Photo: Fleet in Austin on the Street Retreat 06

We began the Austin Street Retreat yesterday at noon, leaving from the Austin Shambhala Center by foot. We gathered for our first council circle on the lawn of the state capitol building. It is hot as heck here in Austin. The heat is really oppressive and doesn't let up much at night. We had dinner at the Salvation Army last night. There are three shelters in the same area, Salvation Army, ARCH (Austin Resource Center for the Homeless, and Caritas). As we turned into the alley between ARCH and the Savation Army we entered quite a scene with several hundered homeless men hanging out in the alley waiting to enter the Salvation Army or ARCH for the evening. Later in our evening council in the back yard of an Alcoholics Anonymous clubhouse, many of the participants spoke of the shock they felt and how challenging it was for them to walk through this intense homeless scene as we turned into that alley on the way to eat dinner.&n bsp; As always the council sharings were profound, the plunge and process of transformation clearly in full gear already. The Salvation Army meal was in the not good, not bad category, but tasted quite good to me given my hunger level at that moment. Looking for a place to sleep was an adventure as always, but we finally found a clearing in the woods behind an Elks Lodge where we safely bedded down for the night with sheets of cardboard discovered earlier for bedding. No one slept well, save John from the Zen Center. Trains were running by all night and between the heat and the noise most of us were tossing and turing all night. There are 12 of us on the retreat, my co-leader Sensei Genro Gauntt, John, June, Ken, Karuna, Kelly, Jeff, Hope, Sean, Tom, Pat, and me. Some of the Austin Zen Center folks are joining us for the afternoon sitting at 3 pm on the capitol lawn. This morning we visited the shelters early, but found no breakfast. We were directed to the Trinity Center, and episcopal center where they serve a modest breakfast (tortilla, hardboiled egg, slice of cheeze, and half a bannana) at 10 am after a service. We are splitting up now to wander, beg, and hang out with our buddies until we meet up again at 3 pm. The retreat is in full swing. The morning council was juicy. The biggest challenge is the heat. Everyone has landed though, surrending each in their own way to this plunge practice.
Peace,
Fleet Maull

Greetings from the southern fried streets of Austin.  

We've walked scores of blocks already today in the brutal heat, trecking from our sleeping spot to various shelters and soup kitchens.  Fortunately most of the shelters are air conditioned, although the place I ate lunch with my friend Genro was barely airconditioned, if at all. The people were great though and the lunch was filling and fairly nutritious.

We slept in a different place last night, as our spot from the night before behind an Elks club building was unavailable with lots of cars around even late at night.  We had trecked a very long distance to check out Blues on the Green a free concert with Caijin piano player Marsha Ball (sp?).  Fabulous music but the long walk exhausted all of us and left a few with sore feet and blisters.  We finally settled down last night around midnight under a full moon in a park near the Colorado river, and slept undisturbed by anyone until the early morning joggers and dog walkers showed up. 

Our friend Pat left us today at noon, by prior arrangement.  We were all sad to see here go as we've become quite a bonded group.  Karuna, a wonderful woman in her mid 60's, joined us again this morning.  Karuna has been spending the entire day with us and going home at night.  There are 10 of us left doing the whole retreat, 11 when Karuna is with us.  Lot's of amazing interactions with people on the streets.   I've got to head off to our afternoon sitting and council. More later ....

can be seen on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/goslow/sets/72157594232385012

Though participants in the four-day Buddhist street retreat used services for the homeless, an organizer raised money to give to the services in return. Fleet Maull, left, and Grover Gauntt III, right, eat the dinner they received from Mobile Loaves and Fishes on Wednesday


The full article from the Statesman is posted on Kate's blog:

http://peacemakerboulder.zaadz.com/blog

there is also a link in the article to the Statesman website with some more photos.

We survived the final night on the streets, again sleeping in a park by the river. We awoke at 4 am to the sound of drumming. Some people were in a gazebo down by the river beating on cans and other make shift drums and doing rap. We got up grateful for the early wake up call, as we'd heard that the police might come through the park ticketing people for sleeping around 5 am.

We spent the early morning walking by the river and hanging out downtown waiting to get coffee at the ARCH (Austin Resource C Center for the Homeless) at 6:30 am. While downtown, we bought the Austin newspaper for 50 cents and discovered a feature article about us and the retreat on the front page of the second section of the paper. We've been outted !! We were a little hesitant to go to the ARCH after that but did anyway and had some good conversations with people who recognized us.

We had a powerful council this morning down by ARCH each talking about our practice with the peacemaker precepts during the retreat, doing the tradition monastic confession circle around the precepts. We are headed off to our final council now, after which we will walk back to the Austin Shambhala Center. Genro Gauntt and I give a public talk there tonight that was mentioned in the newspaper article, so hopelfully we'll get an interesting audience.
Peace and blessings from the streets of Austin,
Fleet Maull

Fleet Maull, foreground left, and other participants in the Buddhist street retreat cross the Pfluger pedestrian bridge on their way to Blues on the Green in Zilker Park on Wednesday night. The concert was close to where they would spend the night.


Having completed the street retreat, my friend and co-leader Genro Gauntt and I are back at the Austin Zen Center relaxing after a hot shower and good meal. This street retreat has left a profound impression on me as they always do ... the impact of a major pattern interupt and the intimate experiences with all the men, women, young people and children we shared the streets with this week, there faces, expressions and words swimming around in my consciousness as I sit here typing.


We see so much suffering and with the heat index at 108 degrees experience so many physical challenges ourselves. And in the midst of all that struggle and suffering, we also see and experience so much joy, community, good humor and no small amount of irony.
I often wish I could record and share the profound sharing by the participants in our councils. In many ways these councils are the heart of the retreat. The councils are held in complete confidentiality though, so I can only describe them in general terms. The struggles, doubts, confessions, insights, and both painful and joyful experiences the participants, all sitting in the fire of transformation, share inevitably leave me feeling deeply grateful, humbled and inspired. Spending time with others in the crucible of genuine transformation is perhaps the greatest gift, among the many gifts provided by the streets.
Roshi Bernie Glassman who founded the Zen Peacemaker Community and this particular form of street retreats, often speaks of the "generosity of the streets." This week the streets of Austin and all the people there provided us with all we needed and then some, the including the supreme gift of our own humanity, discovering our own dignity as human beings through experiencing the dignity of every human being we encountered. When all else is stripped away, the truth of the basic goodness of all beings shines through with unmistakeable clarity.


I am every thankful to all of our spiritual ancestors and to Roshi Bernie Glassman for articulating the timeless wisdom represented in the three tenets of the Zen Peacemaker Community's work: Not Knowing, Bearing Witness and Loving Action. Once again the streets have take my understanding of these tenets to and entirely new level.
Peace and many blessings,
Fleet Maull


The Austin Street Retreat was sponsored by the Austin Shambhala Center, the Austin Zen Center and the Colorado Peacemaker Institute. Many thanks to Hope Malkan, a Peacemaker Institute Integral Peacemaker Training (IPT) graduate and Austin Shambhala Community member, who envisioned and organized this retreat. Many thanks to the others members of the Austin Shambhala Community and the Austin Zen Center who participated in and/or supported the retreat; and as always, many thanks to Kate Crisp, who coordinated things for the Colorado Peacemaker Institute.

Any a very special thanks to the organizations, staff and volunteers who fed and supported us on the streets from the Trinity Center at the King David Episcopal Church, the Salvation Army, the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless, Caritas, the Austin Baptist Chapel's Angel House, the University United Methodist Church, and the Mobile Loaves and Fishes.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/57883179@N00/sets/72157594238673060/