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Thank you for supporting the work of the Zen Peacemakers Sangha!




Rwanda Report
Bearing Witness Retreat
by Grover Genro Gauntt
Photos by Peter Cunningham

Sally_Kealy

July 2010

Dear Zen Peacemakers Sangha,

For most of us, the heat of summer accompanies this second issue of the Zen Peacemakers Family Newsletter. This issue focuses on ZPS Interfaith Sanghas and hopefully leaves you with the cooling and harmonious effect of interconnection. Also, you will see what two different affiliates of the Zen Peacemakers Sangha can do when they put their hearts and minds together. Sensei Grover Genro Gauntt (Hudson River Peacemaker Center), Sensei Fleet Shinryu Maull (Peacemaker Institute), and photographer Peter Cunningham organized and facilitated the first Rwanda Bearing Witness Retreat. Click on Rwanda Report to read and see photos of this inspiring event.

There have been several new Dharma talks added to the ZPS Senior Teachings section, (Sensei Bruce Seiryu Blackman, and Sensei Lou Mitsunen Nordstrom). I encourage all Seniors to send their Dharma talks so we may represent your teachings in our newsletters. Our multi-media section has many features that may also represent your Sangha activities (awards; announcements; prayer list).

Our Zen Peacemakers Sangha Mother House serves as a place for connection and support, a meeting and gathering site for the Zen Peacemakers Sangha, and a place to incubate new projects. One of its new projects is the development of Zen houses. Zen houses, a new model for Buddhist practice, are residential centers devoted to serving the needs of people and communities in underserved areas of the world.

The first Zen house was formed in the Appalachian hills of Pennsylvania, and we have created a Mother House Zen House here in Montague, Massachusetts called the Montague Farm Zen House (MFZH). One of its social action projects is the weekly Montague Farm Café. Choosing not to use the term “soup kitchen”, the Café serves individuals of all ages and socio-economic strata with free food and the flavor of fun and family support. The Café also has a volunteer wellness team offering medical and dental consultations, stress reduction classes, and acupuncture sessions. Click here for a slide show and an article about the Café by Karen Kisui Werner, director of the MF Zen House. As Sangha Coordinator, I am inviting each East Coast Sangha to commit to a Saturday Café by sending a car load or two of its Sangha members to cook, serve, play, listen, and help facilitate the day. Please speak with your Sangha about contributing to this unique offering of the Mother House Zen House and then contact me either by email, or by calling me at 914-837-7646.

So, get a tall glass of lemonade, and enjoy the taste of our unique ZPS Family.

As always, I thank you and check out the Sangha Quiz below for a peek at another wonderful sangha member.

Blessings,
Sally Sonen Kealy

Editor

Sangha Quiz

karen_werner

Her life's work has been about helping others. Her research, teaching, and activism focus on social welfare and community economies. She co-founded the North Quabbin Time Bank, a community currency based in Orange, MA. She has been on the faculty of Goddard College for 8 years, and has degrees from Brown, Harvard, and Brandeis. Her hobby is puppetry, and is currently writing puppetry scripts for the 10 Ox-Herding Pictures (view U-Tube). She directs the Montague Farm Zen House, and facilitates the Montague Farm Cafe every Saturday from twelve to three. Who is she? (Click on her picture to see the answer.)

Sangha Articles

Multi-Faith Practice in the Zen Peacemakers Sangha

Multi-Faith Affiliates

Polish Peacemakers, Warsaw, Poland; Healer Circle Bern, Bern, Switzerland; Zen Peacemaker Circle Bern, Bern, Switzerland; The Healing Circle, Colorado Springs CO


Euro-Mediterranean Abrahamic Forum
in Amman, Jordan
by Andrzej Getsugen Krajewski

andrzej72

On April 8 -11 the Polish Peacemaker Community co-organized and participated in the first Conference of the Euro-Mediterranean Abrahamic Forum in Amman. The theme of this international and interreligious conference was: "Living Together. The Role of Religion in Establishing Dialogue." .....read more.





Peacemaker Circle Bern
by Franziska Schneider

The Peacemaker Circle Bern is not confined to any specific faith, religion, or church. We study the core texts of all the main religious faiths as well as ethics in order to deepen our daily practice of mindful awareness.

We consider it to be crucial that our practice does not build walls, or create “in-groups” and “out-groups” in the name of religion.

Personally, I recently experienced how two faiths came together in my work as a caregiver in a hospice lead by Christian nuns. Before that time I primarily used Buddhist teachings while being with the dying. At the hospice center I have repeatedly experienced the profound palliation that dying patients received by the soothing prayers of the Christian nuns.

