A Continent away from Santa Fe, or is it?

At the suggestion of a friend, last evening I went to the weekly meditation and Dharma Lecture up at Upaya, the Buddhist retreat center that is located close – a few miles up the mountain - from me. After 20-minutes of sitting meditation, Nathalie Goldberg (author of Writing down the Bones) and Beata Stotle, the co-abbot of the community, spoke to the assembled. These ladies just returned from a powerful retreat in Europe were they visited Germany and the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, in Poland. Although their impressions were very fresh (unedited and unhealed by time), each of them spoke of the shock and horror they discovered upon learning the details of the unspeakable crimes that were committed by the Nazis against their death camp prisoners. They each understand and conveyed to us that it is in the details of living that man is capable of his best good and also his most horrible evil.

The atmosphere was profoundly somber as the large crowd exited the temple and walked quietly back into the evening routines of living. I felt changed by understanding the reality of the Holocaust – even after these 60 + years – and experienced a renewed determination to change myself and my response to prejudice, bigotry, and human violence, however these forms of marginalization are experienced in my life. For those of you who may want to know more, I am including the link to The Zen Peacemakers Blog. The founder Bernie Glassman led the retreat to Auschwitz.