Welcome to the Zen Peacemaker Order
The Zen Peacemaker Order is part of Zen Peacemakers International, a community of social and environmental activists based on the engaged dharma teachings of Roshi Bernie Glassman.
The Order is a smaller nucleus of members who wish to deepen their practice of awakening to the interdependence of life and their work for social and environmental change. They vow to uphold the Rule of the Order in order to benefit all beings.
While we will be offering a variety of trainings and practice paths that integrate service with the dharma, we focus on developing a living and connected practice community that supports and empowers its members in all they do.
Coming together. Again and again. Twenty-five years ago Bernie and Jishu brought us together, not for the first time, with an invitation to be part of a sangha without walls, a space to practice plunging into life just as it is, leaving out nothing, leaving out no one. Framed by the Three Tenets, the Zen Peacemaker Order challenged us to experience with our whole selves the reality of interconnectedness. Our zendo became the streets, the killing fields, the homeless shelters, the prisons, tribal land, the schools and hospitals, nowhere left out. We crossed oceans and borders, opening our hearts and minds. We supported each other in the tender work of putting into daily life Bernie’s aspiration: “May we always have the courage to bear witness, to see ourselves as the other and to see others as ourselves.” With humor. Today we gather to recommit ourselves to the Zen Peacemaker Order, the spiritual foundation of Zen Peacemaker International. Our particular expression arises through the lineage and great vows of our ancestors and Zen practitioners who came before us. We commit to pass this on to those to come after us.