Buddhist Peace Fellowship

The Buddhist Peace Fellowship (BPF) is a nonsectarian international network of engaged Buddhists participating in various forms of nonviolent social activism and environmentalism with chapters all over the world. The non-profit BPF is an affiliate of the international Fellowship of Reconciliation working toward global disarmament and peace, helping individuals suffering under governmental tyranny in places such as Burma, Bangladesh, Tibet and Vietnam. Currently headquartered in Berkeley, California, the BPF was incorporated in 1978 in Hawaii by Robert Baker Aitken, his wife Anne Hopkins Aitken, Nelson Foster, Ryo Imamura and others. Shortly after other notable individuals climbed aboard, including Gary Snyder, Alfred Bloom, Joanna Macy and Jack Kornfield. Generally speaking, the BPF has a tendency to approach social issues from a left-wing perspective and, while the fellowship is nonsectarian, the majority of its members are practitioners of Zen Buddhism.

The BPF statement of purpose is:
1 To make clear public witness to Buddhist practice and interdependence as a way of peace and protection for all beings;
2 to raise peace, environmental, feminist, and social justice concerns among North American Buddhists;
3 to bring a Buddhist perspective of non-duality to contemporary social action and environmental movements;
4 to encourage the practice of nonviolence based on the rich resources of traditional Buddhist and Western spiritual teachings; and
5 to offer avenues for dialogue and exchange among the diverse North American and world Sanghas.

—Spuler, Michele (2003). Developments in Australian Buddhism: Facets of the Diamond. pp. 79–80. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/49952207&referer=brief_results.

BPF is currently led by Executive Director Sarah Weintraub, a second generation American Buddhist who grew up as a “Zen kid” in and around the San Francisco Zen Center.