Peacemaker Circles UK

We held a small gathering in honour of the Islamic mystic poet Jelaluddin Rumi on Friday evening in Leeds, and then a full day's practice in Manchester on Sunday as a Zen Peacemakers Day of Reflection. Our theme for the day was 'The Voice of the Heart', and in honour of Rumi we explored and reflected on elements of Sufi practice, especially in the manner of the Mevlevi tradition (famous as the 'Whirling Dervishes'). We also had silent Zen meditation, Council Circle, and we read together from the book "A Deeper Beauty" by Paramananda, a member of the Western Buddhist Order. One of our guests, Amitashuri, told stories from her trip through Turkey and Iran, and sang to us in Farsi! This is the third year our UK Zen Peacemakers group has been able to celebrate the anniversary of Rumi's death (known as his 'Wedding Night', his day of union with Reality). He died on 17th Dec 1273 in the city of Konya in Anatolia.

We held a Day of Reflection on Saturday at Howard's, on the theme "Seeing Others with the Eyes of Love". We began the day with a checking-in council circle, then we listened to a 40 minute guided meditation on cd of the Metta Bhavana, the same one we listened to last month. After that we did an exercise based on a painting of Green Tara that Sheila Hixon gave us from her house. We looked at the painting, and had 3 sessions where we wrote down: 1) What Buddha qualities the image and the symbols/colours etc. suggested to us. 2) What good qualities of Ourself we could see reflected in the painting and symbols. 3) We chose someone we know well, and reflected what qualities of them were reflected in the painting. We had 4 periods of silent meditation, one between each reflection, and at the start and finish. After a shared lunch (big feast again!), we did some singing together from the Arabic from a beautiful cd of chants I found last month- half of us chanted "Y...

We had a small, friendly Zen Peacemakers Day of Reflection on Sunday in Howard's House in Manchester. The theme for the day was "Listening as a Spiritual Practice", and we had various activities to explore this. We began the day with a reading from the Sufi poet Rumi, then recited together the 'Zen Peacemaker Observances'- the 16 Bodhisattva Precepts plus the "5 Commitments" for creating a compassionate culture. After this we listenened to a guided CD meditation of the Mindfulness of Breathing, recorded by Vidymala Birch from the FWBO. Having become relaxed and open, Howard then led an hour's exploration of classical music from his own life- beginning with several tracks from the 50s by the opera singer Kathleen Ferrier. Then a couple of tracks from Handel's Messiah. And ending with several pieces by a male voice choir from Kiev singing Orthodox Christian chants. Very powerful ending! We began the afternoon with another poem by Rumi, and the...

To help people interested in training in the Zen Peacemakers but who live far apart, we're starting a one-year experiment this month: a Postal Peacemaker Circle! The idea is to revive the intimacy of hand-writing letters in this age of electronic communication, and to see if we can have the honestly and closeness of our group "Council Circles" at a distance. 6 of us, in Northern, Central and Southern England, Canada and Croatia are taking on a sacred practice of writing one letter with care and openness each month to one other person in the Circle. This will include themselves! So in a year we'll all have written to each other twice, and written to ourselves twice also... A moment of happiness, you and I, sitting on the verandah, apparently two, but one in soul, you and I. We feel the flowing water of life here, you and I, with the garden's beauty and the birds singing. The stars will be watching us, and we will show them what it is to be a thin crescent moon. Y...

Peacemaking in an Interconnected World ‘Buddhist Ethics for Healing Self and Society’ A Two-Day Workshop with Swiss Peace Activist and Zen Buddhist Preceptor, Barbara Salaam Wegmueller 'Eco House', Leicester - Sat 9th and Sun 10th January 2010, 11am-4pm Buddhist philosophy teaches that everyone and everything is interconnected, that each action we make has infinite consequences that ripple out across the great network of life, brining happiness and suffering to ourselves and others. From the earliest days of the Buddha in India, up to today’s great teachers, Buddhism has taught ethical guidelines useful for everyone who wants to lead a life of less harm, who want to heal themselves and their environment. This weekend workshop will explore one version of Buddhist ethics- the ‘Sixteen Zen Precepts’ used by the Zen Peacemakers Tradition for socially engaged work around the world. Barbara Wegmueller is a Preceptor (ethical teacher) in the Zen Peacemakers lineage of Roshi Bernie Gla...

