Street Retreats
Street retreats have been a core practice of the Zen Peacemakers since
1991, when Roshi Bernie Glassman led the first one in the streets of
the Bowery in New York City. Since then they have been held annually
in New York, Denver, Paris and Zurich, and occasionally in many other
cities around the world.
2,500 years ago Shakyamuni Buddha led his Buddhist monks each
morning in the practice of begging for their daily food. Each
day's offering was received with thanks regardless of its nature or
size, and consumed that day rather than hoarded from day to day.
In this way the Buddha encouraged simplicity, the generosity of
both giving and receiving, and undiscriminating appreciation. The raising of the registration fee, by begging, is the beginning of the participation in the street retreats. It raises the participant's consciousness and that of others towards living on the streets, begging for sustenance and the work of the inner-city. It is an initiation into the life of a street dweller.
Some notes about the retreat itself. We ask that you: Prior to the retreat, there is an orientation for all those attending the retreat. We hand out Street Sheets that list soup kitchens, shelters, etc. in the areas that we stay. We give maps and introduce the retreatants to their street cohorts and facilitators. We then discuss what to expect but the unexpected is the main teacher on the street. Contact Information
Zen Peacemakers 2,500 years ago, it was the practice of the lay congregation to support monks through donations of food and clothing. Shakyamuni Buddha led his monks each morning in the practice of begging for their daily food. Each day's offering was received with thanks regardless of its nature or size. In this way the Buddha encouraged simplicity, the generosity of both giving and receiving, and undiscriminating appreciation.
We continue this begging practice by raising support for our work by assembling a mala, or beads that are strung together and worn like a necklace. Each bead represents a person who supports that member's vision and work, and the entire mala represents the Member's community of support. This is a practice of giving and receiving. By asking for support from family, friends, and associates, we acknowledge that as individuals, we are limited in what we can do. We depend on the generosity of others to increase our membership, train more peacemakers, and develop and support more programs. This is one more way in which we bear witness in the interdependence of life. Another important aspect of mala practice is the incorporation of the ministry of money in our program. The assembly of malas insures that money management and fundraising are not seen as foreign to peacemaking work; instead, the give-and-take of money is the compassionate, unobstructed flow of energy that nourishes and transforms our activities. Mala practice also gives us the opportunity to share our work with our families, friends, and associates. Most of us lead professional work lives and have families. By raising money for our Socially Engaged Buddhist work, we publicize its activities, and most important, our own commitment. By wearing the beads we have assembled, we take our supporters with us in our peacemaking endeavors and on Bearing Witness retreats such as Auschwitz, thus making family and friends an intimate part of this peacemaking journey. We commit (this is a suggested amount, please use an amount that is appropiate to your situation) to assemble a mala of 108 beads consisting of 90 small beads worth $108 (or 108 of the currency of our country) each and 18 large beads worth $1,080 (or $1,080 of the currency of our country.) The names (initials) of each donor or donors are written on the beads. Beads from individuals or from groups or families are equally appreciated. When you offer a bead, you will be working, training, studying and traveling with us wherever we go.
Over the weekend of July 17, 18, & 19, 2009, a poet, a zen priest, an industrial designer, a mental health professional and a manager of a soup kitchen took to the streets of Boston to bear witness to its homeless. We only took the clothes on our back, no money, no bedding, no tooth brush, no jewelry, no credit cards, & no desire to do anything but aimlessly meander for three days throughout the city of Boston. What did we find there? Parts of ourselves that we did not know existed. Like the tears that came to us when we overheard a little eight year old boy ask a homeless women if her cat was homeless too and she replied, "No, he is not homeless because he is with me." Like the fear we experienced when we woke up at 3am to discover a crack addict and his "girlfriend" shooting up six feet from our sleeping spot at Trinity Church. Like the frustration and sadness that came to us when we were unable to connect with a young Iraqi war veteran, just home for the war, who we found in Copley Square at 6am drinking freely from a quart of vodka and crying over a friend who has AIDS. Like the feeling of belonging when a street woman in her late forties named Nancy, who has been on the streets since she was 13, welcomed us to the Harvard Square street scene and showed us where to sleep that night and where we could get free pizza at 11pm from a nearby pizza parlor. It is their practice to put their unsold pizza out on the streets for the homeless when they finally close for the night. Like the indifference we felt from the majority of people who walked past us, not even willing to look at us, let alone give us the spare change we requested as part of our begging practice. We ate in the soup kitchens, shelters and churches, we slept on the ground, walked for miles on end, pissed in the bushes and scrounged enough money to split a coffee between the five of us. We didn't go down on the streets to see what it is like to be homeless. If we are lucky enough, we will never know that reality. We didn't go down on the streets as homeless wannabes - posers in an underworld of alcoholism, mental illness, drug addiction, and economic bad luck & hard times. We went down on the streets to bear witness to our own lives in this experience - moment-to-moment. Nothing more/nothing less. What we found in these most impoverished circumstances is an unexpected world of riches: pain, fear, joy, intimacy, boredom, frustration, inspiration, connection and compassion. Compassion for ourselves and all God's children who inhabit the streets with no names. Jim Daikan Bastien Zen Peacemakers' Boston Street Retreat Led by Dharma Holder Jim Bastien Donation: $108, raised by begging before the retreat. We go on the streets with no money and just the clothes on our back. We eat in soup kitchens and beg for money or food at times when soup kitchens are not open. We sleep outdoors or in abandoned housing together, though not in shelters, since there are not enough beds. We don't say we're homeless; we're simply living on the streets for several days, relying on the generosity of the streets to take care of us. While at times we break up into smaller groups, we come together several times a day to share our experiences in a council practice and chant the Gate of Sweet Nectar liturgy, which is about feeding the hungry. Street Retreat Policies We are asking you to beg from family, friends, and associates for the donation to do the street retreat. You cannot use your own funds for this purpose, you must ask for money from others. We mark this begging practice by assembling a Mala, or string of beads that are worn like a bracelet or necklace. Each bead represents a person who sponsors that participant's street retreat, and the entire Mala represents the Member's community of support. We will wear our malas on the street retreat. The raising of the registration fee, by begging, is the beginning of the participation in the street retreats, an initiation into the life of a street dweller. 2500 years ago, Gautama Shakyamuni Buddha led his followers on a daily round of begging for food, encouraging simplicity, non-attachment and the generosity of giving and receiving. Some notes about the retreat itself. We ask that you:
Prior to the retreat, there is an orientation for all those attending the retreat. We hand out Street Sheets that list soup kitchens, shelters, etc. in the areas that we stay. We give maps and introduce the participants to their street cohorts and facilitators. We then discuss what to expect but the unexpected is the main teacher on the street. Street retreats have been a core practice of the Zen Peacemakers since 1991, when Roshi Bernie Glassman led the first one in the streets of the Bowery in New York City. This is a powerful practice of not-knowing and bearing witness, where the unpredictable life on the streets is the main teacher. The practice of Street Retreat is described in detail in Bernie Glassman's book, Bearing Witness: A Zen Master's Lessons on Living a Life That Matters. 2009-10 Street Retreats with Sensei Grover Genro Gauntt Bearing Witness to the Greek Refugee Issues Zurich, Switzerland Street Retreat |
