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Showing posts from February, 2009

Leeds Zen Peacemaker Circle, Sat 21st Feb

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".

Manchester Zen Peacemaker Circle, Sat 21st Feb

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.