The World of Itō Jakuchū
The World of Itō Jakuchū
These beautiful polychrome woodblock prints are Meiji era copies (ca. 1900) of original designs (ca. 1771) by Itō Jakuchū (伊藤 若冲, 2 March 1716 – 27 October 1800), a Japanese painter of the mid-Edo period notable for his striking modern aesthetic. Born in Kyoto, Jakuchū was strongly influenced by Zen Buddhist ideals throughout his life. He was considered a koji (a lay brother) and he named his studio Shin’en-kan, which translates as “Villa of the Detached Heart (or Mind)”, a phrase included in a poem by the ancient Chinese poet Tao Qian. (Public Domain Review)
Itō Jakuchū painted during the mid-Edo period when Japan had closed its doors to the outside world. Many of his paintings concern traditionally Japanese subjects, particularly chickens and other birds. He is said to have been very calm, restrained, and professional. He held strong ties to Zen Buddhist ideals, and was considered a lay brother (koji); but he was also keenly aware of his role within a Kyoto society that was becoming increasingly commercial.
Itō Jakuchū was the eldest son of Itō Genzaemon, a Kyoto grocer whose shop, called Masuya, lay in the center of downtown, in the Nishiki food district. Jakuchū ran the shop from the time of his father’s death in 1739 until 1755, when he turned it over to one of his brothers.
His training in paintings was mostly derived from inspirations from nature and from examining Japanese and Chinese paintings at Zen temples. Though a number of his paintings depict exotic or fantastic creatures, it is evident from the detail and lifelike appearance of his paintings of chickens and other animals that he based his work on actual observation.
Jakuchū befriended Daiten Kenjō, a Rinzai monk who would later become abbot of the Kyoto temple Shōkoku-ji. Through this friendship Jakuchū gained access to the temple’s large collection of Japanese and Chinese paintings, and gained introduction to new social and artistic circles. It is thought that Daiten may have been the one to first conceive of the name “Jakuchū”, taken from the Tao Te Ching and meaning “like the void”. (Wikipedia)
Seeking “Ssshhh”
Seeking “Ssshhh”
“Ssshhh.” Something deeper awaits us at the still, center point, something primordially embodied and profoundly spiritual. It breathes us into being. It blesses us as part of a cosmic “We.” It is the quietude borne of creation’s song, the spiritual sojourner’s taproot, and Earth’s primary language of love. It is hummed, buzzed, chanted, and howled in the native tongue of other-than-human kin. Without creation’s sacred mantram, humanity weeps, soulless and despondent, spiritual zombies cut off from the web of life. Without communal quietude, creation’s expansive stillness is lost to the wider “We.”
It has been one year since the 2020 derecho decimated this part of the Heartland. The 90,000 sq. mile swath of intense, sustained winds devastated over 65% of the mature tree canopy in the Cedar Rapids corridor. Immediately following the storm, a deadened void enveloped us. The horrifying wake had created an area-wide arboreal hospice bereft of nature’s symphony. Normally, this Midwestern oasis thrums with a vibrant natural chorus, but the derecho’s immediate aftermath felt like a nightmarish, silent scream. Centuries-old arbor elders were uprooted and mangled, causing massive eco-system upheaval. Our collective animate soul withered. It felt like a massacre, one that required sacred space for ritualized grieving. What we experienced instead was a tempestuous cacophony, the onslaught of capital N – NOISE.
The perennial presence of high-powered machinery besieged us for nearly a year while the roar of saws and chippers continued their grisly dismemberment. Quiet walks in the detritus fields were moonlight affairs, as we surrendered the daytime hours to the grinding of every visible stump and brush pile. It was an endless realm of the chainsaw, replacing “Who cooks for you?” owl-song with bone-grinding, industrial screech.
As the thundering racket of high ton capacity cranes, dozers and excavators finally ebbed, spring offered the rhythmic calm of a soothing embrace. A gentle respiratory exchange animated the magnificent dance, breathing in, breathing out, through tremulous bent-over hickories and resurgent maples. A healing impulse stirred in the prairie breezes whirring through the surviving shredded pines and the strangely muted pin oaks. The sweet song of the cardinal and goldfinch and the mesmerizing cadence of cicadas and bullfrogs began their joyful swell. Softly, soulfully, the gentle melody summoned Earth from her slumber and buoyed us from our spiritual malaise. Dandelions pirouetted with springtime’s whoosh of butterflies ascending on a balletic breeze. Earth’s quietude was re-emerging without fanfare, and it felt like the healing balm of Gilead.
One lesson we learned from the derecho was how much we need the quietude of creation. Even without the trauma of screeching and pounding during a protracted clean-up from a natural disaster, we are immersed in normalized soundscape mayhem. Decibels (dBs) mark the increments of the crescendo of auditory assault. A soft whisper is at about 30 dB, a loud rock concert might be 120 dB (about the same as a crack of thunder), and a jet engine around 150 dB. Fireworks are about 150-175 dB. 150 dB is said to be the threshold for causing human deafness, and 185-200 dB is said to be the threshold for human death.1 What is our communal global threshold? What does human noise pollution do to the wider “We?”
Many have lamented the desecration of Earth’s quiet places, the communal natural sanctuaries where quietude is revered.2 Noise pollution and its effects on humanity is widely documented.3 Sleep disorders, stress, muscular, pulmonary, and neurological maladies are evident when excessive noise (exceeding 45 decibels) dominates human perception.4 Our land and ocean-dwelling wild-kin also suffer egregiously when human noise interferes with communication, altering a sense of location, group identification, reproductive health, food availability and habitat suitability.5 Noise pollution poses grave threats to the inter-breathing, inter-dependent denizens of the biosphere and the blue marble’s pacific ethos. How might we relearn the art of creation’s hushed lullaby?
In the liminal space of one global spin, sacred soundscape serenades its whirling. Sunrise silently proclaims “Hallelujah!” for a fragile planet suspended in the last moment of its receding darkness. Sunset is a Great Amen, the final “Thanks!” for the day’s exquisite joys. Two sacred moments of each day summon us to quietude, one to awaken us to purpose and desire, one to swaddle us with gratitude and contentment. Quietude itself is the riveting fermata of a day’s journey. Access to quietude is a communal spiritual need, and with good reason: we require its healing energy to stimulate our passion for creativity and connection. It is the foundational allurement and repository of meaningful relationship, of love, respect and intimacy. It is perhaps an essential elixir for the spiritual sojourner.
Quietude often enshrines moments of heightened spiritual awareness, especially in our encounters with the Mystery we know as Love. Witness Moses and the burning bush (Exod. 3:1-5), or the “small, whispering sound” that drew the prophet Elijah (1 Kgs.19:11-13). Quietude is an aperture for the Holy, as the Psalmist proclaimed, “Be still and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10). Creation is not restricted space for prophets and saints alone to retreat into stillness. If we are to hear the cosmic refrain and the divine whisper, we must ensure that all are welcome in Earth’s cathedral. When we enter the quietude of creation, we embrace the quiet of our own interior soundscape. There we begin to learn this primary language of Love.
