Welcome Friends🙏.

My hope is that BCD members will be moved to send in brief descriptions of their lineages and samplings of resources (articles, books, videos) that they find especially helpful in these very challenging times.

What you share will be contributing to a new and unique American Buddhist community.

To begin our journey together, it is my pleasure to offer a sampling below from my root practice – The Plum Village Tradition of Engaged Buddhism begun by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh.

With gratitude,

Karen Hirsch

“Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh is a global spiritual leader, poet, and peace activist, renowned for his powerful teachings and bestselling writings on mindfulness and peace.

A gentle, humble monk, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called him “an Apostle of peace and nonviolence” when nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Exiled from his native Vietnam for almost four decades, Thich Nhat Hanh has been a pioneer bringing Buddhism and mindfulness to the West, and establishing an engaged Buddhist community for the 21st century.”  — From The Life Story of Thich Nhat Hanh

“You have to take care of your suffering—to embrace it tenderly, the way a mother would embrace her crying baby.”

–quote from Thich Nhat Nanh (2014). No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering. Parallax Press

1. (Music Video):  “The Great Bell Chant”   7:13

2. The Heart Sutra – New English translation by Thich Nhat Hanh (9-11-2014)  11:45

3.  “Handling Strong Emotions”, by Thich Nhat Hanh  (est. 7 pages)

4. Plum Village Zen Meditation App 5.0 (7K) (Available free in the Google Play and Apple App stores). A wealth of easy-to-use guided meditations, relaxations, and talks. 

5. (Video)  A Regulated Nervous System: An Orientation” by Jo-Ann Rosen  24:00

6. (Book)  Jo-Ann Rosen “Unshakeable-Trauma-Informed Mindfulness for Collective Awakening”,  Parallax Press, Berkeley, CA 2023,

7. (Network of Local Groups) Beloved Community Circles for Mindful Action. Beloved Community Circles is a close-knit, decentralized network of people in many countries working towards climate and racial justice in our communities, grounded in nonviolence, emotional healing, spiritual practice, and mindful action.

8. (Book)  John Bell  “Unbroken Wholeness — Six Pathways to the Beloved Community: Integrating Social Justice, Emotional Healing, and Spiritual Practice”, Parallax Press, 2024.

9. (Video) “House of Interbeing”  4:00. In the early 2000s, Thich Nhat Hanh proposed that Palestinians and Israelis attending a mindfulness retreat build a community in which they could learn to live together as brothers and sisters in the same land. The resulting House of Interbeing includes ordained Dharma teachers, member of the Order of Interbeing, and lay practitioners who help Palestinian and Israeli activists explore Thich Nhat Hanh’s proposal. 

11. (Video) Guided Body Scan”  Sister True Dedication (Hien Nghiem) (from Plum Village app)  5:00

12. (Singing)  Betsy Rose  betsyrosemusic.org.  – includes links to Betsy’s wonderful, healing YouTube music/singing videos and live events. You can join Betsy’s mailing list to hear about future events, in person and online.

1. (Book) “The Buddha’s Teachings on Social and Communal Harmony: An Anthology of  Discourses from the Pali Canon,” edited and introduced by Bhikkhu Bodhi, 2016, Wisdom Publications. With a foreword by the Dalai Lama and a prologue and epilogue by Hozan Alan Senauke.

1. (Book) “Living Nembutsu: Applying Shinran’s Radically Engaged Buddhism in Life and Society,” Jeff Wilson, 2023, Sumeru Books. A sourcebook for Jodo Shinshu Buddhists and other interested readers looking to apply Pure Land perspectives to the problems of contemporary society. 

2. (Podcast) “May We Gather,” Jeff Wilson, 2024, University of Virginia Religion, Race, and Democracy Lab. 38:10. Coverage of a pioneering pan-sectarian Buddhist ceremony of healing from racial and religious prejudice in the United States.

1. (Article) “We’ve Been Here All Along,” Funie Hsu, 2016, Lion’s Roar. A historical perspective on how Asian Americans get written out of the story of American Buddhism, and how to write them back in.

