Peacemaker Circles UK

Last night we held our annual celebration of the Sufi mystic Jalaluddin Rumi, to coincide with the day he died in 1273, known as his 'Wedding Night', his reunion with the Beloved. We had an intimate evening of poetry, movement, Arabic chanting and singing and ended once again with a rich table of food brought by everyone who came. It was an evening influenced less by our usual Zen Buddhist roots, and much more by the sounds and spirit of Islam, as expressed in the spirit of Rumi and Sufism. As the Prophet Muhammad, blessings upon him, conveyed: "God is Beauty and loves what is Beautiful". Hopefully our evening together brought some of our beautiful human qualities to life for each other....

Following the Leeds ZP Circle on Tuesday, here is a summary of events by Steve Shinchi Daishin... Sadly I was ill and missed some of the meeting but here is an account of what I recorded. Maybe someone else could report in on the theatre ideas I missed ? We each drew up a mandala of the five Buddhas and decided to allocate our vision for the Circle to the relevant buddha family. We felt initially that meditation ideas should be designated to the Buddha Amitabha Padma family. However, Zang wondered about this and said that he wondered why we were allocating it to Amitabha when usually it is aligned with Vairocana Cosmic Buddha. Meditation does have a Padma quality in so far as it reveals aspects of our spiritual practise and how they relate to each person in the Circle; also the brahma viharas or 4 immeasurables are representative of this connectivity because of the interface between the meditator and the world. (Padma is equated with connectivity and community) but Vairo...

At 7.30pm on Wednesday 17th December 2008 we'll be holding our annual celebration of the spirit and teachings of Jelaluddin Rumi, the great Islamic mystic and poet who died on this day in 1273. Rumi is known for the universality of his love and the depth of his appreciation for the mystery of being Human and Conscious... We are grateful to all those who have kept Rumi's love alive throughout seven centuries of this world, for all the Whirling Dervishes who turn within the turning world within the still heart of Truth. The photo here is of Suleyman Hayati Dede, the beautiful dervish who kept Rumi's lineage alive during the years of persecution in Turkey in the 20th Century, and who kindly journeyed to the West to share his heart with everyone... Everyone is welcome at Howard's house in Withington for our feast of love! Ya Hazrati Mevlana, Haqq Dost!

On Sunday 7th December in Howard's house in Manchester, Barbara Salaam Wegmueller and her husband Roland Yakushi Wegmueller performed the first European Jukai Ceremony, transmitting the Zen Peacemaker Refuges and Precepts to Steve Suleyman Hart and Christopher Zangtsal Starbuck. The Refuges and Precepts of the Zen Peacemakers come from the Soto Zen lineage, brought to the West by Taizan Maezumi Roshi from Japan and adapted by Bernie Glassman for our Dharma family. This is the 84th generation in our line of Buddhist practitioners since the time of Shakymuni Buddha in India who started it all! Our ceremony was witnessed by Dene Donalds who served in the role of Elder. Dene is a member of the Order of Interbeing created by Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh - it's wonderful to have been blessed with this link between our two socially engaged Buddhist traditions. Steve was given the new Dharma name "Shinchi Daishin" in Japanese, meaning "Deep Wisdom Great Heart...

On 3rd and 4th Dec in Leeds, Barbara Salaam Wegmueller from Switzerland taught a Circle Steward Training for the Zen Peacemakers. Steve, Phillippa, Anna, Kim, Laura and Zang took part, and were trained in Council Circle, Sociocratic voting, the Three Peacemaker Tenets and community building. The first day was held in Steve's house in Rothwell, and the second day in Anna's atmospheric front room in Leeds! On 5th and 6th in Manchester Barbara went on to lead a Zen Precepts training for Zang, Howard, Steve and Simon. We explored the 16 Zen Peacemaker Precepts, selecting ones of special interest and reflecting on our own experience of them through Council Circle. We also did zazen together and had a lot of fun! On the evening of Friday 5th Barbara taught at the final Great Heart Circle of the year, watching a short film on an artist who is a survivor of the Auschwitz prison camps. She told the group about plans to extend the annual Zen Peacemakers' Auschwitz healing retreat to ...