This is why we are seeking “Ssshhh,” especially in this time of the Great Turning, the global shift from a full-throttle Anthropocene to an emerging, post-human Symbiocene. Is quietude a communal spiritual good in this time of transition? The wider “We” insists that it is. Creation is awash in our noisy flotsam. We can’t breathe; we can’t catch our communal breath. Our reflective selves cannot calm, cannot settle, cannot breathe into the present moment with mindful awareness, so saturated are we with exterior and interior noise. Quietude heals and connects, as wizened guides in many indigenous spiritual and religious traditions have known for centuries. Western science is coming into this awareness only recently.6
Quietude stores potential energy; it is a pulsating pre-cursor to creativity and more complex union. We are longing for the quietude, craving it with every synapse of our over-stimulated, deafened and deadened sensorium. Creation cannot recover from our loud assault without a bit of hushed reverence. The dissonance of omnipresent noise is shredding the web of life. If we learn the art of Earth’s own expansive stillness, we may recover access to the still, center point where we are grounded, and where we are One. “Ssshhh.”
References
[1] “What Noises Cause Hearing Loss?” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Environmental Health, https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/hearing_loss/what_noises_cause_hearing_loss.html
[2] Terry Ward, “Discover the Planet’s Last Few ‘Naturally Quiet’ Places, National Geographic, June 17, 2020, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/discover-the-planets-last-few-naturally-quiet-places
[3] “How Humans Are Polluting the World With Noise,” Deutsch Welle (DW.com), March 13, 2018, https://www.dw.com/en/how-humans-are-polluting-the-world-with-noise/a-42945885
[4] Clean Air Act Title IV Noise Pollution Overview, Environmental Protection Agency, https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/clean-air-act-title-iv-noise-pollution
[5] Jaime Clifton-Ross, “Human-Created Noise Pollution Impacts Wildlife,” February 5, 2020, Nature Conservancy Canada, https://www.natureconservancy.ca/en/blog/human-created-noise-pollution.html; Linda S. Weilgart, Ph.D., “The Impact of Ocean Noise Pollution on Marine Biodiversity,” https://awionline.org/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/Weilgart_Biodiversity_2008-1238105851-10133.pdf
[6] Daniel A. Gross, “This is Your Brain on Silence,” August 21, 2014, https://nautil.us/issue/16/nothingness/this-is-your-brain-on-silence
Lord of the Forest | Good Fences
Lord of the Forest | Good Fences
Lord of the Forest
The buck hears my steps
…………..and huffs sharply
………………………..just beyond the leaves—
shimmering aster,
…………..viburnum purpling,
………………………..beech, maple, and oak.
Does would have leapt
…………..up and away,
………………………..tails fluttering.
He stays. He does not care
…………..to be disturbed
………………………..in his ruminations.
Beyond the green curtain,
…………..some have seen Christ
………………………..standing between antlers
or Cernunnos at rest,
…………..legs folded like a yogi.
………………………..But the buck is what he is,
an old god getting older,
…………..point by point,
………………………..his antlers holding
summer’s canopy,
…………..falling in deep winter
………………………..like broken branches.
You will not see him
…………..in the glassy eyes of effigies
………………………..mounted on walls.
He cannot be hunted down.
…………..He’s fathered generations
………………………..that scrape the ground,
his tears, his pheromones,
…………..wiped on twigs,
………………………..his velvet, bark-brown,
rubbed off on trees,
…………..his scat a declaration
………………………..in the midst of the trail.
I saw it without believing
…………..he was near.
………………………..I take another step.
He chuffs, louder, from his sanctum.
…………..The hair lifts on my arms
………………………..and I back up, then turn
from where his heart-shaped tracks,
…………..point the way
………………………..deeper into the woods.
Good Fences
Wolf Conservation Center, NY
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall—
I’ve seen the wolves here leap and climb chain-link
and claw dirt down to buried steel and stone.
But in this artificial wilderness
with acres for each pack and roadkill deer
shared out, no one fights for new turf or old.
So those who might have died by bite and slash
live long enough to watch neighbors raise pups
beneath New England oak and hickory.
The Rocky Mountain grays nap close beside
the Arctic wolf’s enclosure, and red wolves
from down south trot out when they hear his whine.
He watches them tail-flirt and form a tie,
and now and then flips sticks or leaves in the air
when they lope past. The lobo who lost his mate
play-bows then jumps and trots along the fence
across from a red wolf, who does the same,
ears perked. Lupine tai chi—no barks, no snarls,
only the thump of paws and soft panting.
Evolutionary. Like the way people changed
enough to make this place, where wolves find peace
and time to contemplate their kin and kind.
Come any day to hear their call and response,
one wolf setting off another, one pack
another, one species another, one
unbounded, communal howl echoing down
rocky slopes to the road. Stand at the gate,
look up and cup your hands around your mouth—
Sing oh-ohoo. Let your note waver, rise,
and fall. Sometimes they even answer you.
The Potential of Grassroots Environmental Stewardship
The Potential of Grassroots Environmental Stewardship
The World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) mission is “to stop the degradation of the Earth’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature….” In their Living Planet Report published in 2020, it is reported that global mammal, fish, bird and amphibian populations have declined by 68% in less than 50 years. Genetic degradation isn’t covered in the report.
The reality is that after 60 years at the forefront of conservation the WWF, and professional conservation in general, has failed to achieve their objective. Degradation of the natural environment, together with declines in genetic integrity across all species, resulting directly from environmentally hostile and destructive human activities, is both ubiquitous and of such severity as to suggest the distinct possibility that large animals in their natural habitats may be largely wiped out in coming decades.
Which is not to say that things might not have been worse without the efforts of conservation agencies, or that their failure to stem the tide of destruction is not to some extent understandable. Human numbers in my lifetime have gone from 2.5 billion to a staggering 8 billion, and in 2020 alone (notwithstanding COVID-19) births exceeded deaths by 80 million.
The approach to the unfolding catastrophe by conservation professionals appears to consist of what the medical profession might describe as symptomatic diagnosis and treatment. In other words, cause unknown and remedial treatment aimed at easing pain and symptoms—rather than eradicating underlying cause.
Carl Jung proposed that all human neurosis and psychosis stems from division from nature. And if Jung has it right, then does it not follow that in-depth understanding of the human condition that gives rise to environmental destruction, must precede and dictate remedial action? I’m not a psychologist but it would seem to me that division from Nature essentially triggers a loss of synchronicity between two distinct faculties of memory. The first of these being instinct and the second being reason.
Instinct can be defined as prenatal, genetic, evolutionary, or ancestral memory function. Reason is postnatal, experiential, or socially acquired memory function, and in Nature this dual memory function combines seamlessly to optimize survival prospects and transfer of advantageous genes. Division from Nature disrupts brain function synchronicity, resulting in suppression of instinct and elevated levels of dependence on or dominance of reason. Homo sapiens sapiens or wise wise Man is how we see ourselves. IQ is measured by reasoning ability alone. Instinct is generally seen as primitive if not superfluous.
What it amounts to is a muting of the guiding influence of an ancestral lineage that transcends species barriers—as a result of which we are disoriented and essentially lost. Domination of reason is also recognizable in the concept of dominion which in turn, is the soil in which the roots of private property lie buried, and out of which extends a spider’s web of dividing lines on maps that identify reason-based assumptions of superiority, and license to exploit and abuse our animal companions.
