The Great Perfection teachings of Tibetan Buddhism invite us “to be natural” and to rest with the purity of things as they are. What does this mean within contamination, as global capitalism continues to extract and destroy lands, waters, and the more-than-human world, forcing mutations in the climate that has sustained human civilizations for ten thousand years? How do we simply be and allow amidst this material reality, without bypassing and denial?
Adam Lobel, PhD, is a practitioner-scholar of philosophy and religion, an ecopsychologist-activist, and meditation teacher. Adam served as a teacher (acharya) in the Shambhala tradition from 2005-2018; he designed curricula and trained teachers for the international Shambhala meditation centers. He would like to acknowledge the challenge of having been part of the leadership in Shambhala in the midst of the revelations of sexual abuse and abuse of power.
A speaker on ecology and spirituality at the United Nations, he was part of the first delegation of Buddhist teachers invited to the White House under President Obama. He leads ecodharma workshops called “Silent Transformations,” has taught in the EcoSattva Training, is a Greenfaith fellow, and is active in ecological and social justice movements. Adam’s teachings focus on ecological spirituality, Great Perfection, modern phenomenology, and inoperative studies (Heidegger, Foucault, Agamben). As a founding practitioner-educator at the City of Bridges High School, he has a longstanding interest in progressive contemplative education and transformative pedagogy. A professor of Buddhist and phenomenological psychology and a Focusing professional, he is curious about a cultural therapeutics for our collapsing society. He remains attuned to an awakened, just, terrestrial society. Adam teaches a critical style of contemplative training that seeks to avoid enclosure in neoliberal mindfulness while still disclosing effortless awareness. He is currently developing what he calls “four fields” of contemplative practices for potential worlds.
