Zen Peacemaker Circle, Sat 5th July

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", seeing all of life as yourself and doing what you can to take care of it all.

We finished by learning to sing together a verse offering to feed all hungry spirits in the world, composed for the Peacemakers by the Hindu devotional singer Krishna Das!


Another Circle will be held quite soon, to discuss plans for the second year...

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