Nelson Mandela once said “…love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” It is so—for the simple reason that love is innate and derives from immutable genetic hardwiring or instinct. Dominion is the polar opposite of love. It is a socially acquired and consequently mutable worldview that, in the absence of counterbalancing instinct amounts to a reprehensible idea, passed on through childhood conditioning from one generation to the next. With symptoms known variously as a contest between good and evil; love and hate; male and female energy, or as an imbalance between reason and instinct—what is clear is the deep fracturing of the human psyche that springs directly from the tail of division from Nature.
Exacerbating this altered state of consciousness and loss of balance, is a similarly debilitating condition that in the natural world promotes survival—but threatens survival when natural conditions are supplanted by artificial or virtual circumstances. What I’m alluding to is the inherently acquisitive nature of all primates. A monkey trap consists of a simple cage, baited with fruit and a hole in the top big enough to allow passage of the animals hand, but too small to allow withdrawal of hand clutching the fruit. Under such conditions greed overcomes reason and the monkey’s fate is sealed. And if a monkey will choose life at the end of a chain or death for the sake of a banana, then what chance do we humans have of moderating or abandoning our desire for houses, cars and smartphones? Material possessions we would literally die for—and almost certainly will.
Is there any hope? In the wake of COVID-19, coupled with increasing awareness of environmental destruction and climate change, is an emergent grassroots impulse to establish a new normal – and in that resides a glimmer of hope. Some years ago CapeNature (Western Cape Government) launched a highly successful land acquisition project called the Stewardship Programme. It offers incentives to land owners to make land available for conservation. These Contract Nature Reserves are designed to establish areas and inter-linked corridors of land to promote conservation—and it works.
To be a steward means to look after something. It also has a theological definition which means roughly the same thing: taking care of God’s work.
A slogan for the Stewardship Programme is “partnerships make it happen.” But what the CapeNature model lacks is a grassroots format – a united front whereby everyone (not just farmers) can become directly involved with conservation through various forms of collaboration.
This might include joint ownership of land for dual conservation and social purposes, with attendant recreational and residential (work from home) opportunities. A new normal where people can reconnect with Nature; partner with conservation professionals if necessary; work together to find ways of achieving harmony rather than conflict with Nature, and in doing so aspire to their true and full human potential. Healing the divisions of the past you might say—one barbed wire fence at a time.
As co-founder of an independent stewardship initiative some 20 years ago, that preceded the CapeNature model and successfully converted a 700 hectare commercial farm in the Cederberg area of the Western Cape to social and conservation purposes, my observations with respect to the potential of grassroots stewardship stem from hands-on experience. It’s a concept that has enormous potential for growth and facilitation of positive change. Despite which, professional conservation entities, sadly, tend to also conserve a preference for a top-down, leave-it-to-us-we-know-best approach and are resistant to unconventional ideas from outside the ranks of their profession.
Humans share a common ancestor with chimpanzees. All primates are highly intelligent and, just like us, their first response to anxiety, fear, and insecurity tends to be psychological denial. Held captive in a monkey trap, a primate’s life is often forfeited through its inability to accept the reality of its predicament. In the human domain it is frequently suggested that our relationship with Nature is “complex,” and it’s important to recognize that what lies behind this suggestion is denial, arising from an unwillingness or inability to accept the inconvenient truth of selfishness and obsessive need for materialistic gratification.
Grassroots stewardship might be described as the antithesis of the divide and conquer approach. It’s a holistic approach that seeks to unify the land and restore an ethical and respectful relationship between humans and all other life forms—in the context of ever-expanding farmlands, habitat destruction and genetic degradation that undermines the process of evolution itself.
There is no one-size-fits-all formula for stewardship projects and it is also not possible to touch on more than a few salient features in this essay. The Cederberg initiative referred to above was registered as a trust. Objective of the trust was to acquire land for social and conservation purposes. The 700 hectare farm acquired was on two titles which, in terms of compliance with agricultural zoning regulations, allowed for construction of 12 dwellings.
There were accordingly 12 beneficiaries who had access to the land as an undivided whole. Internal fencing was removed. Beneficiaries were allocated areas for their personal use and were entitled to build a house and establish a garden or practice micro farming if they chose to do so. Personal use could be recreational or permanent occupation at the entire discretion of the beneficiary.
These “plots” did not have separate title and on resignation by a beneficiary, immovable assets could be sold on but not the land occupied. In short, a moderation in terms of profit incentive, but full investment security and access through the power of partnership to a magnificent property abutting a wilderness area for a very modest and fully refundable contribution.
Obvious benefits to the natural environment aside, the participants in this project had few if any disadvantages in comparison to a more conventional “development” scheme. What they did have were several distinct and unique advantages—not least amongst which was becoming part of an exciting pioneering project, committed to positive social change and restoration of integrity with respect to humankind’s generally dysfunctional relationship with Nature.
Retaining the land as one undivided whole is perhaps the most fundamental requirement in any grassroots stewardship project. It is also possible in the Western Cape (through CapeNature) to rezone land as a Contract Nature Reserve. This secures the same protection status as a national park. Such rezoning in perpetuity means that the land is permanently safeguarded against usage for anything other than conservation purposes and, in the event of abutment with another conservation area, it opens the door for further unification and expansion of conservation land.
The term “economics” is defined in my dictionary as “a branch of knowledge concerned with the production, consumption, and transfer of wealth.” Arising as it does from a mind divided on itself and being also a product of socially acquired knowledge, largely devoid of counterbalancing wisdom and empathy, it is equally true to say that the business of economics is an anthropomorphic, supremacist, morally challenged branch of knowledge that views Nature as a commodity, composed of “resources” and “game” serving no purpose greater than consumerism and monetary profit.
Shaking off the spell cast by denial related to the destruction of 3.5 billion years of evolutionary progress and development (or what might equally be called God’s creation) and our collective complicity in that event, requires a long hard look in the mirror and conscious application of reason—followed by immediate and appropriate corrective action.
Prevailing economic models are neither ethical, immutable nor sacrosanct. Stewardship represents a viable and immediate means of expanding conservation areas. It affords the opportunity for people, at their own pace and discretion, to adopt simpler, less materialistic lifestyles, and to acquire more responsible attitudes and values. It represents a starting point for progressive social restructuring and a means of healing our broken relationship with Nature.
Grassroots stewardship is not only viable but offers ordinary people an extraordinary opportunity to “be the change you want to see in the world,” as Gandhi once proposed. It’s the right thing to do. It provides sanctuary for our animal companions. It makes you feel good about yourself; makes the ancestors happy, and it’s a giant leap forward with respect to transcending good intentions, and actually accomplishing a world in which humans live in harmony with Nature. It can be done and if ever there was a time to engage our allegedly superior faculties of reason and partner for change then that time is now!
Calendula Seed | Spirit Rise
Calendula Seed | Spirit Rise
Calendula Seed
Imagine these seeds into garland crown
golden flowers strung to celebrate
along the streets of ancient Athens.……“Mary’s
Gold” Catholics called them…….and you’ll see
crimson blooms sail past pyres to honor
those long gone…….hung as sacred décor
for Hindu deities along the Ganges.
