<2006 Annual Report-2>

Throughout the year, we collaborated with other organizations and coalitions like the American Friends Service Committee, United for Peace and Justice, and the Network of Spiritual Progressives. Our main concerns included the war in Iraq, nuclear disarmament, and human rights violations (especially torture).

We also recognized economic justice as a necessary ingredient for peace. In partnership with Interfaith Workers Justice (IWJ), BPF member Mushim Ikeda-Nash authored a “Call to Action for American Buddhists” which appeared in IWJ’s annual Labor Day Packet.

We see it as our responsibility to offer a Buddhist voice for peace in these contexts. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has described peace as not just the absence of war, but rather a condition where actions are motivated from compassion. We wholeheartedly agree and put this vision forward wherever we can. BPF chapters were essential partners in this effort. Some examples:

More highlights from the year:

BPF Chapters and the
Buddhist Alliance for Social Engagement (BASE) Program

Maia Duerr, Chapter Coordinator,

Diane Gregorio/Tempel Smith, BASE Coordinator

BPF Chapters

BPF Chapter Directory

In June 2006, we held "Peace in Ourselves, Peace in the World: Wholehearted Practice in Difficult Times," our first membership gathering in over 10 years, at the Garrison Institute in New York. BPF members came from more than 17 states around the U.S. and heard dharma talks from BPF co-founder Robert Aitken Roshi (via a phone connection to the Palolo Zen Center in Hawai'i) and Hozan Alan Senauke; attended workshops on topics as varied as prison dharma to values-based fundraising; and shared contemplative practices from traditions ranging from Theravadin to Zen to Tibetan to Quaker.

In the fall, Executive Director and Chapter Coordinator Maia Duerr visited Lexington, KY, to offer a workshop on the “Mandala of Socially Engaged Buddhism” at a conference she co-led with David Loy and Richard Reoch. While in the Midwest, Maia met with groups in Lexington, Cincinnati, Yellow Springs, and Cleveland. Several new socially engaged dharma groups have emerged from this visit, and stronger relationships were forged with members of the Shambhala dharma community.

Our Chapter Council, comprised of regional representatives from the U.S. and Canada, met bi-monthly throughout the year, and focused on identifying how the relationship between chapters and the BPF office could be more mutually beneficial.

BASE Program

BASE Program webpage

The BASE (Buddhist Alliance for Social Engagement) program continued to provide six-month support communities for the study and practice of socially engaged Buddhism. All BASE programs combine five elements: service/social action, wisdom/training, dharma practice, community, and commitment. Participants work or volunteer in service projects, and meet regularly for study, support, discussion, training, and meditation.

In 2006, a Creative Language BASE was led by Sue Moon and Anna Brown Griswold and Aging and Sickness BASE was led by Martha Boesing and Sam Stern. The latter group volunteered at Chaparral House, a hospice care facility for the elderly in Berkeley, CA. The BASE House in San Francisco sponsored a speaker series in spring 2006 that included peace scholar and activist Professor Michael Nagler and Ven. Robina Courtin (founder of the Liberation Prison Project).

In October 2006, former BPF board member Diane Biray Gregorio became the BASE Program Coordinator. She takes over from Tempel Smith, who now focuses on developing our growing Youth Program.

Diane has identified five leverage points which will help us to realize our vision of planting BASE groups successfully and sustainably in diverse geographical regions, as well as increasing BASE’s impact and contribution to the growing field of spiritual activism: Leadership Development, Curriculum, Flexible Form, Economics of BASE, and Connection to Direct Action.

This last point is especially important. The acronym BASE was coined by founder Diana Winston in part to evoke the Base Christian Communities of Liberation Theology that flourished throughout Latin America and the Philippines, groups that engaged in collective social change projects in their very own communities. Whereas past BASE groups have supported individuals in their diverse forms of social service and activism, we are exploring how BASE groups can work together on projects and themes to which BPF is committed—such as the supporting ex-prisoners through the Coming Home initiative or counseling conscientious objectors and counter-recruitment work.

The coming year will give us a chance to work with these leverage points and to initiate BASE groups in the Pacific Northwest and other locations. We are also exploring strategic partnerships with like-minded organizations such as the Metta Center for Nonviolence Studies and looking into the possibility of joint foundation proposals and programming.

We are grateful for support from the Hidden Leaf Foundation to help us to develop communities of compassionate activists, through both BASE and our chapters.

International Projects and Partnerships

BPF International Liaison: Alan Senauke

International Projects webpage

BPF’s international connections remain strong. At the same time, staff limitations have made it challenging to work directly with engaged Buddhists around the world. Over the last few years, we’ve built on BPF’s organizational strengths and network in order to support the work of chapters, affiliates, and friends in Asia. We stay in frequent communication with chapters, affiliates, and members of BPF’s International Advisory Council in Australia, India, Mexico, Bangladesh, Italy, Canada, Korea, Spain, and Ladakh.

BPF provides fiscal agency for a number of initiatives. The Tibetan Children’s Refugee Fund and the Tibetan Revolving Fund, managed by Gordon and Margo Tyndall have been running for more than fifteen years. The Children’s Fund provides more than $20,000 to children and elderly Tibetans living in the refugee settlements of India and Nepal. The Revolving Fund has approximately $100,000 in capitalization, which circulates to support labor-intensive projects in the Tibetan settlements. These projects come with the recommendation and broad supervision of the Tibetan Government in Exile.

Dharma Gaia Trust (John Seed, Ruth Rosenhek, Allan Hunt-Badiner, Jill Jameson, and Alan Senauke) provides modest funding to environmental initiatives in Buddhist Asia, including Sri Lanka, Ladakh, India, and Vietnam. In Vietnam, BPF and Dharma Gaia Trust are strongly supporting South East Asia Organics, which is developing an organic farming model which can be shared across the region.

Alan Senauke continues to work closely with and serve on the board of our affiliate, the Foundation for the People of Burma. FPB provides funding for a wide range of welfare projects within Burma, and along the Thai-Burma border. Their work covers medical clinics, backpack medical teams, basic education for children, training and empowerment for ethnic women, and support for the Burmese sangha.

BPF’s board president Anchalee Kurutach serves on the Executive Committee of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB), begun by Sulak Sivaraksa in 1989. BPF has played an active role in INEB’s leadership from its beginnings, and the Network itself has been the source of close relationships and critical international work we have shared.