Love as It Is Given

Published on June 23, 2026
close-up photography of pagoda building
Photo by Claire Chang

Nurtured by Love

by Shinichi Suzuki
Excerpt from Gregg Krech


Life was wretched in Japan right after the end of World War II. The winters in Matsumoto are severe, and there are days when the temperature falls to 13 or 18 degrees below zero centigrade. On one of those days my sister returned from an errand, and, as she shook off the snow, she said, “In all this cold, there is a wounded soldier standing on the bridge down by Hon-machi, begging. He is standing there shivering in this driving snow, and nobody is putting any money in the box at his feet… I wanted to invite him in to sit in our kotatsu in our warm room and give him some tea.”

I immediately replied, “You merely wanted to?”

She answered yes, and suddenly ran out into the street. I made the room warmer, stirred up the fire in the kotatsu, got out some cookies somebody had sent us as a gift, and waited. About thirty minutes later my sister came back with the white-clad, wounded soldier. “This lady insisted…” he began to explain.

“You are very welcome; do come in.” Koji and I urged him into the kotatsu with us, and we sat and talked about all sorts of things. Finally he asked me for the second time, “Why are you so kind to me?”

“My sister happened to see you,” I replied, “and insisted on inviting you in.”

“It’s the first time anyone has… and today was so cold and miserable,” he said.

He told us about his experience in the war, and how he was going from place to place collecting money for the wounded soldiers, and we talked and talked for three hours, until he got warm again. He then got up, saying he had to go to Nagano. At the front door, in spite of his protestations that I already had been far too kind, I put some money in his box, saying jokingly that it was just compensation for causing him to lose a half day’s business, and anyway it was not his own personal box and so he had no right to refuse.

Afterward, my sister said to me, “You taught me an excellent lesson.” Indeed, it was our first exercise in “If you want to do something, do it.”


Zen Peacemakers Auschwitz-Birkenau
Bearing Witness Retreat

Auschwitz-Birkenau is not an easy place to approach,
especially when you are being called,
to make whole.

November 15 - 21, 2026
Oświęcim, Poland

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Peacemakers Circle

Ben Connelly will present stories and lessons from a wide variety of Buddhist and Interfaith work as part of the nonviolent response to the violence brought by federal officers to the Minnesota community in 2026.

He will tie these lessons to a variety of Buddhist teachings and practices and to long lineages of practice in countering state violence and creating collective liberation.

This offering will include a variety of modes of dialogue and meditation practice.

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Ben Connelly is a Soto Zen teacher and Dharma heir in the Katagiri lineage. He also teaches mindfulness in a wide variety of secular contexts including police training and addiction recovery groups, and works with multi-faith groups focused on social and climate justice. Ben is the guiding teacher at Minnesota Zen Meditation Center, travels to teach across the United States, has written for Tricycle and Lion’s Roar magazines, and is author of Inside the Grass Hut, Inside Vasubandhu's Yogacara, Mindfulness and Intimacy, Vasubandhu's "Three Natures", and Inside the Flower Garland Sutra.

Peacemakers Circle

In 1986, I was first introduced to the phrase, “Taking your practice off your cushion,” by Thich Nhat Hanh. That has been a wonderful koan to me for the past 40 years. A year later I began studying Japanese Psychology. Naikan Therapy offers a path to questioning the stories we carry with us and seeing our relationships with others through a different lens. In our time together, and through stories, maxims and poetry, I hope to share with you ideas and principles from Japanese Psychology and explore, in dialogue, whether, and how, this might fit into your own life and spiritual path in the Zen Peacemakers tradition.

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Gregg Krech has been studying and teaching Japanese Psychology for 39 years. He is the author of five books including “Tunneling for Sunlight: Living Wisdom from Buddhism and Japanese Psychology to Cope with Difficult Times”. His work has been featured in THE SUN magazine, Tricycle, SELF, Utne Reader, Counseling Today, Cosmopolitan and on Public Radio. He is the Director of the ToDo Institute in Vermont.

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, 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)

Tuesday, June 30th - Way of Council
Tuesday, July 7th - The Way of Council - Eldering without Children
Friday, July 17th - Women Only Council
Monday, July 20th - Mental Health Professionals & Caregivers Council
Wednesday, July 29th - Way of Council


Core Training

Bernie Glassman articulated the Three Tenets of the Zen Peacemakers early in the evolution of the organization. But these three, simple, profound, vows or commitments can also be taken as a complete practice for our life:

  • I will embody Not Knowing, thereby giving up fixed ideas.

  • I will Bear Witness, opening my heart to the joy and suffering of life.

  • I will take Loving Action arising out of not-knowing and bearing witness.

We can practice and manifest our true selves in every situation and with everything that arises, using the Three Tenets. This is a lifelong practice, one we never complete on our hourlong session we will present and describe the Three Tenets and have time to take your questions.

Duration: 60 minutes - Format: Presentation

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TAKING ACTION

Spiritual traditions are many, yet the divisions we experience are not only between them, they are also within us, in the ways we hold views and define what is “true” or “other.” Through the Three Tenets, we begin here. Not-Knowing invites us to loosen our attachment to fixed ideas about religion and belief. Bearing Witness brings us into direct relationship with the practices, rituals, and lived experiences of others. Taking Action arises within this encounter, not from agreement, but from staying present in difference.As we engage across traditions, in dialogue, shared practice, or collaboration, we begin to notice our own assumptions, our preferences, our subtle habits of separation. In that moment, there is an opportunity to remain present and meet one another more openly.This may look like participating in interfaith initiatives, building relationships across traditions, or working together to address shared needs. The work is not about resolving difference, but about how we meet it.
Learn more here: https://zenpeacemakers.org/taking-action-home/taking-action-interfaith

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

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HAIKU

Monthly Haiku Page
Please participate in our Haiku Poetry Challenge

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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

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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

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