Forms and Opportunities for Engaged Practice
“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there ‘is’ such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.”
— Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
No small part of our challenge is the pervasive poverty of agency. How often do we hear, including from ourselves, “but I’m just one person”? Yet both Dharma and sociology disagree. Our words and actions matter so much and indeed they are all we have.
Yet whether or not our actions make a big difference that we can actually see, feel, and touch is, in a way, none of our business. Our opportunity is to meaningfully respond. We can speak in ways that actually help. We can act in ways that are deeply rooted, skillful, strategic, and unattached to specific outcomes.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
- Nikayla Jefferson
One Earth Sangha’s suggestions for how to get started on taking action.
Resources for Engagement
- To Act, or Not to Act, part of the The Shakespeare Climate Action Project from Napa Sierra Club Group
- Rainbow Prepping – a brighter way to get ready for collapse by Jem Bendell
- The Three Tenets from Zen Peacemakers
- The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature by William Cronon
- You could do this cool thing and others will probably join you by Jon Jon Wesolowski, The Happy Urbanist
- Week Without Driving: October 1-8, 2026
- Some Actions That Are Not Protesting or Voting from Mariame Kaba
- “Being the Ground” Toolkit: practices to use before, during, and after taking action from The Embodiment Institute
- Call to Action for Elections – Resources from Buddhist Coalition for Democracy
Restoration is a powerful antidote to despair. Restoration offers concrete means by which humans can once again enter into positive creative relationship with the more-than-human world, meeting responsibilities that are simultaneously material and spiritual. It's not enough to grieve. It's not enough to just stop doing bad things.
— Robin Wall Kimmerer
Stories of Engagement
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
A Conversation About Trees, Activism and Love
- Ajahn Pasanno, and Julia Butterfly Hill interviewed by Inquiring Mind
Interviewed here in 2005, a monk and tree-sitting activist reflect on the lengths they were willing to go, and the lessons they learned along the way, in the effort to abide by their fierce commitment to their beloved old-growth trees.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
- Nikayla Jefferson
One Earth Sangha’s suggestions for how to get started on taking action.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
Buddhism, Social Change, and Skillful Means
- Melvin McLeod, David Loy, and Mushim Patricia Ikeda interviewed by Joan Sutherland
How does our Dharma practice call us into politics and shape our engagement? While we no longer live in the moment of Occupy and the Tea Party movements, the words of David Loy, Mushim Patricia Ikeda, and Joan Suthlerland speak powerfully to this moment of 2024.
