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    Ecosattva Council with Kathleen Hoêtsu Battke

    Ecosattva Council with Kathleen Hoêtsu Battke

    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
    June 12, 2026
    Bearing Witness to Being Human

    Bearing Witness to Being Human

    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
    June 11, 2026
    Bearing Witness at Auschwitz-Birkenau

    Bearing Witness at Auschwitz-Birkenau

    There is a difference between knowing a thing and being changed by it.In this episode of The Peacemakers Podcast, we enter the heart of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Bearing Witness Retreat, held each November by Zen Peacemakers. Through the voices of Barbara Wegmüller, Bernie Glassman, Fleet Maull, Genro Gauntt, Tani Katz, and Jishu Holmes, this episode explores what it means to sit at the selection sit
    June 10, 2026
    It calls into question everything

    It calls into question everything

    All those doctors of law or medicine or theology, all those lovers of art and poetry, of Bach and Goethe, who coldly, deliberately ordered the massacres and participated in them. What did their metamorphosis signify? Could anything explain their loss of ethical, cultural and religious memory? How could we ever understand the passivity of the onlookers and – yes – the silence of the Allies? And que
    June 9, 2026
    Core Training: Introduction to the Way of Council

    Core Training: Introduction to the Way of Council

    Council is one of our most important core Zen Peacemaker practices. We share Council during our Bearing Witness retreats most 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 n
    June 5, 2026
    The Face I See Everywhere

    The Face I See Everywhere

    THE FACE I SEE EVERYWHEREWhy Barbara Wegmüller Returns to AuschwitzThere is the face of a woman, looking at me, ever since I met her eyes for the first time. She is looking at me in one of the pictures in a memorial hall in Auschwitz I, the original camp. The photo shows her as she is waiting with her children and a group of women at the selection site. Her face shows disgust, fear, distress, and
    June 2, 2026
    Thank you for your ongoing support.

    Thank you for your ongoing support.

    Dear Peacemakers,This is our final message for the Spring Fundraiser for Zen Peacemakers. We would like to thank those of you who have donated so far, and we encourage everyone to do so.Your generosity helps us offer nearly all of our programs free of charge. This is our commitment as a means to spread our unique approach to peacemaking. You also help make it possible to offer scholarships for our
    June 1, 2026
    We’re Nearing the End, Help Us Carry This Work Forward

    We’re Nearing the End, Help Us Carry This Work Forward

    Dear Peacemakers,We are nearing the close of our Spring Fundraiser. We thank you sincerely if you have donated. We are financially dependent on your support, and we are most grateful.We are all intimately aware of the violence, strife, division, oppression, and suffering in our world. These are the conditions we find ourselves living in. How do we respond? How do we act to help relieve suffering a
    May 26, 2026
    The broken stick

    The broken stick

    Photo by Shannon Adriaan - Budapest, Shoes on the Danube Bank, HungaryCan we bear to look at what we have not confessed to ourselves? Can we hear what we do not know? Can we stir the ocean with the broken stick of our aspirations? Can we free all creations? No one answer, can hold the truth of a good heart. Thus, we stopped in our Council practice when it was our time to send our voice, to speak w
    May 26, 2026
    The Ground Beneath Me

    The Ground Beneath Me

    Stolperstein - “stumbling stone” ~ Photo by HaberdoedasOne reason I’m drawn to these charnel-ground-like practices is that they simply accentuate what we all deal with day-in and day-out in our lives. In this type of practice I am able to bring mindfulness and awareness to the suffering of the world and bear witness to it. We all experience charnel grounds in our lives. Especially between our ears
    May 19, 2026
    Dharma in Hell: The Prison Writings of Fleet Maull

    Dharma in Hell: The Prison Writings of Fleet Maull

    The following is excerpted from the second chapter of Dharma in Hell: The Prison Writings of Fleet Maull. Published by the Prison Dharma Network, 2012.April 2, 2018After seven months in the county jail, I received a thirty-year, no-parole sentence. I was then transferred to the federal prison hospital in Missouri. I went from a cellblock housing ten prisoners to a correctional facility with over 1
    May 18, 2026
    Tai Chi at Auschwitz: An Unexpected Reconciliation Journey

