We live in strange times indeed. On one hand, those of us in the Consumer Class (a more accurate term, I feel, for the tedious and much-overused term "Middle Class") in most industrial nations have never had it better. With even modest professional salaries and pensions, we can live in comfortable, secure, climate-controlled houses, often far larger than we need; travel all over the world in hours or at most a day or so; use our computers and cellphones to connect with others all over the planet and instantly find out any information we seek; listen to a vast array of music and see an equally vast array of films and TV programs to entertain us during idle hours; enjoy the previously unimaginable benefits of modern medicine to heal our diseases and prolong our lives; eat fresh food and sample cuisines from all over the planet throughout the year--all luxuries that our ancestors could not have even imagined. (They would think they were in paradise if somehow they could revisit the present and see us as we are now...)
And yet we are quietly anxious, not happy--largely because those of us who can still evaluate evidence or take the time to read and to search out the truth of things are well aware, whether we admit it or not, that--we are on the precipice of an unprecedented global catastrophe. The fossil fuels that provide the limitless energy we take for granted to power all these luxuries have a side effect--release of vast quantities of CO2 emissions that concentrate in the upper atmosphere--which has effectively doomed our planet, not in the far-distant future, but starting already, quite visibly, everywhere: relentless headlines of record-breaking droughts, floods, hurricanes, and wildfires, along with growing dead zones in the oceans, melting glaciers and ice caps, rising seas, and swarms of environmental refugees from the global South pouring over national borders. The pace of global heating spurred by this atmospheric change has now gone into a runaway feedback loop, for as icecaps melt, the northern oceans absorb rather than reflect heat, and as warming oceans kill off coral reefs worldwide, the calcium carbonate of which they are made breaks down into yet more CO2, while methyl hydrates, with 10 to 50 times the heat-trapping potential of CO2, are then released from the permafrost, bubbling up under the Arctic and Antarctic seas...We have no way of knowing whether the ecosystems of our planet can withstand this ever-more-rapid heating of the climate, as changes which normally would take thousands or hundreds of thousands of years now are occurring over mere decades.
The psychological, social, and political consequences of this unstoppable, runaway global climate disaster are unsettling, to say the least--and likely to get a lot worse, fast, in the coming years. We have already witnessed, for example, the rapid erosion of liberal democratic institutions and the rise of fanatical, authoritarian demagogues worldwide--Trump being only the most obvious example of a dangerous trend which is also afflicting Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Turkey, the Philippines, and elsewhere--as nativist zealots in these and many other countries gain public support, demonize or threaten their opponents, and seize power, calling for closing borders, deportation of immigrants, summary execution of criminals or "enemies" of the regime, and promising to restore a mythical, ethnically "pure" past.
But this craziness goes well beyond political destabilization, resurgent fascism, and polarization. In a future-oriented, essentially optimistic culture like our own, we are likely to see a growing cognitive dissonance between the future people have always been taught to envision and work toward--a future of ever-growing affluence and technological wonders--and the actual grim future prospects unfolding day by day, as our planet heats up uncontrollably, as ecosystems collapse, and as social cohesion degenerates into turmoil and violence.
According to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, the four stages of grieving are denial, bargaining, anger, and acceptance. At present, most of us in our political and mass media culture (especially science-denying Republicans) are in deep denial, while many scientists, activists and technological optimists have already moved on to bargaining--dreaming up quixotic technological fixes or utterly implausible calls for global cooperation--even as nations become more insular, belligerent, and defensive.
But woe unto all of us when denial and bargaining give way to anger--especially the anger of the betrayed Millennial generation whom we have robbed of any prospect for a decent, livable future--whom, in our short-term greed, willful ignorance, and denial, we have doomed to a horrific future beyond imagining. We are already seeing clear evidence of such hopeless rage in the brutal and vicious behaviour of ISIS and other Islamic fanatical groups, as well as among the narcotics cartels and street gangs of Central America and--increasingly--in our own cities. Even the election of Donald Trump by a large swath of disaffected, angry white Americans throughout the heartland states could be seen as yet more evidence of this hopeless, destructive rage. But far worse "lashing out" is likely to come, as the general, inescapable panic increases worldwide.
What's left? According to Kubler-Ross, the final step in the grieving process is Acceptance. But while individual acceptance of the death of a loved one is fairly easy, since one's own life will go on, acceptance of one's own mortality--in the case of a terminal disease--is far more difficult, but is eased by the awareness that new generations will arise and life will go on after we are gone. But what will it take to accept the imminent collapse of a whole global civilization, the end of our history, and the death of a whole life-sustaining planet even? How will we accept the idea that there really is no future, no hope, for any of us or our descendants?
This is where spiritual practice becomes our only recourse--to take us beyond despair, into a new kind of empowerment--not as saviors of our current, moribund civilization, but as seeds of a new one, rather like the fire-activated seeds of certain trees, that germinate only after a forest fire has consumed everything else around them into ashes and dust.
And the good news is, such seeding is already happening. It is called Permaculture--an ethical design protocol that works in accordance with, not against, Gaia, our biological support system. What would happen if the tremendous "seed-power" of this fledgling, world-wide Permaculture movement were somehow synthesized with the already well-established, transformative "seed-power" of Buddhist practice--to transform denial and rage into acceptance and empowerment? And what if THAT went viral? That is my aim, my goal, my life purpose, which I will pursue to my last breath. Here is how it might work:
Imagine...a set of small, self-replicating steps that might unfold as follows:
Be well, Do Good Work, and Keep in Touch;
Learn, Teach, Heal, and Create--Gaia.
