Peter and three "Zen Masters"try to catch some sleep at Meatloaf Kitchen on E.2nd St.
Over the cold, rainy Easter weekend a group of 17 Zen Peacemakers, once again followed Roshi Bernie Glassman out onto the streets on New York with little or nothing in our pockets (I broke the rules and snuck in a small camera). This was a short street retreat by our standards, just two nights, and it seemed like a pleasant reunion picnic until we woke Saturday in a freezing, bone-soaking windstorm. Our morning meeting, sitting on cold concrete among early-rising TaiChi practitioners in Chinatown was exotic but I didn’t care, I didn’t even make a picture, I just wanted to get out of this idiotic scheme and into a warm bed. But they say miracles do happen and so they did, the cold unpredictably morphed into another feeling and then another, we were reborn again and yet again, Buddhists experiencing Easter.
Round and round we go: The Staten Island Ferry (my thanks to The City of New York)
At night we tried to sleep on cardboard under an overhang but between the rain and the police, I wound up on the Staten Island Ferry both nights. Round and round we went, sleeping 15 precious minutes (dreaming was not possible) , then out to the terminal and back onto the boat again and again – it became like a Buddhist bowing practice, over and over, no expectations, no thinking, just the doing of it over and over and then again, until dawn when the beauty of the water and city and sky overwhelmed the desire to sleep. And then hunger, one desire becoming another.
Staten Island Ferry
We were saved from our bourgeois version of pain by the best soup kitchen I’ve ever seen: heat, grace, dignity, fine food and warm socks, it’s called Meatloaf Kitchen, if any of you are thinking about volunteering or contributing in the area of serving the homeless I highly (highly) recommend this operation. I’d also like to thank The Bowery Mission which fed us once again with food and spirit. They continue to do their inspirational work even though their immediate neighbors are now a giant modern museum on one side and a red-roped nightclub on the other.
Brother Bernie and Brother James discuss the practice of compassion after supper at The Bowery Mission
We finished with what Bernie called a “Recognition Ceremony” in Chrystie Park which was littered with drug needles and condoms when we started doing these street retreats, but now is clean and wholesome, lying as it does in the shadow of Whole Foods. Myself, I’ve managed to mingle in this Zen Buddhist crowd for 30 years as “a man of no rank” (some say that having no rank is the highest rank of all), but now I have a title, and I fear all is lost. But my experience in the month since, indicates that being lost and being found feel about the same.
I’d like to give to my European friends who came across an ocean from France, Germany, Poland, Belgium, and Israel to sleep on hard benches and soggy boxes with us crazy Americans.
Kuku and Batman on Easter Morning, 2011 (photo Sally Kealy)
I am a 63 years old retired RN. I worked with the homeless in Central MA for almost four years, as a nurse case manager. I went to the People in Peril Shelter and to the Salvation Army Warmer; to the several half way homes and acxcompanied clients to medical and social service appointments.
I was in India and Nepal last year and I love the idea of Buddhism. Nonetheless I am having trouble relating to a street retreat. The idea of begging is so negative to me.
Can you expand a little more on the experience?
Thank you!
Veronica
Hi..here is more info on Street Retreats (including some articles by past participants at the bottom)….
http://www.peacemakerinstitute.org/BW_street_retreat.html
Also from this website (this is more in relation to ‘raising a mala’ which is a form of ‘begging’ or requesting Dana (generosity) in the Buddhist tradition which is done by street retreatants prior to the retreat but somewhat applies to street ‘begging’:
“In this modern era, many of us have difficulty asking for help, especially financial help. While the “rugged individualism” that is so much a part of western, and especial U.S. culture has certainly produced extraordinary material and technological development, it clearly has its limitations and often leads to a complete denial of the reality of “interdependence” (that fact that we are all dependent on each other for our very survival) and to isolationism and dangerous and ineffective “go it alone” policies. Mala practice challenges us to recognize the reality of interdependence and to go beyond our “Lone Ranger” tendencies and our reluctance to be open with others about our training and financial needs.”