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.
The Buddha and the Sacred Earth
All views are poetic. All understandings of reality, including “Nature,” are interpretive. In this article, Gaia House teacher, Rob Burbea, explores how Western culture’s views of “Nature” contribute to ecological crises and our opportunity to move beyond those limitations.
Go DeeperVerses for Environmental Practice
In a pure blessing of practice, contemplation and science, the late Zen teacher Robert Aitken offers these daily practices to inform a deeply grounded being. Happy Earth Day.
Go DeeperLifting the Moral Voice for Climate Action
We invite you to join and share the call to governments from faith communities around the world for a decisive, wise and compassionate response.
Go DeeperContemplative Environmental Practice: Retreat for Academicians and Activists
One of the emerging voices in EcoDharm, Kritee Kanko, wants you to join her this summer in the high dessert for contemplation practice and an exploration of appropriate response.
Go DeeperAwakening to Our Nature, in Nature
What can an immersion in the wild reveal? David Loy and Johann Robbins offer their perspective on a powerful avenue for investigating the nature of mind.
Go DeeperSecular Activism and the Sacred: a Common Ground
Kritee (Kanko) and Lou Leonard explore what it means to be climate activist in secular civil society while walking the Buddhist wisdom path
Go DeeperA Crisis for Buddhism?
Watch or listen to our online webinar featuring David Loy on the challenge that the contemporary ecological crises present to Buddhism.
Go DeeperPracticing Appreciation
A historic agreement on climate has been signed. What does it mean for our practice?
Go DeeperClimate Change as a Moral Call to Social Transformation
In advance of the UN climate negotiations, the renowned Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi argues that climate change demands of us a re-imagining of social systems and a new paradigm of the good life.
Go DeeperSacred Activism – Basic Goodness in Action
According to Shambhala tradition “windhorse” is the self-existing energy of basic goodness in action. Acharya Marty Janowitz’s final article in this three-part series explores the practice and benefits of “raising windhorse,” the Path of engagement.
Go Deeper