BEARING WITNESS RETREAT AT AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU
May 17-21, 2010
Please share this Bearing Witness practice opportunity with us!
Bernie Glassman, Peter Matthiessen, Eve Marko, and others are returning to the site of the concentration camps of Auschwitz- Birkenau, in Oswiecim, Poland, for a Bearing Witness Retreat in May 17-21, 2010. Bernie Glassman began the annual bearing witness retreats in 1996, with help from Eve Marko, and they have taken place annually almost every year since then. This is their first return since 2005.
Much has been written about these annual retreats (see Bernie Glassman’s Bearing Witness, articles in numerous magazines); at least half a dozen films have been made about them in various languages.
They are multi-faith and multinational in character, with a strong focus on the Zen Peacemakers’ Three Tenets: Not-Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Loving Action. Most of each day is spent sitting by the train tracks at Birkenau, both in silence and in chanting the names of the dead. There is time to walk through the vast camps, do vigils inside women’s and children’s barracks, and memorial services.
Prayers
of various religious traditions are held. Small groups meet daily to help people share their experiences, and the entire group meets in the evenings to bear witness to oneness in diversity.
The 5-day retreat will begin on the morning of May 17 and end with a Sabbath dinner on May 21.
Participants are asked to gather in Krakow by Sunday evening, May 16.
The retreat will begin the following morning with a tour of Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter of Krakow, and proceed by bus to Oswiecim, 90 minutes away.
We also encourage participants to return to Krakow on Saturday morning, May 22, to see
the beautiful city before returning home.
The fee for the retreat is $1,000 ($950 if you register before Aug. 15, 2009) and includes all buses, food and accommodations at the Dialogue Center in Oswiecim (walking distance to both Auschwitz 1 and Birkenau).
Plane fare and your stay in Krakow are not included, though
our office will secure hotel reservations. We are limiting the number of attendees; a $500 deposit will insure your registration.
Please go to our website page on the Auschwitz Retreat and fill out the Registration Form to help us make room assignments, etc.
For more information, please contact Ginni Stern: ginni@zenpeacemakers.com
or by phone: 360-376-4320 or 802-734-6223.
In Poland:
Andrzej Getsugen Krajewski
Peacemaker Community Poland
getsugen@gmail.com
+48 501 603 291
Love to you all, Genki
Zen Master Paul Genki Kahn
President & Vice-Spiritual Director
Zen Peacemakers
177 Ripley Road,
Montague, MA 01351
413-367-5025
genki@zenpeacemakers.com
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