Battlefields welcomed petals pressed
into open wounds to stop blood
from spilling into mud…….as hope
to aid healing…….antiseptic…….from sunshine
stored in those brief faces.…….In German soups
spun into salads of the Middle East
sweet engines of life grow and detoxify
worn ways.…….In the Philippines
they are “boho”…….bad smell…….planted to frighten
insects from eating rice and cassava.
Children sometimes plant such seed…….like these
you left for me…….to sprout toward light
to watch golden petals glow from dirt.
Spirit Rise
“At the hour of zazen I ate chocolate instead.”
―Kathryn Hunt, American poet, from Spirit Fox
Instead of joining the sangha for an hour
cross-legged on a cushion……I invite the dog
…………..out for a walk.
Golden poppies perk between cracks in the sidewalk.
Red ones wiggle in the wind.
We don’t talk much between crosswalks
though I smile at her eyes locked with mine
…………..before she trots to her next snuff on the other side.
I guide the dog though she’ll never understand
how a speck so light……a poppy seed
grows and leads me onward: Upright and brilliant
…………..I see it now……crimson and gold
………………………..petals on fire
……………………….when the sun has shone enough
……………………………………..and I am awake.
Humble Like the Earth
Humble Like the Earth
Please God, please Buddha, please Mother Earth—send me a vision.
It was my third day of sitting, singing, and sleeping in a circle of stones in the woods. I’d done plenty of silent meditation retreats but this was different. In a long brown shirt and baggy brown pants, bald-headed and bug-netted, my only task was to be still and to listen to the Earth.
I grew up in the suburbs at the southern tip of Canada. Reading under the tree in my yard was the extent of my connection to the great outdoors. My French and Scottish ancestors were settlers—no, colonizers—of Canada. Some of my great-grandparents lived on farms, but I doubt they had the time or the inclination to be still. I don’t know how many hundreds or thousands of years it had been since my people listened to the Earth.
When I dated a nature-enthusiast in my thirties and she took me on spectacular canoe trips, I just wanted to get to a monastery. So I left the partner and ordained into a Buddhist order in France, lush with plum trees and ritual. I found joy in simple things like a cup of tea. I met kind people. I even loved cooking and cleaning for a hundred people, sometimes more.
But the monastery was also a pressure cooker. My four-person dorm was the size of my former bedroom. The daily schedule ran from 5:45am until 9:30pm. There was always an elder around to correct the way I walked, talked, and thought.
Five years in the monastery brought me into a major depression, the first in my life.
In the summer of 2017, I took a year’s sabbatical. By springtime, I felt torn—go back and try again, or leave for good?
I felt drawn to stillness in the woods. A book on vision quests appeared on my Kindle without purchasing it. Friends who lived on a farm invited me to stay with them. I told another friend about this pull to be the woods. She told me to ask the land for guidance, offer thanks, and dedicate the experience for the good of all. So I set off.
On the first day, I hauled a 5-gallon jug of water and a tent to an opening in a cedar grove. I asked permission of the rocks to form a circle: some said yes and others said no. I honored their answers.
I lit a bundle of sage and thanked each person who had helped me in my life. The list grew as long as the day. Then I got quiet, asked for a vision, and listened.
Frogs and butterflies visited the circle by day. By night, coyotes howled from across the hay fields. I made friends with the mosquitoes and nestled in the hollow of the cedars.
I was still but there was no vision. What if I left the circle as confused as ever? By the third and final night, I began to beg.
Please God, please Buddha, please Mother Earth—send me a vision.
In the morning I awoke to the end of a dream. I was on the organizing team for a conference on spirituality and social justice, working with a team I loved. I had short, spiky hair and wore a mossy turtleneck sweater to lead the welcoming session. I felt completely alive: dynamic, funny, strong, and free.
It felt so ordinary I almost dismissed the dream but after writing it down I realized I had my answer. After three days of bathing in the planet’s electromagnetic field I could finally hear what I already knew.
I couldn’t go back.
As I packed up the tent, I fingered the black dirt on a tent peg. Humus. It reminded me of a precious lesson from the monastery. I was often told to be humble. I hated the word until I looked it up in the dictionary and found its Latin root was the same as humus, earth. My image of humility changed from being crushed into the ground to one of resting, like the Earth, at ease and beautiful. These days left me humbled and it felt good.
I gave my leave at the monastery but I wasn’t ready to release my vows or robes. I traveled for two more years, searching for another community. Only when the pandemic hit and I was forced to stop searching did I realize I didn’t need a new community. In March 2021 I held a simple ceremony, online, with friends and let go completely.
A month later I was co-facilitating an online course about racial healing and Dharma. I finished the session by playing Janelle Monae’s “Turntables” and got up to dance. When the song finished I waved goodbye to everyone and I caught sight of myself—short spiky hair, green turtleneck sweater, eyes alive, and full of joy.
Suddenly, I remembered my vision from the woods. My hand trembled as I closed the Zoom room. I sat down and cried tears of joy.
The vision had come true.
Yes, there were differences: the event was online, not in person, and it was a course, not a conference. But the feeling was the same. I even looked the same.
In the years since I left the circle I sometimes chastised myself for taking so long to follow through with the guidance from the dream. But what if this is how long I needed? In cosmological time, a few years was nothing.
As Earth Wisdom lives on in me, I still rest my body on the ground as often as I can. I express thanks for the land through social justice tithing—directing money toward decolonization, another form of Earth Wisdom. And I’m inspired by another hum word—humor. The wisest and most humble people I’ve met know how to laugh.
I don’t know where this path is taking me but I know the twists and turns aren’t mistakes: they are the journey.
Meeting Mugwort
Meeting Mugwort
I have often marveled at the depth of knowledge our ancestors possessed of the natural world. How did they first learn which plants were edible or discover their medicinal properties?
We modern humans have been conditioned to believe knowledge can only be grasped by our intellect. We have forgotten there are other ways of knowing.
Researchers have recently started to confirm what the ancients already knew: our living world is underpinned by a complex communication network. But how do we access it? Sometimes, we are fortunate enough to meet a new friend willing to be our guide.
I moved to Finland a few years ago in the autumn, just in time to see the fall colors fade. The snow fell, the birds left, and the plants went dormant. For six months, it felt like the whole world was hibernating. By the end of March, while the rest of Europe celebrated spring, I walked out my door every morning eyeing the piles of snow, and secretly wondering if winter would ever end. Suddenly, by mid-April, the lakes unfroze! The birds began returning, butterflies appeared, and small buds began to swell on the tips of the trees. Spring had arrived!
While I had appreciated the meditative stillness of winter, my heart overfilled with the prospect of life returning to the land. I spied my first wildflower, a cheerful patch of coltsfoot warmed in the gravel beside the road. Soon after, a beautiful purple flower burst forth from the forest floor. I immediately went to work trying to identify it. I learned it was called liverwort. “What a terrible name for such a beautiful flower,” I thought. “I’ll call it by its Latin name instead, Hepatica sounds much more regal.”
Practically every day, a new wildflower bloomed. After months of living in a monochromatic landscape, this extravagant display moved me beyond reason. I was determined to meet every flower. I spent hours trying to decipher field guides. I began to feel desperate, worried I would miss out on this visual feast. Many flowers were already fading and disappearing before I had a chance to identify them.
