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Excerpted from “What Shall I Sing to You” A Conversation with Krishna Das and Bernie Glassman on the Peacemaker PodcastInside the Barracks at Auschwitz-BirkenauBernie asked me to sing in the barracks, - the women’s barracks. I was a little uncomfortable, but I had my harmonium so I said “Ok, I’ll do it.” So I went one day by myself to the women’s barracks and I sat down and I closed my eyes. And I

Photo by Ananya MittalMaking Peace“But peace, like a poem, is not there ahead of itself, can’t be imagined before it is made, can’t be known except in the words of its making” - Denise Levertovexcerpt from Breathing the Water, New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1987BEARING WITNESS RETREATThere’s great power in the placewhere life and death come together.- Eve MarkoThis November, Zen Peacemaker

Both Zen and art-making are practices of transformation. They broaden seeing, soften understanding, and expand the field of our actions and speech. This second conversation between poet Jane Hirshfield and Geoff Shoun O' Keeffe will continue the dialogue about art-making and activism, the ways that creative heart-mind increases compassion, and the perennial question of meeting the difficult with t

Excerpted from Long, Long Ago: Reflections on How It All Started by Eve MarkoI first accompanied Bernie Glassman to Auschwitz-Birkenau in the first days of December 1994, before anyone conceived of a bearing witness retreat at the site of the concentration camps.In my family, two aunts and an uncle died at Auschwitz. Another uncle barely survived the hard labor and lived the rest of his life like

A Stolperstein is a ten-centimetre cube inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution. Bearing the bandages, water and sponge, Straight and swift to my wounded I go... I onward go, I stop,With hinged knees and steady hand to dress wounds,I am firm with each, the pangs are sharp yet unavoidable,One turns to me his appealing eyes—poor boy! I never knew you,Ye

Excerpts from Love Letter from Auschwitz by Peter Kuhn, originally published in The Mindfulness Bell.Photos and prisoner’s clothing at Auschwitz; photo by Peter KuhnMy wife Jackie and I joined the Zen Peacemakers for a five-day Bearing Witness Retreat at Auschwitz, followed soon after with a trip to the European Institute of Applied Buddhism (EIAB) where we joined the Living Happily Together Retre

Tommy Dorsey (Issan Dorsey), San Francisco, October 1989 – photo by Allen GinsbergTo Issan Dorsey Roshi, on the occasion of his paranirvanaby Merri-Todd WebsterOriginally published: September 6, 2020One moment of perfect practice, says Dogenone moment of perfect enlightenmentOne moment of perfect prayera Rosary recited with pure attentionloving the Blessed Virginwanting to be like herOne moment of

From Why Bernie Kept Going Back to Auschwitz-Birkenau article adapted from writing by Zen Peacemakers founder Bernie Glassman about his returning to Auschwitz-Birkenau year-after-year, and the purpose it has served for both him and other peacemakers.Every year since 1994, Zen Peacemakers have traveled to Auschwitz-Birkenau for a Bearing Witness Retreat. We spend a week sitting by the train tracks

Zen Peacemakers Bearing Witness with Native Americans (July 2026)RememberJoy HarjoRemember the sky that you were born under,know each of the star’s stories.Remember the moon, know who she is.Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is thestrongest point of time. Remember sundownand the giving away to night.Remember your birth, how your mother struggledto give you form and breath. You are evidence of

From Letter to Bernie Glassman about Auschwitz Retreat ~ from Natalie GoldbergIn June 2011 Bernie Glassman brought another group to Auschwitz to Bear Witness. A hundred and fifty of us traveled from all over the world to attend.Six months before the trip great terror haunted me in the night. Unnamed, unconscious fears.When I taught in Houston I went to the Holocaust Museum there. As I walked along

得失是非，一時放卻。Gain and loss, right and wrong—release them all at once.Photo by Liana SZen Peacemakers Auschwitz-BirkenauBearing Witness RetreatAuschwitz-Birkenau is not an easy place to approach,especially when you are being called,to make whole.November 15 - 21, 2026Oświęcim, PolandMORE INFO HERESynchronized Gatherings Across Sites of Nazi Persecution and GenocideZen Peacemakers invites our Affiliate

From Long Long Ago: Reflections on How It All Started by Eve MarkoI accompanied Bernie Glassman to Auschwitz-Birkenau in December 1994, before anyone conceived of a bearing witness retreat at the site of the concentration camps.[During that first visit,] I experienced a profound act of letting go. Certain things changed radically afterwards, first of which was my relationship to German people and

“What unlocks us? What opens up deep traumas that I believe go way back before our parents’ stories, before our childhood, even before our birth? Therapists can help us deal with issues of our lifetime, but what about the karma of history, the fears of multiple generations? How do we finally confront streams of fear and hate that seem as old as time?” ~ Eve MarkoPhoto by Ethan Bouffard-RoyZen Peac

In this episode of the Peacemakers Podcast, we shares the story of Jennifer Dohrn — midwife, activist, longtime student of Zen, and a person whose life has been shaped by the simple, radical practice of listening.At the heart of this episode is the birthing center she helped build in the South Bronx of New York.Created for women and families who had often been pushed to the edges of healthcare, th

For thirty years, each November, Zen Peacemakers have gone to Auschwitz-Birkenau, a place that has become a monument to intolerance. We come to sit. To face what most of us spend our lives turning away from.We call this bearing witness.Shortly after the 20th anniversary of the first bearing witness retreat in Auschwitz, Roshi Bernie Glassman shared what drew him to this place:The first time I went

“We all talk about the interconnectedness of life. The oneness of life. But if we look carefully at ourselves and see how many aspects of life we shy away from or won’t come in contact with, and then try to figure out why — I think the biggest reason is fear. Our work in compassion is to remove fear.” ~ Bernie GlassmanCalligraphy by Kazuaki “Kaz” TanahashiIn Buddhism, Bernie noted, the word for co

Photo by Claire ChangNurtured by Loveby Shinichi SuzukiExcerpt from Gregg KrechLife 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 wou

Seal of the HuayanOne Vehicle Dharma RealmThe “Song of Dharma Nature” consists of thirty lines, each with seven classical Chinese characters. These characters are arranged into a maze-like grid… Like a rolling wheel of Dharma, the characters of the poem begin in the middle of the diagram and through a winding path make their way in a general clockwise motion to arrive again in the middle, where it

The Way of Council is a core practice with the Zen Peacemakers, along with meditation, the Three Tenets, and social action. It is a staple practice in our Bearing Witness retreats. Uniquely, Ecosattva Councils focus on bearing witness to and dealing with ecological crises and climate change. Everyone is invited to join, listen and share, especially those active in eco projects as their social enga

While I was working there some years ago, you’d have a hard time finding my employer, a remote Alaskan gold mining and processing facility, on a map. Today you may still have to sort out some cartographic ambiguities when you look for it on Google Maps. It was, during my time there, one of the highest producing gold mines in North America, producing up to 1,200 ounces of milled and poured gold a d