
A Community Discussion
Published on November 15, 2023
Dear Peacemakers, This past month the Zen Peacemakers gathered together once again within the barbed wire fences of Birkenau to meditate at the selection area along the railroad tracks of Auschwitz. Most people who have passed through this area were only alive for a very short time. Maybe an hour. The others, whos fates were determined by a simple gesture by the SS, were sent through a process of dehumanization. Emerging as only a number, people of family and culture were enslaved as prisoners through the cruelest events of our recent times. Whether we were walking through a gas chamber, sitting in a barrack, or standing in the guard tower looking across the camp, our practice is to recognize our Oneness. That ourself and other are not seperate. To have the opportunity to open ourself up to the suffering of the victim as well as the perpetrators is profound. This is what I believe is needed most. This in itself, resolves the cycle of endless thirst. If there was ever a time for the world to have courage to see ourselves as others and others as ourselves, it is now. How can we perceive an aggressor, when each one of us no longer accepts the illusion of "Other?" Is this not the path of reconcilliation? On November 7th we had a Community Discussion about the Israel-Hamas War. Please join us and Bear Witness to those living in the region. The link to the event recording is here: https://zenpeacemakers.org/holy-land/ In Love and Gratitude, Jim Hōden Fricker
