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Environment |
Preserving our environment and mindful consumption are a part of our practice |
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Asking Earth
Humbly asked Earth to remove our shortcomings.In order to “humbly ask Earth to remove our shortcomings,” we first had to admit that we actually had shortcomings. For those of us involved in ecological activism of one kind or another, this required a resolute step backwards—into our own lives and our own bodies. We’d grown used to thinking that the problem was all “out there.” If only the corporations weren’t so predatory, if only the government would enact and enforce environmental regulation, if only the average American were less materialistic and less wasteful—then things would get better. What a shock it was to discover that we could find no moral foothold in Ecological Recovery unless we started with ourselves. More » -
Cultivating Compassion: An Interview with Karen Armstrong (Video)
This week we are beginning the Tricycle Community discussion, Cultivating Compassion in Your Community, with author and religion scholar Karen Armstrong. We were recently able to speak with Karen in Washington, DC: Join the discussion here! More » -
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Intuitive Action
After so much suffering in Nirvanic castles, what a joy to sink into this world! —Zen Master Seung Sahn Some time ago, Zen Master Soeng Hyang (Bobby Rhodes), the guiding teacher of the Kwan Um School of Zen, gave a talk to a group of students. Afterward, during questions and answers, one of her students began to ask about all the problems in her life and how sad and perturbed she was. “I don’t know what to do,” she said. When the student had finished, Zen Master Soeng Hyang looked at her kindly and simply asked, “Well, can you just trust all that?” In other words, instead of deciding that this experience is good or bad, can you just be with it and see where it wants to guide you? Can you ask what the experience and thoughts are telling you instead of trying to make them all stop? More » -
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As Spacious as Nature
Since people might feel a bit lonely coming out into nature by themselves, they tend to go out in groups. But often they just transplant their own little world out into the big world, and they still feel separation: “I’m with these people, not with those.” We should not be like a snail that carries its house on its back and shrinks back into it when another creature comes along. It is better not to put people into categories based on your social distance from them, whether or not you know them. It is also good to feel intimate with creatures around you—the birds, butterflies, and so on. Just as smoke from a chimney disperses into the air, we should disperse our sense of “group” or “family” and truly participate in the life around us. More » -
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The Care of Earth
Ask ten people on the street if they believe in God, and—depending on where you live—you could get ten different answers. Ask ten Buddhists if they believe in Amida Buddha, and the responses will likewise vary: “He’s a fairy tale.” “He’s a metaphor.” “I plan to be born in his Pure Land when I die.”But what if you ask ten people if they believe in Earth?A few ecology-minded souls might get what you were up to, probably the younger ones. The rest wouldn’t have a clue. A typical answer might go something like this: “Earth is what we stand on. Earth is where we live. It doesn’t matter whether we believe in Earth or not. Earth is simply real.” More » -
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Restored to Sanity
What will it take to restore us to ecological sanity? If what we are suffering from in this hot, flat, crowded 21st century is an Earth-destroying addiction (and the sheer scale of our denial suggests that it is), then that is the only question worth asking. We might not know the answer right away, but at least we know what it isn’t. The answer isn’t us. More »
