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One Earth Wisdom:

Prayer for the Future

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We have enough information. Though we might not know all the details, we see how much is being lost. We have a sense for how much is at stake. We start to understand just how much systems of oppression are pervasively embedded. Are we willing to act on what we understand? To what will we dedicate our efforts?

In observance of Earth Day, Roshi Joan Halifax calls us to vow.

We invite you to see this companion piece Planetary Compassion based on a talk given by Roshi Joan in December, 2020.

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May we vow to safeguard the future for our children, our grandchildren, and for all species.
May we vow to end racist and sexist violence.
May we vow to transform the ravages of consumerism and its catastrophic impacts on climate and on earth.
May we vow to end our addiction to lifestyle and as well to dismantle the military industrial complex.
May we vow to end the supremacy of the privileged few, so all can enjoy equal justice and equal care.
May we vow to work for the transformation of our economic system, our system of government, how we educate and care for our young, how we treat our elders, how we treat our Earth and Indigenous peoples.
And may we vow to speak out about injustice, even if it threatens our own safety.
In service to peace, in service to live, vow to end the violence in our world.
Vow to meet each thing, each being with love and through love and know that we together can make good trouble. Thank you, John Lewis.
And we together can bend the arc of the moral universe towards justice. Thank you, Dr. King.
We can do it, whether we’re young or old, whether we’re a contemplative or social activist, whether we’re rich or living in a sacrifice zone, whether we’re a Buddhist or Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, a Hindu, or none.
May we as individuals, may we as communities vow to spread justice and mercy in every direction.
Joan Halifax

Roshi Joan Halifax, Ph.D., is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and pioneer in the field of end-of-life care. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Institute and Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D. in medical anthropology in 1973 and has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions and medical centers around the world. She received a National Science Foundation Fellowship in Visual Anthropology, was an Honorary Research Fellow in Medical Ethnobotany at Harvard University, and was a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Library of Congress.

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