Peacemaker Circles UK

 This week in the Edgeley Zen Group, near Manchester, we explored a new form for loving - kindness (metta) meditation practice in a circle, created by Jeana Moore. In the practice, we invoke the receipients of our meditation into the circle, as if they are there with us, in ever widening circles. As we go round in council circle format with a talking - piece, each person says a little about why they are invoking that person, and gradually we try to hold or imagine a sense of all of us together. Jeana has been working with Steve Hart (Leeds) and Chris Starbuck (Manchester) to develop the new practice, and she's explored the traditional "rules of Council Circle" for this framework. We discussed these in the Edgeley group before practicing yesterday, naming them 'Grandmother Jeana's Guidelines' The new practice seemed much appreciated, it was a lovely evening. 

This evening at the Edgeley Zen Group, we celebrated the anniversary of the great Sufi poet Rumi. We explored a little practice of turning around the heart, and then in our regular Council Circle, Les played extraordinary sounds on a crystal bowl while one by one we each stood up and turned for a few minutes in the centre of the circle. We dedicated the evening to the soul of Mevlevi Postneshin Shaikh Jelaluddin Loras, pictured above, son of our late Shaikh Suleyman Hayati Dede, who passed from this world last Monday. Ashk olsun - May it become Love. 

  Starting 6th September 2021 - the Edgeley Zen Group. Drop-in meeting on 1st and 3rd Monday of each month, 7.30pm - 9pm. In Aspirit gift shop, 67 Castle Street, Edgeley. £5 to cover costs.  Training in Zen meditation coming to us from the Japanese and American Zen traditions. Zen is the art and practice of seeing ourselves and the world as deeply interconnected. Through meditation and practices which lessen our sense of separation, we experience the wholeness of life - we are all one, without losing our uniqueness too.  The group will be open and welcoming to people with any experience or none, from any spiritual background or religion. We follow an approach to Zen training in interfaith circles developed by the late Bernie Glassman, pioneer of socially engaged Buddhism. Each week there will be training in meditation, and relaxed discussion of Zen writings. For further information email Chris at willowtreeblues@gmail.com

Lockdown meant that the Zen Peacemaker, Leeds Mindfulness, Wellbeing & Spirituality, and Leeds Nur Ashki Jerrahi sufi communities faced many challenges when it came to meeting. I'm grateful to Zoom but there are still challenges with understanding and sensing the space of the "other".  However, new opportunities for new communication and contact came about in this time. Steve Hart (dharma and vision holder, ZP) designed some peer support workshops for on-line groups for people with mental health difficulties under the Live Well Leeds third sector banner. These workshops looked at self care, self esteem, self compassion, confidence building and looking at heartfelt communication - Non Violent Communication, Assertiveness exploration and ethical  speech.  The LGBTQ community in Live Well Leeds also got in touch with Steve to receive on-line workshops on mindfulness, meditation, self nurturing, self compassion and loving kindness meditation. Also we couldn't have a ...

We're starting a new circle in Stockport - the Humble Earth Zen Circle - to rebirth the original Manchester Zen Peacemaker Circle which ran from 2007-2011, until Steve Hart moved it across to Leeds. The new circle will train in the core tools of the Zen Peacemaker Circles - zazen, council circle, study, the five Buddha families, consensus decision making - and will be open and inclusive of people from any spiritual background or none. We are honoured to have as our first Elder for the Humble Earth Circle the venerable Jeana Teiju Moore - a student originally of Taizan Maezumi Roshi, then personal attendant to Bernie Glassman in the early days of the New York zen community, and then invited by Bernie to be one of the founders and visionholders for the Zen Peacemaker Circles, sharing socially engaged zen on street retreats, in Auschwitz, and in community action. Jeana will offer regular contributions and friendship to the circle here.

Here's the latest news from the work of Steve Suleyman Hart, the Zen Peacemaker Circle visionholder in Leeds, and the Leeds circle in our sister community, the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order, arranged by the Circle Guide Sahil Sefer Warsi. The umbrella organisation for Steve's work is Leeds Mindfulness, and he'll be beginning the next round of ZPC training this month: I'll make some time now to bring you up to speed with some succinct news. As you know I regard the groups I facilitate as my social engagement contribution and challenge. One of the groups - the tuesday evening circle at the Quaker House in Roundhay has now been taken over by Tamaris Kielty who works in the NHS and teaches mindfulness in the NHS. She is a lovely warm hearted trickster and laughs alot and is influenced by Tara Brach and Tsultrim Allione. After the highly successful Kirkstall Abbey Mindfulness Festival, our regular group on tuesday afternoons there continues to meet - we held a servi...