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.
A Zen Harvest
Green Gulch Farm Zen Center has provided a vivid demonstration of engaged practice during the pandemic, sharing its vegetable harvests with communities in need throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
Waking Up in (Our Own) Time
Is Western Dharma willing to address its own role in ecological crises? Posed a decade ago, a beloved teacher’s questions reverberate.
Go DeeperFinding Light in the Darkness
Here at the end of 2020, so fraught with loss, what gifts can we find nestled among the common roots of darkness and light, difficulty and ease, suffering and joy?
Go Deeper
Core Practices to Support the Planet and Ourselves
A veteran advocate and teacher of socially engaged dharma offers six practices to help us better face the climate emergency, as individuals and in community.
Go DeeperUnboxing Our Selves
A journey to an ancient landscape inspires a British ecopsychologist and dharma practitioner to reflect on the contraction of her life during the pandemic and how Buddhist teachings help her stay open.
Go DeeperEcoDharma: Buddhist Teachings on the Precipice
Ecodharma pioneer David Loy identifies the essential dharma teachings that can support practitioners in robust and sustainable collective action.
Go DeeperThe Future We Choose
With the U.S. poised to exit the Paris Climate Agreement, architects Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac describe how a Buddhist perspective still provides hope for its realization.
Go DeeperWhite Supremacy, Climate Crisis, and Human Trauma
Zen activist and climate scientist Kritee presents a holistic and integrated analysis of the common roots feeding our current crises.
Go DeeperChanging Our Climate for the Better
An economic growth paradigm that produces endless consumerism and waste can only end in ruined lives and a ruined planet. Ajahn Sucitto contends that a life lived more simply can lead not only to personal satisfaction, but to surprising systemic change.
Go DeeperInspired by Standing Rock as the Fires Rage
As wildfire threatens to engulf her home, and as the world faces disaster following on disaster, Thanissara draws courage from the extraordinary spirit of solidarity she encountered at Standing Rock.
Go DeeperDo the Best You Can, But Don’t Expect to Win
A pioneer of engaged Buddhism in Thailand encourages social and political activism while reminding us to cultivate strength regardless of any outcome.
Go DeeperEntering 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.
Go DeeperPreparing 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 Deeper