Incredibly, I had gone from feeling immense joy at the sight of these delicate blossoms to feeling pressured and frustrated by the fleeting and ephemeral nature of a Finnish spring. I was grasping, trying to hold on to all this beauty in the only way my modern mind knew how—by naming and cataloging.
The final straw came one morning while I was walking my dog. I was squatting down in a gully along the path with my nose just inches from the ground counting the petals on a microscopically small pink flower. “Wow, cute!” I called to my partner who was far ahead of me, waiting patiently. “Did you see this little guy?” Before he could answer, I felt a tug on the leash, and lifted my head to see what my dog was up to. To my surprise, he wasn’t trying to chase a squirrel. Instead he was looking at me with a baleful look. His message was clear, he was fed up with my flower identification obsession! I stood up and started walking. I had been approaching nature all wrong.
I announced to my partner “I’m going to quit fixating on plant identification. Honestly, even if I’m able to recite every scientific name—so what? It doesn’t mean I actually know the plant.” With a sigh, I continued, “It’ll take years to truly know these plants, so I might as well relax.”
My partner smiled and tried to hide his relief. My spring fever had finally broke. That night as I lay in bed, just before I drifted off to sleep, a ghostly vision appeared in my mind’s eye. Starting from the base, and slowly moving up the stem, the illuminated silhouette of a plant danced before me. It lifted its feathery leaf to show me the distinctive underside, and showed me how its flower heads formed a spike. I recognized the plant as common mugwort, which grows in abundance in our lower field. It’s often classified as an invasive weed, but in antiquity, it was recognized as a sacred plant everywhere it grew. This plant used to communicate with humans regularly. It was now lifting a slender tendril of friendship to me. I extended my greetings to the ghostly plant apparition, and it slowly faded away. Then I faded off into a contented sleep.
Regularly, throughout the rest of the season, similar plant visions appeared to me before I slept. Some plants I knew, but most were strangers. A few, like Mugwort, visited often. A subtle shift was taking place in my relationship to these plants. I quit walking around with a guidebook. Rather, the plants became my guide. I was naturally becoming more attentive to the small details of their lives, as if they were ushering me into a hidden world.
The plant world wants to communicate with us just as much as we want to communicate with them. But because we’ve forgotten their language, we’ve become deaf to their gentle greetings.
What shifted in me to make space for this simple communication was a softening. Instead of striving to grasp the knowledge out there, I relaxed. I learned that earth wisdom penetrates through osmosis.
We are each like individual seeds—a packet of potential enclosed in a hard shell. The outer seed coat protects the embryo until conditions are favorable for germination. But this protection is also a form of isolation. We have to shed our separateness before we can push our roots into the soil and join the ancient network of our ancestors.
Many seeds need prodding before they’re willing to give up the safety of their shells. Some must survive fire, freezing or floods before they’re ready to let go and germinate. The earth doesn’t coddle her children. Perhaps she is trying to tell us conditions are favorable, and it’s time to reconnect and grow.
Toward a Global Wellbeing Mindset
Toward a Global Wellbeing Mindset
“We cannot solve our biggest problems if we do not come together.
It is not only about institutions or processes.
It is in the first instance about our mindsets.”
– UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres1
Happiness, Wellbeing and Peace
What do we all have in common? We want to be well—that is to be happy, healthy and to live in peace. In fact, the search for happiness seems to be core part of human’s nature, with Aristotle describing happiness as the end goal of every person.2
The pursuit of happiness even has its place in the United States Declaration of Independence dating from 1776. More recently, in the resolution adopted by UN General Assembly in 2011,3 all countries recognized happiness as a fundamental human goal, calling for “a more inclusive, equitable and balanced approach to economic growth that promotes the happiness and well-being of all peoples.” Consequently, 20th March has been declared as the International Day of Happiness.
Despite the rising interest in making happiness a personal and policy goal, it seems that today we are at a crossroads. The numbers of crises, from climate to COVID, and symptoms such as heatwaves, floods, burn-out and depression have increased dramatically. These are wake up calls. Do we really want to continue with business as usual? Or do we want to pause for a moment, reflect, and envision how we might change course? Shifting our mindsets, I argue, plays a key role in creating a better and happier future.
What are Mindsets?
Mindsets frame our thinking, which in turn determine our feelings, decisions and actions. Therefore, mindsets shape our behaviors, experiences and life journeys. At the individual level, a mindset “reflects personally distinguishable attitudes, beliefs and values, which influence one’s ability to learn and lead, and to achieve and contribute”.4 At the collective and global level, mindsets affect how we interact amongst each other, how we run our societies and economies, how we deal with nature, environment and the climate. Largely unconsciously, mindsets influence all our personal and collective actions, policies and goals.
I have found, through my research, professional practice and personal experience, that mindsets play an important role in human development at the individual, collective, and global level. It is estimated that some 95% of our mind is subconscious,5 therefore it is a game-changer to become aware of our mindsets in order to be able to make the changes we want.
“If we want to have a better and happier future,
now is the time to examine the mindset of our present generation.”
– H.H. Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama6
The Need for a Mindset Shift
Based on my qualitative research conducted over the last four years with dozens of thought leaders and development practitioners around the world, it became evident that shifting mindsets is the key catalyst to achieve sustainable health, peace, wellbeing and happiness.7 We have a choice. We can remain stuck in our ways, or change our mindset thereby redirecting our life. Collectively this means that through changing our mindsets, thinking and actions, we can change the course of humanity.
In systems thinking and leadership, shifting mindsets is considered as the highest leverage point to change a system, even higher than policies and goals. For instance, Donella Meadows argued that “because mindsets and paradigms guide behaviors, changing them can have a profound impact… People who manage to intervene in systems at the level of paradigm hit a leverage point that totally transform systems.”8
Therefore, for us to overcome the multiple crises we are currently experiencing at the global level, and to achieve sustainability and regeneration, we need a mindset shift:
- from blaming others to taking self-responsibility
- from imposing quick fixes to co-creating solutions
- from quantitative to qualitative growth
- from GDP obsession to wellbeing of people and planet
- from materialism to holism
What is Wellbeing?
In simple terms, wellbeing is defined as “the state of feeling healthy and happy.”9 Wellbeing means ‘being well’ and healthy in multiple dimensions. These include at least the following dimensions: physical, intellectual, environmental, emotional, financial, social, spiritual, and occupational (as illustrated below). Going beyond ourselves, wellbeing applies to our families and communities, the environment, climate and planet.
Figure 1: The eight Dimensions of Wellbeing 10
What is a Wellbeing Mindset?
A wellbeing mindset is a frame of thinking that fosters wellbeing in a holistic manner. This means “being well” in all the aforementioned inner and outer dimensions. Following my earlier article ‘The Sustainable Development Goals Begin with Mindset’ in 2020, I define a wellbeing mindset as “the whole of attitudes, beliefs, and values of a person or group of people that foster wellbeing. Wellbeing relates to a person, group of people, the whole of humanity, other sentient beings such as animals, and planet Earth.”11 The wellbeing mindset’s spheres of influence are illustrated in the following figure.
