In attending to a dramatically changing world, deep breaths are helpful. We bear witness to another season of massive wildfires and outsized hurricanes, the relentless rise in temperature and sea levels, growing authoritarianism, and fascism in places many thought it could never take root. The growing flow of difficult news can be hard on the heart. Among all the many things we are losing in these crises is our sense of normalcy. Everything keeps shifting on us. Even so, we might feel compelled to respond, by our own principles or perhaps by those around us.
Yet how? Facing the magnitude of these dangers, Here comes fear. We might question our own personal power to counter them. Here comes impotence. What steps should I, just as I am right now, actually take? Here comes confusion. The swirl of anxiety is underway and can easily result in a flurry of ungrounded action or a collapse into despair.
The Buddha had a great deal to say about living as human beings in a precarious world. In this EcoDharma Exploration, join Dharma teacher Damchö in conversation with One Earth Sangha co-founder Kristin Barker as we explore practices that do not resist but instead work with the fertile swirl of uncertainty and its emotional relatives. We’ll slow down, get close, and go deep. Amidst this rising uncertainty, we can cultivate the steady gaze and clear direction that can guide effective response.
This gathering took place on July 28, 2024. A recording of the gathering is available below.
Damchö is spiritual director and a founder of Comunidad Dharmadatta, one of the largest Buddhist practice communities serving Latin America. Dharmadatta Community understands the path to liberation to be a primarily collective rather than individual path. In her teachings, Damchö transmits an earth-based vision of the Dharma in which care for our more-than-human kin is integral to spiritual practice. She has a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in gender and ethics in Sanskrit and Tibetan Buddhist narratives, and is translator and co-editor of Interconnected: Embracing Life in our Global Society.
Kristin is co-founder and director of One Earth Sangha whose mission is to cultivate a Buddhist response to ecological crises. She is a graduate of Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leader program and now teaches with the Insight Meditation Community of Washington (DC). As a co-founder of White Awake, Kristin has been supporting white people since 2011 with a Dharma approach to uprooting racism in ourselves and in our world. With a background in software engineering as well as environmental management, she has worked at several international environmental organizations. She is a GreenFaith Fellow and serves on the advisory board of Project Inside Out as well as the steering committee for Interfaith Power & Light DMV. Kristin was born and raised in northern New Mexico and currently lives in Washington DC, traditional lands of the Piscataway peoples.
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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.
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Recording
Inquiries for Group Discussion
- What structures (external or internal) have you habitually turned to for a sense of security?
- Imagine what it might look like to sustain yourself through their interconnectedness? What might shift or need to shift? If this is something you already do, share what that looks like.
Additional Resources
- For grounding in a spiritual ecology that support and inspires action on behalf of the earth, check out Buddhism and Ecology, a video series by Damcho exploring Buddhist perspectives and practices for sustaining environmental action
- Join EcoSangha Dharmadatta for their monthly community gatherings. (Gatherings are conducted entirely in Spanish).
- Learn more and participate in the online course by University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Loka Initiative for emotional resilience in the face of climate distress: Psychology of Deep Resilience
