Buddhist Peace Fellowship
Chicago Chapter
Hatred never ceases through hatred in this world.
Only by love does hatred cease.
This is an ancient natural law.
—The Buddha (Dhammapada)
Our chapter— of a network that has been active for over 40 years— brings together Buddhist practitioners working collectively for peace and justice.
Coming from a variety of Buddhist traditions, we are a community of activist friends trying to engage more directly in social action and service for the benefit of all beings.
We work with Chicagoland organizations, and participate in an ongoing series of activities. We meet periodically on Zoom and have additional committees on selected topics. Please email us for additional information <bpfchicago@yahoo.com>.
Also please visit: Chicago Area Peace Action / Indivisible Chicago Alliance / Buddhist Coalition for Democracy.
Our practice of contemplation and social action is guided by our intention to:
• Recognize the interdependence of all beings
• Meet suffering directly and with compassion
• Appreciate the importance of not clinging to views and outcomes
• Work with Buddhists and people from all traditions
• Connect individual and social transformation
• Practice nonviolence
• Use participatory decision-making techniques
• Protect and extend all human rights
• Support gender and racial equality, and challenge all forms of unjust discrimination
• Work for economic justice and the end of poverty
• Work for a sustainable environment
• Oppose the militarization of our society
• Support anti-military recruitment and support of returning war veterans
• Oppose nuclear weapons and nuclear proliferation
• Oppose to the death penalty
• Support laborers facing inhumane working conditions and economic injustice
BPF Chicago Chapter Select Activities
• Hiroshima-Nagasaki memorial and anti-nuclear vigils, Evanston IL 2025,2024,2023,2022
• Open discussion with Extinction Rebellion Chicago, Zen Buddhist Temple 2020
• Co-sponsored Zenshin Florence Caplow, two speaking events Nov 2019
• Hiroshima-Nagasaki and anti-nuclear memorials and vigils 2017, 2018, 2019
• Sponsored, co-sponsored speaker Hozan Alan Senauke (Clearview) 2009, 2013, 2018
• Despair to Healing to Activism workshop at DePaul Univ, with Ken Butigan 2018
• Rally/Protest with the Rohingya (persecuted Burmese minority), Chicago 2017
• Sponsored, co-sponsored speaker/writer David Loy in 2007, 2008, 2017
• Women's March on Chicago 2017, rally and march participants
• Co-sponsored novelist, filmmaker, Zen Buddhist priest Ruth Ozeki, 2016
• Numerous presentations/discussions co-sponsored with DePaul University's Center for Religion, Culture & Community (CRCC)
• Sponsored speaker Peter Coyote in 2014
• Co-sponsored Joanna Macy workshop and talk in 2012
• Buddhist social ethics forums at local university campuses
• Participated in anti-NATO march for peace
• Anti-Drone killings participation with the Protest Chaplains
• Meditation vigils at ongoing Occupy Chicago gatherings
• Sponsored speaker Sarah Weintraub, former Director of BPF National
• Conducted Burma awareness public events and video showing
• Ongoing opposition to military recruitment at area high schools
• Co-sponsored "Averting Another Catastrophe: the Folly of an Attack on Iran" program
• Co-sponsored "Iran and the Peace Movement Forum" featuring Scott Ritter
• Pro-monk and pro-people of Burma and Tibet activities
• Anti-war and anti-death penalty meditation vigils
• Actions to encourage protection of Thai environmentalist monks from violence
• Supported the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to obtain humane working conditions
• Eyes Wide Open Demonstration (with American Friends Service Committee)
• One Big Table Food Bank Fundraiser
• Meditation vigils at executions in Michigan City, IN
• Support of the Dhamma Moli Project in Nepal to protect girls from the sex trade
Resources
Organizations:
• Chicago Area Peace Action
• Indivisible Chicago Alliance
• Buddhist Coalition for Democracy
• Buddhist Peace Fellowship National
• Shambhala Chicago Social Action
• International Network of Engaged Buddhists
• Ancient Dragon Zen Gate, Chicago
• Lakeside Buddha Sangha, Evanston
• Thich Nhat Hanh, Plum Village
• Sit Around Chicago
Books (alpha by author):
• Buddhism at Work: Community Development, Social Empowerment & the Sarvodaya Movement, by George Bond
• Being Peace, by Thich Nhat Hanh
• Interbeing, by Thich Nhat Hanh
• Love in Action, by Thich Nhat Hanh
• Peace is Every Step, by Thich Nhat Hanh
• The New Social Face of Buddhism, by Ken Jones
• Dharma Rain, edited by Stephanie Kaza and Kenneth Kraft
• Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist liberation Movements in Asia, edited by Sallie King and Christopher Queen
• This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate, by Naomi Klein
• Engaged Buddhist Reader, edited by Arnold Kotler
• Faces of Compassion: Classic Bodhisattva Archetypes and Their Modern Expression, by Taigen Dan Leighton
• Money Sex War Karma, by David Loy
• The Great Awakening: A Buddhist Social Theory, by David Loy
• Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We're in without Going Crazy, by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone
• Coming Back to Life: Practices to Reconnect Our Lives, Our World, by Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown
• Devil's Tango: How I Learned the Fukushima Step by Step, by Cecile Pineda
• Engaged Buddhism in the West, edited by Christopher Queen
• A Buddhist Response to the Climate Emergency, edited by John Stanley, David Loy and Gyurme Dorje
• The Prophet and the Bodhisattva: Daniel Berrigan, Thich Nhat Hanh, & the Ethics of Peace & Justice, by Charles Strain
• Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness, by Robert Thurman