Bernie Glassman and the Zen Peacemakers are returning for the 16th year to the old site of the concentration camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, in Oświęcim, Poland, for a Bearing Witness Retreat in November 2011.
This Bearing Witness Retreats began in 1996 and have taken place annually almost every year since then.
Fleet Maull extended the invititaion for me to join him this year as he journeys back to this place and time in history..
As many of you know, I attended my first ever Bearing Witness Retreat in Rwanda this past April with him and Roshi Genro. That experience has changed my life in so many ways. One of the biggest lessons I was able to begin to comprehend for the first time in my life is that peace is actually possible…that we don’t have to surrender to this culture of violence we've come to know so well...
As I walked into room after room and room, staring at partially decomposed naked bodies which were covered in lime, I saw the real cost of murder, the real faces of genocide. I was able to bear witness to the cost of human life. As we came together and sat in circles, sharing about our experiences while at memorial sites such as these in Murambi, I was able to actually feel human connection and understanding.
It’s these kinds of experiences that wake me up in a way I can’t ignore. My hopes in attending this retreat at the former death camps of Hitler’s WWII insanity, is to once again bare witness to our collective human history. What is possible? How does something like this happen? What can I do to prevent this from happening once again? There are just a few of the questions I hold in my heart walking in. I’m not sure I’ll come out with answers. Whatever gifts I am able to connect with on this jounry, I hope will carry me further along this path of collective community building and conscious growth.
The skills I am able to acquire while on these retreats creates a lifelong commitment to proactive learning and responsibly to 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. Prayer Services from various religious traditions are offered daily. Participants meet daily in small Council groups designed to create a safe place for people to share their inner experiences. The whole group meets in the evenings to bear witness to oneness in diversity.
Any sort of contribution you are able to make will allow me to bear witness, once again, to the human condition in way that I hope can help me to create a world without violence, a world of human dignity, respect and oneness. I thank you so very much for your donation…of any amount... and will carry with me the support of you all as I make my way to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Infinite love and light,
Madrone phoenix