Bernie's Zen
The Dude Abides|
General Information: Overview: News: March 4, 2007 Letter from Senseis Paul Genki Kahn and Fleet Shinryu Maull concerning the formation of Zen Peacemaker Sangha Task Force committees. Our efforts to establish a Sangha speak to our wish to share our diverse methods of practice and teaching, to continue to educate and develop ourselves as practitioners, teachers and groups, and to provide the best possible opportunities for practice, realization and actualization for our students and the generations that follow. ....Introduction to a Charter Dear Friends: This letter follows-up on the Summary Report that we sent out from the work we all did together at the Zen Peacemaker Sangha Seniors Meeting. If some of you who did not volunteer to be on the Task Force to work in committees want to join, that would be wonderful. E-mail Genki@optonline.net. We are listing the Task Force members in an appendix at the end of this letter. Before discussing the initial committees and tasks for our group, however, we thought it might be helpful to clarify the overall organizational structure in which the Zen Peacemaker Sangha (ZPS) is functioning and the relationship of the Zen Peacemaker Sangha to that overall structure. The Zen Peacemaker Sangha is forming under the umbrella of the Zen Peacemakers, which is a nonprofit corporation and church with a mission to realize the interconnectedness of life and integrate the spirit of Zen with all aspects of society through Zen practice, peacemaking and social action. The Zen Peacemakers church is governed by a board of directors, which currently consists of ten board members (see list of board members and officers in the appendix at the end of this document). The Zen Peacemakers church and board of directors sees the establishment of a flourishing Zen Peacemaker Sangha as a critical component to fulfilling its mission as stated above. The Maezumi Institute is the major study and training center of the Zen Peacemakers church. M.I. has been established as an educational 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization and ultimately operates under the umbrella of the Zen Peacemakers church. The Pathmaker Partners (Springfield project) will likely be formed as another independent 501 (c) (3) organization. However, the major role and participation that the Zen Peacemakers organization is intended to have in that project will come under the direction of the Zen Peacemakers church board of directors. The following organization charts, one in a conventional linear format and the other in our mandala style format are not absolutely definitive or set in stone, but may help to clarify the overall structure and the relationship of the Zen Peacemakers to that structure.  Although this diagram is in linear form, which emphasizes certain hierarchical relationships, the use of double arrow lines is meant to convey the quality of free flow of information and an efficient and effective balance between corporate and grassroots direction, decision making and governance.  The Zen Peacemaker Sangha is intended to be a vehicle for individual, centers, circles, sanghas and other groups who share or are inspired by this vision and mission of actualizing the interconnectedness and oneness of life and integrating the spirit of Zen with all aspects of society to come together as a family and meta-sangha (or sangha of sanghas) working to support each others development and to build a strong, integrated Zen movement to pass on the future generations. The Zen Peacemaker Sangha includes a ZPS Mother House which functions as a headquarters and home temple for the Zen Peacemaker Sangha. The only pre-existing structure within the Zen Peacemaker Sangha and ZPS Mother House is the office of the ZPS Spiritual Directors, currently held by Roshis Bernie Glassman and Pat Enkyo O'Hara as Co-Spiritual Directors of the Zen Peacemaker Sangha. Roshi Bernie is also abbot of the ZPS Mother House. The job of the co-spiritual directors is to hold and assure faithfulness to the vision of the Zen Peacemakers, the spirit of Zen, and the Zen Peacemakers Three Tenets and Four Commitments. It is not the responsibility of the co-spiritual directors to manage or govern the Zen Peacemaker Sangha. Zen Peacemaker Sangha is meant to be a self-organizing and self-governing community/association/federation, operating under the umbrella of the Zen Peacemakers church and within the context established by the overall vision and mission of the Zen Peacemakers. The only other existing ZPS structure is the ZPS task force we have all volunteered to serve on. Paul Genki Kahn has volunteered to serve as the initial coordinator for this task force, and Fleet Maull has volunteered to support him in a consulting role. Eventually, the Zen Peacemaker Sangha will need paid staff and the Zen Peacemakers church and board of directors is committed to developing the funding for such staff positions both from within the Zen