Buddhist Coalition for Democracy

The Three Tenets with Sensei Jim Daikan Bastien
2025-09-17 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York)
Bernie Glassman articulated the Three Tenets of the Zen Peacemakers early in the evolution of the organization. But these three, simple, profound, vows or commitments can also be taken as a complete practice for our life:
I will embody Not Knowing, thereby giving up fixed ideas.
I will Bear Witness, opening my heart to the joy and suffering of life.
I will take Loving Action arising out of not-knowing and bearing witness.
We can practice and manifest our true selves in every situation and with everything that arises, using the Three Tenets. This is a lifelong practice, one we never complete on our hourlong session we will present and describe the Three Tenets and have time to take your questions.
Duration: 60 minutes – Format: Presentation
To register:
https://hive.zenpeacemakers.org/events/188997

Zen Peacemaker Event: The Buddhist Coalition for Democracy: The New Kid on the Block
2025-09-16 12:00 - 13:30
Buddhist Coalition for Democracy (BCD) board members John Murphy and Rev. Seth Zuiho Segall will discuss the origins of the BCD and its Call to Action, the organization’s guiding principles, its initial actions and future programming, and its view of the current political situation and the role Buddhists can play in supporting democratic principles, ideals, norms, and processes. We will discuss the BCD’s intention to be a non-denominational Buddhist organization that embraces a broad spectrum of anti-authoritarian political views.
You can register for this event here.
https://hive.zenpeacemakers.org/events/188967/booking/07c50b55-4ae6-4577-a907-1ef7a9669306/ticket-selection

"Politics and the Path," a talk by BCD Coordinating Committee member Rachel Faro at the NY Shambhala Center
2025-09-14 14:00 - 17:00 | 151 West 30th St., 3rd Floor, 151 West 30th St., 3rd Floor, New York, NY, 10001
It’s often thought that the life of a meditator, a practitioner, is noncommittal, serene, not involved with or above the problems of the world. And yet, it’s hard to ignore the suffering and confusion we see everywhere, especially these days when society seems so polarized. One of the most fundamental aspects of Buddhism and Shambhala is compassion, kindness and a sense of the basic goodness of all sentient beings. But how do we bring that compassion into action, how can we find common ground and how can we make a difference without falling into aggression or hopelessness? We will discuss how we can bring skillful means to our activity, the interdependence of all actions and how we can stop seeking perfection or a utopian dream while helping to create a better society.
Rachel Faro is a senior meditation teacher and practitioner within the Shambhala and Tibetan Buddhist traditions who has taught and led meditation retreats, classes and workshops in Europe, Latin America, South Africa and throughout the United States. A personal student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, she has been training, practicing and teaching since the early 1970’s. She is also an accomplished and well-known singer/songwriter, Grammy-nominated record producer, and owner/founder of Ashé Records, a world music record label.
For more information, see: https://ny.shambhala.org/program-details/?id=807842

Actualizing Unfaltering Engaged Practice In Our Time – NONVIOLENCE with Father John Dear
2025-09-14 13:00 - 14:30
In this session, Father John Dear will reflect on the critical importance of “nonviolence” for each one of us today, in our hearts and our personal lives, and for our world. He will review the basics, point out some areas that we can actively work on, and encourage us to do what we can together to be a force for a more nonviolent nation and world. He looks at creative nonviolence from the perspective of Gandhi, Dr. King and Dorothy Day, and his many friends and teachers, including Daniel and Philip Berrigan, Coretta Scotta King, Mother Theresa, Thich Nhat Hanh and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Registration link:
https://www.upaya.org/program/engaged-buddhism-online-september-2025/

BCD Communications Committee
2025-09-10 19:00 - 20:00 | Zoom Event
This is a members-only meeting for Communications Commitee members to dicuss communications strategy regarding the BCD website, press releases, social media, telecasts and podcasts, Substack publications, and newsletter.
If you are interested in joining the committee, please contact Amaury Cruz at <amaurycruz@yahoo.com>.

We Are All DC: A National March
2025-09-06 11:00 - 16:00 | Malcom X Park, 16th St NW & W St NW, Washington, D.C., 20009, United States
On Saturday, September 6, there is a call DC residents and allies from across the country to join a “We Are All DC“ national march in solidarity with DC communities to end the occupation of DC.
The march will be followed by a Beloved Community Banquet from 4:00-7:00 PM at the Walker Memorial Baptist Church, 13th and U Streets NW, which will feature free food, music, and dancing and is co-sponsored by a consortium of twenty-three different religious organizations.

