Listening, Loving, Responding

Eco-Chaplaincy as Compassion in Action

Environmental educator, wilderness guide, and meditation teacher Kirsten Rudestam led this EcoDharma Exploration on June 25, 2023. A recording is available below. We welcome your support for this program.

Chaplaincy is the crucial work of providing spiritual care, frequently in moments of transition or crisis. In times like these, people often need forms of support that the larger culture doesn’t readily provide. A chaplain can serve as a trusted confidant, someone who will listen deeply to us and advise us, but not necessarily tell us what we want to hear.

What is it to chaplain one another, human and non-human, through the eco-social crises of our time? Kirsten Rudestam, a core faculty member of the Sati Center Buddhist Eco-Chaplaincy training program, led this EcoDharma Exploration into how we might relate to one another and with Earth itself, as givers and receivers of spiritual nourishment.

Kirsten Rudestam is an environmental educator, wilderness guide, and meditation teacher. She has a PhD in Environmental Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz where she studied environmental justice and Indigenous water practices. She has fifteen years of experience teaching field-based and classroom-based college courses in environmental studies and sociology, is trained as a vision fast guide through the School of Lost Borders and is a facilitator for Joanna Macy’s Work that Reconnects. Kirsten has been practicing vipassana meditation since 2001. She, Gil Fronsdal, and Susie Harrington are the co-founders and core faculty for the Sati Center Buddhist Eco-Chaplaincy training program. Those interested in joining the program in the future are invited to contact them at . The second training will begin in July 2021, with applications opening winter of 2020-21.

     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

Additional Resources

An Invitation and an Inquiry

We invite you to incorporate a short break during this session, and during this time, see if you are able to spend time with a potted plant, with a tree outside, or with a cloud outside the window – simply tune into the earth quality of your body. Explore this question – What is it to listen, in your own way, to the more-than-human? And what might emerge as a response?

Additional Resources

More EcoDharma Explorations

Upcoming

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Can we live with species extinction, 1.2 billion human climate refugees by 2050, and other environmental emergencies? Can we function daily, find joy, care for children and elders, continue to be of service?

Past

Nourishing helpful flows of goods and services

On Sunday, January 26, 2025, business leader and deep dharma practitioner, Rebecca Henderson, spoke with our director Kristin Barker and explored new possibilities for economic frameworks.

Past

A Relational Approach to Building Solidarity

What can happen when we avail ourselves to the full implications of interdependence? How can we clear the way for this challenging and yet world-shaping insight?