Winter Lights

Published on December 17, 2025
Snowy Owl In Flight by GoldenBright (Larry), creative commons
Excerpt from ‘Snowy Night’

Last night, an owl

in the blue dark

tossed an indeterminate number

of carefully shaped sounds into

the world, in which,

a quarter of a mile away, I happened

to be standing.

I couldn’t tell

which one it was –

the barred or the great-horned

ship of the air –

it was that distant. But, anyway,

aren’t there moments

that are better than knowing something,

and sweeter?..

- Mary Oliver

TAKING ACTION

From Bearing Witness to Taking Action

Zen Peacemakers live by the Three Tenets: Not-Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Taking Action.

When we let go of certainty, we begin to truly see.
When we see, our hearts move us to respond.

Taking Action invites us into that response — a growing web of service and connection around the world. Together, we are building a map of compassion in motion — one that connects individuals, communities, and organizations embodying the practice of contemplative social action.

By 2026, this living map will feature over 20,000 global organizations offering meaningful volunteer opportunities in areas such as environmental care, racial equity, prison outreach, and more.

Explore the Taking Action initiative — discover how you can serve, connect, and be inspired by the work already unfolding in your communities.
👉 Explore More

❤️ Your gift helps bring the Three Tenets to life.
👉 Donate Here


Weekly Spotlight: Miriam’s Kitchen

The Miriam’s Kitchen team utilizes a comprehensive approach to eliminating the housing crisis in Washington, D.C. Through engaging our guests with healthy, made-from-scratch meals, we connect them with personalized social services that assist them with re-building their lives.

Beyond our intensive program offering, we regularly engage community leaders and elected officials who fiercely advocate on our guests’ behalf.

Washington D.C., USA


PEACEMAKERS PODCAST

Listen Here


PEACEMAKER CIRCLES

Sacred Mischief Levity Strategies with Moshe “Youwho” Cohen
Tuesday, Dec. 16th, 12pm US Eastern Time, Zoom

Step back to 1998: “I need tools of tricksterdom,” Bernie tells me when we first meet. This is after Wavy Gravy calls, asking me to come across the Bay Bridge to the Hogfarm’s Berkeley house to meet “a man who needs a teacher.” It is, he says, “a real clown emergency.” Bernie has come seeking a clown teacher because the teachers and students learning from and training with him “take themselves too seriously” or are “downright arrogant” and he is looking to use humor as a wake-up call.

Yes, you too can invite a little levity into daily life by activating your “sense of funny”- what’s funny to you and investigating how to express those energies-non-verbally! How do you do that? Come find out in this introductory session.

Register Here


Taking Action
Wednesday, January 7th, 12pm Eastern Time, Zoom

Our third tenet is taking loving action from not knowing and bearing witness. This vow makes Zen Peacemakers unique. This is how we engage and reach out with helping hands to relieve suffering in our troubled world. Please join us to share your work, your project, and your own taking action with others. This circle will be held monthly in 2026.

Register Here


CORE TRAINING

Core Training: Meditation Instruction - Lisa Gakyo Schaewe
Monday, Jan. 12th, 12pm Eastern Time, Zoom

Human beings have been practicing mindfulness or meditation for millennia. It is a natural activity for us, like sleep, or walking, or moving about. Often, this practice is part of a religious or spiritual tradition, taking on many varied forms. And many of us meditate unaffiliated with any doctrine or lineage. We will offer a basic, introductory training in meditation, unattached to any specific tradition, that participants can put into personal practice immediately. It has been said, “Stillness answers every question.” Let’s explore that together.

Register Here


WAY OF COUNCIL

Council is one of our most important core Zen Peacemaker practices. We share Council during our Bearing Witness retreats almost every day. In Council, we come together in a small group in a profound way. We create a shared liminal space that is safe, confidential, and perhaps sacred. We each listen and speak from the heart, encountering and experiencing one another gently and with awareness. We are not solving problems or debating issues or making plans. We are making a healing space for each of us to hear and be heard, see and be seen.

