The Zen Peacemakers inspire and intimidate me. This is because what the late Bernie Glassman created decades ago takes Buddhist dharma to the level of action, putting teachings into practice with the most marginalized people and uneasy areas of the world. The Zen Peacemakers do Street Retreats, where participants must beg for spare change and food on the streets. They sit in meditation inside the walls of Auschwitz, bearing witness to the unspeakable acts that took place there. They sit with the dying. They start over every day.

This is their story, circa the late 1990's, at least. Some of the Peacemakers featured here continue their work. Joan Halifax continues to share lessons on how to be present with those who are sick or transitioning. My friend Fleet Maull, who created the country's first prison hospice program, now runs programs that reach prisoners, police officers and guards, and others all over the world. And dear Bernie, who died just a couple of years ago, left his legacy with every lesson in this book.

I had to stop reading this book shortly after engaging w/ it the first time as my mom was dying. I picked it up again shortly before my dad passed. I just finished it now after a brief but sobering experience with my own cancer. The book speaks to being with the suffering. It speaks to putting ourselves in the most uncomfortable situations for the sake of benefitting others and stretching the limits of our own spiritual growth. It keeps finding me at all the right times.

I invite you to read this, and to learn about Zen Peacemakers, who are still active, still shaking things up, and still transforming lives (BLM, Indigenous communities, prison work, the climate crisis, homelessness, and much more). Thank you, Bernie. ( )