At the Threshold: a four-part series on Buddhist Eco-Chaplaincy begins June 2nd
In collaboration with Brooklyn Zen Center, the Buddhist Eco-Chaplaincy Association presents At the Threshold: a four-part series on Buddhist Eco-Chaplaincy. I’ll be moderating the first of the four panels, “What is Buddhist Eco-Chaplaincy: Responding to Eco-crisis From the Cushion to the Earth,” on June 2, 7 - 8:30 PM EST.
I recently completed my Buddhist eco-chaplaincy training at the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies. In preparing to moderate this panel, I’ve been reflecting on what called me into becoming a Buddhist eco-chaplain.
I remember I was seated next to Ram Appalaraju, one of the Sati Center’s Buddhist Eco-Chaplaincy teachers, at a gathering of “Earth Aware” mindfulness practitioners at Wonderwell Retreat Center in 2023. While he explained just exactly what eco-chaplaincy was, my mind flashed to a moment a year and a half prior.
I was in the midst of a crowd of activists gathered on the Congressional lawn for a “Hold the Line” week of action. This week was billed as the week for federal climate policy. A once-in-a-generation package of legislation was working its way through rounds of congressional negotiation, and it was looking like Democrats may concede on climate to secure the necessary votes. An urgent call went out to climate advocates and environmental defenders and to gather in Washington D.C. to occupy the congressional lawn and demand that House Democrats “hold the line” on climate in Biden’s Build Back Better bill.
I wandered away from the crowd and found a quiet bench to lie down. My mind was spinning with visions of 2050 in the timeline of the future that climate was axed from the bill. Mega-wildfires. Monster floods. A sea level at my doorstep. Never-ending drought. Mass death and starvation. A fallen United States, or worse, a fascist United States still drunk on fossil fuels. I saw images of myself and my family fleeing a barren Southern California in a wave of mass migration North.
As I gazed into these visions, I thought, “And this measly crowd milling around in the grass is our best defense against all-out climate-apocoloyse?” Tears leaked from my eyes and my body sobbed with enough force that I felt a small enough release and returned to my comrades on the lawn. I continued with my day of chanting slogans and yelling at members of Congress as they walked by.
This was a daily routine in the weeks preceding and following: Cry. Caffeinate. Return to the work of staving off the climate apocalypse. I was not okay.
In fact, I spent most of my time in climate activism and organizing in a state of very not okay. So when Ram told me of eco-chaplaincy, I thought, “An eco-chaplain is exactly who I most needed.” And so I decided to become one, to become the person I most needed in those moments I was “holding the line.”
I’m a recent eco-chaplain graduate still finding my own expression of eco-chaplaincy through small, spontaneous acts. Counseling friends in crisis about their life path or family members in their experience of aging. Honoring transitioned or transitioning more-than-human beings as I encounter them on the street or the trail. And in moments of activism, showing up with calm in the chaos, and inviting the whole-human heart into the space.
Buddhist training teaches me to return again and again to the here and now, offering this moment my fullest attention. Eco-chaplaincy training teaches me how to respond to the here and the now, and offer wisdom, compassion, and reverence to whatever I may encounter.
JOIN US ON JUNE 2
I’m curious to hear what called our panelists, Kirsten Rudestam, Shoshanna Perry, and Binuta Sudhakaran, into becoming Buddhist eco-chaplains.
In the first of four of the At the Threshold series, we’ll also explore what eco-chaplaincy means, why it’s relevant to now, and what it might offer us in times of this planet-wide ecological transition. Each panelist is engaged as an eco-chaplain in their own, unique way, and their work demonstrates a wide-range of approaches to the role and practice of eco-chaplaincy.
So please join Brooklyn Zen Center and the Buddhist Eco-Chaplaincy Association for At the Threshold: a four part series on Buddhist Eco-Chaplaincy. For more information and to sign-up for the series, please see the official event page.
Photo by Margo Evardson on Unsplash
