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General Information: Overview : History Index : 1994 - 1996 ![]() In the BeginningZen Peacemakers 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. On May. 15, 1996, Roshis Bernie Glassman and Sandra Jishu Holmes decide to co-found a Zen Peacemaker Order. Co-Founders The Zen Peacemaker Order flows from the life of two American Zen Teachers, Roshi Bernie Glassman and Roshi Sandra Jishu Holmes, who were husband and wife. Bernie's teacher was Hakuyu Maezumi Roshi while Jishu's teacher was Roshi Bernie. Their lineage flowing through Maezumi Roshi is called the White Plum Asanga. They were both members of the Japanese Soto Sect whose organization (Order) is called Shumucho. Roshi Bernie left the Japanese Soto Sect Order with the formation of the Zen Peacemaker Order. Roshi Bernie has many successors while Roshi Jishu passed away before finishing the trainings with her successors. Lineages and OrdersIn the Japanese Zen tradition, we trace a person's lineage through the person who empowered them as a teacher or as a priest. There are also ceremonies to bring a person into the Buddhist Sangha as a layperson or as clergy. These ceremonies can be performed by an individual empowered to transmit the Precepts or by a group of people empowered to transmit the Precepts. Ceremonies to enter the Buddhist Sangha have been developed by many Zen Orders and they are usually based on receiving the Precepts of that Order. Many times, at that ceremony, the person becoming a Buddhist receives a lineage chart showing his relationship to the lineage of the Preceptor. When the ceremony is performed by a group of Preceptors, either one Preceptor is considered the lineage representor or the person enters the Sangha without having a lineage. This is the way it is done in many traditions in South East Asia as well as in the Western Countries. Orders are groups or institutions that select the Rule of that Order and take the responsibility of the Rule's evolving. Orders also create the basic ceremonies although it is common for Preceptors to modify the ceremony. There are generally described ways to enter an Order although many people have an affinity with a particular Order and become Fellow Travelers to that Order. The discussion of hierarchal and peer relationships was to later develop into an organization of interlocking circles called the Zen Peacemaker Circle. Zen Peacemaker Priests![]() In June, 1994, Michael Daigu O'Keefe became the first person to be ordained as a novice Zen Peacemaker Priest (initial vows.) The Preceptor was Roshi Bernie Glassman and the ceremony was held at Greyston in Yonkers, NY. This began the practice of ordaining as a novice Zen Peacemaker Priest with the commitment of doing social action. |
Bernie's Zen
The Dude Abides
