for bringing the dharma into the every day details of our lives, whether that is being a parent or being an engaged citizen.

Mushim wrote this piece in 2006 for Interfaith Worker Justice. It’s titled “American Buddhists and Worker Justice: A Call to Action.”

“Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing, and oppression,
I vow to cultivate loving kindness and learn ways to work for the well-being of
people, animals, plants, and minerals.”
~Thich Nhat Hanh

In the richest country in the world, more than two million full-time, year round workers live below the poverty line, struggling to pay for necessities such as food, housing, healthcare, transportation, and childcare (U.S. Census Bureau, “Poverty in the United States: 2002”).

The Thich Nhat Hanh quote, above, is a contemporary interpretation of the traditional Buddhist precept, “Do not steal.” It calls upon us to deepen our investigation of what “stealing” is: we may not be robbing banks, or breaking and entering other people’s homes, but are we supporting exploitation of workers through the clothing, shoes, and food we buy? How far are we willing to go out of our usual comfort zones, how deeply are we willing to dig into our pockets, in order to support fair trade goods and worker justice?

How many Buddhist clergy and lay leaders turn up at worker strikes to show their support, in alliance with interfaith efforts? How many teachers giving Dharma talks or Buddhist sermons address the issues of living wage and worker rights? And if we ourselves are Buddhist and are laboring in exploitative workplaces, do we feel we can reach out to Buddhist coalitions for solidarity and support?

Buddhist teachings provide a “big picture view” spanning many generations, acknowledging that systemic greed, hatred, and delusion do not change overnight. When we examine the “ancient twisted karma” of innumerable human choices and actions, we can see that intertwined with the cause of worker justice in the United States is the plight of immigrants and undocumented workers, the “life threatening disease” of racism, and the breakdown of American public education.

We all need the basics: food, shelter, clothing, and medical care. Grinding poverty, for those who are working as hard as they can, leads to constant suffering and fear. As American Buddhists, we need to help ourselves and others realize the means to attain Right Livelihood, or non-harmful ways of making a decent living. Everyone, without exception, wants to live with dignity and safety, in happiness and in peace. When we help others, we help ourselves.

So, what can we do? Reflecting on our own actions, we can appreciate choices we’ve made in the past that support worker justice. When my son was seven years old, the Oakland public school teachers went on an extended strike. We never crossed the picket line, but I hadn’t been prepared to do home schooling, and my own work schedule was disrupted completely. I recall arriving at a local science museum one afternoon and finding a group of similarly desperate parents sitting outside, with screaming kids swarming over a large cement dinosaur. Greeting each other with exhausted nods, we sat together in silence. Convenient? No. Necessary? Yes! We supported the Oakland teachers’ union, and we made it through the strike, one day at a time.

Let’s take a vow today to take a step, small or large, for worker justice. Let’s think of one thing we can do, no matter how seemingly small, to help workers in our neighborhood, our schools, our community, earn a living wage and improve their situations. Working together, we can do it!

May all beings be happy.

May they be joyous and live in safety.

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Building the Buddha of the Future: Community

by Kanji Ruhl on September 5th, 2010

Panelists at Symposium Discuss Socially Engaged Sanghas

“The Buddha of the future,” said moderator Alan Senauke, speaking at the Symposium for Western Socially Engaged Buddhism and paraphrasing Vietnamese Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, “will be sangha” — that is, community.

But what makes a socially engaged community? Senauke, a Soto Zen priest and vice-abbot of Berkeley Zen Center and founder of the Clear View Project, asked this question of his panelists on August 10. “What makes your community work?” he added. ‘What are the challenges?”

In war-torn Colombia, building a socially engaged community can mean helping to support villagers in their work to heal strife and create productive lives, said Sarah Weintraub, executive director of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship (BPF).

She explained that the BPF’s Dharma in Action Project works with the Reconciliation Accompaniment Project in Colombia, allowing participants to be “present with those people and bearing witness” so that the Colombian villagers involved in the project “can live their peace work and grow their crops.” It also trains socially engaged leaders through “hands-on, on-the-ground experience.”

Another example of community social engagement, Weintraub said, is the BPF’s Buddhist Alliance for Social Engagement (BASE), focusing on “practice, study,and action. It’s awareness training, in relation to each other and social change, taking who we are as a starting point for action.”

Yet a third example of socially engaged community-building, according to Weintraub, are efforts such as the “BPF 2.0″ project, connecting people through Facebook and through other sites online.

Socially engaged community also can mean a monastic group that ventures into the world to confront injustices. Clare Carter, a member of the Nipponzan Myojoji Japanese Buddhist Order, has walked on lengthy international pilgrimages to raise awareness of the legacies of slavery and racial oppression, and to demonstrate for peace.

Yet living in community can itself be a powerful practice, she emphasized.  “In sangha we run into things and keep working on it minute by minute — it’s constant practice, with no getting away from it.”

Young people often live in desperate need of community, and Ken Byalin and John Bell spoke of their own inspiring work in developing opportunities for youth.

“The educational system was worse than I thought,” said Byalin, a Soto Zen Buddhist priest, speaking of how he came to found the Lavelle Preparatory Charter School. “I was ready for a bigger community.” As a result, the Lavelle Prep School was created to help students who encounter emotional challenges learn how to flourish in a demanding yet nurturing college preparatory program that features small classes, outstanding technological resources, first-rate teachers and a curriculum — and educational community — designed to meet students’ emotional and social needs.

When such needs are met, extraordinary things can happen. John Bell, of YouthBuild USA, spoke movingly of how that organization has helped thousands of young people choose new directions for their lives, through right action — forging peace treaties between gangs, for example — and right livelihood, through projects such as young people building affordable housing within their communities.  “Youth are despairing but they want to know their true nature,” Bell said. “They want to make a contribution, to be happy and safe.”

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