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A Way of Service: Mission

The mission of the Zen Peacemakers is to make direct efforts to alleviate suffering in the world by working to:

  • inspire and empower a new generation of practitioners committed to socially engaged Buddhism and to socially engaged spirituality
  • design creative models for this practice
  • develop and manage holistic social service projects in disadvantaged areas

Zen Peacemakers extend the vow to save all sentient beings from those currently coming into the meditation hall (zendo), to include the disenfranchised and poor, the homeless, displaced war veterans, immigrants and the formerly incarcerated.

street_retreat
Street Retreat

Innovative training methods help practitioners cultivate an empathic commitment to social service by leading them into difficult and unknown spaces. Called "plunges", these practices include: Street Retreats, during which practitioners live with the homeless and practice begging, and Bearing Witness Retreats, during which participants immerse themselves in places of inconceivable human or environmental suffering, such as the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camps in Poland.

Our service programs and businesses help people and communities take control of their own destinies and harvest the fruits of their own hard work.

Programs managed by Zen Peacemakers provide supportive wrap-around services in a holistic, skillsbased approach. These have included vocational training, affordable permanent housing, and economic selfsufficiency through the provision of market-wage jobs.

The Zen Peacemakers develop social enterprise businesses that integrate for profit and not-for-profit businesses, promoting a triple bottom line: profit, social transformation, and environmental stewardship.


177 Ripley Road | Montague, MA 01351 | Phone: (413) 367-2080 | 2007 Zen Peacemakers