Peacemaker Circles UK

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...