Zen Peacemakers founder Bernie Glassman taught that practice doesn’t end on the cushion—it must move into the world. In this episode of the Peacemakers Podcast, we see how a Zen Peacemaker Affiliate, the Zen Center of Denver, brings this vision to life through their ongoing work at Metro Caring.

What emerges is a reminder that service isn’t about charity, but about belonging—creating spaces where dignity and connection flourish.

Bernie’s vision points us back to our own neighborhoods. Each of us has a “Metro Caring” close to home, a place where our practice can meet the world’s needs in simple, human ways.

Join us for this conversation about practice, service, and the everyday work of peacemaking.

🌱 Support our work: Become a paying subscriber for full access to our podcasts, writings, and events—and help sustain the Zen Peacemakers’ global community. Learn more at www.zenpeacemakers.org.

* Show Credits:

* Recording Date: April 17, 2025

* Hosts: Geoff Shoun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker

* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker

* Special Thanks to Metro Caring and the Zen Center of Denver

What if being ethical wasn’t about being good, but about being whole?

In this moving and revelatory episode of the Peacemakers Podcast, Zen teacher Nancy Mujo Baker Roshi invites us to experience the Buddhist precepts not as commandments or even ideals—but as expressions of oneness itself. Through stories, teachings, and poetic insight, she guides us through the subtle terrain of “non-killing, non-stealing, non-lying” and the journey toward a life lived without a “why.”

Together we explore how exposing our delusions, embracing our sorrow, and dropping our self-protection can awaken a deeper way of being—one rooted in Zazen, intimacy, and spontaneous compassion.

Whether you’ve studied the precepts for years or are just beginning to reflect on your actions in the world, this episode offers a profound invitation: to meet all of it—your confusion, your care, your contradictions—as Buddha Nature itself.

Join us as we walk hand in hand with sorrow, and step into the great unfolding.

🌀If this conversation moves you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll get access to all of our content—podcasts, articles, event recordings, and more—and help sustain the work of Zen Peacemakers.Learn more at www.zenpeacemakers.org

We invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.

Show Credits:

* Speakers: Nancy Mujo Baker Roshi

* Recording Date: January 28, 2023

* Hosts: Geoff Shoun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker

* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker

* Event Coordinators: Clotilde Wright, Geoff Shoun O'Keeffe

* Original Video: HERE

In this heartfelt episode, we turn the lens inward to explore how the Zen Peacemakers' Three Tenets—Not Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Taking Action—manifest in our closest and most personal relationships.

Host Geoff O’Keeffe guides a powerful roundtable conversation with eight longtime Zen teachers, including Roshis Pat Enkyo and Barbara Joshin O’Hara, Gerry Shishin Wick and Ilia Shinko Perez, June Ryushin Tanoue and Robert Joshin Althouse, and Nicolee Jikyo and Barry Kaigen McMahon.

Together, they share the deep joys and inevitable frictions of practicing and teaching together in intimate partnership. Through stories that are funny, moving, and honest, they offer rare insight into how a committed relationship can become not a distraction from the path, but the path itself.

From learning how to fight fair and communicate with compassion, to embracing the discomfort of “not knowing” and creating a shared space where healing can emerge, this episode is a love letter to spiritual partnership.

🌀 Join us for this unique conversation in the spirit of mutuality, humility, and curiosity.

We invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.

Show Credits:

* Speakers: Roshis Pat Enkyo and Barbara Joshin O’Hara, Gerry Shishin Wick and Ilia Shinko Perez, June Ryushin Tanoue and Robert Joshin Althouse, and Nicolee Jikyo and Barry Kaigen McMahon

* Recording Date: January 22, 2024

* Hosts: Geoff Shoun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker

* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker

* Event Coordinators: Clotilde Wright, Geoff Shoun O'Keeffe

* Original Video: HERE