Earth Dharma
In Buddhist philosophy, “Dharma” refers to “the way things are,” the laws of nature and also refers to the collection of Buddhist teachings. Our “Earth Dharma” collection will offer Buddhist teachings on our fundamental relationship to the earth and each other, the Dharma of climate change and new ways to tell our own, collective story.
We begin with the fundamental principle of unbiased loving-kindness, described here in the Metta Sutta:
May all beings be at ease. Whatever living beings there may be,
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none, the great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,those living near and far away, those born to-be-born–
May all beings be at ease! Let none deceive another, 0r despise any being in any state.
Let none through anger or ill-will wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings;
Radiating kindness over the entire world.
Entering the Bardo
The natural and social systems that sustain us are losing their stability, observes Joanna Macy. This state of bardo, or transition, can be painful and frightening—but if we face the reality of collapse and cultivate inner stability, we can find the courage to faithfully serve all that we love.
Preparing for Rebellion
A dharma teacher and Extinction Rebellion Buddhist explains her readiness to join the movement’s resumption of civil disobedience.
Go DeeperPlum Village Monastics in Conversation with Bill McKibben
The renowned environmental activist talks with members of Thích Nhất Hạnh’s Plum Village about why we need to abandon Western hyper-individualism and consumer culture and learn to live more simply in community.
Go DeeperBuddhism and the End of Economic Growth
Ecodharma leaders David Loy and John Stanley argue that today’s global crises underscore the need to replace the economic growth models that favor big corporations over people.
Go DeeperIslands of Sanity in a Sea of Chaos
One Earth Sangha collaborators Kaira Jewel Lingo and Kritee reflect on the potential of building small, awakening communities for support and resilience.
Go DeeperThe Dharma of Climate Action
Tibetan Rinpoche Anam Thubten analyzes the gap between climate crisis awareness and action and then urges us to leave our comfort zones, embrace the Boddhisattva ideal, and close the gap.
Go DeeperSeeing Clearly
Instead of click rates and ad buys, what if media outlets were guided by the ethics of “right speech”? Buddhistdoor Global explores the role of media in giving voice to the world.
Go DeeperWhy Bodhisattvas Need to Disrupt the Status Quo
A scientist and Zen activist illuminates the systems of economic and social oppression at the root of the climate crisis and challenges us to stand up and say no to them.
Go DeeperNo Time to Lose: The Four R’s of Deep Adaptation
One of our treasured teachers and elders, Joanna Macy, guides us in considering how cultivation of resilience, relinquishment, restoration, and reconciliation can help us find a way through the civilizational collapse we see all around us.
Go DeeperAwakening to the Suffering of Animals
Throughout the pandemic, the slaughterhouse has been a hotbed of virus transmission among its workers. But our compassion can’t stop there. We are called to confront and remedy the horrific treatment of animals raised to feed us.
Go DeeperNo Time to Lose: Listening to Young Voices
Young people are voicing grief about the loss of their world—and organizing to stop it. Kirsten Rudestam, a young dharma teacher herself, asks us to heed their calls.
Go DeeperClimate, Corona, and Collapse
As racial justice protests swell, compounding the COVID-19 crisis that can already feel overwhelming, the Dharma continues to offer perspectives and practices to help us navigate these samsaric waters.
Go DeeperNo Time to Lose: What Would Healing Look Like?
How do we navigate the intersecting griefs of personal loss and centuries of systemic racial oppression? Belvie Rooks’s journey toward healing shines a powerful light amid the darkness of state violence and ecological destruction.
Go DeeperThe Crab Grass and the Wave
Recent events of racial violence by state actors reveal but one aspect of the tendency towards domination that is latent in our culture. Our work to end ecological devastation then necessarily includes the eradication of the persistent, shape-shifting, and devastating pattern of white supremacy, starting with our own minds.
Go DeeperEco-Chaplaincy – In Service to a Suffering World
“The growing field of eco-chaplaincy reflects the increasing awareness that our care and attention must extend beyond the human.” The directors of a new Buddhist Eco-Chaplaincy Training Program at the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies aspire to cultivate the chaplains who bring compassionate response to all of nature.
Go DeeperReckoning with Invisible Deities (Part Two)
Lama Willa Miller reflects on how the coronavirus she calls a Dark Goddess has shattered our illusions of separateness in a world where everything leans. “Yours is a long song of interbeing.”
Go DeeperReckoning with Invisible Deities (Part One)
Dharma teacher, author, and activist Thanissara takes us on a shaman’s journey to face the ferocious gaze of the corona god who has emerged from the netherworld and thrown us into the in-between.
Go DeeperWhose Lives Matter?
Workers in any industry ought not be forced to choose between physical and financial health. And within the meat-packing industry, what of the brutal cost to animals of returning this sector to “normal”? Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi examines the layers of perverted value in a recent Trump Administration decision.
Go DeeperThe Great Adaptation
How historic is this current moment of disruption? Will we forever talk about life BCV and ACV—before corona virus and after corona virus? And what does it teach us about climate change?
Go DeeperBefriending Eco-Anxiety (Part Two: Practices)
Kaira Jewel Lingo offers a set of practices to help us cultivate individual calm and support community connection, and encourages us not to give up on our collective capacity to effect social change.
Go DeeperBefriending Eco-Anxiety (Part One)
Mental suffering caused by the climate crisis—or the coronavirus pandemic—calls on us to offer kindness and company. In this article, Kaira Jewel Lingo invites us to transmute the otherwise unbearable.
Go DeeperCatholic-Buddhist Dialogue on Climate Change
In observance of Earth Day’s 50th anniversary, the Parliament of World Religions hosted a conversation featuring Buddhist and Catholic scholars exploring critical questions about spirituality, suffering, and what it means to be human in the age of climate crisis.
Go DeeperThis Earth Day: Our Breath, Our Life, Our World
On the occasion of Earth Day, we offer this reminder to keep our practice simple. Loving-presence has the power to transform our relationship to even the most difficult conditions
Go DeeperUse This Time Well
With pervasive uncertainty and heightened fear surrounding COVID-19, Roshi Joan Halifax’s reflections on the occasion of her climate protest offer useful wisdom: “this situation was the perfect time and place to practice.”
Go DeeperThe Spiritual Ecology of Tibetan Nomads: A Photo Essay
Through Diane Barker’s eyes, we get a view of Tibet’s indigenous “people of the solitudes” even as their sacred land undergoes rapid change.
Go DeeperSit and Help, Help and Sit
The devastation wrought by the wildfires shook one of the fundamental practices of some Australian Buddhists. An Australian Buddhist chaplain answers their question: “How can I meditate when the world literally burns around me?”
Go DeeperBook Review: Green Buddhism
Stephanie Kaza’s new book combines years of eloquent reflection on the development of ecodharma thought and practice with new ideas for how it can help us in the current climate crisis.
Go DeeperA Task for Mindfulness: Facing Climate Change (Part Two)
The mind faced with difficulty often makes matters worse. In the conclusion of our two-part series, Bhikkhu Anālayo clarifies the role of mindfulness in managing our own potential for harm as we endeavor to respond to the cries of the world.
Go DeeperA Task For Mindfulness: Facing Climate Change (Part One)
Skillfully blending compassion and dispassion, Bhikkhu Anālayo explores early Buddhist texts to discover the fundamental role for mindfulness in meeting even the suffering of global climate crisis in this first of a two-part series.
Go DeeperOn Planetary Hospice and “Too Late”
Some would say that believing the science means admitting that it’s too late, that the only reasonable response is to participate in “planetary hospice.” This zen priest and climate scientist suggests otherwise.
Go Deeper
