Cornerstone EcoDharma

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
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
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

Thích Nhất Hạnh’s Trainings for the Mind

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

Report from Standing Rock

"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

Facing Climate Change (Part One)

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.
Practice
Practice
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
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

A Call for Renewal, Resistance and Radical Change

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
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
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

What is the place of politics on The Path?

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
As part of the United Nation's observance of the International Day of Vesak, Bhikkhu Bodhi's keynote speech connected the Buddha's core teachings to the impending climate crisis.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
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

Mindfulness and Compassion as Pathways to a More Sustainable Future

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?
Creative
Creative
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
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

Discovering Our Collective Place in the World

"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
Ecodharma pioneer David Loy identifies the essential dharma teachings that can support practitioners in robust and sustainable collective action.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
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
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

A Cosmic Nudge to Reimagine Ourselves

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

Land-Based Ethics and Settler Solidarity in a Time of Corona and Revolution

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

Foundations of One Earth Sangha

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?
EcoDharma
EcoDharma

Foundations for Guiding Understanding and Response

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
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

Moving from a Culture of Death to a Culture of Life

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

A Conversation with Dekila Chungyalpa

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

An Open Letter from 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
Beyond hope and hopelessness, how is the world calling us to emerge?
EcoDharma
EcoDharma
"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
In advance of the UN climate negotiations, the renowned Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi argues that climate change demands of us a re-imagining of social systems and a new paradigm of the good life.
EcoDharma
EcoDharma

Facing Climate Change (Part Two)

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.