Mitra Path’s President Reflects on Social Enterprise in Nepal and Bearing Witness in Auschwitz

TORRANCE, CALIFORNIA, USA. “In November, I traveled to Auschwitz, Poland for a Bearing Witness retreat with Roshi Bernie Glassman and the friends of Zen Peacemakers. This life-changing experience taught me how to take action in the world from a deeper place in my heart.” Mitra Path founder Nem Bajra shares about his experience Bearing Witness at Auschwitz-Birkenau, and reports on the current projects of Mitra Path to fund small businesses around the world.

Rags to Rakusus: Paco

YONKERS, NEW YORK STATE, USA. Lay practitioners of Zen Buddhist lineages who take refuge in the Buddhist precepts and vows prepare and wear a rakusu – a cloth garment around their neck – representing the monastic robe, also known as kesa. In the days of the Buddha, it is said that certain materials called Pamsula were taboo for use by society. This included materials used for shrouds covering the dead, those gnawed by rats, or menstrual rags. These were collected to create the monks’ robes. The late co-founder of the Zen Peacemaker Order, Roshi Sandra Jishu Holmes, first conceived the Zen Peacemaker Rakusu that is made up of pieces of discarded cloth from origins meaningful to their wearer’s life and practice. This series of posts named ‘Rags to Rakusus,’ showcases the personal stories of Zen Peacemakers’ rakusus around the world.

This Food of Seventy Two Labors, an Invitation to a Bearing Witness Retreat to Food, Land and Racism in the USA

PETERSBURG, NEW YORK STATE, USA. Rev. Ariel Pliskin​, ZPO Minister and founder of Unity Tables​ and community-based Stone Soup Café Greenfield MA​ has participated in several Bearing Witness Retreats on the streets, at Auschwitz, and the Black Hills. He now brings this rich experience to examine the interplay of food, land and race in the USA, in a new retreat he is organizing together with Sensei Francisco Lugovina​ from Hudson River Peacemaker Center-House of One People​, and Leah Penniman from Soul Fire Farm​. Read what led Ariel to co-develop this retreat, and join him in September 2017 on Soul Fire Farm.

Mindfulness and Social Emotional Learning In Porto Alegre Public Schools, South Brazil

PORTO ALEGRE, BRAZIL. J. Ovidio Waldemar, M.D. is an American-trained Brazilian psychiatrist who has for the last 20 years been active in the Viazen, the Porto Alegre Zen Center. With the SENTE program, Ovidio weaves his Zen Peacemaker practices of meditation, council practice and the Three-Tenets with his clinical psychotherapy experience to support the children and community of Porto Alegre in South Brazil.

Taking Action: Building a Year-Round Greenhouse

VERMONT, USA. Continuing the momentum of the work by Zen Peacemakers on Turtle Island (USA), many of our members have followed the Three Tenets, giving rise to organized actions in service of the Native American community, and developing relationships across cultures. Below is a report of one such action.

Greyston’s Founder Wins Social Innovator Award

    Greyston’s Founder Wins Social Innovator Award As Organization Continues to Expand Impact (from Greyston press release, April 2016)   April 8, 2016. Yonkers, NY – On April 7, 2016, The Lewis Institute at Babson presented the Social Innovator Award to Greyston’s founder, Bernie Glassman, for pioneering an organization dedicated to job creation and […]