We consider the following articles (in no particular order) to be representative and fundamental to our view of EcoDharma. These are a good starting place to get to know our perspectives.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
- Thích Nhất Hạnh
In this cornerstone ecodharma offering, Thích Nhất Hạnh calls for closeness with the breathing Earth as guidance in times of fear, loss, and confusion.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
An Open Letter from Rob Burbea
- Rob Burbea
On the third anniversary of his death in May of 2020, we share this letter from Rob Burbea challenging dharma leaders to embrace the full implications of its ethical demands.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
- Bhikkhu Vivekānanda
Climate engineering is now a serious scientific and political conversation. Ven. Bhikkhu Vivekānanda explores the Dharma foundations that can inform our response to this daunting but increasingly real possibility.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
Land-Based Ethics and Settler Solidarity in a Time of Corona and Revolution
- Natalie Avalos
We live in the legacy of colonialism, a human-, white-, and settler-centered view of reality. Buddhist scholar Natalie Avalos shows us how Indigenous and Dharma wisdom call us to live in Right Relationship with Earth and all beings.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
Mindfulness and Compassion as Pathways to a More Sustainable Future
- Christine Wamsler
In this essay, Christine Wamsler explores an overlooked driver of ecological crises—the feedback loop between the human mind and planetary systems. How might a deeper understanding of this connection transform our relationship with Earth?
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
What is the place of politics on The Path?
- John Peacock
John Peacock asks us to courageously question all that we are leaving out when we constrain the scope of the Dharma to be merely the personal.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
- Sensei Kritee Kanko
Eco-Dharma...must confront whiteness and privilege in order to "create earnest inter-dependent communities that understand that different people have different privilege and abilities," and seek to act on that understanding.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
Foundations of One Earth Sangha
- Kristin Barker
One Earth Sangha exists in part to evolve and share EcoDharma. But how do we define EcoDharma, what does it emphasize, and why do we consider this part of our mission?
Practice
Practice
- Kaira Jewel Lingo
Kaira Jewel Lingo offers a set of practices to help us cultivate individual calm and support community connection, and encourages us not to give up on our collective capacity to effect social change.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
- Bhikkhu Bodhi
Fear over climate disruption often spurs denial and ends in panic or mental paralysis. Yet it may equally well give rise to samvega, a sense of urgency leading to wise action. In this essay, Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi argues that everything depends on how we metabolize our fear.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
- Rob Burbea
Out of love, Insight teacher Rob Burbea asks us to boldly investigate our agenda for practice. What are its risks and and possibilities in supporting our response to a suffering world?
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
- David Loy
Ecodharma pioneer David Loy identifies the essential dharma teachings that can support practitioners in robust and sustainable collective action.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
- Kaira Jewel Lingo
Mental suffering caused by the climate crisis—or the coronavirus pandemic—calls on us to offer kindness and company. In this article, Kaira Jewel Lingo invites us to transmute the otherwise unbearable.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
A Cosmic Nudge to Reimagine Ourselves
- Joanna Macy
The natural and social systems that sustain us are losing their stability, observes Joanna Macy. This state of bardo, or transition, can be painful and frightening—but if we face the reality of collapse and cultivate inner stability, we can find the courage to faithfully serve all that we love.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
A Call for Renewal, Resistance and Radical Change
- Guhyapati
In this fundamental ecodharma teaching, organizer, educator and ordained Triratna Buddhist Guhyapati asks: by rooting more in solidarity with one another than in fear, “what kind of dharma can we offer the world?”
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
Facing Climate Change (Part Two)
- Bhikkhu Anālayo
The mind faced with difficulty often makes matters worse. In the conclusion of our two-part series, Bhikkhu Anālayo clarifies the role of mindfulness in managing our own potential for harm as we endeavor to respond to the cries of the world.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
Report from Standing Rock
- Thanissara
"What one is bequeathed through the gift of Standing Rock is a clarified, strong, heart, burning with a light of commitment and hope in the face of incalculable odds."
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
- Tashi Black
Many of us feel we have no one to talk with about ecological crises, despite the severity of the problems we face. Where does this ecological loneliness come from? And how might we break out of our isolation?
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
- Bhikkhu Bodhi
On May’s full moon, Buddhists around the world commemorate the birth, enlightenment, and death of Gautama Buddha. In 2019, Bhikkhu Bodhi marked the occasion with a passionate call for a systems-wide climate awakening.
Creative
Creative
- J Henry Fair and Kristin Barker
The haunting photography of J. Henry Fair asks us to hold a steady gaze as we view vast landscapes transformed by industry. In this interview with the artist, we explore the paradoxical beauty of his work and what it might awaken in our hearts.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
Moving from a Culture of Death to a Culture of Life
- Bhikkhu Bodhi
In this provocative essay leading up to the People's Climate March in September, Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi insists that technological changes will not be enough. We are called to recognize, confront and dismantle the structural causes of climate change.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
- Rob Burbea
All views are poetic. All understandings of reality, including "Nature," are interpretive. In this article, Gaia House teacher, Rob Burbea, explores how Western culture's views of "Nature" contribute to ecological crises and our opportunity to move beyond those limitations.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
- Jo Gibson
"We need to recognize that what society presents as real is more like a lie and take another way" Earlier this summer, His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa spoke frankly on renunciation, contentment and the climate crisis.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
- Joanna Macy
Beyond hope and hopelessness, how is the world calling us to emerge?
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
A Conversation with Dekila Chungyalpa
- Dekila Chungyalpa and Damchö Diana Finnegan
What might be ecodharma’s unique and essential contribution to the environmental movement? Dekila Chungyalpa braids her Buddhist, Indigenous, and scientific traditions in this timely interview with the Dharmadatta community.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
Foundations for Guiding Understanding and Response
- One Earth Sangha
What are the Dharma principles that can motivate and inform our response to ecological crises? In 2013, a group of more than 30 teachers from various Buddhist traditions offered this list.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
- Bhikkhu Bodhi
First published 10 years ago, Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi distills the climate crisis down to its core, unchanging truths. His words are as wise and relevant now as they were then. What might we learn from a read this time around?
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
Discovering Our Collective Place in the World
- David Loy
"We cannot return to nature because we have never left it. " In this article, Buddhist scholar and Zen teacher David Loy explores the parallels in our individual and collective predicaments and the parallel paths that might heal.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
- Joan Halifax
As another year fraught with uncertainty and peril draws to a close, Roshi Joan Halifax explores the power of wise hope, free from attachment, to bolster our engaged practice.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
- Sarah Vekasi
Following the People's Climate Mobilization, we might ask "was that effective?" or "what next?" In her warm and wise letter to new activists, long-time engaged environmentalist, Sarah Vekasi, addresses the importance of a mindful approach to becoming and staying engaged.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
Thích Nhất Hạnh’s Trainings for the Mind
- Thích Nhất Hạnh
The founding principles of Thích Nhất Hạnh’s Order of Interbeing may provide clarity on how to be for those of us bewildered, demoralized, and faithful to the practice of inquiry on the right orientation for engagement with this moment.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
Facing Climate Change (Part One)
- Bhikkhu Anālayo
Skillfully blending compassion and dispassion, Bhikkhu Anālayo explores early Buddhist texts to discover the fundamental role for mindfulness in meeting even the suffering of global climate crisis in this first of a two-part series.