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ZEN HOUSES (ZH)
   Appalachia: 1st ZH
   Montague Farm: Mother House ZH

RESIDENT PROGRAM

Bearing Witness Retreats
Auschwitz Retreat
Street Retreats

Symposium for
Socially Engaged Buddhism


To Locate a ZPS Affiliate Group in Your Area
Link Here.

Zen Peacemakers Mother House

  • Overview
  • Spiritual Directors
  • Montague Farm Zendo
  • Montague Farm Zen House
Graphic depiction of the House of One People
Mother House of the Zen Peacemakers in Montague, Ma.

The Zen Peacemakers Mother House serves as:

  • a place for connection and support,
  • incubating new projects,
  • a meeting and gathering site for the Zen Peacemakers Sangha (ZPS),
Enkyo and Bernie
Co-Spiritual Directors Roshi Enkyo and Roshi Bernie

The Co-Spiritual Directors of the Zen Peacemakers Sangha, Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara and Roshi Bernie Glassman, appointed Sensei Eve Myonen Marko, in September 2005, as the Head Teacher of the Mother House Zendo.

At the Zen Peacemaker Board Meeting held at the Mother House in Montague, Ma on May 3, 2005, Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara was chosen by Roshi Bernie Glassman as Co-Spiritual Director of the Zen Peacemaker Sangha. This appointment was unanimously ratified by the ZP Board. Bernie expressed his delight in this ratification and his joy in having the ZPS stated value of partnership being realized in the Spiritual Director role. The Spiritual Director is an honorary position with no current roles.

On May 4, Enkyo and Bernie were acknowledged in a ritual developed by leaders of the Zen Peacemaker Sangha as Co-Directors. The ceremony honored the concept of partnership and was blessed by the First Elder (Sensei Robert Sokan Lee) of ZPS.

Elder Blessing
Elder Bob Blessing Enkyo and Bernie

To read more about Enkyo please link to her bio.

To read more about Bernie please link to his bio.

Peter Cunningham created a photo essay of this ceremony. To see these pictures please link below.

www.flickr.com
 
Graphic depiction of the House of One People
The Montague Farm Zendo is Located in the House of One People in Montague, Ma.

The Montague Farm Zendo was opened by Sensei Eve Myonen Marko in September 2005. It offers opportunities to practice Zen meditation, study with a teacher and a sangha, do liturgical service involvement in social action. The Montague Farm Zendo is the Zendo of the Mother House of the Zen Peacemakers Sangha.




Sensei Eve Myonen Marko

Sensei Myonen
Sensei Eve Marko

Sensei Eve is a dharma successor of Roshi Bernie Glassman and a Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order. Through her numerous writings and her role as one of the leaders of the Order’s annual bearing witness retreats at Auschwitz-Birkenau, she has made the teachings of Zen in the areas of peacemaking and love accessible to a broad audience.

Eve has written and edited numerous articles about the Zen Peacemakers and its member activists, and also collaborated with Roshi Bernie Glassman in the writing of Bearing Witness: A Zen Master’s Instructions on Making Peace, which was published by Random House in 1998. She has also written biographies and mystery books for children, published by Waldman Publishing.

She was a long-time member of the Zen Community of New York, which founded the Greyston Mandala organizations in Yonkers, New York. She was critical in the organization’s progress and developed resources and funding for Greyston Family Inn and Greyston Foundation. Marko was also Executive Director for the Music For the World Foundation, which funds and advocates on behalf of music education programs in American schools.

karenKaren Kisui Werner

In April, 2009, the Zen Peacemakers’ Board of Directors decided to open a signature Zen House at our Montague location, to be directed by Karen Kisui Werner. The Montague Farm Zen House (MFZH) uses facilities on the Montague campus, including residence space in the farmhouse, the meditation hall and the House of One People.

The MFZH is creating social service projects in the Pioneer Valley and serving as a model for other Zen Houses

Campus
Montague Campus

Daily life in the MFZH includes Zen practice and service in the projects sponsored by the house.

Services are delivered from a holistic, dignity-based perspective. MFZH will offer training that provides the skills and tools necessary to empower people to hold market-wage jobs and move toward economic self-sufficiency. MFZH also networks with existing service agencies.

MFZH serves three goals: to train residential and community based Buddhist practitioners and interns in the theory and skills essential to practice socially engaged Buddhism; to provide new and varied models for this practice; and to help alleviate suffering in the world by developing and running social service projects in areas of need. MFZH is community based and does not seek to proselytize or convert, but to serve beleaguered people of any race, religion, orientation and gender where they live, work and struggle daily.