While I’ve dedicated a significant part of my income to donating to climate focused causes for a number of years, I have had limited personal involvement in the movement itself. I took part in some training sessions with XR and participated in one direct action, but my experience with the organization left me feeling cold.

Quite limited. I’ve been sitting with the Brooklyn Zen Center for a while now. As part of that, I’ve working with a regular small group to manage our many responses, both good and bad, to the pandemic and the upheavals we’ve seen in the past year.

To develop a more intimate and compassionate relationship with my fear and anxiety over climate change. I also mentioned in a previous answer my negative experience working with XR. I’m hoping that through a deeper understanding of my own emotions around the trauma of climate change, I will be able to take a more active stance, doing work that doesn’t necessitate me being connected with what feels like an extremely impersonal organization.

In the immediate I’m hoping that I can share some of my experience with my Zen community. I’m also hoping to be able to engage more directly and productively with my friends and family about our personal struggles around this issue. It’s a subject that I know many of them feel great pain about, similar to myself, but because of that pain it’s hard for us to actually have an honest discussion about. I’m hoping to build up some ability to help them begin to access their own suffering about climate change.

Yes

This does feel realistic.

We are all people practicing with the Brooklyn Zen Center. I’ve taken classes with some of them, sat with others, and we had an honest and frank conversation about our interest in and ability to complete this course prior to all signing up together.