Ecodharma, Afterword

[Naiko]

This section is subtitled “A Prodigal Species?” and is found on pages 175 to 179.

In his afterword, Loy summarizes his central argument that our climate crisis is fundamentally a spiritual crisis. Our deluded worldview, sense of separation, and our clinging to greed, aggression and ignorance, are harming us and all life on our home. He contrasts the Christian Parable of the Prodigal Son with a comparable story about a separated father and son from the Lotus Sutra. In the Biblical story, the son is quickly forgiven by a higher authority (father/God). In the Lotus Sutra, the errant child is slowly guided to an awakening of his own true nature. Loy asks us if the Buddhist story is a better parable for the work at hand. He ends with a Lotus Sutra image of bodhisattvas springing from the earth to serve and a call for ecosattvas to likewise to rise up to work healing dharma, the earth’s gift to itself.

Can we return home in time to heal ourselves?

How has this book informed or reframed how you see climate crisis and our response to it?

Gassho,
Naiko
st

I personally find the bodhisattva model an antidote to despair, to be one of Avalokitesvara’s hands or eyes.. Bill McKibben said in a recent interview that the most important thing an individual can do is be less of an individual, to join with others.

I’m also quite fascinated with Loy’s discussion of the fruits of our unacknowledged existential terror, but I didn’t want my summary to be longer than his afterword! Kurt Spellmeyer explores this topic very well in his book Buddha at the Apocalypse.

[Tairin]

Thank you Naiko.

Can we return home in time to heal ourselves?

It seems unlikely. As Loy said most of our history survival has been a foremost concern. We literally have greed, aggression and ego-delusion hardwired into our DNA. Yes some of us may become aware enough to fight against our basic instincts for the good of the planet but I doubt the majority will. As much as I hope that we’ll change our collective behaviour I am pretty confident that once the climate crisis really gets out of control that we’ll see people revert more to greed, aggression and ego-delusion rather than less.

It took many millennia to become the humans we are today. Undoing that won’t be accomplished in the years or maybe decades we have left.

How has this book informed or reframed how you see climate crisis and our response to it?

I don’t think I read anything in this book that was radically new to me. It more or less reinforced some of what I already thought. Maybe the biggest thing I got out of the book was a better sense of my own practice both as a Buddhist and someone concerned about the environment.


Tairin
Sat today and lah

[Kokuu]

Thank you, Naiko!

Can we return home in time to heal ourselves?

Sadly, I agree with Tairin that it seems unlikely. I just read today in a Greenpeace magazine that thirty years ago 14 000 square kilometres of the Amazon had been lost to deforestation. Now that figure stands at 406 000 square kilometres. So, for me it is not just that humanity is not getting better, but how much we are accelerating the process of destruction.

I try to rest in a place of not knowing, however much my logical brain feels pessimistic, but it is a losing battle.


How has this book informed or reframed how you see climate crisis and our response to it?

Again, as Tairin says, not a huge amount. I would not say I have found this book disappointing per se, but Loy has not offered a huge amount that is new. Maybe it isn't aimed at people who are already thinking about this material?

The problem seems clear, and the solutions are pretty much clear also. How to get billions of humans to change their way of thinking is quite another matter entirely.

The book has made me reflect more on my own lifestyle and how it is also part of the problem.


I hadn't heard of Buddha at the Apocalypse, so thank you for mentioning that, Naiko! Maybe at the end we can all suggest any books we have found helpful to add to a list? Hopefully the Ecodharma part of the website will remain so we can continue discussions as necessary, and maybe even read other books.


Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-

[aprapti]

thanks, Naiko.

I just can echo what Tairin and Kokuu said. I somewhere picked up this quote: it is too late to be pessimistic, so let us be optimistic...

aprapti

sat

[Doshin]

Thanks Naiko for taking the lead.

As Aprapti said I also agree with the others. I have mentioned elsewhere in the forum that during the first Earth Day over 50 years ago I was young and studying for a career in conservation. I had great optimism and enthusiasm to change the world. That optimism’s has suffered but I still have hope.

Our time reading the book together has been good. I have learned from you all.

Doshin
St

[Heiso]

Thanks for this Naiko!

Can we return home in time to heal ourselves?

Like the others I'm largely pessimistic. I sometimes have some optimism that we will develop clean technologies, sustainable food sources etc but when I stop to examine that optimism I realise it isn't based on humans changing their behaviours or underlying greed.

How has this book informed or reframed how you see climate crisis and our response to it?

I think it's been less about informing how I see the climate response and more how I approach it as a Buddhist and Loy has given me a useful framework for that in the Ecosattva approach. Although that probably comes back to some of the earlier discussions and reading about personal liberation.

Gassho,

Heiso

StLah

[Doshin]

I agree with Heiso regarding the value of the book. I came to it with an understanding of the environmental issues but wanted to learn a Buddhist approach to engaging with the challenges. Specifically,
over the years I have often seen stated that Buddhism is not about “engagement.” We have discussed that earlier. I have mentioned elsewhere that that opinion prevented me from pursing the path for decades. I still see that perspective shared elsewhere. I found Loy’s approach refreshing and informative.

Doshin
St