BCD Coordinating Committee Meeting
2025-09-05 17:00 - 18:00
This meeting is for Coordinating Committee members only

Zen Peacemakers Bearing Witness to Gaza Silent Meditation
2025-09-05 12:00 - 13:00
As Zen Peacemakers, we practice seeing our world from a position of stillness and non-judgment, witnessing life’s beauty and joy alongside the horror and suffering, without looking away. From that intense experience our hearts call us to act.
Please join us virtually Friday, September 5th at 12:00 pm US Eastern Time, to sit together in silence for one hour, to acknowledge all those suffering in Gaza.
Duration: 60 minutes
A link to join using Zoom will be sent after you register.
To register:
https://hive.zenpeacemakers.org/events/189562

BCD Action Committee
2025-09-02 19:00 - 20:00
This is a members-only meeting for Action Committee members

The Three Tenets: The Intimacy of Taking Action
2025-09-02 12:00 - 13:30
Please join us for a panel discussion with Genjo Marinello, Joshin Byrnes, Jitsujo Gauthier, Koho Mello, and Mikko Ijäs discussing Zen Peacemakers third Tenet: Taking Action. In this panel discussion, we will probe the emotional and spiritual aspects of taking action. Many of us struggle with the notion of taking action without naming or blaming perpetrators, without calling out evil, without siding with one group against another, or this against that. Many of us are hard-wired for the language, the tone, the energy and the action of conflict and resistance, which we know does not make matters better. And yet we are called to act.
How do we do this wisely and compassionately, preserving our inherent interconnectedness?
This tenet has been expressed as “healing”. How do we promote healing when we take action?
Geoff O’Keeffe will moderate and there will be an opportunity for participants to participate in the discussion.
Duration: 90 minutes
A link to join using Zoom will be sent after you register.
To register:
https://hive.zenpeacemakers.org/events/187516

Labor Day 2025: Workers Over Billionaires
2025-09-01
Labor and community are planning more than a barbecue on Labor Day this year because we have to stop the billionaire takeover.** Billionaires are converting the government into their private slush fund and just passed the largest wealth giveaway in the history of the US. The money they take from working families, they put in billionaires’ pockets and set aside to fund a private army of ICE agents.
Just like any bad boss, the way we stop the takeover is with collective action.** We are working people rising up to stop the billionaire takeover–not just through the ballot box or the courts, but through building a bigger and stronger movement. We are growing our movement and fighting for a country that is more fair, just, equitable, and free for all of us—and not just a chosen few.
On September 1st we will continue the movement we launched together on May 1st, standing in solidarity with all our communities under attack and fighting for real wins for all our people.
Thousands of communities across the country are taking a stand on Labor Day, join us! We will be in the streets, outside the offices of the corporate criminals who are behind the attacks on our freedoms, and at congressional offices. Together we will **demand a country that puts workers over billionaires.**
**OUR DEMANDS TO BUILD THE SOCIETY WE ALL DESERVE:**
1. Stop the billionaire takeover corrupting our government.
2. Protect and defend Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs for working people.
3. Fully funded schools, and healthcare and housing for all.
4. Stop the attacks on immigrants, Black, indigenous, trans people, and all our communities.
5. Invest in people not wars.
*Please note: A core principle behind all our events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values. Weapons of any kind, including those legally permitted, should not be brought to events.*
Event website:
https://maydaystrong.org/

Actualizing Unfaltering Engaged Practice In Our Time – HOPE with Rebecca Solnit
2025-08-31 13:00 - 14:30
Join us in the continued commitment to social and environmental engagement and justice in this very complex time, to exploring the roots of structural violence in our social systems, and to engaging in the world in a courageous way based on contemplative practice and views that actualize non-separateness, interbeing, equity, compassion, justice, integrity, courage, dignity, and unshakable awareness.
This monthly series is stewarded by Roshi Joan Halifax, Sensei Kodo Roen, and Sensei Wendy Dainin Lau.
The faculty for this series includes: Jon Kabat-Zinn, Christiana Figueres, Ruth King, Valerie Brown, Bhikkhu Bodhi, Father Greg Boyle, Terry Tempest Williams, Konda Mason, Rebecca Solnit, Father John Dear, Guo Gu, Tara Brach, Frank Ostaseski, Sharon Salzberg, Roshi Joan, and Senseis Kodo Roen and Dainin Lau.
The focus is on recognizing and ending violence in relation to addressing the roots of war/genocide, racism, climate suffering, economics of exploitation and extraction, othering, and our own delusion that we are separate from any being or thing.
Writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than twenty books on feminism, western and urban history, popular power, social change and insurrection, wandering and walking, hope and disaster. Her books include Recollections of My Nonexistence; Hope in the Dark; Men Explain Things to Me; and A Paradise Built in Hell:The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster. A product of the California public education system from kindergarten to graduate school, she writes regularly for the Guardian and Lithub and serves on the board of Oil Change International.
Rebecca also has been working with Upaya’s Nomads project since 2013 and was a student of Zenkai Blanche Hartman, an early leader at San Francisco Zen Center.
To register:
https://www.upaya.org/program/awareness-in-action-actualizing-unfaltering-engaged-practice-in-our-time-with-rebecca-solnit-online-august-31-2025/

