Tradition and lineage
Although Zen Peacemakers is associated with the White Plum Asanga lineage, founder Bernie Glassman did not envisage it as an organisation bound by traditional Japanese Sōtō Zen practice. Bernie Glassman has said:
Maezumi Roshi was not carrying out the tradition of the Japanese Soto sect when he came here. The Soto sect of Japan was not carrying out the traditions of Chinese Zen. You have to be careful with the word 'traditional.' We honor a lot of eccentric people.
Likewise, although within the lineage, the Zen Peacemaker Order was not formed as part of the White Plum Asanga organisation. Links between the two organisations are now distant; despite being named as heir to the presidency of the White Plum Asanga in Maezumi's will, Glassman ceased attending the annual meetings of Taizan Maezumi's dharma heirs within a few years of his former teacher's death. According to author James Ishmael Ford, as of 2006 Glassman has "transferred his leadership of the White Plum Asanga to his Dharma brother Merzel Roshi
and has formally 'disrobed,' renouncing priesthood in favor of serving
as a lay teacher and leader of what is now called the Zen Peacemaker
Family."
Greyston Foundation
Activities of the Zen Peacemakers originated in Yonkers, New York with the opening of the Greyston Bakery, its most well-known and prosperous project, in 1982. Its projects eventually united under the auspices of the Greyston Foundation, a network of community development companies and non-profit organizations based in the inner city. Greyston Family Inn opened in 1991, on proceeds from the sale of Greyston mansion. It provides permanent housing for homeless
people, with a child day-care center amongst services available for
residents. Currently there are three buildings, providing fifty housing
units. Other projects include the Greyston Garden Project, five
community-run gardens established on neglected properties. In 1992
Greyston Health Services was formed, primarily to provide services for
poor people with HIV/AIDS. In 1997 Issan House opened, named after Issan Dorsey a Zen Roshi
who had died from an AIDS-related condition in 1990. It provides
thirty-five permanent housing units for people living with both HIV/AIDS
and mental illness or chemical dependency.
The Maitri Day Program within the building provides a variety of health
and rehabilitative service to 150 people with HIV/AIDS from the local
community. As one of the first 'welfare to work'
programs in the USA, in 2004 Greyston had an annual budget of over $20
million and received numerous government grants. At Yonkers, they
occupy the former Ethan Flagg House-Blessed Sacrament Monastery, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
International
In 1996 Bernie Glassman - with his wife Sandra Jishu Holmes - officially founded the Zen Peacemaker Order, later the Zen Peacemaker Circle and currently Zen Peacemakers.
According to professor Christopher S. Queen, "The order is based on
three principles: plunging into the unknown, bearing witness to the pain
and joy of the world and a commitment to heal oneself and the world."
Zen Peacemaker projects have included a Paris soup kitchen for
immigrants and non-violence efforts in the Palestinian territories, with
joint Israeli-Palestinian peaceful coexistence projects in Israel. Zen
Peacemakers in Poland established 'Nonviolent Communications Training
and Practice' in the national public school system and opened an AIDS
hospice. The Auschwitz project brought together families of the Holocaust
survivors and the descendants of those who ran the camps to '"bear
witness to the horrors of war" during retreats at the site of the former
German concentration camp in Poland. In the United States, Zen Peacemakers have campaigned for prison reform, provided hospice care and worked with the poor in both inner city and rural areas.
Zen Peacemakers has 70 affiliate centers in 5 Continents and 12
Countries. Countries with groups affiliated to Zen Peacemakers include:
Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands,
Switzerland and the UK. In the United States affiliates include the Upaya Institute and Zen Center led by Joan Halifax in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Elders and Spiritual Directors
The founder roshi Bernie Glassman has served as the spiritual director of Zen Peacemakers from its inception. In May 2005 roshi Enkyo Pat O'Hara
was ratified as Co-Spiritual Director by the Zen Peacemaker Board. Rami
Efal serves as director of the Zen Peacemakers International
organisation, acting as a 'hive' to collect and share ideas for the
widespread community. In Europe, Cornelius Collande, Barbara Wegmueller,
Michel DuBois and Frank De Waele are among the elders of the Zen
Peacemakers community and the Auschwitz Bearing Witness retreat. For the
Zen Peacemaker Circles, the current coordinator in Europe is Kathleen
Battke, who succeeded Barbara Wegmueller in the role, and in America the
longest serving elder in Circle practice is Jeana Moore.
Zen Peacemaker Sangha
The
structure of Zen Peacemakers is, like the Greyston Foundation, somewhat
complex and also like Greyston is described as a mandala. The mandala
is based on the Five Buddha Families
with the intention that the organisation addresses needs in all aspects
of life. The Zen Peacemakers Sangha (ZPS) is a branch of the Zen
Peacemakers Order. It is an association of groups founded by or led by
seniors empowered by Bernie Glassman or groups who practice Zen and
socially engaged Zen. The ZPS is a forum for sharing the diverse methods
of practice, service and teaching within the Zen Peacemakers Order for
the purpose of education and personal development as practitioners and
teachers.
The Mother House
Formerly
sited in Montague, Massachusetts, in the United States, the Mother
House was the study and practice center of the Zen Peacemakers. The
approach of the institute is based on the Japanese concept gyogaku funi, or "practice and study are not two".
It provides various training paths, study programs, and hands-on
internships. The Mother House hosted various programs including the
Montague Farm Zendo, the Montague Farm Zen House and a residence
program.
The Mother House was foreclosed on in 2011 and sold to a private owner in 2012.
