Mindfully Facing The Climate Crisis; a parable, and advice for dark times from Gandhi and Epictetus
Hey friends,
Here in Vancouver the skies are still clear, though smoke is expected to arrive within a couple of weeks. As my BC readers no doubt know, a provincial state of emergency has been declared. This adds a new SOE based on human caused climate change following the SOE based on a pandemic caused by human encroachment on the wilderness and wild animals.
Summer is now—to use a much belaboured word these days—apocalyptic, and a harbinger of what the whole year will likely look like within the coming decades. Apocalypse is actually a very fitting word, not because the end of the world is literally nigh, but because of the literal meaning of the word, which is to reveal hidden things.
Originally that meant the revealing of the hidden Kingdom of God, which would be unveiled at the end of time when the wicked received justice, the oppressed were lifted up, and everything was put right again as a reflection of the goodness of the Creator. The Apocalypse we are currently facing seems to me a revelation of the scope of our power and of our foolishness. If the chickens coming home to roost is a revelation of the Kingdom of God, than that too.
The recent heat wave in the Pacific Northwest, flooding in Germany, droughts all over, and of course, Siberia on fire, all point to a more unstable world with scarcer resources on the way. What will last through the fires, the droughts, and the surreal heat? I’m putting my bets on the twin medicines of building internal resilience and external community. We are beyond the point where we can stop the climate juggernaut, but—as always— we can think about what the best way is to meet the challenges that are coming.
Bhikkhu Analayo, joined by Joseph Goldstein, offers a free course on “Mindfully Facing Climate Change” with thoughts worth pondering and guided meditation exercises. If you’re curious about Buddhist resources for meeting this emergency, take a look.
Writing and Publishing:
In Strange Wonder, a short parable on the limits of abstract reason from Anthony David Vernon:
When Is The Sun Closest?
AOBAG
A Lesson From Gandhi and a Roman Sage For Activists In A Dark Time
(June 2017)