BCD Coordinating Committee
2025-08-22 17:30 - 19:00
This is a members-only event for Coordinating Committee members

From Trauma to Hope in the Holy Land
2025-08-20 12:00 - 13:30
From Trauma to Hope in the Holy Land
Join this presentation with Elias Deis, Executive Director of Holy Land Trust. Holy Land Trust is a non-profit Palestinian organization committed to fostering peace, justice, and understanding in the Holy Land. They are deeply dedicated to exploring the root causes of violence and developing solutions to address them. They believe that true peace and justice are achieved through nonviolent activism, personal and spiritual transformation.
Founded in 1998 by local Palestinian visionaries, Holy Land Trust has over 20 years of experience in nonviolence, peacemaking, and raising awareness of the social and political conditions in the Holy Land. Officially registered with the Palestinian Ministry of Interior on May 5, 2004, under registration number BL-408-C, Holy Land Trust stands out for its focus on personal transformation and addressing the spiritual trauma that hinders a just and lasting peace. They are neither a political nor a religious organization but strive to live and act with unconditional love rather than fear.
Elias Deis – Executive Director
Holy Land Trust’s E.D., Elias Deis has worked for over a decade at Holy Land Trust. He was formally the Travel & Encounter Program Director and serves on the Beit Sahour City Council.
Duration: 90 minutes, Presentation followed by Q&A
A link to join using Zoom will be sent after you register.
Event registration link.
https://hive.zenpeacemakers.org/events/185511/

BCD Coordinating Committee Meeting
2025-08-15 17:00 - 18:00 | Zoom Event

One Million Rising: Session 3
2025-08-13 20:00 - 21:00
One Million Rising—a national effort to train one million people in the strategic logic and practice of non-cooperation, as well as the basics of community organizing and campaign design.
Session 3: You’ll be onboarded to basic campaign design and learn how to implement it locally as well as get plugged into our next national campaign work. Your second community resistance gathering will move this action forward.
Event website
https://www.mobilize.us/nokings/event/803953/

BCD Communications Committee Meeting
2025-08-13 19:00 - 20:00 | Zoom Event

Introduction to Zen Peacemaking with Eve Marko
2025-08-11 12:00 - 13:00
Our approach to Peacemaking is unique. As we practice the Three Tenets of Not Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Taking Action, we commit to not taking fixed positions, to embracing wholeness and unity, to setting a place at the table for everyone. In a world of conflict, suffering, and violence, how do we make peace in this way. Please join us to learn about Zen Peacemaking.
Event website
https://hive.zenpeacemakers.org/events/182442

Hozan Alan Senauke's Memorial Service
2025-08-10 13:00 - 17:00
Honor and celebrate the life of Zen Priest-Musician-Activist Hozan Alan Senauke, the late Abbot of Berkeley Zen Center. The day will include a Zen ceremony, stories from a number of friends, and lots of music.
Hozan authored several books in which he shared his lived understanding of the Dharma: Heirs to Ambedkar: The Rebirth of Engaged Buddhism in India (Clear View Press), The Bodhisattva’s Embrace: Dispatches from Engaged Buddhism’s Front Lines (Clear View Press) and Turning Words (Shambhala).
Live stream the memorial celebration via this link :
Welcome to BZC

A Mindful Town Hall: Inner Connection & Interconnection
2025-08-06 19:00 - 20:30
​We are inviting you to a Mindful Town Hall, in which we will explore how we are affected by the political situation. This will be a 90-minute Zoom session in which there will be time for meditation, breakout rooms, and group discussion. ​The meeting will be facilitated by Serge Prengel, a therapist and mindfulness practitioner who has a lot of experience leading groups that foster inner connection and interconnection while exploring difficult topics.