Training and Spiritual practices
The
training of the Zen Peacemakers is grounded in traditional Zen practice
- meditation, retreats, liturgy, personal study-relationships with
empowered teachers - and also explores new forms and structures. Council circle, Nonviolent Communication,
international Bearing Witness retreats, and "plunges" - immersing
oneself in unfamiliar situations, often connected with social action,
which require the participant to let go of what they know and respond in
new ways - have come to form core elements of the training throughout
the network of practitioners. Glassman trained in clowning as a personal
plunge, visiting war zones and performing for the children. In his
later years, Glassman disrobed from the priesthood to develop lay zen
practice, following the tradition of his heart teacher Koryu Osaka
Roshi. Together with his wife Eve Marko, he empowered lay zen
preceptors, and Eve Marko worked on a new set of "householder koans".
Lay and circle forms of liturgy such as the Gate of Sweet Nectar,
Glassman's translation and elaboration of the traditional Japanese
Kanromon ceremony of feeding the hungry ghosts, came to be explored and
shared with the community. At the heart of the Zen Peacemakers approach
is the conviction that service and social action are themselves zen
practice, together with the challenge to develop new 'upayas' (tools) to
meet each new situation.
Formulations of spiritual principles specific to the order
include "The Sixteen Practices of a Zen Peacemaker", comprising the
"Three Refuges", the "Three Tenets" and the "Ten Practices" of a Zen
Peacemaker
Zen Peacemaker Circles
A few years later, we formed something called Peacemaker Circle International, dedicated to creating networks of spiritually based social activists. Not just networks, but coalitions. And not just coalitions, but circles. We had done a lot of direct service – building homes, taking care of kids, taking care of the sick, creating jobs for people. What we noticed is that if we just did this one thing, each of us could only do so much. Even if each of us did a wonderful job, it was still just that one job. Now, how do you take care of the poor? How do you take care of people who have AIDS in Africa when all you can do is just one job? So you need to change the game. Instead of always competing with everybody for money or recognition and all of the politics that NGOs and not-for-profits engage in, why don't we spend some of that energy to start linking – linking and creating a real force for social action that's made up of all of us working together.
If somebody says, "What is Buddhist about this?" I would ask, "How do you define Buddhism?" If it's about awakening to the oneness of life, then this is a real way to do it. Working together is a wonderful way to wake up to this oneness. So we started bringing this work to different countries. We started in Europe. Then we went to the Middle East. And then we started in Latin America ... We introduced this model of organising interlocking circles and began planning how these different groups could work to help each other, instead of working separately.
In the early 2000s, Bernie Glassman
worked with circles of students around the world to develop a
consensus-based model for social action and interfaith spiritual
practice. Initially called Peacemaker Circle International, they later
became known as Zen Peacemaker Circles. The interfaith strand of the Zen Peacemakers was influenced by Bernie Glassman's friendship with Sufi teacher and radio host Lex Hixon, his appreciation of the Jewish renewal leader Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi,
and his many Christian zen students and successors. Zen Peacemaker
Circles were established globally, presenting a model of zen practice
that replaced the traditional role of 'Zen teacher' with innovative
communities of practitioners learning from each other and sharing ideas
between Circles. Decision making used the approach of Sociocracy, and Bernie Glassman
created two new community roles of Steward and Circle Dharmaholder to
support the model. The 'circular transmission' experiment was largely
abandoned after the loss of the Mother House in 2011, although Zen
Peacemaker Circle training continues in the UK, Germany and the US. In other communities, the tools of Circle practice, especially Council circle have been incorporated into traditional zen training, to give a voice to students, for social action, and for governance.
Dharma teachers are often schooled in the dharma, in delivery, but not in community decision making. Traditionally organizations have been run on a hierarchical model, with one or two people making all the decisions. How inspiring to have processes that can engage entire groups. The circles of decision makers are an image of interdependence. Interdependence should be reflected in the organization of organizations. How to continue to realize and express the project of interdependence? The inherent interconnectedness of all life.
Street Retreats
'Street retreats', excursions by Bernie Glassman and others into the streets for days at a time to live amongst the homeless, have become a feature of Zen Peacemaker practice. Author James Ishmael Ford writes, "... 'street retreats,' for instance, moves sesshin into the streets: participants eat in soup kitchens, and, if they know they're not displacing homeless people, sleep in homeless shelters or, otherwise, sleep in public places. Zazen takes place in parks and dokusan in alleys."
Socially Engaged Buddhism
As a leader of Socially Engaged Buddhism, the Zen Peacemakers publish Bearing Witness, a free monthly online newsletter. The socially engaged practices of Zen Peacemakers is aimed at extending Dharma beyond the meditation hall
to the worlds of business, social services, conflict resolution and
environmental stewardship. Socially Engaged Buddhism has frequently led
to new models of practice, allowing Buddhists to addressing the needs of
individuals and communities in disadvantaged areas. The Zen
Peacemakers' way is intended to "illuminate all life as a boundless
meditation hall".
Appraisal
Religious historian Richard Hughes Seager writes "The Zen Peacemaker Order ... has the potential to rival Thich Nhat Hanh's groups and the Buddhist Peace Fellowship as a force in American activism".
Notable Zen Peacemakers
Zen Peacemaker Communities
- Upaya Institute and Zen Center
- Peacemaker Institute
- Village Zendo
- Zen Center of Los Angeles
- Greyston Foundation
- UK Zen Peacemaker Circles
- Zen Peacemakers Switzerland