Barbara Wegmueller has asked Phillippa from the Leeds Zen Peacemaker Circle to act as our national "Story Collector"! What that means is that, any interesting, important or funny news from the UK communities can be sent to her, and she'll write them up to be passed on to the wider Zen Peacemakers in Europe. In turn, Clemens in Switzerland is going to collect all the stories from countries in Europe and send them to Ken in New York! Ken in New York will compile them all a few times each year and send out an international e-newsletter with human-interest stories from the whole Zen Peacemaker world... So, send anything you want shared to Phillippa at: parris258@yahoo.co.uk !! I think it very likely that we'll also put together a UK stories newsletter too for more in depth UK gossip... (oops, I mean 'serious spiritual information'!)

We had an initial meeting last Thursday with a couple of local representatives of Soka Gakkai International, the Nicherien Buddhist community very much engaged with applying spiritual practice in daily life and calling for world peace. We had a fascinating discussion about the value of dialogue in the SGI and the Zen Peacemakers, and are discussing creating a joint dialogue project next year- inviting members of the public to discussion circles where we explore important areas of peacemaking and learn to listen to all the voices involved! More news on this if and when it develops...

The second Leeds Zen Peacemaker Circle was held at Anna's house again on Sat 11th October. It was an afternoon of lots of meditation practice, plus a Council Circle. The scene was set by Kim leading a Pure Land session. He spoke first about the nature and history of Pure Land Buddhism, especially in Japan, and then we did some practice based on the English 'Amida Trust' approach. We set up a shrine to Amitabha, then we circumambulated chanting "Namo Amida Bu" and "Namo Amitabha", and sat in quiet for a while too. Zang then facilitated an approach to Zazen-style meditation. First, we sat in a comfortable posture for 5 minutes, trying to find a sense of stability and comfort and pleasure in sitting and having time for ourselves in this way. Next, we sat in full Zazen posture, hands in cosmic mudra, listening to some Japanese flute music- the point of this was to try to 'tune' your body to the sound and the stillness, so you physically became o...

The second Leeds Zen Peacemaker Circle will be held on Sat 11th October, from 12pm-5pm at Anna's house. Reflecting the varied background of the participants, this Circle will be focussing on the range of meditation practices we all do. So we will have Hindu meditation, Zazen, Tibetan and Pure Land! It should be a very meditative afternoon. There'll also be a Council Circle. If you're interested in coming along, call Steve Hart (steward) on 0113 2059412 or email greatheartzendo@googlemail.com

The first Leeds Zen Peacemaker circle took place on Saturday. Three people were present- Steve (Steward and Facilitator), Anna and Zang. The meeting took place in Anna's house and was a very open-hearted, honest coming together. Steve introduced the idea of the Circles, and we had several different activities- Council Circle, a session of Hindu meditation, and Zazen. We used some animal 'medicine cards' to stimulate discussion about our own life and experience at the moment, and ended with a walk to an early-medieval church and graveyard, where we concluded the meeting with a checking-out circle and a dedication. It was a great beginning, which hopefully has planted a good seed for the future!

On Friday 29th August we were delighted to have a guest talk in our weekly Great Heart Community group by a couple of speakers from the Baha'i faith, Chris Oak and Grace Odeny. Howard had met Chris by chance through a Baha'i plummer- he was in Manchester for two weeks training in giving introductions to their religion. Grace, from Kenya, has come to Manchester for a year to act as steward of the local Baha'i centre as a form of service. They gave a very full introduction to the history and outlook of the Bahais, and we were all really taken with their warmth of spirit.

Happiness is to reach the next post every day like flowing water free from stillness and melancholy yesterday is gone and took away its tale today we must live a fresh story again Rumi Barbara Wegmueller, Zen Buddhist Preceptor and senior representative of Roshi Bernie Glassman's vision, visited our Friday night Great Heart Community meeting on 22nd August. It was a delightful and vibrant evening, in which we shared meditation and a mini feast, and Barbara talked about her own life and practice. She talked about her background in the Sufi lineage of Irene Tweedie, and then how on meeting Zen master Bernie Glassman she felt him to be her Sufi teacher! Together with her husband Roland she joined and later helped coordinate the annual Bearing Witness retreats in Auschwitz, and became part of Bernie's experimental study circle in Paris. They would all get together several times a year, and studied the chapters of his book "Infinite Circle" as he wrote each one. She talked...

