Rumi Reflection Group, first meeting

Alongside the fortnightly "Zen On The Streets" circle training we'll be doing, we'll also be offering a regular Rumi Reflection Group as part of the Chester Zen Peacemaker Circle.  Rumi is one of the greatest spiritual poets of all time, born in Balkh, Afghanistan and living in Konya, Turkey.  He died in 1273.  His spiritual vision was born out of a deep friendship with a wandering vagabond, Shams of Tabriz.  It was the disappearance of Shams, possibly his murder, which gave birth to the depth and passion of Rumi's voice!

Each time we'll take a poem by Rumi and reflect on how we respond to it, what it suggests to us, what it means in terms of our own life.  Rumi's vision overlaps strongly with the vision of Zen, yet has its differences and its own perspective.  This Rumi Reflection Group will hopefully help us to broaden our own perspective and see things from different angles.  We'll be meeting in a cafe and drinking tea and coffee as we explore Rumi's beautiful words and spirit...

Anyone is welcome, you can come to either or both groups, as often or as occasionally as you find helpful to you.

You are not a single "you", my friend -

you are the wide sky and the deep sea.

Your awesome "You", which is nine hundredfold,

is where a hundred of your yous will drown.

Rumi

First Chester ZPC Meeting, Sunday 14th April 2013, in Chester's Roman Amphitheatre... King Arthur's Round Table (maybe!)

... First meeting done!

All of us are officially a part of the International Zen Peacemakers' Circle, with the blessing (maybe!) of King Arthur's soul itself! What a better image for starting such a new symbolically exciting journey?

Yes, the journey has been started, thanks to a beautiful sun that warmed our bones, while we were sitting in, probably, what was the most blessed part of Chester's Amphitheater: the "corner" of Nemesis, the ancient and beautiful god of justice. We began as usually with a brief conversation in order to know each other and showing why we were enjoying the circle and what we expected from it. Then, we started with readings from the introduction of 'Instructions to the Cook' written by Bernie Glassman, about how the practice of Zen meditation could positively affect not only our brain, our way of thinking and our spiritual balance, but also our daily life's experience, with concrete results, such as the Zen Peacemakers' folks have done in Switzerland and are still working on around the Europe for lots of homeless and people in need. 

Learning from each other seems to be the only master this practice has: everyone is a torch to light, not just a container to be filled. If all of us is a part of the same body, our spiritual development could be started, enriched and improved only with the help of others. Only together it could be possible discover ourselves since there is not differences amid the outside and the inside, as Buddhism teaches us.

I'm still excited by the experiment we did: sitting alone, close to the street, after a brief moment of meditation done together, as usually. The looks of the people hurted my heart not a little: sitting on the ground for few minutes, and looking at the world from a different prospective could be a really penetrating experience..

So... may we all be well and appreciate one another.

Always and always.

yours Clara

Welcome!

Welcome to the Chester Zen Peacemaker Circle!

We are a new circle in the Zen Peacemaker family, connected to the Zen Peacemaker Circles in Europe and the US and social action all over the world.  The Zen Peacemakers are the creation of Zen Master Bernie Glassman, and are summed up in three principles- Not Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Loving Action.  We will study and explore these principles together, with the intention of serving and celebrating the world we live in.  Everyone is welcome - we are an inclusive community consisting of people from many different religions and backgrounds.

My name is Chris Starbuck, sometimes known also in the Buddhist world as Zang.  I'm the Steward of the circle here, and in the first year or two I'll be taking a strong role in guiding and shaping its development.  After that, the Circle will become self-governing, electing a Steward every couple of years to help support it but ideally learning to make decisions collectively.

My own background is in both Buddhism and in Islamic meditation, having practiced for over 20 years.  In the Zen Peacemaker Circles I study with Barbara Wegmueller from Switzerland, herself a senior student of Bernie Glassman.

We'll be keeping this blog as a kind of community history, the story of who we are and where we come from - I'll invite people coming along to write blog entries regularly...

May all beings be happy!

Chris Zang Starbuck