We now have a new website for UK Great Heart Community and Zen Peacemakers events: www.greatheartsociety.org Upcoming events will be posted there as well as here from now on, though this blog will still be the place where we record accounts of events that have happened... We're going to start using the name "Great Heart Society" now for the overall actvities in the UK- then the Manchester events will be called 'Great Heart Zendo' and the weekly meetings 'Great Heart Circle' and so on. Take care, Zang 28/8/09

Dear Friends, The Manchester Great Heart Zendo would like to invite you to a Zen Peacemakers Day of Reflection on Sunday 13th September 2009 at Howard Bamforth's house in Withington, South Manchester. This will be an open training day, suitable for beginners and more experienced people alike, and anyone is welcome to attend. Guests are welcome to start arriving from 9am onwards for coffee and a chat, and we aim to start the formal programme at 10am. The day will be held in friendly silence to help deepen our presence and non-verbal communication, except where talking is really necessary. There will be a shared lunch, and we aim to finish about 5pm. The theme of the day will be Listening as a Spiritual Practice . We will learn and practice silent Zen meditation together; Howard will give a presentation on his own practice of listening to classical music and let us listen to some; Zang will give a presentation on listening to the Heart , drawing on both Buddhist and Sufi teac...

The UK Zen Peacemakers are going to begin a socially enagaged project in Leicester. We intend to invite people interersted in Zen training and in social action to come together as a circle and create together a project active with a socially-deprived commuunity in Leicester. The circle will plan the project together, first debating which community to work with- perhaps the elderly, children in poverty, asylum seekers etc, and then will put the plan into action, using the skills and efforts of all those willing and able. At the same time, the circle will train in Zen Peacemaker practices- Zazen, the 5 Buddha Energies, supportive liturgy, so that our work together will be grounded in a vision and embodiment of the Unity and Interconnectedness of all Life. If you're interested in getting involved, making suggestions or simply knowing more about it, then contact Chris Zang Starbuck at willowtreeblues@gmail.com

Yesterday Zang was invited to act as stand-in Faith Amabassador for Buddhism for Leicester College for a staff-enrichment event- standing in for Kaspalita from the Amida Trust, who's on retreat. The college inclusion organiser had arranged a "multi-faith speed dating" session, where amabassadors from several major religions sit in a circle, and members of staff could spend 5-10 minutes with each asking any questions before the bell rings and they move onto the next faith ambassador. There were representatives from Buddhism, Sikhism, Christianity, Islam, Baha'i Faith, Hinduism, Humanism and Secularism. It was an enjoyable event, with good connections made between people, and poosibilities for more multi-faith work together in the future.

This weekend, Roland Yakushi Wegmueller came over from Switzerland to lead a weekend meditation retreat in Howard's house in Manchester. He arrived Thursday evening, and spent Friday with Howard visiting a BBC Radio Orchestra concert. The retreat itself began on Friday evening: a small gathering of Roland, Howard, Ben, and Zang, joined for while by Simon. On Saturday, Joy also joined us all day. We did a lot of zazen and kinhin (walking meditation), in sessions of an hour-and-a-half each time, repeated throughout the days. Roland brought a koan for us to discuss together as a group: the meeting of Bodhidharma and the Second Patriarch, who chops off his arm and asks for teaching! We reflected on what this means in our own lives- for example, in what ways do we too "chop off our arm" in search of something? As always in Howard's we had wonderful meals, good fun, and this time also some great chanting of the Kannon invocation, ending with a loud roaring "Moooooooooo...