    Tai Chi at Auschwitz: An Unexpected Reconciliation Journey

    Please join Zen Peacemakers for Tai Chi at Auschwitz: An Unexpected Reconciliation Journey, an interview and presentation with Peter Sternberg and Maura Sternberg, hosted by Kathleen Hôetsu Battke.Peter’s original essay, Tai Chi at Auschwitz, was translated by Kathleen for the book Pearls of Ash and Awe. Now Peter and Maura will share from their continuing work, including selected readings and ref
    May 15, 2026
    ‘You’ll feel better about it when you go there’

    ‘You’ll feel better about it when you go there’

    Photo by Hansel Ong‘You’ll feel better about it when you go there’This brief reflection has a title. There is a bit of a story behind that, which will become clear as you read.Last Saturday, I participated in a Zen Peacemaker training and listened to a teacher share her experience of travelling to Auschwitz to participate in a Bearing Witness retreat run by Zen Peacemakers. She described how, as s
    May 13, 2026
    Our vision

    Our vision

    Dear Peacemakers,We reach out to you during our Spring Fundraiser to ask for your generosity and financial support for Zen Peacemakers.Zen Peacemakers is building a base of solidarity and commitment to help each other through taking action. We are encouraging everyone to ask, “How can I help others?” in everyday life. We provide programs and shared stories in many areas to help us all see the effe
    May 12, 2026
    I must do it carefully.

    I must do it carefully.

    When I am bound inside my own skin and others are bound inside theirs, I have to defend and protect myself from them. And when I do place myself among them, I must do it carefully, which is hard work, because I am often hurt, opposed, and thwarted by others. But when there’s openness, no boundary between myself and others -- when it turns out that I literally am others and others literally are me
    May 12, 2026
    The condition of change

    The condition of change

    Rabbi Ben Ezra By Robert BrowningBEARING WITNESS RETREATZen Peacemakers Native American Bearing Witness RetreatJuly 12 - 18, 2026Black Hills, South DakotaThis Bearing Witness Retreat centers on relationship — with Lakota horse culture, with the land, and with one another.We will be based at a single camp location in the Black Hill area of South Dakota. Each day includes periods of horseback riding
    May 5, 2026
    What we plan to do

    What we plan to do

    Dear Peacemakers,Our Spring Fundraiser is underway, and we are writing to ask for your financial support for Zen Peacemakers.We have a full calendar of events, but moving forward, we want to deliver even more impact, to reach more people with our unique approach to peacemaking, to promote the practices that create and reveal oneness in the world. We are encouraging and supporting Peacemakers to ta
    May 5, 2026
    This work continues because of you

    This work continues because of you

    Dear Peacemakers,We are writing to ask for your financial support for Zen Peacemakers in this Spring Appeal. At Zen Peacemakers, we offer a vast majority of our programs, content, and trainings with no fees. We offered 144 unique programs in 2025 and are on pace to do so again this year.Thanks to your support and generosity, this past year, we have begun producing podcasts that have generated over
    April 28, 2026
    Flowing River

    Flowing River

    gently flowing river by Liam Moloney, creative commonsBEARING WITNESS RETREATZen Peacemakers Native American Bearing Witness RetreatJuly 12 - 18, 2026Black Hills, South DakotaThis Bearing Witness Retreat centers on relationship — with Lakota horse culture, with the land, and with one another.We will be based at a single camp location in the Black Hill area of South Dakota. Each day includes period
    April 28, 2026
    Brush Doodling

    Brush Doodling

    Thich Nhat Hanh Brush DoodlingJust playingnot doinganything special –the drawn tracesof an ink-soaked brush.- Rengetsu (translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi, Joan Halifax)BEARING WITNESS RETREATZen Peacemakers Native American Bearing Witness RetreatJuly 12 - 18, 2026Black Hills, South DakotaThis Bearing Witness Retreat centers on relationship — with Lakota horse culture, with the land, and with one ano
    April 21, 2026