Bearing Witness at the 9/11 Rallies

From Patrick Groneman at Interdependence Project: This past Saturday, on the ninth anniversary of the September 11th attacks, two opposing rallies were held near the site of where the Ground Zero Mosque / Islamic community center is proposed to be built. The debate around allowing the center to be built has been particularly caustic, with […]

Tug of War with a Monster

Master Kyogen said, “Its like a man up a tree hanging from a branch by his mouth; his hands cannot grasp a branch, his feet won’t reach one. A man under the tree  asks him, “What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from the west?” If he does not respond, he goes against the wishes […]

Photos: Patch of Grass to Abundant Harvest!

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 […]

How to Rid a Major City of Plastice Bags.

Interdependence 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 […]

Buddhist Group Builds Multi-Class Community

Montague Farm Zen House has Deep Local Roots 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 […]

From Rural Poverty to Green Buddhism

Appalachian Zen House Breaks Cycle of Hopelessness. 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 […]

Catholic Worker to Buddhist Entrepreneur

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

Zen Houses Establish Service-Based Dharma Center

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 […]

Building the Buddha of the Future: Community

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 […]

Beyond — Zen Peacemaker retreat at Auschwitz June 2 to June 12, 2010

The setting is beautiful, walking to Birkenau in the early morning. The sun is already bright and very hot. In the flat narrow fields striped with different greens, heads of grain grow and glisten, stirring in the sweet earth-scented breeze along with blue cornflowers and red poppies. Hay has been scythed and is being tossed […]