NOVEMBER 1-5, 2010 AUSCHWITZ BEARING WITNESS RETREAT
To read descriptions and/or to register, please click here. This retreat includes Young Adults from Israel, Palestine, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, USA, and other countries.
BERNIE ON THE ROAD
Sep 24-26, 2010 Zen Peacemakers founder Bernie Glassman will lead the workshop Bearing Witness to the Wholeness of Life at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, Stockbridge, MA.
Nov 10, 2010 Becoming a Mensch: Service as Spiritual Practice at the Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany.
The Mother House of the Zen Peacemakers Sangha at the House of One People in Montague, Ma.
The Zen Peacemakers Sangha (ZPS) is an offering of the Zen Peacemakers. The ZPS is an affiliationn of groups founded by or led by seniors within the empowered lineage of Bernie Glassman or groups who practice Zen and socially engaged Zen. The ZPS is created to share our diverse methods of practice, service and teaching, to continue to educate and develop ourselves as practitioners and teachers, and to provide the best possible opportunities for practice, realization and actualization for our students and the generations that follow.
We invite your center, group, or circle, to
apply for affiliation in the Zen Peacemaker Sangha, with a Mother House and an educational institute
called the Maezumi Institute.
The Zen Peacemakers Sangha holds regular gathering of
ZPS seniors in conjunction with a study retreat led by Roshi Bernie. ZPS will also host periodic family gatherings open to all ZPS members.
Rev. Sally Sonen Kealy is coordinating the activities of the ZPS. If you have any questions or changes to the list of ZPS Groups or Seniors please contact her by e-mail at sonen@zenpeacemakers.com or by phone at 914.837.7646.
Mission
We the undersigned Zen teachers and chosen representatives of Zen
Peacemaker groups (Zen centers, groups, institutes and circles) agree to come
together to create a Zen Peacemakers Sangha with a
Mother House and an
educational institute called the
Maezumi Institute. The purpose for our
cooperative efforts is to maintain Zen practice, realization and
actualization, and to nurture, promote and creatively transform Zen
traditions.
We welcome your comments and suggestions. Please link here to send an email to us.
Vision
We recognize that no one teacher or group holds all truth and that
we can better maintain and advance our Way through cooperation and
learning from one another. Our efforts to establish a Sangha speaks to
this wish to share our diverse methods of practice and teaching, to
continue to educate and develop ourselves as practitioners and
teachers, and to provide the best possible opportunities for practice,
realization and actualization for our students and the generations that
follow.
Unifying Principles
Zen manifests through the dedicated efforts of individuals and
groups who realize and actualize the interconnectedness of life through
their practice in training halls, at work, within families and within
community. The Three Treasures and the Three Tenets serve as the common
foundation for our Zen practice.
The Three Treasures can be understood from many different
perspectives, including Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and Oneness,
Diversity and Harmony; as such, the Three Treasures are not limited to
any one faith or belief system.
The Three Tenets are the human embodiment and functioning of the
Three Treasures and consist of Not-knowing, Bearing Witness and Loving
Actions.
The Three Treasures and Three Tenets are the foundation of our
commitment to zazen, to the uniquely relational nature of Zen teaching,
to the mind-to-mind transmission of teaching authority, to circle
practice, to peacemaking, to social service, to broad-based
inclusivity, to community, to Oneness and to the interconnectedness of
all life.
Organizing Principles
A deep understanding of the interpenetration of Oneness and
Diversity lies at the heart of Zen. This is expressed in taking great
care to maintain balance in the subtle relationships between whole and
parts, to recognize the interplay of perspectives, and to make wise
choices as to the appropriate perspective for each situation. Teaching
and transmitting this understanding calls for a knowledge of
traditional teaching methods (upayas) that have come to us from our ancestors, as well as
for the creativity to develop new upayas relevant to the needs of
sanghas and practitioners in the ever-unfolding present.
In this spirit, we honor the authority invested in realized Zen
teachers and support their wisdom and vision; and we honor Zen circle
practices, which foster and draw nurturence from the horizontal wisdom,
compassion and creativity of the peer group. In this spirit, we seek to
create a union that will honor the autonomy and creativity of
individual teachers and groups while opening paths of mutual
understanding, learning, shared endeavors and some common practices. We
embrace a Federalist model, in which decisions are made at the lowest
appropriate level. Thus we seek to protect the integrity, autonomy and
authority of each group while developing a cooperative union that
utilizes the Mother House and the Maezumi Institute. The members of the
Zen Peacemakers Sangha - teachers, centers and circles - will develop
their own styles and ways of practice, their own liturgy, rituals and
vestments.
At the Zen Peacemaker Board Meeting held at the Mother House in
Montague, Ma on May 3, 2005, Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara was chosen by
Roshi Bernie Glassman as Co-Spiritual Director of the Zen Peacemaker Sangha.
This appointment was unanimously ratified by the ZP
Board. Bernie expressed his delight in
this ratification and his joy in having the ZPS stated value of
partnership being realized in the Spiritual Director role.
Elder Bob Blessing Enkyo and Bernie
On May 4, 2005, Enkyo and Bernie were acknowledged in a ritual developed by leaders of the Zen Peacemaker Sangha
as Co-Spiritual Directors. The ceremony honored the concept of partnership and was blessed by the Elder of ZPS.
Peter Cunningham created a photo essay of
the installation ceremony. To see these pictures please link below.
The ZPS Seniors include ZPS Elders, Dharma Center Elders, Roshis, Senseis, Dharma Holders, Preceptors,
Full Priests, Abbotts, those that have received Denkai, Dummy Holders, Circle Buddha Seat Holders, active Circle Stewards, Order of DisOrder and Order of Minstrel Coordinators.
For a listing of the ZPS Seniors (note that this list was last updated January 2008) please link to List of ZPS Seniors.