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.