2) (Book) Emergent Dharma: Asian American Feminist Buddhists on Practice, Identity, and Resistance,
edited by Sharon A. Suh PhD, publisher North Atlantic Books, 2025

3) (Book) Be the Refuge, by Chenxing Han, publisher North Atlantic Books, 2021.

1) (Article) I Vow Not to Burn Out, by Mushim Patricia Ikeda, Lion’s Roar. Mushim draws upon her history of Korean Son, Japanese Rinzai and Soto Zen, and Insight Meditation practice, as well as her Grandmother’s Shin Buddhist tradition.

2)(Book) Not Turning Away: The Practice of Engaged Buddhism, edited by Susan Moon, Shambhala (2004).

1) (Book) The Bodhisattva’s Embrace: Dispatches From Engaged Buddhism’s Front Lines by Hozan Alan Senauke, Clear View Press, 2010.

2) (Book) Heirs To Ambedkar: The Rebirth of Engaged Buddhism in India by Hozan Alan Senauke, Clear View Press, 2013.

2) (Book) Being Upright: Zen Meditation and the Bodhisattva Precepts by Reb Anderson, Shambhala, 2001.

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1) International Network of Engaged Buddhists.

Founded In 1989 in by Sulak Sivaraksa and others, INEB operates as an autonomous organization under the Bangkok-based Sathirakoses-Nagapradipa Foundation. Over the years the network has expanded to include members from more than 25 countries across Asia, Europe, North America and Australia. From this diversity, an understanding of socially engaged Buddhism has emerged which integrates the practice of Buddhism with social action for a healthy, just, and peaceful world.

2) Zen Peacemakers.

Based on the Zen teachings of Bernie Glassman,  Sandra Jishu Holmes, Eve Marko and the legacy of the Greystone Foundation, the Zen Peacemaker community, consisiting of over 6,000 members world-wide, strives to relieve suffering through contemplative social action based on the three tenets of 1) Not Knowing, 2) Bearing Witness, and 3) Taking Action.

3) Buddhist Peace Fellowship.

Formed in 1978 by Robert and Ann Aitkin, Nelson Foster, Richard Baker, Jack Kornfeld, Joanna Macy and Gary Snyder and others, BPF offers spiritual support for people engaged in social, environmental, economic and healing justice movements; provides political education and leadership development for people who want to take their Buddhist practices “off the cushion;” and fosters a spiritually grounded community to build clarity, endurance, and kinship for compassionate action in the current political moment. Their programs are guided by the leadership, voices, and priorities of trans and gender expansive Black, Indigenous, and Asian heritage Buddhists, and communities who value racial justice, queer feminist values, and regenerative living economies.

4) Buddhist Peace Fellowship Digital Collection . This is a digital archive of newsletters and magazines produced by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, starting with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship Newsletter (1979-1990) and continuing with Turning Wheel Magazine (1990-2010).

4) Buddhist Action Coalition NYC

Founded in 2016 in NYC, the BAC is a New York-based organization that aims to inspire compassionate Buddhist initiatives in advancing social, economic, and environmental justice for the benefit of all beings, undertaken through advocacy and nonviolent direct action.

5) Buddhist Global Relief

Founded in 2007 by the Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi, BGR is inspired by the vision of a world in which debilitating poverty has finally been banished; a world in which all can avail themselves of the basic material supports of a meaningful life—food, clothing, housing, and health care; a world in which everyone can achieve a satisfactory level of education and freely pursue that which gives their life value and purpose; a world in which all people dwell in peace and harmony with one another and with the natural environment. BGR is the largest non-Denominational American Buddhist charitable organization with food assistance, educational, women’s empowerment, and sustainable agriculture projects in many countries in Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

6) Upaya Zen Center On-Line Programs

The Upaya Zen Center is a center for residential Zen practice founded by Roshi Joan Halifax and located in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  The Center offers a rich array of on-line programming, a considerable amount of which is devoted to engaged Buddhist practice and social action.

Our grateful thanks to Karen Hirsch, Jeff Wilson, Meredith Bliss, Mushim Patricia Ikeda, and Seth Zuihō Segall for suggesting resources for this page