read about symposium
home page
newsletter

FREE Subscription for Western Socially Engaged Buddhism Newsletter


Directory for Western Socially Engaged Buddhism


Podcasts & Videos
Gift Shop
Please Support Us


First Major Symposium for Western Socially Engaged Buddhism

August 9 to 14, 2010

Register Now!

To read more about the Symposium, link here


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

Search Our Site


This Site (ZP)
The Web   

Zen Houses

  • Description
  • Greyston: Model
  • Appalachia
  • Montague Farm
  • Haley House: Intern Site

Zen Houses, a new model for Buddhist practice, are residential centers devoted to serving the needs of people and communities in underserved areas of the world. Zen Houses and their service projects are run by graduates of our Seminary Program.

Daily life in a Zen House includes meditation practice and service in social service projects and programs developed by that Zen House to meet the needs of the local community. Services are delivered from a holistic, dignity-based perspective. Each House will also network with existing service agencies.

Zen Houses serve three goals: to train residential and community based Buddhist practitioners and interns in the practice of socially engaged Buddhism; to provide new and varied models for this practice; and to help alleviate suffering in the world. Zen Houses are community based, do not proselytize or convert, and serve anyone regardless of race, religion, orientation or gender.

The concept for the Dharma Houses originated with Roshi Bernie Glassman's efforts, beginning in 1980 at the Zen Community of New York, to found and develop what became the Greyston Mandala, a network of for-profit and not-for-profit community development companies working in the inner city of Yonkers, New York. To this day, the Greyston Foundation uses the framework of the Five Buddha Families to administer a nested set of social services and businesses to lift low-income people, including the homeless, out of poverty. Their offerings include housing for individuals and families, job skill training, market wage employment, a child care center, an AIDS residence and a state licensed clinic for HIV treatment.

In April, 2009, two of our first graduates from the Zen House Seminary for Socially Engaged Buddhism opened the first Zen House in Julian, PA. Directed by Steve Kanji Ruhl, also a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, and intern Rosalind Jiko MacIntosh, the Appalachian Zen House has begun to thrive in the mountainous region of central Pennsylvania. The two work daily in efforts to serve the rural poor, help build resilient communities, and address environmental issues in the economically disadvantaged Bald Eagle Valley.

They are developing funding through grant applications, creating an eco-tourism network of bed-and-breakfasts, guides, guided hikes and biking trips, and working residency stays at No Harm Farm. They are also exploring a coaching business teaching Zen techniques for sports performance enhancement.

Haley House in Boston, MA, directed by Kathe McKenna, a Buddhist, serves as an internship site and runs a soup kitchen, bakery, café and Section 8 housing.

The Montague Farm Zen House, the Mother House Zen House, has opened in Montague, MA. in November, 2009.

Steven Brown, Pres.

The Greyston Bakery was founded in 1982 by Zen Master Bernie Glassman in Yonkers NY. The Bakery produced high end pastries for the best restaurants in Manhattan, provides Brownies for Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream and provides jobs for the poorest members of Yonkers Community. The Bakery has growen into a 6 million dollar business with more than 75 employees.

Success of the Greyston Bakery gave rise to the Greyston Foundation, a 13 million dollar integrated network of for-profit and not-for-profit entities providing jobs, workforce development, low income housing, supportive services, child care, after school programs, comprehensive HIV health care, housing, a gourmet bakery business and community gardens.

Since 1991, Greyston Foundation, has developed over 200 units of affordable housing and $48,597,735 in real estate projects in Westchester County, N.Y. with another $25,000,000 in projects underway.

The Greyston Foundation is recognized as a national model of community economic development and successful "social enterprise" and the Greyston Model became a "Best practice" example of social enterprise and is studied in major U.S. business schools including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford University and New York University. The Zen Houses are based on the Greyston Model.

To read more, click here.

appalachia_mountains

The Appalachian Zen House (APZ) is an integrated group of projects addressing rural poverty and environmental challenges in central Pennsylvania.

The Appalachian Zen House comprises:

  1. “Green Appalachia,” based at Ahimsa Village and consisting of No Harm Farm, Bald Eagle Biofuels, and the Earth Education Program, including the Ahimsa Summer Camp;
  2. “Floating Lotus Zendo,” offering Zen training;
  3. “Speak Your Peace,” providing workshops on:– getting needs met in situations of conflict using Non-Violent Communication; speaking and listening from the heart in Council Circle; questioning stressful patterns of thought as influenced by Byron Katie’s “The Work.” and
  4. “Many Paths, One Heart,” focusing on multi-faith initiatives. APC has board representation on the State College Area Interfaith Mission which is comprised of 24 Christian and two Jewish congregations.

To read more, click here.

The Zen Peacemakers Board of Directors decided to open a signature Zen House at our Montague location. Karen Werner is the Zen House Leader for the Montague Farm Zen House (MFZH). The MFZH uses facilities on the Montague campus, including residence space in the farmhouse, the meditation hall and the House of One People.

This project is being used to develop principles, structures and practices for Zen Houses, to serve as a model for Zen Houses, and to create social service projects in the Pioneer Valley.

To read more, click here.

Kathe McKenna

Haley House offers collaborative living and working environments that build communities and connections across the boundaries that divide us, model creative alternatives that confirm the intrinsic dignity and worth of each person, and challenge the attitudes and structures that perpetuate suffering.

With a focus on reciprocal learning, they provide: skills training for the underemployed, volunteer experiences, housing for the homeless and working poor economic development opportunities, and wholesome nourishment for body, mind and spirit

Started in 1966 in Boston's South End, Haley House originally provided basic necessities to the homeless and soon expanded into a full-service soup kitchen run by a live-in community of volunteers and guests. They have since added new layers to their organization, growing organically into the lean and feisty non-profit they are today. To read more, click here.