But this craziness goes well beyond political destabilization, resurgent fascism, and polarization. In a future-oriented, essentially optimistic culture like our own, we are likely to see a growing cognitive dissonance between the future people have always been taught to envision and work toward--a future of ever-growing affluence and technological wonders--and the actual grim future prospects unfolding day by day, as our planet heats up uncontrollably, as ecosystems collapse, and as social cohesion degenerates into turmoil and violence.
According to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, the four stages of grieving are denial, bargaining, anger, and acceptance. At present, most of us in our political and mass media culture (especially science-denying Republicans) are in deep denial, while many scientists, activists and technological optimists have already moved on to bargaining--dreaming up quixotic technological fixes or utterly implausible calls for global cooperation--even as nations become more insular, belligerent, and defensive.
But woe unto all of us when denial and bargaining give way to anger--especially the anger of the betrayed Millennial generation whom we have robbed of any prospect for a decent, livable future--whom, in our short-term greed, willful ignorance, and denial, we have doomed to a horrific future beyond imagining. We are already seeing clear evidence of such hopeless rage in the brutal and vicious behaviour of ISIS and other Islamic fanatical groups, as well as among the narcotics cartels and street gangs of Central America and--increasingly--in our own cities. Even the election of Donald Trump by a large swath of disaffected, angry white Americans throughout the heartland states could be seen as yet more evidence of this hopeless, destructive rage. But far worse "lashing out" is likely to come, as the general, inescapable panic increases worldwide.
What's left? According to Kubler-Ross, the final step in the grieving process is Acceptance. But while individual acceptance of the death of a loved one is fairly easy, since one's own life will go on, acceptance of one's own mortality--in the case of a terminal disease--is far more difficult, but is eased by the awareness that new generations will arise and life will go on after we are gone. But what will it take to accept the imminent collapse of a whole global civilization, the end of our history, and the death of a whole life-sustaining planet even? How will we accept the idea that there really is no future, no hope, for any of us or our descendants?
This is where spiritual practice becomes our only recourse--to take us beyond despair, into a new kind of empowerment--not as saviors of our current, moribund civilization, but as seeds of a new one, rather like the fire-activated seeds of certain trees, that germinate only after a forest fire has consumed everything else around them into ashes and dust.
And the good news is, such seeding is already happening. It is called Permaculture--an ethical design protocol that works in accordance with, not against, Gaia, our biological support system. What would happen if the tremendous "seed-power" of this fledgling, world-wide Permaculture movement were somehow synthesized with the already well-established, transformative "seed-power" of Buddhist practice--to transform denial and rage into acceptance and empowerment? And what if THAT went viral? That is my aim, my goal, my life purpose, which I will pursue to my last breath. Here is how it might work:
Imagine...a set of small, self-replicating steps that might unfold as follows:
- Small "Dharma Gaia Circles" form, who practice the integration of contemplative meditation practice--reinhabiting the present moment, accepting impermanence, letting go of attachments, and cultivating active compassion--with both social/ecological activism and permaculture theory and practice. The core practice of such circles, of course, would be the 10-fold Dharma Gaia mantra: contemplating, practicing, and vowing (with one verb phrase on each of ten full breaths) to--
Be well, Do Good Work, and Keep in Touch;
Learn, Teach, Heal, and Create--Gaia.
- These circles go on to establish Dharma Gaia Practice Centers, which offer ongoing training programs to their communities in the three essential disciplines of Tonglen meditation (to train our minds to let go of attachments, accept impermanence, and actively cultivate compassion), Satyagraha (to organize others to resist the tyranny of corporate greed and fascism without giving in to hatred or violence); and Permaculture (to restore the health of Gaia, starting with our own back yards).
- These go viral--before the electric grid starts to collapse, due to energy costs and social chaos--and Dharma Gaia Circles (or their equivalents in other religions and cultures) start popping up everywhere, like wildflowers. The equivalents, of course, would take names within their own cultural tradition reflecting the healing of the Earth (e.g. Tikkun for Jews, or the Mustardseed Project for Christians, et al.)
- Gaians (as we are now widely known) reach out to all people, no matter how wounded or desperate they may be, assuring them, for example, that they can be Gaian Christians, Gaian Muslims, Gaian Jews, Gaian Hindus, Gaian Buddhists, or Gaian whatever...
- As a direct consequence, such trends as solar, wind, and biomass energy, along with relocalization of the food economy, holistic healing modalities, regeneration of topsoil through carbon sequestration and other permaculture practices, a newly evolved political culture of Gaian democracy, and innovative Gaian technologies of all sorts start to make wider and wider swaths of the world look and feel as the Willamette Valley is already starting to look and feel today--as more and more people abandon addictive consumerism and start growing gardens, growing community, and growing awareness.
Could this actually happen? Who knows? But just in case it is possible, I will be conducting my first actual Dharma Gaia Circle on October 21, at my Unitarian Church in Salem, Oregon. If we don't plant seeds, nothing will grow.
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