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Dec 9-12Enlightenment Retreat To Register, click here.
BERNIE ON THE ROAD
Sep 24-26, 2010 Zen Peacemakers founder Bernie Glassman will lead the workshop Bearing Witness to the Wholeness of Life at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health.
Nov 9-19, 2010Becoming a Mensch: Service as Spiritual Practice at the Heidelberg University.
DVD'S OF ALL THE AUGUST 2010 SYMPOSIUM FOR WESTERN SOCIALLY ENGAGED BUDDHISM PRESENTATIONS
Montague Farm Zen House Mission
We aim to alleviate suffering in Franklin County through service and by increasing community wealth and power.
We also serve as a training site for people who want to work in or create zen houses internationally.
Zen Peacemakers Residence Program at the ZP Mother House in Montague, MA
Program Overview
Application Form
Mother House of the Zen Peacemakers
The Zen House Residential Program offers a wonderful opportunity to get a "taste" of the Zen House experience. Participants live in a beautiful rural setting within a Zen-based community performing activities of socially engaged Buddhism in Montague, MA., for periods of three months to a year.
For a quicker -- but still rewarding -- taste of Zen House life, "mini-residential" experiences of two-to-four weeks also are available. While we strongly recommend the longer residential experience because it provides opportunities for full immersion and in-depth training, the mini-residential program may be ideal for those who can't make an extended time commitment.
Families are welcome. If the family consists of two parents, both must be registered in the program.
Teachers
Bernie Glassman Founder
Eve Myonen Marko Head Teacher, Montague Farm Zendo
Steve Kanji Ruhl Director, Residence Program
Karen Kisui Werner Director, Montague Farm Zen House
During the course of the Residence Program, the participant will interact with 4 Teachers. The overall Director of the Program is Steve Kanji Ruhl, a graduate of the Harvard Divinity School with a MDiV, a graduate of the Zen Peacemakers Seminary Program for Zen Houses and the founder of the Appalachia Zen House. The participant will work 4 hours a day in the Montague Farm Zen House directed by Karen Kisui Werner. They will study in the Montague Farm Zendo under the Head Teacher Sensei Eve Myonen Marko and meet periodically with the Zen Peacemakers Founder, Zen Master Bernie Glassman.
The Residence Program includes five key components:
Lunch line at Montague Farm Café MFZH Model Soup Kitchen
1. Living in Service: "The depth of our realization of Oneness is
shown by how we serve others." Participants in the Residence Program
serve others by helping with the preparation and offerings of
Community Meals, provided by the Montague Farm Zen House to
economically disadvantaged people. This includes the weekly Montague Farm Cafe, a festive gathering held every Saturday that offers free healthy meals, live entertainment, and a Wellness Center featuring free medical and dental hygiene screenings, stress reduction workshops, non-denominational pastoral counseling, acupuncture, and massage. Residents also live in service by working in direct support of the Montague Farm Zen House. This work may include such activities as organic gardening, yard work, house and zendo cleaning, and other
tasks that serve the immediate household and the larger sangha.
Study in the Zendo
2. Living in Dharma: Zen is all of life – but nevertheless it is also important to maintain a focused, disciplined practice devoted specifically to Zen meditation, or zazen. Participants in the Residence Program live in Dharma by taking part in the Montague Farm Zendo schedule which includes: daily zen meditation (zazen), private interviews with a Zen teacher, study, and liturgy.
Additionally, participants in the Residence Program have opportunities to take part in once-a-week evening kirtan (Hindu chanting) sessions and multi-faith classes, and in sesshins (week-long meditation intensives), weekend retreats, and workshops as scheduled.
3. Living in Community: Dwelling within one household together, we experience the challenges and rewards of moment-by-moment engagement within dynamic interpersonal relationships. This is the intimate practice of living in community, an ongoing process of exploring individual awakening and collective enlightenment. Throughout this process, participants in the Residence Program share daily tasks of household living, engagement in weekly house meetings, meetings twice a week in Council Circle, and opportunities to socialize together, converse, and create new friendships.
We live in relationship with neighboring communities, as well. Opportunities exist, during free, unscheduled time each Sunday, to explore these nearby communities, including Montague (with its café and bookstore) and Orange and Turners Falls, rustic North Leverett (with its Nichiren Buddhist Peace Pagoda), the college towns of Amherst and Northampton, and elsewhere.
4. Living in Solitude: For a balanced and healthy life we each require not only time in community, but time alone to savor tranquility and silence – qualities increasingly rare in American life. Participants in the Residence Program are encouraged to devote periods each day to living without cell phone or computer, using quiet time alone to walk mindfully in the forests, to read, to reflect, to do individual yoga or tai chi or qi gong, to exercise, to write in a journal, to make art, or to do absolutely nothing at all – simply observing, listening, breathing.
5. Living in Nature: The Zen House Residence Program also affords the opportunity to live in non-human community – to experience oneness, diversity, and harmony as experienced in the natural world. The residential campus offers 35 acres of New England woodland, brook and river, wild meadow, orchard, and mountain habitat, home to our extended sangha of deer, moose, coyotes, black bear, hawks, rabbits, field mice, crows, insects, fish, trees, wildflowers, songbirds, and other living beings. Participants in the Residence Program also can experience connection with the earth, rain, sun, and seasons through the Montague Zen House’s organic gardening project.
Guidelines and Requirements
1. Willingness to commit to living in service, living in Dharma, living in community, living in solitude, and living in nature – and to fully experiencing not only the uniqueness of each of these five modes of living, but their interpenetrating unity.
2. Meditation experience (or, if such experience is lacking, willingness to learn meditation), while using everything that arises in daily living as practice.
4. Mental and emotional maturity: good judgment, perspective, communication skills, sense of humor, consideration for others.
5. Ability to live comfortably with diverse individuals, sharing dormitory-style bedrooms and household common areas.
6. Willingness to follow an established daily schedule.
7. Ability to follow staff directions and adapt to flexible work tasks, as needed.
8. Ability to honor financial commitments and provide for personal financial needs while in residence.
9. Due to allergy considerations, dogs and cats can not come.
Fees and Refunds
The fee is $2500 for the first 3 months. After 3 months, you can apply for another 3 months for $2200. After 6 months, you can apply for additional residency with a fee of $700 per month. At this time, the maximum duration of residency is 1 year. The minimum duration of residency is 3 months. An evaluation will be made after 1 month to determine whether it is mutually beneficial for the Resident and the Zen Peacemakers to continue the Residents Program. If the applicant and/or the ZP wishes to end the program within 1 month of arrival, the resident will receive a refund of $1650.
Fees for "mini-residential" experiences of two-to-four weeks are $220 per week.
If a family with two parents is applying, both parents have to be in the program and the fee is $4500 for the first 3 months. If there are children, an additional fee will be charged based on the number and ages of the children.
To register on-line for 1 person, please click here. All others please call or email Laurie at email or 413.367.2080 ext. 106.
Application Process
1. Please submit the application form (name, address, phone number, e-mail, date of birth, emergency contact, etc.), and attach a two-page essay with details of personal background, spiritual practice, previous experience with group living, interest in socially engaged Buddhism, and reasons for wishing to participate in the Zen Peacemakers Residence Program.
2. Send us your resume by email.
3. Your received application and resume will be followed by a telephone interview.
We welcome your interest in the Residence Program and look forward enthusiastically to receiving your application, and to answering any questions you may have. Thank you!