Figure 2: Wellbeing Mindset’s Spheres of Influence
Examples
Expanding our awareness and opening our mind and heart towards a wellbeing mindset is possible at different levels, be it individual, collective or global. For example, after a life-threatening motorbike accident in 1997, I began a quest for meaning, transformed my mindset and fundamentally changed my life. I went beyond my earlier pursuit of money, materialistic wealth, and career success towards following my heart. I have changed my career and joined social causes with NGOs and the United Nations. Now I appreciate the interdependence of life, universal spiritual wisdom of traditions around the world, and bridging science and spirituality.
A national example of a wellbeing mindset can be found in the Kingdom of Bhutan. The Himalayan country notably declared Gross National Happiness (GNH) to be more important than Gross Domestic Product (GDP).12 Bhutan has been heralded as a leading climate champion, absorbing more carbon emissions with its forests than it emits.13 During COVID, Bhutan’s holistic approach of putting people first has been a global success story with almost universal vaccination cover and close to zero deaths.14
While Bhutan has its own share of challenges, GNH fosters wellbeing of all sentient beings and planet, and thus is an outstanding source of inspiration for the mindset shift required to create a more harmonious economy and way of living. Promisingly, more countries are orienting their policies towards wellbeing, such as Canada, Finland, Iceland, New Zealand, and Scotland.15
What can we do?
All individuals and organizations play a role in creating wellbeing, and a better and happier life. Consciously or unconsciously, we all together co-create our collective journey. We can rethink, create, and implement a growth paradigm that goes beyond the economy, and that includes inner, collective, and planetary wellbeing. We can acknowledge the limits of quantitative growth on a limited planet and instead shift to qualitative growth.
Based on both the research I have undertaken and my own personal experience, I know that increased mindfulness is an excellent starting point. As Thich Nhat Hanh highlighted, “mindfulness is the most reliable source of peace and joy…and our continuation as a civilization and a planet depend on it.”16 Key suggestions helpful in cultivating a wellbeing mindset are summarized in the following acronym MANTRA:
Mindfulness: Take on a mindfulness practice.
Awareness: Expand your awareness with inner work & raise awareness about key issues.
Non-judging: Be compassionate and non-judging of yourself and others.
Think Positive: Be, think and act positively, as energy follows attention.
Real you: Be the real you by showing your true colors.
Aliveness: Enjoy and celebrate being alive by honoring life in all forms.
These practical tips are a beginning for growing individual and collective wellbeing, as well as a way of life harmonious with our Mother Earth.
For more information, please visit www.WellbeingMindset.org
References
[1] Guterres, Antonio (2021): UN Vision Statement
[2] Aristotle (ca. 350 B.C.E.): The Nicomachean Ethics
[3] UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/65/309 (2011): Happiness: Towards a Holistic Approach to Development
[4] Buchanan, Ash (2017): The Benefit Mindset: The Psychology of Contribution and Everyday Leadership
[5] Zaltman, Gerald (2003): How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market
[6] His Holiness 14th Dalai Lama (2019), Training the Mind
[7] For more details see www.researchgate.net/project/Towards-Holistic-Human-Development
[8] Meadows, Donella (1999): Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System
[9] Cambridge University (2021): Academic Content Dictionary
[10] Adopted from Hettler, Bill (1976): The Dimensions of Wellness; illustration from the Recovery Village (2021)
[11] Nagler, Jürgen (2020): The Sustainable Development Goals Begin with Mindset
[12] GNH is a holistic approach to development, see www.kosmosjournal.org/kj_article/we-become-what-we-think
[13] CNN (2018): What tiny Bhutan can teach the World about being carbon negative
[14] CNN (2021): Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan vaccinates 90% of its Population
[15] Wellbeing Economy Alliance (2021): Wellbeing Economy Governments
[16] Kabat-Zinn, Jon (2013): Full Catastrophe Living
The Indwelling Spirit
The Indwelling Spirit
Of the spiritual things we hold in common, the first and most obvious is the direct, daily experience of the super-conscious entity that dwells in every human body. This direct, daily experience is fundamental to any definition of “spiritual commons.” Beyond this, we hold everything in common that leads to this direct experience and everything that flows from it. Thus, the direct experience of humanity’s Indwelling Spirit is both the foundation of our spiritual commons and the source of all other spiritual commons, commonalities, etc. worthy of the name.
For example, we can also claim the four classical pathways leading to this direct experience as an important part of our spiritual commons. These are: the study of knowledge about the Indwelling Spirit, devotion to the Indwelling Spirit, actions known to be pleasing to this Spirit, and the technology of introspective self-transcendence that frees our attention so we might directly experience It. Interestingly, each of the first three classical pathways all include at least one introspective technique derived from the fourth. Also interesting is the fact that the regular, daily use of one of these proven techniques soon kindles a strong desire to embark on all of the first three (study, devotion, and right action).
What should we know about this introspective technology (i.e. the introspective techniques based on universal principles of human neurophysiology and consciousness)? We should know that, when one of these techniques is used, our attention naturally and effortlessly moves inward because it finds the pure, Indwelling Spirit more charming than either the busy surface or even the serene depths of our minds. We should know that, as proven over scores of generations, the daily use of a technique derived from this technology permanently fuses our surface minds and humanity’s Indwelling Spirit into the fully integrated state of mind called “Enlightenment,” “Divine Grace,” and the like.
The qualities of thought, intention, communication, and action that flow from the regular, direct experience of the Indwelling Spirit are also an important and practical part of our spiritual commons. In the Indwelling Spirit, these qualities pre-exist as pure, undifferentiated, positive potential. However, when given the opportunity that a widening channel between our personal field of consciousness and the Indwelling Spirit provides, this potential flows in abundance into the pre-conscious area of our surface minds where our thoughts and intentions first form. It is here that the Indwelling Spirit’s pure, positive potential differentiates into eight qualities of thought, intention, etc. They are: steadiness; joyfulness; empathy, compassion, and generosity toward all others; and creativity, intelligence, and wisdom in the pursuit of our day to day goals and objectives.
All human virtues come from one or a combination of these eight qualities. This means that the direct, repeated experience of humanity’s Indwelling Spirit is the inexhaustible source of all that is good in human thought, intention, and action.
If the direct experience of the Dweller in our bodies; the four common paths to this experience; the eight positive core qualities that naturally flow from this experience; and the fully integrated state of mind that results from the daily repetition of this direct experience are our spiritual commons, what else can we claim? We can rightly claim that these eight qualities are so fundamental and powerful that, as they influence every choice we make in life, they bring us the happiness, interpersonal fulfillment, and material achievement adequate to our needs. We can rightly claim that, when a tiny minority of any community directly experiences humanity’s Indwelling Spirit, the positive change in that community’s social harmony and economic vitality becomes scientifically measurable. And finally, we can rightly claim that social harmony and economic vitality are the two most important enablers of environmental stability.
Thus, in the final analysis, our spiritual commons includes the direct, daily experience of the Divine Spirit Within and everything leading to and flowing from that experience. This includes the means of freeing our attention so we can become united with It each day. This includes the fully elevated, permanent state of mind that results from this daily experience. Our spiritual commons includes the pure positive potential that flows upward from the Indwelling Spirit into our personal field of consciousness where it manifests as humanity’s eight positive core qualities of thought and action. And, our spiritual commons includes the communal harmony and economic vitality that result from the increased expression of these qualities any time a small, threshold minority of the population begins to cultivate them directly from the Indwelling Spirit.
