photo: Wikipedia
DCL
If you're feeling overwhelmed, perhaps even to the point of despondency, by the never ending stream of seemingly apocalyptic news about biodiversity loss, climate change, natural disasters and how relentless tangled and intractable the situations seems, I highly urge you to read a new interview with Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh (colloquially known as Thay) over at The Guardian.
Time For Us is Urgent, But Geologic Time Is Different
There're lots of great nuggets of wisdom in it, but consider this one first:
"Without collective awakening the [environmental] catastrophe will come," he warns. "Civilizations have been destroyed many times and this civilization is no different. It can be destroyed. We can think of time in terms of millions of years and life will resume little by little. The cosmos operates for us very urgently, but geological time is different.
"If you meditate on that, you will not go crazy. You accept that this civilization could be abolished and life will begin later on after a few thousand years because that is something that has happened in the history of this planet. When you have peace in yourself and accept, then you are calm enough to do something, but if you are carried by despair there is no hope.
"It's like the person who is struck with cancer or Aids and they learn they have been given one year or six months to live. They suffer very much and fight. But if they come to accept that they will die and they prepare to live every day peacefully and they enjoy every moment, the situation may change and the illness may go away. That has happened to many people."
That may sound like wishful thinking, but that's only the case if 1) you consider inner transformation disconnected from and inferior to outer transformation, and 2) assume that by letting go of the 'need' to save the planet you cease acting altogether.
We Have the Technology to Save the Planet, But Maybe We're Not Ready
Thay calls it an ill-conceived idea that the solution to global warming is in technological advances
The spiritual crisis of the West is the cause for the many sufferings we encounter. Because of our dualistic thinking that god and the kingdom of god is outside of us and in the future - we don't know that god's true nature is in every one of us. So we need to put god back into the right place, within ourselves. It is like when the wave knows that water is not outside of her.
"Everything we touch in our daily lives, including our body, is a miracle. By putting the kingdom of god in the right place, it shows us it is possible to live happily right here, right now. If we wake up to this, we do not have to run after the things we believe are crucial to our happiness like fame, power and sex. If we stop creating despair and anger, we make the atmosphere healthy again.
"Maybe we have enough technology to save the planet but it is not enough because the people are not ready. This is why we need to focus on the other side of the problem."
All of this may seem entirely counterintuitive to most of the 'take action' messages here on Planet Green and on TreeHugger, but ultimately Thay is correct.
Read more: Zen and the art of protecting the planet
