How do we face the enormity of the climate crisis with clarity, courage, and a loving heart? How can we wrap our minds and hearts around something so vast as the destabilization of the ecosystems on which humans and most species depend for life and—instead of going mad or numb—grow interested? How do we slow down enough to take effective action before it’s too late? Contemplative practice has a central role to play.
We’ll explore the Brahmaviharas of loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity as resources for honoring our pain for our world while still cultivating gratitude, connection, and love to sustain us in taking action toward a life-sustaining society. These teachings can help us strengthen the recognition of our interdependence and belonging with the earth and a mutuality of care.
Through dharma study, meditation, and relational practices we’ll learn from each other and create a space of support. In community, we’ll acknowledge our pain for the world and explore how it can inform loving action toward a vision of the world our hearts know is possible.
Meeting Schedule: Mondays 7:30 – 9:00 pm EST between January 3 and February 7 (with the exception of January 17, when there will not be any meeting)
Jessica Morey began practicing meditation at age fourteen, on teen retreats offered by the Insight Meditation Society. She is a meditation teacher who brings a sense of playfulness and care to her teaching and is focused on how we can bring our meditation practice off the cushion and into our relationships and work. Jess has degrees in environmental engineering, sustainable development, and international affairs and worked in clean energy finance before founding Inward Bound Mindfulness Education, a nonprofit organization offering in-depth mindfulness and compassion training to youth. She is Chair of the Board at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and loves dancing, yoga, and being outside in pretty much any weather.