This month's Zen Peacemaker Circle was held in Howard's music room on Saturday afternoon from 1 pm till 4.30pm. John, Howard, Steve, Zang, Kim and Milan were present. After introductions, we read a piece on Zen training by Maezumi Roshi together, sat in silence, and held a Council Circle to present ideas for developing practice in the circle. After a break, we then read the chapter on Bearing Witness from Bernie Glassman's book of the same name, and had a frank discussion. It's likely that starting next month will will have two Circles- one in Manchester and one in Leeds, which can then develop in their own ways and interact with each other to stimulate, challenge and inspire...

At the weekly Great Heart Circle meeting last Friday we had a rare and unexpected event! Steve Hart, steward of the new Leeds Zen Peacemaker Circle, was offered initiation into the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order ( http://www.nurashkijerrahi.org/ ) who are closely connected to the Zen Peacemakers. We were asked to perform the ceremony, known as "taking hand" here in Manchester, so we held it at the end after zazen and listening to some beautiful Bach music. Then we held our usual feast to end the evening! Steve was given the Sufi name 'Suleyman'- the Islamic form of the name Soloman, the Wise prophet and king!

The weekly Great Heart Circle drop-in meditation sessions are going to be on Fridays now for the foreseeable future, still in Howard's beautiful music room in his house in Withington, South Manchester. Phone 0797 2152148 for more details or email: greatheartzendo@gmail.com Arrive 7.15pm to start 7.30, finish around 10pm. £5/3 suggested donation. Please bring a little vegetarian food to share in our mini-feasts at the end!

Barbara Wegmueller is the main coordinator of the Zen Peacemaker Circles in Europe, and a Preceptor in the Buddhist tradition coming down via Bernie Glassman and Taizan Maezumi Roshi, through two thousand years of Indian, Chinese and Japanese preceptors, all the way back to the Buddha himself. She's coming to teach in the UK for the first week in December- Wed and Thursday will be a 2 day Steward Training event- it's open to all, and anyone who takes part will then be qualified to set up a new Zen Peacemaker Circle or be democratically voted in as Steward of an existing one. Then on Fri and Sat she'll be leading an event on the Buddhist ethical precepts, especially from a peacemaking perspective, and sitting in zen meditation. Sunday will be a "Jukai" ceremony for those studying with her- passing on the Buddhist "Refuges and Precepts". More details to be posted soon!

We had a small Zen Peacemaker Circle on Saturday afternoon, on the theme of looking back over the past year of circle meetings. Howard, Stacie, Steve, Sarah and Zang were present, and the circle was held in Zang's flat in Manchester city centre. We practiced a forgiveness meditation together using a recording by the Buddhist vipassana teacher Jack Kornfield, and discussed a little what forgiveness means to us. Steve led a meditation on "heart wish" - linking into a sense of what you really want in your life, then resting in that sense within your heart. We held a Council Circle on the past year, going round once to discuss things we've enjoyed, and once to look at things we've not been so happy about. Then we studied the last chapter of Bernie Glassman's book "Infinite Circle", about the Three Tenets of the Zen Peacemakers that he created to help people see how to take Zen practice into social action; and about the practice of "no separation...

Our new weekly drop-in meditation group, the Great Heart Circle, has been going for nearly four weeks now! It's an experimental group in the Zen Peacemakers tradition, exploring our individual and collective living presence. We use Zazen, Buddhist chanting, relaxation and guided mindfulness meditations, partner exercises from theatre training, and study material from the Zen Peacemakers lineage. At the moment we're reading chapters of Bernie Glassman's book "Bearing Witness". We also use some ideas and physical movements from the Islamic sufi tradition, drawing on the Peacemakers' connection with the Jerrahi lineage and Zang's links with the Whirling Dervishes. The meeting is sometimes Fridays, sometimes Thursdays, held once again in Howard's beautiful music room in Withington, South Manchester. Anyone is welcome! Full support will be offered to anyone who wants to establish a regular meditation practice and/or study more fully in the Zen Peacema...