Peacemaker Sangha membership and from other funding sources. We will all need to participate in this effort to the best of our ability. The Zen Peacemakers has established a program/retreat facility at Montague Farm in Montague, Massachusetts. This facility provides a beautiful home for the ZPS Mother House and a wonderful venue for ZPS gatherings like the one we just enjoyed. In developing this beautiful facility, the Zen Peacemakers church has incurred considerable debt; and necessarily, its immediate #1 priority is a capital campaign to pay down that debt to a sustainable level. At the same time, the Zen Peacemakers needs revenue and funding to support the operations of this facility and its staff in order to begin executing its mission. This is evolving currently on two fronts: 1) the Springfield Pathmaker Partners social action project, which is already partially funding the salary for the Zen Peacemakers Chief Operating Officer and 2) recent grant funding for an executive director for the Maezumi Institute and a development director for Zen Peacemakers. We will begin organizing our efforts as volunteers with some office and infrastructure support from the Zen Peacemakers office and staff. As soon as possible we will begin raising money to fund a half or full-time coordinator for the Zen Peacemaker Sangha. We do not feel it makes sense at this time to create different types of membership and dues structures for the Zen Peacemakers as a whole and the Zen Peacemaker Sangha in particular. At this point we are proposing that membership in the Zen Peacemaker Sangha be free of charge, and at the same time we want to encourage all Zen Peacemaker Sangha members, both individuals and groups, to become dues supporting members of Zen Peacemakers, supporting the entire integrated vision of the Zen Peacemakers, of which the Zen Peacemaker Sangha is a critical component. All ZPS members will have access to the restricted Members sections of the Zen Peacemakers website, whether they are paying dues or not. Only to receive discounts on Zen Peacemakers events, including Maezumi Institute and Zen Peacemaker Sangha events, will individuals need to be dues paying members of Zen Peacemakers. Hopefully, this clarifies the basic structure and relationship to the overall Zen Peacemakers umbrella organization. Now we need to figure how we want to organize ourselves as a meta-sangha of sanghas, individuals, circles, etc. and what kinds of activities we want to focus on at this time. Here are the initial committees within our ZPS Task Force: ZPS Administrative Committee: to discuss organization, structure, membership, administration, and governance - how we want to relate to one another, make decisions and get things done. Genki is serving as our initial coordinator or point person for the ZPS task force, and we need to discuss what other kinds of administrative, organizing, and decision making structures would be useful at this time and in the future. ZPS Communications Committee: to make contact among us easy - to set up e-lists, chat rooms, web page, free group telephone calls, and other communication tools many of us cannot even imagine yet. This group will need to work with Roshi Bernie and any eventual Zen Peacemakers webmaster to develop the kinds of web based tools that will best serve the Zen Peacemaker Sangha. ZPS Gathering Committee: to help us prepare for our next ZPS gathering, whether that be a Seniors Meeting or general ZPS family gathering. There has been a ZPS family gathering planned for August. With the Zen Peacemakers staffs present need to focus on stabilizing the umbrella organization through fundraising and development of the Springfield Pathmaker Partnership project, an August gathering may be premature, but that can be discussed. At the very least this committee would want to begin planning a next ZPS gathering for 2008. ZPS Mother House Committee: to begin looking at developing a standard Mother House form for liturgies, practices, rites of passage etc. The idea is certainly not to standardize this within the Zen Peacemaker Sangha as a whole, but rather to develop forms to be used and shared at the Mother House and which ZPS members could use, adapt or ignore according to their own interest. ZPS Archival Committee: to gather our history, important documents, papers, and photographs. These could be stored both digitally and in a physical location at the Mother House dedicated to archives. We need everyones input on this. Please e-mail taskforce email address (zps_taskforce@zenpeacemakers.org) with any comments, ideas, concerns, feedback, etc. Thank you and blessings, Sensei Paul Genki Kahn Sensei Fleet Shinryu Maull Appendix 1: Zen Peacemakers Church Board of Directors The current Board consists of:
By clicking on any of the photos in the displays, you can view all the photos of the Board Directors.
Appendix 2: Zen Peacemaker Sangha Task Force Volunteers
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