UPCOMING COUNCILS (click on title to learn more & register)

Thurs., Dec. 18th - Ecosattva Council with Kathleen Hoêtsu Battke

Fri., Dec. 19th - Women Only Council

Mon., Dec. 22nd - Holding Space at the Holidays Council with Kineret Ando Yardena


Click Here to View All Upcoming Events



FRIENDS AND AFFILIATE EVENTS

Foundations of Wise Care: Expand your capacity to offer sustainable, joyful, and effective care.
A 9-week online workshop
Wednesdays, 3-5 pm PST
January 14 - March 11, 2026

Contemplative care is expressed in the most ordinary ways: kind speech, gentle care, patient listening, and with the skills unique to each caregiver. Each act arises to meet the need at hand, even if that takes the caregiver outside their comfort zone.

Learn More and Register Here: https://www.wisecaregiving.org/8-caregiving-foundations-workshop1.html


New Affiliate Announcement!

Join us here at https://hive.zenpeacemakers.org to explore some of the offerings of the organizations affiliated with Zen Peacemakers.

Caminho de Luz

Comunidade de Saberes e Práticas Filosóficas e Espirituais “Caminho de Luz”

Comunidade Caminho de Luz is a Brazilian religious organization dedicated to the study, practice, and promotion of diverse philosophical and spiritual traditions, with a special emphasis on the confluence of Afro-Amerindian religions (particularly Umbanda) and engaged Buddhist spirituality. Our core mission is to foster a just, compassionate, and harmonious society grounded in the principles of interdependence, decoloniality, and engaged spirituality that is both socially and ecologically conscious. We seek to create spaces for learning, healing, and compassionate action, integrating academic research and university extension projects to build bridges between ancestral wisdom and contemporary challenges.

What They Do
Our main activities are designed to integrate spiritual practice with community service and personal development:

Regular Spiritual Services: We hold weekly Umbanda religious services (”giras”) that are open to the public and free of charge, offering spiritual counseling, healing rituals, and charity work for the community.

Study and Practice Groups: We facilitate study and development groups focused on the philosophical and practical aspects of our traditions, including Afro-Brazilian wisdom, engaged Buddhism, and inter-spiritual dialogue.

Contemplative Practices: We encourage and teach contemplative practices, such as daily meditation and prayer, to cultivate inner peace, presence, and a strong spiritual foundation for our members.

Academic and Leadership Development Initiatives: This vision is actively being seeded through the academic work of our spiritual leader at the University of São Paulo (USP). His engagement in research, teaching, and university extension projects is pioneering practices and policies that foster a culture of deep listening, care, non-violence, and interdependence within the academic environment. These pilot initiatives serve as a living laboratory for our aspiration to develop future leadership programs aimed at empowering social change agents powered by Bodhisatva vows to act effectively and resiliently in the world.

Join Them Here

São Paulo, Brazil


ZAZEN


Experience a connection with your personal landscape through the transformative power of online meditation sessions with the Zen Peacemakers. Whether you're part of a local sangha or other spiritual community, we invite you to join us in this virtual space where we can gather across geographies and time zones.

Join us for these online meditation sessions and experience the profound benefits of collective mindfulness. The Zen Peacemakers are here to support you on this transformative journey.

Monday - Friday
10:00 - 10:40 am US Eastern

MORE INFO HERE


Haiku

Monthly Haiku Page
Please participate in our Haiku Poetry Challenge

ENTER HERE


OFFERING

The Bernie Koans

Edited by: Ken Byalin, Francisco "Paco" Lugovina, Christopher Panos

It’s just my opinion, man’, as Bernie would say. We all have our opinions about Roshi Bernie Glassman.  To some of us, he is the stern head monk at Zen Center of LA; to others, he is the socially engaged Buddhist who built up the Greyston Bakery and Foundation.  To others he is the founder of Zen Peacemakers International and the instigator of bearing witness plunges on the city streets and at Auschwitz and to others he is the clown, the founder of the Order of Disorder.  He is all of these and more.  As the stories in the book show, he is Bernie, the mensch, who spent his life feeding the hungry ghosts of society and teaching that Zen is to realize the oneness and interconnectedness of life.
 
-Gerry Shishin Wick, grateful Dharma brother and disciple of Roshi Bernie

PURCHASE HERE


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Thank you for reading this week's Zen Peacemakers newsletter.

We look forward to connecting at upcoming events, on social media, and via email.

With gratitude,

The Zen Peacemakers Team

[email protected]