I'm very pleased to announce that Barbara and Roland Wegmueller, coordinators of the Zen Peacemaker Circles in Europe and Dharmaholders from Bernie Glassman, were officially made Buddhist Preceptors by Sensei Eve Myonen Marko from Montague Farm Zendo in the US. The ceremony was witnessed by Catherine Genno Pages, a Roshi in the White Plum lineage who teaches in Paris. It took place in Switzerland on Saturday 10th May 2008. This is great news, it means that anyone who wishes to "take/receive the Refuges and Precepts"- ie. become a Buddhist/ connect more directly to the Zen Peacemakers lineage coming down through Maezumi Roshi and Roshi Bernie all the way from Dogen and back to Shakyamuni Buddha, may study with Barbara and Roland and ask to do so. If anyone is interested in doing this, please let me know and I'll put you in touch with them- or you can email them directly ( barbara@peacemakercirle.org ) How wonderful that the Buddhadharma continues to shine througho...

Today's circle was held in Kaite's house for the first time, and she proved an excellent hostess, preparing a buffet lunch and cooked dinner, with wonderful home-made food and cake! We started at 11am with a checking-in circle, then practiced 20 mins of silent meditation- this time in the manner of Tibetan Mahamudra style shi-ne, rather than formal Zazen, which fitted the beautiful blue sky and sunny morning well! Kaite then took us on a tour of nearly places where gangs hang out and leave a lot of litter in the neighbourhood. We picked up the rubbish and cleaned the gardens up, it looked so much better at the end. She's been doing a lot of community gardening in Newton Heath, and we hope to help her with this regularly in future... Trevor gave a talk about Dyslexia and ADD, and showed us a dvd of a technique for helping dyslexic children using bouncing balls like juggling, improving eye coordination, balance, hearing rhythms and self-confidence. After lunch, we did a lit...

In addition to the regular vibrant Zen Peacemaker Circle, Genki suggested that we have a Manchester Zen training group also. So after much discussion and thought, we are launching the Great Heart Experimental Zendo! It will initially be a roving Zendo, taking place each week in different people's homes, until we need to find a more permanent place to hire... Here is the mission statement: Manchester Great Heart Experimental Zendo: Socially Engaged Buddhism and Training in the Zen Peacemakers Tradition Zen is a powerful training for coming to experience our oneness and interconnectedness with the whole of life. Beyond the vision, there is the challenge of embodying it and living it out as compassionate service to all beings. The Great Heart Zendo is an experiment, daring to see what tools and inspirations the Buddhist heritage has to offer us today. Can Zen meditation help us experience life more fully and completely? ...

in today's Newsletter from the Maezumi Institute, the Zen Peacemakers' motherhouse in New England, Roshi Bernie Glassman confirmed that he has passed over the reigns of the Zen Peacemaker Sangha to Paul Genki Kahn- he announced this in private during the Seniors Gathering in January, and now it is announced officially! We're very lucky here in Manchester, because Genki is offering us regular advice in Zen training and will hopefully continue this into the future. Given how busy he is, we're really fortunate to have this connection with him! Here is the short message he wrote after Bernie's words in the newsletter: Dear Friends: I am very happy to be finally joining the Zen Peacemakers' staff next month and formally taking on the work of the Maezumi Institute and the Zen Peacemakers Sangha. This is happening through the devotion and generosity of the many of you who raised my salary and funded the general operating expenses. This brings Roshi Bernie Glassman a...

On Joy's suggestion, the Manchester University Interfaith Society invited Zang to give a presentation to their weekly meeting. About 6 people were present, representing a range of faiths including Christianity, Buddhism and Bahai. Zang briefly introduced the Peacemakers, then we read together the chapter "Holy Week" from Bernie's book "Bearing Witness", describing a week of interfaith celebrations during a street retreat. Then there was a Council Circle to reflect on our responses to the reading. The evening ended with a question and answer session. The Interfaith Society are planning to attend a Greek Orthodox Christian service in a couple of weeks' time to celebrate Easter, to which any of us are invited.