Peace and Love,
Franziska


Swiss Circle
by Elisabeth Lutz

elisabeth_lutz

This circle is open to the people of Bern and its agglomeration. Our group has men and women, young and old, who come from different traditions and religious backgrounds. Our circle started out having mostly Christians, and now we also have individuals from the Islamic and Jewish faiths. Zen meditation creates a strong connection between us. .....read more




The Healing Circle
by Ed Daigu Knight

ed_knight

I have been privileged to form and facilitate three groups: The Healing Circle, Buddhism & Extreme States, and the Psychosis Dharma Community. They are not what might ordinarily be thought of as multi-faith Zen. The Healing Circle meets in a mental health client-run drop in center called the Haven House located in downtown Colorado Springs. Its members are almost entirely Evangelical Christian; however, it is open to individuals of all faiths or none at all. I give meditation instruction, and use terms that each member may understand and digest. On occasion, we discuss koans. I believe that the dharma is universal and can be found and expressed in all religious terminology if one looks carefully. .....read more.

Christian Affiliates

Sun Mountain Zen, Brisbane, Australia; Wild Goose Sangha, Cirencester, Great Britain; Retiros de Silencio Monte Tabor, Mexico City, Mexico; Via Integralis, Bad Schönbrunn, Switzerland; Clare Sangha/Zen Community of Baltimore, Baltimore, MD; One Heart Sangha, Silver Spring, MD; Morning Star Zendo, Jersey City, NJ; Dragon's Eye Zendo, New York, NY; Flowing River Sangha, Dallas, PA


Interfaith Practice at the Morning Star Zendo

by Sr. Joan Kirby, rscj

Roshi Robert Kennedy

After studying for many years in Kamakura, Japan with Yamada Koun Roshi who was known for his Interfaith approach to Zen, Fr. Robert Kennedy sought to find an American teacher with an all-inclusive approach to Zen and life. He found that teacher in Roshi Bernie Glassman who stresses that Zen include all faiths as well as all the discarded pieces of society. Roshi Kennedy is an embodiment of these teachings. .....read more.



Over the Moon
by Sensei Michael Koryu Holleran
Dragon’s Eye Zendo

michael_holleran

Rather than focus on my own synthesis, I feel it would be instructive to share reflections of beginning students from Dragon’s Eye Zendo. Obviously, their remarks represent their personal views. .....read more.




Via Integralis – Lassalle Contemplation School
by Sensei Hildegard Schmittfull, St.K.W.

In June 2004, the time had arrived: Roshi Pia Gyger and Roshi Niklaus Brantschen created Via Integralis, the contemplative wing of the Glassman-Lassalle group. Via Integralis, is a three year training program that combines the study of Zazen and Christianity. Within the name of the Glassman-Lassalle Group the connection shines through, warmly including Father Lassalle and Roshi Bernie Glassman, two of the first bridge builders between Zen and Christianity and Zen and socially engaged Buddhism. Both Niklaus and Pia are dharma heirs of Roshi Bernie Tetsugen who was delighted to see them follow their hearts and create this wonderful study opportunity. .....read more.


The Wild Goose Sangha
by Sensei Patrick Kundo Eastman

patrick_eastman

Four years ago I formed a Zen meditation group in the town of Cirencester located in the beautiful rural Cotswold countryside of England. I am an ex-Anglican now married Roman Catholic priest who spent over 20 years in the Diocese of Tulsa, Oklahoma. In Tulsa I became a Zen student of Roshi Ruben Habito. After a few years of studying with Roshi Habito, I began to study with Roshi John Daido Loori of Zen Mountain monastery. In my position as Director of Spiritual Formation for the Diocese, I ran a Spiritual Life Centre. Under the direction of Robert Kennedy Roshi I started what became a flourishing Zen sitting group. After retiring from the ministry in Tulsa, I returned to my native England and began a meditation group. .....read more.

Sufi Affiliates

The Great Heart Society, Manchester, Great Britain; Light Within Light, Mexico City, Mexico; Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order, New York, NY


juliet_rabia_gentile

Dhikr
The Sufi Prayer of Remembrance
by Juliet Rabia Gentile
Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order
New York, NY

zikr

Sufism is the English word to describe the spiritual reality known as Tawhid (the Oneness of God) and the spiritual technology known as Tasawwuf. The central practice of that technology is dhikr, which can be translated as Remembrance of God. Though the Sufi path involves a whole deal more than this, it is my hope to communicate one subtle drop of the knowledge flowing through the silsila of light and transmitted by the mystic hearts of the Sufi Shaykhs of my lineage; Shaykha Fariha al-Jerrahi, as well as Shaykh Nur Lex Hixon, known in the Zen tradition as Jikai. .....read more.

Jewish Affiliates

Shir-Hadash Contemplative Community, Pacific Palisades, CA; The Garden, Yavne'el, Israel


The Meaning of "One" is One
by Rabbi Sensei Don Ani Shalom Singer

don_singer

Rabbi Don founded Shir Hadash in 1981 as a contemplative community of friends open to the dialogue of life. A teacher of contemplative Judaism, ordained at Hebrew Union College. He also received dharma transmission from Zen Master Bernie Glassman. Currently he leads study groups and retreats focused upon dialogue with root texts of the Jewish wisdom heritage. Rabbi Don is a leading contributor in the Jewish and Buddhist dialogue. .....read more.