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Bearing Witness, Oakland, Nov 16-18
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Progressive Portal
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Nov 09, 2001 14:08 PST
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[From Trena Cleland.]
Dear Friends,
This should be a very interesting and meaningful workshop. It goes on
from Nov. 16-18, but you could just attend the Friday evening (11/16)
lecture to get a taste of the ideas. I know Fleet Maull, who is
fascinating, as is Bernie Glassman.
Warmly,
Trena
Bearing Witness:
Exploring Spirituality, Peacemaking and Social Action
A multifaith program with
Roshi Bernie Glassman & Activist Fleet Maull
Sponsored by the Peacemaker Community USA/Canada
Friday Public Talk, November 16, 7:30 pm
Weekend Program, November 16-18
We the People Auditorium
200 Harrison Street, Oakland
"If we look at history, we find that in time, harmony, love of peace,
justice and freedom always triumph over cruelty and oppression."
Dalai
Lama
Bernie Glassman has been at the forefront of spirtually based social
action and peace work. A provocative figure in American Buddhism, he is
author of Bearing Witness and Instructions to the Cook. Bernie conducts
street retreats in NY, and an annual interfaith retreat at the
Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps in Poland.
Fleet Maull, director of the Peacemaker Community USA/Canada, is a
meditation teacher and social activist involved in prison issues. While
in a federal prison for 14 years, he founded the National Prison Hospice
Association and Prison Dharma Network. Fleet is a faculty member at
Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado where he teaches courses in
engaged spirituality and peacemaking.
The workshop will present Peacemaker Community's approaches to
spiritually based social action and peacemaking. Through meditation
practice, dialogue, process work and celebration, Bernie and Fleet will
lead participants in an exploration of the three tenets:
not knowing, bearing witness, and healing.
Friday night public talk (Nov 16) 7:30 pm. $15
Weekend program (Nov 16-18 includes Friday night): Sat 9-9, Sun 9-6.
Cost: $175/$150 with pre-registration by Nov 9th
($125 for PC members, seniors, and full time students with w/
pre-registration by Nov 9th )
Location: We the People Auditorium, 200 Harrison Street, Oakland
For further information
call 303-447-8051 or email: bri-@peacecom.org
or to register www.peacemakercommunity.org/USA
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Peacemaker Community - Background
The Peacemaker Community (www.peacemakercommunity.org) is a non-profit
international interfaith network of people practicing a vision of peace
through study, spiritual practice, and social action. It was founded by
Bernie Glassman and Sandra Jishu Holmes in 1994.
We are committed to a culture of nonviolence and reverence for life; a
culture of solidarity and a just economic order; a culture of tolerance
and a life based on truthfulness; and a culture of equal rights and
partnership between men and women. These values inform our work in the
world, which is dedicated to a wide variety of concerns crossing the
boundaries of faith, nationality, and politics.
A few examples of our work include:
Healing retreats for Arab-Jewish peace and reconciliation activists,
Israel. Many of these activists have experienced deep disillusionment as
they have watched the work of many years wiped away in the wake of
escalating violence in the Middle East. This project hopes also to
attract Israelis who are already doing spiritual and contemplative work
to engage in more social action. The first event is a street retreat
plunge and workshop in Tel Aviv entitled "Healing from Bearing Witness"
to be led by Bernie Glassman and Eve Marko.
Birthing and dying, Poland, promoting improvement of Poland's national
standards of child delivery facilities and of facilities caring for the
dying.
Roots of violence, Italy, exploring the roots of violence in ourselves
and others: our childhood experiences, the circumstances in which we
find ourselves, outside events, as well as our inherent greed, anger and
ignorance.
Native American Bearing Witness Retreat at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
This event, which is scheduled for 2003, will address the history and
impact of the genocide committed against Native Americans. We are
currently cultivating a diverse group of Native American elders who will
serve as spirit holders for this gathering. We hope to bring together
people representing all elements of this tragedy: Native Americans,
government leaders and agencies, church leaders, ranchers, and more.
Servants of the Servants, Mexico, sponsored by Instituto Luz Sobre Luz,
an interfaith institute distributing medicine and food to Mexico's
disenfranchised.
National Prison Hospice Association, Colorado, hospice care for
terminally ill prison inmates.
Peacemaker Community - How We Began
The Community had its beginnings during a street retreat on the steps of
the United States Capitol building one snowy January day in 1994. After
fourteen years of committed effort building the Greyston Mandala with
his wife, Sandra Holmes, Roshi Bernie Glassman was pondering what his
next initiative might be. What emerged was an order of Zen practitioners
dedicated to the cause of peace - the Zen Peacemaker Order.
As Roshi Glassman began to speak to others about his vision for an
order, he began to receive questions such as "How about us? You're not
going to leave us out, are you?" from spiritual leaders in the Jewish,
Hindu. Christian and Sufi traditions. It quickly became obvious that a
larger container was needed. Thus the vision of the Peacemaker Community
evolved, the vision of a global network of individuals, groups and
institutions committed to a life of peacemaking based on the integration
of spiritual practice and social action.
Since that time, the vision has become clearer and now includes
individual members, Peacemaker Villages (Partners in Peace), and
Religious Orders which enable those members who want to, to deepen their
spiritual practice while engaged in peacemaking activity. In June of
2000, the Hub Staff moved to Santa Barbara, CA. We now have
international Regional Directors in place for France and the Benelux,
Poland /Czechloslovakia and Sweden, Israel/Palestine, Germany/ Austria
and Switzerland, and North America.
In January of 2001, over thirty leaders representing the five major
religious traditions met in Jerusalem to develop a strategic plan for
the continued growth and effectiveness of the Peacemaker Community. As
we move further into the 21st century, we are in a period of time where
we have the opportunity to create a future of peace for our planet.
There are literally thousands of organizations and hundreds of thousands
of individuals working for a more just, free and prosperous world. We
invite you to join us and them in this very timely endeavor.
Ultimately, we see a world in which all beings are at peace with
themselves and others, loved and loving, safe and secure, whole, free of
oppression in all its many forms, and able to fully be who they are.
We invite you to become a member of the Peacemaker Community. You can
visit our website www.peacemakercommunity.org or contact us directly at
303-447-8051.
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