3 members of our Manchester Zen Peacemaker Circle - Kaite, Stacie and Zang - went tonight to the Manchester Buddhist Centre (belonging to the 'Friends of the Western Buddhist Order'... the main community of Howard in our circle, and the first community that Zang studied in depth with) for a very rare visit by Sangharakshita, founder of that movement 40 years ago. He is now an old man in his 80s, and no longer teaches often in public. He gave a 30 minute talk, standing up the whole time, in their beautiful shrine room to an audience of over 100 people. His talk focussed on those aspects of the FWBO which make it distinctive from traditional Buddhist lineages- and I think it's worth writing them down here, because they seem to connect with what we're doing with the Zen Peacemaker Community too! There were 6 points: 1 The FWBO and Western Buddhist Order is a community of Buddhists where commitment is primary and lifestyle secondary. Going for Refuge to the Buddha, D...

7 people attended this month's Peacemaker Circle, which was largely organised by John and Stacie. Zang facilitated on the day. After a check-in circle, Kaite told us about possible business ideas she'd been having, and we discussed the next circle to be held in her house. Then we practiced simple Qi Gong movements for 15-20 mins. We had a Lotus Sutra theme to the day- we read a chapter from "The Drama of Cosmic Enlightenment", a commentary on the sutra by Sangharakshita, founder of the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order, which is Howard's main community. The chapter we read contained a parable from the Lotus Sutra on the Dharma as like rain that falls equally on all beings, and discusses the spiritual life in terms of growth and vegetation. We then held a full Council Circle on this topic. At the start of lunch, Stacie shared with us a Jewish prayer for breaking the bread, and told us a little about the customs connected with the Passover, which is next Sa...

We're happy to announce that a second UK Zen Peacemaker Circle will be starting in the near future in Leeds! If you'd like to be involved, send us an email and we'll put you in touch with the steward. email us at: willowtreeblues@gmail.com It will be great to have a second circle near the Manchester group- we can interlink and develop joint activites... it will give a clearer sense that the Circles are intended to be an embodiment of the image of Indra's Net from the Buddhist tradition- each facet of existence reflecting, containing and interpenetrating every other... "Interbeing" as the Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh calls it beautifully! May all beings be well and happy, and may all suffering be transformed into joyous celebration and delight!

On the weekend of 15th-16th March, Sheikh David Bellak of the Mevlevi Sufi Order, Rumi's lineage, gave a guest teaching to members of the Manchester Zen Peacemaker Circle. On Saturday in Howard's house, Shaikh David gave a generous account of his own spiritual journey and his time in Turkey with the late Suleyman Hayati Dede, late heart-master of the Whirling Dervishes in Konya. Shaikh David gave much advice relating to what the Zen Peacemakers call Not-Knowing, and he gave a rough model of the spiritual path in terms of four stages: 1 Not knowing that you don't know 2 Coming to know that you don't know, and letting go of fixed conditioning 3 A 'knowing' that opens up beyond this (the focus of 'Rememberance'/Zikr in the Sufi tradition) 4 Not knowing that you know! He also led some chanted Sufi meditation with us in the Mevlevi way. On Sunday a few of us met with Shaikh David in John's house and learned more together, then finally visited the William...

The Manchester Zen Peacemakers held their first meeting to discuss posssible socially-engaged business projects, rooted in the vision of the Three Tenets and Bernie Glassman's work in the USA. The latest project over there is the develpment of "Zen Houses" to serve people in areas of urban deprivation, and we discussed possible ways of doing something similar here in Manchester. Eight people were present and gave an overview of their backgrounds and possible skills they would have to offer any project- everything from housing knowledge to community arts and cooking. Stacie said she would like to make Zen chocolate! The meeting felt very fresh and created many questions- hopefully we'll have a second meeting in the near future to see how our inspirations are developing!