We held a Multi Faith Peace Action Network meeting in the evening of Sat 30th, again jointly arranged by Manchester Zen Peacemakers and Manchester Soka Gakkai members. The theme was Nelson Mandela, and we used reflection on his life as the basis for a discussion of our own lives.

We held the Manchester Zen Peacemaker Circle in Howard's house again this month, an international gathering of English, Germans, Spanish and French! We began with a guided relaxation and a check-in circle to catch up with how we all were, then Dannie led a study seminar on the introduction and first chapter of Bernie Glassman's book 'Infinite Circle', a commentary on the Buddhist "Heart Sutra" scripture from a Zen perspective. We've collectively chosen to study this book together so we all have a shared language in the group, since we're not all from a Zen or even Buddhist background. We had a wonderful shared meal as always together, then had a period of mindfulness meditation and some zazen mediation. John then gave a talk on a form of Christian meditation called the "Jesus Prayer", a very old practice coming from the Eastern Orthodox Church, and he led a short period of practicing this together too. We held the final Council Circle outs...

We're pleased to let you all know that Roland Wegmueller from Switzerland will be coming to lead a meditation retreat in Manchester from Friday evening on 26th June till the afternoon of Sunday 28th. Roland is a Zen Preceptor and Dharma Holder in the Zen Peacemakers lineage of Bernie Glassman and Taizan Maezumi Roshi. He began his spiritual career whilst leading an immunisation program in Africa- the locals invited him to train as a native West African shamanic healer. Returning to Europe he trained together with his wife in the Sufi lineage of Irene Tweedie, before meeting Bernie Glassman on one of the early Zen Peacemakers Auschwitz retreats. He has been a personal student of Bernie now for many years, learning especially the Peacemaker Circle approach to Zen, and studies Zen koans with Genro Sensei, another of Bernie's senior students. Roland has been involved with organising the multi-faith Auschwitz retreats for many years now, and is currently involved in taking the A...

We've started to hold regular trainings in Zen and Buddhist meditation in Leicester now, inviting people to Zang and Laura's bungalow in Glenfield for individual or group practice. Monday nights will be a weekly Great Heart Circle similar to Manchester's last year. Starting at 7.30 each week, people are invited to share in relaxation, Zen meditation, simple movement exercises and a weekly mini-feast to end! The first weekly meeting was tonight (Monday 6th April) and began in a good spirit with friendly, warm-hearted people coming along for the first time. I hope this will be the beginning of a creative and supportive Zen community here in Leicester, to link with the ones growing in Manchester and Leeds.

On Sunday in Tim's house in Chorlton, Manchester, we held the third multi-faith peacemaker circle, now titled the 'Multi Faith Peace Action Network'. Representatives from three different Buddhist traditions were present- Nicherien, Zen and Theravadin, plus an Anglican Christian vicar and a Roman Catholic. John and Frankie had prepared an excellent and thoughtful presentation on Martin Luther King Jr to mark the anniversary of his death, and we had a discussion following this. Then we held a Council Circle as used often in Zen Peacemakers meetings, which was much appreciated by all I think, giving the opportunity to speak deeply from the heart. The next meeting will be 7-8.30pm on Saturday 30th May, to be held in Withington in Howard Bamforth's house following the Zen Peacemaker Circle the same day.

We had a Peacemaker Circle meeting in Howard's house on Saturday. Howard, John, Dannie, Bea, Suleyman, Simon and Zang were present. By popular demand we began with guided relaxation meditation as used in the weekly Great Heart Circle group followed by a short checking-in council circle. Then John gave an excellent presentation on Martin Luther King Jr, heped by Simon and Bea. This prompted lively discussion! After a shared lunch, we had a session of Zazen, followed by listening to a recording by Marsall Rosenberg, founder of Non Violent Communication, explaining the outlines of his approach to conflict resolution. This also prompted lively discussion! We finished with a final council circle and arranged the date for the next meeting as Sat 30th May, to be held in Howard's once again...

