35 Backpacks
Sensei Edward Sangetsu Sullivan,a teacher in the White Plum Lineage, discusses how even in a time of pandemic a small group of highly motivated people can still accomplish something.
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Urban Hike: Handing Out Personal Items to Homeless Men and Women
Greg Seizan Clark, a member of the Denver Zen Center sangha, shares how while in search of a different pastime while social distancing, he discovered himself meeting and helping his community.Â
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Sangha in the Time of Covid-19
Our friend, Sandy Seiju Hockenbury from Eon Zen Center in Boulder, Colorado USA, kindly shared a short piece on the sangha support efforts that the Eon Zen Center has been engaged in as a response...
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Hard Bed by the White House: reflection on a street retreat in Washington DC
WASHINGTON DC, USA. "On the street retreat, spending four days and three nights on the streets of Washington DC, USA, mere blocks from the White House, my mind often muses about giving..."
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Haitian Heat Unrelenting as the Stream of Patients: A Nurse’s Plunge in Port-Au-Prince
PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI. Diane Berg shares her experience of facilitating a free medical clinic in Haiti. "I am starting to understand that what is most precious to the Haitian people we meet is...
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Full Moon Campers Society: Play and Burdens on the Streets of Helsinki
HELSINKI, FINLAND. In 2017 Zen Peacemaker Mikko Ijäs contacted Roshi Frank DeWaele, asking him to lead the first Street Retreat in Helsinki, Finland.Â
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Plunging on the Streets of Helsinki: Civil War, Child Slavery and The Ease of Generosity
HELSINKI, FINLAND. This September, Zen Peacemakers will be holding a street retreat in Helsinki, Finland. In this article, Mikko Ijäs describes the historical context of what these streets have born witness to in the...
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100,000 Fires to Feed: Roshi Michel Dubois’ Twenty years of Homelessness Ministry in Paris
PARIS, FRANCE. Roshi Michel Dubois, founder and teacher at Zen - A Way of the Heart center in Paris,  describes how spending a night among the homeless of Dusseldorf gave rise to a social enterprise serving...
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Knowing When to Quit: Roshi Genro Reflects on 1999 New York City Street Retreat
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, USA. "...Once you’ve experienced a certain amount of difficulty as a group, and the group’s gone through a lot, sometimes you don't need four days on the street to get...
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Cardboard Boxes, Begging and Birdsong – Reflection from Street Retreat in Chicago
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, USA. "We ended up sleeping in cardboard boxes on the banks of the Chicago River...I didn't sleep much, but I felt the cold to be a deep cleansing, the rocks breaking through...
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