Is there anything else we can claim as our spiritual commons? We can claim a divine mandate to have this direct spiritual experience each day and encourage others to join us by any one of the first three classical paths (knowledge, devotion, or good works) provided it includes the daily use of the ancient, effortless technology of introspective self-transcendence. Why is this mandate part of our spiritual commons? Because the Indwelling Spirit is not indifferent to the suffering and discontent plaguing humanity. Because the direct experience of the Indwelling Spirit is the only light capable of illuminating and elevating every life. And, because the absence of this direct experience has lead to an intractable global matrix of suffering and discontent that is as compelling as it is unreal.
If we who dwell on topics like “humanity’s spiritual commons” do not bring the gift of divine potential to the point of manifestation in ourselves and others and to the point of consequence in our communities, who will oppose humanity’s growing matrix of darkness? Who will advance humanity across the threshold of our fourth global r/evolution and lead others by example into the next phase of our evolutionary ascendency? Who will spread the introspective technology that is the key to the removal of our personal and collective limitations; and who will save humanity from itself by re-harmonizing it with the natural world? Who will make it unnecessary for our increasingly Orwellian institutions to curtail our personal freedoms, drastically limit our standard of living, forcibly reduce our population, or some combination of all three? Who, but those of us who know that humanity’s spiritual commons can and will heal our planet.
Transformative Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) as a Catalyst for Climate Action
Transformative Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) as a Catalyst for Climate Action
I spent five years living under the shadow of the Chevron Oil Refinery on the unceded land of the Ohlone people known as Richmond, California. In 2012, a toxic explosion sent 15,000 to the hospital, primarily people of color. Like many refinery town residents, our family moved to Richmond because it was more affordable. Experiencing oil spills and constant flaring firsthand was a pressing reminder of how systemic racism, exploitative practices, and our dominant capitalist culture are inextricably linked with our climate crisis. Soon after landing in our new home, we connected with a group of Indigenous grandmothers through The Refinery Corridor Healing Walks. Over four years, the grandmothers fused political activism with the sacred traditions of prayer walking and healing as they rallied local communities in the fight to reclaim their land and water from the companies that have poisoned their towns along the five oil refineries of the North Bay and Sacramento Rivers. It was a powerful experience to be in community with others who were experiencing the impact of living near an oil refinery firsthand. While climate changes affect us all, historically excluded, under-resourced communities worldwide have contributed the least to climate change and they are impacted the most by our planetary crisis. This is unjust.
There’s a saying in the climate movement that to change everything will take everyone. In my work as an educational leader of color dedicated to transforming school communities through Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), I believe it’s imperative that schools ultimately position SEL in service of a shift in collective consciousness—a shift where we truly care for each other and our planet as we engage in active hope to collectively and compassionately address racial injustice and our climate crisis.
As we continue to grapple with COVID-19’s impact on mental health, schools have prioritized SEL to support the wellbeing of their staff and students. While this focus on wellbeing is critical, it is also important that SEL isn’t just a band-aid; rather SEL offers an ideal means for engaging in the deeper inner work necessary to transform our schools and society.
What is Transformative SEL?
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) traditionally refers to the essential skills and competencies we all need for life success. These include self-awareness, goal setting, managing strong emotions, cultivating empathy, social awareness, relationship skills, problem-solving, and making healthy decisions. For years, SEL programming was thought to be race and culture neutral but we know that nothing is race and culture neutral. From the start, schooling in the United States was designed to “benefit and affirm the values and culture of the white people in power,” and it is this dominant culture that has “shaped the educational structures and policies that articulate how children are expected to behave, communicate, and interact” (Chatmon & Osta, 2018).
As the SEL field begins to look more deeply at the ways in which SEL programming can reinforce dominant-culture norms and perpetuate inequitable systems and structures, there’s recognition of the need to shift and engage in what is now known as Transformative SEL: “Transformative SEL is a process whereby young people and adults build strong, respectful and lasting relationships that facilitate co-learning to critically examine root causes of inequity, and to develop collaborative solutions that lead to personal, community, and societal wellbeing” (CASEL, 2021). Key elements of Transformative SEL include focusing “SEL implementation and practice on transforming inequitable settings and systems and promoting justice-oriented civic engagement; redistributing power to promote justice through increased engagement in school and civic life; and emphasizing the equity-centered focal constructs of identity, agency, belonging, collaborative problem solving and curiosity” (CASEL, 2021).
Over the last decade, mindfulness has been increasingly incorporated into SEL programming. The organization I lead, Transformative Educational Leadership (TEL), defines mindfulness as “both a practice and a way of being with which we compassionately attend to the unfolding reality of the present moment within and without.” When we add transformative to this definition, we open our attention to include the systems—educational, social, ecological, and economic—that we are nested within. With transformative mindfulness, we strive to expand our awareness of interbeing. Interbeing is a term coined by my spiritual teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, meaning to inter-dependently co-exist. Interbeing honors the interdependence of every person with all other persons, beings, and elements of nature. From such a perspective, we are better able bear witness to suffering in its many forms, and act to create a more compassionate and just world through healing-centered engagement.
I came up with the word interbeing many decades ago. The verb “to be” can be misleading, because we cannot be with ourselves alone. “To be” is always “inter-be.” If we combine the prefix “inter” with the verb “to be,” we have a new verb, “inter-be.” To “inter-be” and the action of interbeing reflects reality more accurately. We inter-are with one another and all life. -Thich Nhat Hanh, 1987
In a beautiful illustration of interbeing, Thich Nhat Hanh writes:
“If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow, and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are” (Nhat Hanh, 1992).
He goes on to say that if you look deeply enough, you’ll see the logger who cut down the tree and the logger’s ancestors as well, in that sheet of paper. An interbeing consciousness is a shift from a transactional way of being in the world to one where we recognize how we all are a product of infinite causes and conditions with our actions impacting others and the earth. The nonviolence Gandhi and Dr. King practiced is grounded in interbeing. Dr. King wrote, “All life is interrelated, and we are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of identity. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly…this is the interrelated structure of reality” (King, 2001).
Interbeing honors the interdependence of every person with all other persons, beings, and elements of nature. Interbeing is fundamental to Transformative SEL and aligns beautifully with the principles of deep ecology.
Deep ecology does not see the world as a collection of isolated objects but rather as a network of phenomena that are fundamentally interconnected and interdependent. It recognizes the intrinsic value of all living beings and views humans—in the celebrated words attributed to Chief Seattle—as just one particular strand in the web of life. – Fritjof Capra, 1975
The Root Cause of Racial Injustice and Our Climate Crisis: A Lack of Interbeing Consciousness
Transformative SEL invites us to examine “root causes of inequity” (CASEL, 2020). For me, the root cause of inequity is not valuing all life equally, a lack of interbeing consciousness. Colonization, slavery, capitalism, economic exploitation, and continual extraction of the earth’s resources are built on the belief that all lives are not equal. When asked about the connections between racial injustice and our planetary crisis, Dr. Larry Ward, author of America’s Racial Karma, said, “It’s really quite simple. We treat Black people and the Earth the same—as if their lives are disposable and the earth is ours for taking” (Ward, 2021).
