OVERVIEW
Ecodharma is a term first coined by the scholar, David Loy, to identify a direction of social action for students of Buddhist thought. He believes that Buddhists should get involved in the politics of preserving the planet and its natural environment, and that the teachings and philosophy of the dharma offer unique insights into modern society's decision making — especially the rationale for political policies seeking to save the world's ecology and avert climate disaster. Acknowledging this intellectual debt to Loy, and teachers such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Matthieu Ricard, I present research, writing, and projects to further this discussion in the sangha, and society-at-large. This side of my work relates to contemplative psychotherapy and coaching as it presents a clear example of how we can ameliorate psychological issues, and grow into our full potential, by becoming conscious citizens. We need to remove the duality between spiritual practice and our commitment to preserving nature. The planet is, after all, our home and body, and as the monks in Kathmandu once said, there is ". . . no meditation on a dead planet."
Under the Ecodharma tab, and below, you will find links to five sub-pages: Study Topics, Workshops on Treating Eco-anxiety (pending), Resources, a Survey (not yet live), and Articles on Ecodharma. These pages are for those immediately interested in this perspective on the path of conscious citizenship. At the bottom of each page is a form to join what I am initially calling the Charlottesville Ecodharma Study Group mailing list.
I am giving it this working title for several reasons. The first is that I live here and have been inspired by the city's strong intellectual and innovative environment. Two, the city has a long history of being the home to many variations of political and economic philosophy. From Thomas Jefferson to James Buchanan to the Mind-Life Institute, seminal ideas — some towards a positive evolutionary trend of human thought, and some against — have been articulated here in Virginia.
Certainly Jefferson, the founder of the University of Virginia, was an original thinker, drawing on the work of the Enlightenment Philosophers to justify a colony claiming independence from monarchy. Even if he could not reconcile the colossal hypocrisy of being a revolutionary and a slave holder. Centuries later, the conservative economist, Buchanan, a professor at UVA, helped to promote the philosophical idea of property rights, lending intellectual justification to neoliberal claims that government has little standing or right to tax the wealthy. His work, and the toxic effect of the financing from the right wing, is profiled in the book, Democracy in Chains, by the historian, Nancy MacLean.
Another couple of decades later, more progressive thinkers and organizations have come to Charlottesville, one being the Dalai Lama-sponsored Mind-Life Institute, which seeks to promote more mindful and aware dialogue between science and spirituality. Their mission includes the observation:
Ecodharma is a term first coined by the scholar, David Loy, to identify a direction of social action for students of Buddhist thought. He believes that Buddhists should get involved in the politics of preserving the planet and its natural environment, and that the teachings and philosophy of the dharma offer unique insights into modern society's decision making — especially the rationale for political policies seeking to save the world's ecology and avert climate disaster. Acknowledging this intellectual debt to Loy, and teachers such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Matthieu Ricard, I present research, writing, and projects to further this discussion in the sangha, and society-at-large. This side of my work relates to contemplative psychotherapy and coaching as it presents a clear example of how we can ameliorate psychological issues, and grow into our full potential, by becoming conscious citizens. We need to remove the duality between spiritual practice and our commitment to preserving nature. The planet is, after all, our home and body, and as the monks in Kathmandu once said, there is ". . . no meditation on a dead planet."
Under the Ecodharma tab, and below, you will find links to five sub-pages: Study Topics, Workshops on Treating Eco-anxiety (pending), Resources, a Survey (not yet live), and Articles on Ecodharma. These pages are for those immediately interested in this perspective on the path of conscious citizenship. At the bottom of each page is a form to join what I am initially calling the Charlottesville Ecodharma Study Group mailing list.
I am giving it this working title for several reasons. The first is that I live here and have been inspired by the city's strong intellectual and innovative environment. Two, the city has a long history of being the home to many variations of political and economic philosophy. From Thomas Jefferson to James Buchanan to the Mind-Life Institute, seminal ideas — some towards a positive evolutionary trend of human thought, and some against — have been articulated here in Virginia.
Certainly Jefferson, the founder of the University of Virginia, was an original thinker, drawing on the work of the Enlightenment Philosophers to justify a colony claiming independence from monarchy. Even if he could not reconcile the colossal hypocrisy of being a revolutionary and a slave holder. Centuries later, the conservative economist, Buchanan, a professor at UVA, helped to promote the philosophical idea of property rights, lending intellectual justification to neoliberal claims that government has little standing or right to tax the wealthy. His work, and the toxic effect of the financing from the right wing, is profiled in the book, Democracy in Chains, by the historian, Nancy MacLean.
Another couple of decades later, more progressive thinkers and organizations have come to Charlottesville, one being the Dalai Lama-sponsored Mind-Life Institute, which seeks to promote more mindful and aware dialogue between science and spirituality. Their mission includes the observation:
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From loneliness and isolation to racism and tribalism, our disconnection from one another is causing tremendous suffering for people and the planet. Building on our 30-year legacy, we seek to better understand the role of the human mind in creating these problems—and its potential to solve them. |
More recently other innovators have done inspired work in Charlottesville, including Professor Patricia Jennings at the University of Virginia School of Education. Tish has done a remarkable job of highlighting the need for teachers to practice a deeper level of self-care. She has pioneered teaching mindfulness to that profession, and the research into the results. Another resident of Charlottesville, the architect, William McDonough, co-author of the book, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, has also demonstrated remarkable forward thinking about how we can bring new ideas to living sustainably here on Earth.
And, of course, Charlottesville is also imprinted on the memory and trauma of the country's psyche after the "Unite the Right" marches of August 12, 2017, and the ugly face of American racism became more visible, more dramatic, clamoring for attention. It is my view that the solution to our society's failure to care for the environment parallels its failure to adequately educate our children about the equality of human beings, the historical cataclysms that happen when others are scapegoated, and the self-destructiveness of hatred and messianic thinking.