We held a Manchester Peacemaker Circle evening tonight to connect with the annual ActionAid Fairtrade Coffee and Tea Day, which in turn is part of the wider Fairtrade Fortnight. ActionAid are a wonderful international charity working in grassroots global development and political campaigning for the rights of the poor and marginalised around the world. ActionAid sent us some free teabags, coffee and chocolate, and people brought along biscuits and home-made cakes... there was lots of sweet food! We watched 3 short videos on ActionAid's work with women infected with HIV/AIDS. We also watched a short film on a rural education-drama project informing locals about AIDS and the need to treat those infected as human beings still (from the bonus section of the movie DVD of 'The Constant Gardener'). Then we held an interesting Council Circle on our responses and thoughts on what we'd seen. After that we had more tea and cakes... Jules played guitar and sang some of her compo...

We had a small informal gathering on Sat 16th Feb to mark the annual Parinirvana Festival of the Buddha. It was a very spontaneous affair, meeting with no fixed plan! We met at the beautiful Manchester FWBO Buddhist Centre, where we sat and drank tea together and talked about what "Zen" is. Then we walked to a new community cafe which we'd heard offers cheap drink to the homeless... This cafe, Nexus, turns out to be a cheap cafe-art gallery with a good vibe. We talked for a long time there about future plans for the Manchester Zen Peacemakers, especially discussing possible social action businesses which we could consider developing, helping the jobless and homeless. We then came back to the FWBO centre, where we asked if we could use their shrine room to meditate. Stacie, who is part of the Nicheren school of Pure Land Buddhism, taught us a little about their chant to the Lotus Sutra, and then we did this chant together for a while. It was appropriate that the Buddha...

Blessings everyone, I'm very pleased to let you all know that Shaikh David Bellak Effendi has offered to lead a workshop on Rumi's tradition- the Mevlevi Sufi Way- for our Manchester Peacemaker Circle in mid-March, probably on Sunday 16th March. Times to be arranged. David Bellak Dede, now in his late 60s, lived in Konya, Turkey, and trained very closely with the late Suleyman Hayati Dede, the beautiful dervish who kept Rumi's tradition alive in the last century. David Dede is one of the very few living teachers who have been trained in the old stages of Mevlevi practice, including Sema (whirling) and the wonderful dervish traditions of hospitality. For the past 20 years he owned an oriental rug shop on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, quietly getting on with life and teaching in a very unobtrusive way. The Mevlevi tradition is very close in spirit to Zen, becoming open and receptive to the beauty and inspiration of each living moment... "Wonder is like a small bird tha...

In today's Circle Meeting, 6 people were present- Howard, Joy, Stacie, Kaite, Faisal and Zang. We began with some beautiful Bach cello music chosen by Howard to bring us into the present moment, recorded by a young local musician. Following a checking-in circle, Zang read a piece aloud from Bernie Glassman's book "Bearing Witness", talking about the vision of bringing all the fragments of life into one Whole. Then we read another chapter of the same book together, on the theme of "Becoming Oneness" and split into two groups of 3 to discuss it. We tried an idea from the Swiss Zen Peacemaker Circle- we chose a figure each who inspires us, and when we discussed the chapter we talked about it not only from our own point of view, but tried to explore what our chosen person would think too. Examples of the figures people chose included Maimonides, the ancient Jewish philosopher; Federico Garcia Lorca, the Spanish poet and playwright; and Sangharakshita, founder of...

This weekend was the annual Family Gathering of all seniors (anything from Steward of an active circle up to Zen Roshis), held at the Maezumi Institute in New England USA. About 50 people came from all over the world, including Zang from our circle, and Barbara and Roland Wegmueller from the Swiss circles. The Maezmi Institute is in the beautiful House of One People, a large converted barn in the snowy countryside, and was conceived by Roshi Bernie Glassman and the late Lex Hixon. Banners representing each community in the Zen Peacemakers Community are hung around the room, and a big grand piano is played at times throughout the events- and each week there are events from many traditions- Buddhist, Islamic, Christian, Hindu. The gathering focussed on what we can all learn from each others communities, with lots of small discussions. There was singing and partying for Roshi Bernie's 69th birthday, and a big cake baked by the Greyston Bakery in New York. Many new things came out of...