Peacemaker Circles UK

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...

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...