Engaged Buddhism in Action
Here are two examples of American Zen teachers who took their practice out of the Zendo to serve their communities and the sangha.
Bernard Tetsugen Glassman
Bernard Tetsugen Glassman is one of America's most provocative Zen teachers and promoters of engaged Buddhism. In 1982 he founded the Greyston Bakery in New York City. His idea was to start a business that would employ the members of his sangha — allowing them to leave their day jobs — so they could concentrate more fully on their practice and contribute to the practice of engaged Buddhism. In 1993, The Greyston Foundation, a nonprofit corporation, was created to oversee social improvement programs. Profits from the bakery filter through the foundation, supporting its social development work for the poor and afflicted. Greyston helps the homeless, the jobless, provides childcare, health care, and living assistance for people with HIV/AIDS.
“So for me the question became, ‘What are the forms in business, social action and peacemaking that can help us see the oneness in society, the interdependence in life?’” — Roshi Bernie Glassman
Once Greyston was established, Roshi Glassman (with Roshi Sandra Holmes) then went on to create an order of Zen practitioners devoted to the cause of peace; the Peacemakers Order subsequently emerged. The Peacemaker Community is now an international peacemaking group with members involving the world's five major religions, including organizations (Greyston Mandala in New York City; Prison Dharma Network in Rhode Island; Upaya Study Center in Sante Fe; StadtRaum in Germany; Mexico City Village, Mexico; La Rete d'Indra in Italy; and Shanti Relief Committee in Japan) and individuals worldwide.
Joan Jiko Halifax
Roshi Joan Jiko Halifax is a student of Thich Nhat Hanh, a founding member of the Zen Peacemaker Order, and founder and roshi of the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is an author and activist, greatly respected for her work with the dying. Upaya programs include Being with Dying, the Partners Program, the Prison Project, and the Kailash Education Fund.
Being with Dying is a program aimed at helping caregivers work with dying people, to change their relationship to both the dying and living. A focus of the program is the training of health care professionals who take their work with the dying back to their own institutions where they can teach these practices to other health care professionals. The Partners Program matches dying people with caregivers they need, complementing the help of hospice workers and medical professionals. The Prison Project offers mindfulness training to inmates in the Mexico prison system, aiming to reduce stress in prison, and The Kailash Education Fund is aimed at providing educational opportunities to some of the poorest children in Nepal.