One Million Rising: Session 2
2025-07-30 20:00 - 21:00
One Million Rising—a national effort to train one million people in the strategic logic and practice of non-cooperation, as well as the basics of community organizing and campaign design.
Session 2: This train-the-trainer session is how we get to one million. Learn not just our strategy, but how you can train others and get them on board. You’ll host your first community resistance gathering after this session.

Zen Peacemakers presents Do Not Comply in Advance
2025-07-30 12:00 - 13:30
Zen Peacemakers presents Rev. Dan Clark for an interactive presentation: Do Not Comply in Advance. In this talk, we will explore the political and religious foundations of resisting authoritarianism and the ways in which contemplation and action work together to support meaningful solidarity and effective advocacy.

Preparing for Sun Day 2025
2025-07-23 18:00 - 19:00
Join Bill McKibben in conversation with Third Act staff and Sun Day partners to learn about why we must dramatically accelerate and scale-up solar energy and how Sun Day will help achieve this goal.

Multifaith Prayer Circle in Support of the Apache People Protecting Oak Flat
2025-07-19 14:00 - 15:00
As Buddhist practitioners, we invite you to join us at a perilous moment, in supporting the Western Apache people of southeastern Arizona, who have for centuries remained steadfast in protecting Mother Earth.
You may have heard of Oak Flat, the name in English for sacred high-desert land critical to Apache religion and culture, about 60 miles east of Phoenix. In February 2025 a small group of us, from various Dharma lineages, formed the first Buddhist delegation at the annual Oak Flat Prayer Run and March. This sacred place, the generosity and strength of the Apache people, and the many ceremonies we experienced left a powerful impression. We have been deeply moved to support the Apache in their defense of Oak Flat, and now feel called to accompany them in prayerful presence at a time of potential loss.
Oak Flat – which the Apache call Chi’chil Biłdagoteel – holds historic, religious, and cultural significance for the Western Apache and all of Turtle Island. The Apache were driven from Oak Flat in the late 19th century and forced to live on the nearby San Carlos reservation. They go back frequently to Oak Flat, which has been preserved as part of the Tonto National Forest for more than half a century, to practice sacred ceremonies and preserve their culture.
In recent years copper was discovered deep under Oak Flat, and transfer of its land to a giant multinational mining enterprise was authorized by a last-minute addition to the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act.
Apache Stronghold, an organization of Apaches and Native and non-Native allies, has reached out to faith-community allies, including Mennonite, Episcopal, Franciscan, Jewish and UCC, for support in its struggle to protect their sacred land. And it has sought for years to save Oak Flat through the legal system, as have the San Carlos Apache tribe and a coalition of environmental organizations. Apache Stronghold’s lawsuit, based on religious-freedom grounds, made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. But in late May the Justices announced their decision not to hear the case.
This brings the Western Apache to a critical and vulnerable moment: Barring last-minute developments on the legal front, ownership of the land could be transferred to the mining interests in mid August. Land that has sustained the Apache people and religion for centuries, as well as its plants, animals, and the regional watershed, would be gravely impacted by the mining operation. Oak Flat and surrounding land would collapse into an immense crater.
Apache Stronghold is reaching out to spiritual allies for support. Attending this online prayer circle is one way to offer support. You need to pre-register to attend the event. You can register by clicking on this link, and an email will be sent to you with providing the way to attend.

Good Trouble Lives On: A Day of Action
2025-07-17
Demonstrations will be held across America on July 17th in honor of the late Congressman John Lewis.
Go to Good Trouble Lives On to find an event near you.

One Million Rising: Session 1
2025-07-16 20:00 - 21:00
One Million Rising—a national effort to train one million people in the strategic logic and practice of non-cooperation, as well as the basics of community organizing and campaign design.
Session 1: Get oriented to making meaning of this moment and the role you can play in coordinated strategic action.

BCD Action Committee Meeting
2025-07-16 14:00 - 15:00

Good Trouble Lives On Informational Call
2025-07-10 19:00 - 20:00, 2025-07-03 19:00 - 20:00
On July 17, the anniversary of Congressman John Lewis’s passing, we’re taking action across the country to defend our democracy and carry forward his legacy of Good Trouble. Join us on this informational call to learn more.

BCD Communications Committee Meeting
2025-07-09 19:00 - 20:00
