Many Are Called But Few Are Chosen

Maybe I should blame it on Roshi Bernie. At least in the earliest days, when Bernie began talking to us about a Zen Peacemaker Order, he didn’t want to exclude anyone. Bernie wanted an infinite circle.

I worried about the lack of boundaries. What does it mean to be “Zen”? And what does it mean to be part of an Order? I had ideas about mission and especially about obedience. Members of the Zen Peacemaker Order, in my mind, were available to go at a moment’s notice wherever peacemaking was needed in the world. I imagined only Roshi Bernie and Roshi Jishu Holmes and Claude Anshin Thomas as members of the Order. I could be part of a ZPO support group, help with fundraising, things like that

Strangely, I didn’t worry much about what Bernie meant by peacemaking. Now, as I see it, that’s where the big challenge is. To make peace, you have to be willing to get face-to-face with the people you disagree with, who you think are completely wrongheaded. You have to get into the same room with them, and you have to listen. Not only that. You have to be willing to learn from them, from the people with whom you strongly disagree.

It turns out that a lot of people think of themselves as peacemakers. They want peace. They want to fix the wrongs of the world, to put an end to suffering. They are good people. Many are eager to meet with people who agree with them, to talk with the like-minded about the difficulties of making peace. Some are even willing to go into a room with people from the other side, willing to listen to the Others, to be friendly, laying the groundwork so that they can show the others the truth and the light. But they are not entering the room to learn.

It turns out that many answer the call of peacemaking, but few are chosen to actually make peace. Making peace takes more than an aspiration. To make peace, you need to go further. You must allow yourself to be touched and changed by your contact with the Other.