The Fourth Turning

Earth-Based Dharma and the Rising Eco-Sangha

This EcoDharma Exploration featuring meditation teacher, author, and shamanic practitioner Spring Washam took place on September 18, 2022. Find the recording below. We welcome your support for this program.

Vintage Wheel

In its long history of shaping and being shaped by the cultures it encounters, the Dharma is constantly evolving. The Buddha’s original teachings focus at the level of the individual and the liberation from suffering that is possible there. This is characterized in various traditions as “the first turning of the wheel of the Dharma.” Subsequent “turnings” have widened the scope, purpose, and flavor of the Dharma, moving from serving the individual self to serving other beings and communities.

In this EcoDharma Exploration, meditation teacher, author, and visionary leader Spring Washam invites us to see these “turnings” as the Dharma’s path of evolution. She investigates the possibility and necessity of a forth great turning of the wheel of the Dharma, one that incorporates our growing understanding of interdependence with all of life and even the Earth.

Spring Washam is a well-known meditation teacher, author, and visionary leader based in California. She is the author of The Spirit of Harriet Tubman: Awakening From The Underground and A Fierce Heart: Finding Strength, Courage, and Wisdom in Any Moment. Spring is one of the founders and teachers at the East Bay Meditation Center, located in downtown Oakland, CA. She received extensive training by Jack Kornfield, is a member of the teacher’s council at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in northern California, and has practiced and studied Buddhist philosophy in both the Theravada and Tibetan schools of Buddhism since 1998. She is also a shamanic practitioner and has studied indigenous healing practices for over a decade. She is the founder of Lotus Vine Journeys, an organization that blends indigenous healing practices with Buddhist wisdom.

     Pieces on One Earth Sangha

Support this Offering

One Earth Sangha and our featured speakers offer these explorations on a donation basis, with no required registration fee. We invite you to participate in the tradition of offering dana, or generosity. Your support makes these gatherings possible, and any amount offered is greatly appreciated.

Another way to support us is to share what this exploration has meant to you in a way that we can use in our materials. We invite you to share a “testimonial” here! (select “EcoDharma Exploration Participant” from the dropdown menu.)

Recording

More EcoDharma Explorations

Upcoming

Healing from Trauma, Emerging through Collapse

As we face the poly-crisis, how do we escalate our actions without escalating a worldview that keeps us from interdependence? How can we view injustice as a manifestation of collective trauma? How can the Dharma support us in a skillful response?

Upcoming

A Work that Reconnects Spiral Gathering

What might the Earth desire from us this Earth Day? Alex Julie guides a Work That Reconnects spiral practice to ground in gratitude, lean into grief, and clear our heart-minds enough to listen for the Earth.

Past

Standing in Fierce Compassion in this Age of Reckoning

As extractive systems collapse and uncertainty rises, how do we stay present and act with wisdom? This session explores Dharma teachings and meditative grounding for meeting grief and the call to disrupt and reimagine with courage.