Buddhist Peace Fellowship - About

About

The Buddhist Peace Fellowship is a grassroots movement established in 1978 by Robert Baker Aitken and Anne Hopkins Aitken, along with Nelson Foster and others, on the front porch of their Maui Zendo in Hawaii. Sitting around a table, the assembled group discussed nuclear weapons and militarism within the United States in the years following the Vietnam War, finding that these issues must be addressed with compassion from a Buddhist perspective in order to bring about peace. Original members were centered primarily in Hawaii or the San Francisco Bay Area, and by 1979 the group had roughly fifty members. To stay connected, the group formulated a newsletter spearheaded by Nelson Foster which evolved into Turning Wheel—the quarterly magazine published by the BPF. Today it trades ads with others Buddhist magazines in an effort to mutually generate more subscriptions. By the late 1980s the association had hundreds of members, and the headquarters had moved to office space in Berkeley, California. During this time much of their work was geared toward human rights efforts in areas of the world such as Cambodia, Vietnam and Bangladesh, working particularly hard at freeing Buddhist prisoners of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. This period in BPF history also was marked by the hiring of a coordinator and the development of national chapters.

BPF went through a turbulent period after longtime executive director Alan Senauke left at the end of 2001. After two executive directors who served less than a year and a period of no clear leadership, board member Maia Duerr was asked to lead the organization in 2004. During her three-year tenure, the BPF stabilized its finances, and considerable effort were made to bolster its nationwide outreach and include chapters in decision-making processes. Also during this period, Duerr led two "Buddhist Peace Delegations" to Washington, D.C., to call for an end to war in Iraq.

The Buddhist Peace Fellowship appeals to Westerners who have embraced Buddhism and who also believe that their chosen path must address the pressing issues of the day. More a religious movement than a political one, the BPF is fueled by an expressed need to modify or extend traditional spiritual practice.

—Kraft, Kenneth (1992). Inner Peace, World Peace: Essays on Buddhism and Nonviolence. pp. 23–24. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/23462459&referer=brief_results.

Many individual activists from different traditions network through the Buddhist Peace Fellowship (BPF), an organization that facilitates individual and group social engagement in the United States and Asia and often works together with the International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB). The BPF is the largest and most effective of the engaged Buddhist networks.

—Jones, Ken (2003). The New Social Face of Buddhism: A Call to Action. pp. 201–202. http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=0861713656&=Search&qt=owc_search.

The BPF is administered by fifteen board members and an international advisory board composed of some of the leading voices in Buddhism. The Berkeley office provides direction and support for chapters in the United States and other countries. Membership costs $45.00 per year for individuals or $30.00 for low income individuals. Included with one's membership is a subscription to Turning Wheel.