Szymon and Kurt in Poland last summer
Dear Friends,
As I write this, I am preparing to travel from Szczecin, Poland, to Kyiv, Ukraine. I have just finished a Zen retreat with my longtime teacher Shodo Harada RoshiI here in Szczecin, attended by fifty of Harada’s students from Poland and Lithuania.
Tomorrow I will travel by car to Warsaw with my friend Szymon Obrychowski and his wife Paulina. Szymon and I will be joined in Warsaw by our friend and dharma brother Kyosan Zoglin, and will continue on by bus for the long trip to Kyiv from there.
This coming week, from July 2-9, I will be in Kyiv to co-host another Zen retreat with Szymon, this one bearing witness to the ongoing tragedy of the war in Ukraine. The retreat grows out of my time with Szymon last summer in Szczecin, where I spent a month volunteering with Ukrainian refugees. As Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine enters its sixteenth month, Szymon and I have invited a few fellow Zen practitioners to join us in Kyiv, along with a few of my MBSR teacher colleagues in Kyiv, for this week-long retreat, to bring this tragedy more directly into our minds and hearts, and to connect with Ukrainian mindfulness and Zen practitioners as an expression of solidarity and support.
Szymon, Kyosan and Kurt at a Zen retreat in Szczecin, Poland, May, 2022
As co-hosts of this unconventional retreat, Szymon and I are collaborating with the Dahk Contemporary Arts Theatre in Kyiv as our retreat home and support community. Beginning July 3, our retreat will be livestreamed on YouTube at this link, for anyone who would like to drop in and sit with us. There should be a live link, plus pre-recorded segments available..
We will be utilizing a Zen format, held mostly in silence. But I will be breaking with that format each day at 7:00 AM Pacific Time (4::00 PM in Ukraine), offering an hour of guided qi gong and sitting meditation in the spirit of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR).
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The Dahk Theatre is close to Maidan Square, where mass peaceful protests in early 2014 provoked violent government crackdowns and many deaths among peaceful Ukrainian citizens from all walks of life. That “Revolution of Dignity”, as it is now known, led to the ouster of Ukraine’s Russian-backed dictator Victor Yanukovych, and a renewal of Ukraine’s quest for democratic values and institutions of governance. That event is also linked to the invasion of Crimea and much of the Donbas region by Russians that same year, and to the current invasion by Russia that began in February of 2022.
It is difficult for most Americans (including myself) to appreciate the level of suffering endured by the Ukrainian people in their long struggle for self-determination, including the intentional starvation of four million Ukrainians under Russian rule in 1932-33 - during the disastrous rollout of collective agriculture in Ukraine - and a half century of harsh repression during the Soviet era from 1945-1991.
Our intention in coming is simply to listen and be present, as fully as we can, to the human tragedy unfolding in Ukraine - for Russian as well as Ukrainian citizens - and to deepen our own practice in response to this manifestation of suffering, which ultimately includes us all.
We believe it is possible to respond to this challenge - and many others that we face at this time in our collective live - from a place of compassion, deeply shared humanity, and resilience of heart. That is what our practice of mindfulness makes possible for us. It is never risk free. But it can also turn the smallest moments into opportunities for connection and joy.
Please join us as you are able.
In gratitude.
Kurt