Until interbeing becomes a foundation for how we bring SEL into education, these approaches will still ultimately reinforce a transactional, anthropocentric way of being in the world. Rene Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am,” placing the self in the center of one’s worldview and establishing the Western outlook still prevalent today. This dualism has brought great harm to our planet and its inhabitants. Inspired by his Indian spiritual roots, ecological activist, Satish Kumar, turns around Descartes’ phrase and offers us instead, “You Are Therefore I Am: A Declaration of Dependence” (2002). Kumar offers a worldview rooted in relationships and the connections of all things, instead of the separation inherent in the Western worldview. In the SEL world, we talk about needing to connect but the ultimate truth is that we are already connected, we inter-are. What we need to do is become aware of this at a much deeper level and act from this place accordingly. The moment we collectively shift toward an interbeing consciousness and live our lives with deep awareness of how we “inter-are” then it won’t be okay for anyone to live near an oil refinery, drink water with high levels of lead, or work in, let alone consume meat from, a factory farm.
One SEL program that is already incorporating a systems level component that can cultivate an interbeing consciousness is SEE Learning developed by Emory University. The emphasis on supporting students with understanding how systems interact is essential for our times. One of the most powerful ways we can begin to grow our awareness of interbeing is to spend time in nature. Nature supports social and emotional health and wellbeing and research suggests that outdoor experiences have tremendous benefits—socially, emotionally, spiritually, and academically.
False Dichotomy: Racial Justice OR Climate Action
Those who are most at risk to the impacts of climate change are also the populations that already live without access to adequate food, sanitation, and clean water. The United Nations has warned that climate change will push 120 million people into poverty (Kottasova, 2019). The panic and fear some of us experience when we think about the future as it relates to our climate crisis is already the glaring reality many face globally. During the five and a half years I spent implementing SEL in the Oakland Unified School District, our newcomer population rose tremendously, and it was clear that climate change is a key factor in migration—natural disasters and food insecurity in Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador account for rising numbers at the US border. Climate solutions benefit all of us, just as climate risks threaten all of us, but climate action benefits the historically excluded, under-resourced most and that is just.
TEL recently held a conference in partnership with the Omega Institute entitled, Caring for Each Other and Our Planet and a real tension surfaced around how can communities that are literally in survival mode be asked to also now focus on protecting the planet. I want to be clear that I am not asking those who have a knee on their neck to engage in climate action. My relative privilege as a South Asian American woman makes it clear to me that my role is to ease the burden on my Black, Indigenous, and Latinx brothers and sisters and those who experience othering more than myself. What I am suggesting is that it isn’t an either/or when it comes to racial justice and climate action but rather a both/and.
Over the last year there have been several conversations about “Decolonizing SEL.” There is no real synonym for decolonization. You can’t substitute human rights or social justice for it, and for me it involves the crafting of a path forward that is rooted in the heart of indigenous cultures: kinship. Kinship involves living from a place where one is established in their relationship to each other, the universe, the land, and nature—all of life is part of one’s family and relations are not just blood relatives. As we engage in conversations about “decolonizing SEL,” those of us who have the capacity and the will can also bring the climate dimension into these discussions so we can see our justice work as interrelated and mutually reinforcing. For me, decolonizing SEL also involves safeguarding our planet. It’s a both/and, and we need all our passion and engagement to build a diverse and powerful movement strong enough to create the world we all need and deserve.
The Role of Schools as Part of the Solution
One out of every six Americans is enrolled in public education and the way schools consume energy, food, and engage in transportation can play a critical role in protecting our planet, especially if we think about the impact schools could have globally if every school engaged in climate action. Right now, across the board, schools are not models of sustainability. Annual energy costs for US educational institutions have been estimated at $8 billion annually—the second highest cost for schools after salaries (US Department of Energy, 2016). School buses drive 5.7 billion miles annually (Doug Shinkle, 2021). Schools serve over 7 billion meals each year and produce an estimated 530,000 tons of food waste annually (World Wildlife Fund, 2019). Sadly, only twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia bring climate change into their science standards, and only five states include climate change in social studies standards (K12 Climate Action, 2020).
If we prioritize advancing a more sustainable world, the schools which serve more than 50 million young people can be a critical force in addressing climate change (NCES, 2021). We can have tremendous impact in building a greener economy by providing more career and technical education programs that support clean energy jobs. Schools can also lead the way in building more sustainable operations. The “development of collaborative solutions” (CASEL, 2020) that SEL calls for are an opportunity to support students in engaging in climate action. Schools are part of the problem, and they also have an opportunity to be part of the solution. There’s great possibility through fusing Transformative SEL with Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) which “empowers people to change the way they think and work towards a sustainable future” (UNESCO).
Beloved Community Extending to the Earth
Dr. King popularized the term “Beloved Community” and infused it with deep meaning. For me, Beloved Community must also extend to the Earth. Here are some initial ideas that link a climate action connection to CASEL’s Five Core SEL competencies, their Equity Focal constructs, and the Education for Sustainable Development Principles. (printable graphic here)
Active Hope: What Kind of Ancestor are You Willing to Be?
Hope is on one end of a spectrum of how we meet the present moment and envision our future and at the other end is despair. Right now, having hope matters and I am not talking about hoping that our experience could be different. I’m talking about active hope, the idea coined by Joanna Macy, that hope is something we do rather than merely have. She writes about The Great Turning which is a name for the “essential adventure of our time: the shift from the Industrial Growth Society to a life-sustaining civilization” (Macy, 2009). This adventure will birth new strengths, a wider network, and an experience of deepening our aliveness with great meaning and purpose. Active hope means having a clear vision about what we are hoping for and then deliberately playing our roles to make that vision a reality. As David Orr, professor emeritus of Oberlin College and a leading educator on environmental studies said, “Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up.” Schools have a powerful role to play in creating a more compassionate, just, and sustainable world. Together we can alter the climate path.
In the world of education, we often focus on “essential questions.” Essential questions as defined by Wiggins and McTighe, the authors of Understanding by Design, are “questions that are not answerable with finality in a brief sentence. . . . Their aim is to stimulate thought, to provoke inquiry, and to spark more questions—including thoughtful student questions—not just pat answers” (Wiggins & McTighe, 2008). The essential question I hold deep in my heart is from Dr. Larry Ward: “What kind of ancestor do I want to be?” Just as the Seventh Generation Principle from Iroquois philosophy asks us to hold the long view of every decision and action we take, and reflect on the impact seven generations from now, this question can be a great anchor in driving how we show up daily and how we go about teaching SEL in schools. You can implement an SEL curriculum but if you are not asking yourself in each moment, “What kind of ancestor do I want to be?” your SEL won’t necessarily be transformative. As a lifelong educator I see schools as the unit of change. Let’s all seize this moment to tap into our circles of influence and bring an interbeing consciousness to the prioritization of SEL so we can evolve together and create the conditions for the paradigm shift needed by our planet and all of its inhabitants.
Works Cited
Badar, E. J. (2019, June 23). Mindfulness versus McMindfulness: A conversation with David Forbes. Los Angeles Review of Books. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/mindfulness-versus-mcmindfulness-a-conversation-with-david-forbes/.
Capra, F. (2010). The Tao of physics: An exploration of the parallels between modern physics and Eastern mysticism. Shambhala.
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