From Zang: This weekend I was invited as one of three guest speakers at the annual Quaker Universalist Group conference. It was held in the beautiful Roman Catholic pastoral centre, Hinsley Hall, just outside Leeds city centre, and was attended by about 45 people from all over the country- mostly Quakers or regular attenders at Quaker meetings. The theme of the weekend was "The Roots of Peace and Justice", and I led a theatre-based workshop based on the techniques of South American activist/director Augusto Boal. The aim was to allow people to explore their sense of injustice and peaceful solutions in an intuitive and physical way, to compliment the excellent conceptual ideas presented by the two other speakers (Prof David Cadman and Prof Joseph Milne). We used a sequence of exercises learning to "sculpt" another person's body into an image of "peace", "violence" and "injustice", and then in larger groups we created bigger images th...

This is a rough report of the basic outlines of what we discussed and what we would like our next steps to be at the next meeting. We met at Anna's. Many thanks for her kind hospitality and lovely coffee and herbal teas and fruits and nuts. We first of all had a quick check in. We then had a discussion on whether we should have set practises or not looking at the advantages and disadvantages of this or a more spontaneous approach. I won't give an account of the discussion because I haven't checked whether this is ok or not but we decided that at the end of each circle we would decide what practise we would do next time around and we decided this time that Anna would lead a "mystery" meditation ! I think we also decided that we'd do nembutsu at the next circle too (I could be wrong about that but I hope we do !) We then had a discussion around the subject of "intention" (again I won't go into the discussion) and we decided at the next circle we...

We had the second multi-faith meeting arranged jointly with the Zen Peacemakers and local members of Soka Gakkai (Nicherien tradition of Buddhism) It was a very friendly and constructive meeting, mostly focussing on plans for a full meeting to be held on April 5th, to which we'll invite new people. The plan is to invite people from different spiritual and religious backgrounds to dialogue about practical means for peacemaking in society. Since it's the weekend of Martin Luther King's anniversary in April, we'll have some readings and reflection about him too.

There was a small Zen Peacemaker Circle held in Leeds on Saturday at Anna's house, studying the material brought by Barbara Wegmueller on her visit in Deceember. Another Circle is planned for March, and possible themes are: further study of Barbara's material, the place of inspiration and faith in spiritual practice, and different types of "council circles".

On Saturday we held a Zen Peacemaker circle in Howard's house in Withington, attended by Howard, John, Dannie, Eva, Barbara, Simon and Zang. It was the first full Circle meting for several months, and half the people there had never been to a meeting with this approach before. We started with an introduction to the Zen Peacemakers and a checking-in council circle, and then Zang led an introduction to Zazen using short periods of meditation. We had a shared feast together for lunch, and then in the afternoon we used sociocratic voting to select a book to study in the next few meetings. The choices ranged for Tolstoy to Christian Zen to Non-Violent Communication- in the end, we decided to study Bernie Glassman's 'Infinite Circle' together to build a shared perspective on Zen practice, and also decided to do more practical training together in Non-Violent Communication. The next Circle will be on Saturday 4th April from 11.30am-6pm in Howard's again.

Happy New Year everyone! This coming year we hope to have a wide range of events for the UK Zen Peacemakers. There will be Zen Peacemaker Circle meetings in Manchester and Leeds, informal meditation group meetings in Manchester, regular Zen training in Leicester and a range of one-off events. we hope to hold workshops at least on Non-Violent Communication, Persian Drumming, Western Spiritual Philosophers, and our annual Celebration of the Sufi mystic Jelaluddin Rumi. We will also be offering a series of weekend workshops taught by visiting Zen teachers! this include: Barbara Wegmueller , who some of you will know already. She's a Zen teacher, a Buddhist preceptor, a peace activist, and European Coordinator for the Circle approach to Zen practice. She'll be coming to lead a workshop on the '5 Buddha Energies'- a way of looking at the aspects of your life and personality and bringing them into wholeness. Roland Wegmueller , Barbara's husband, who most of you haven...