[EcoDharma] ACTIVE HOPE Chapter 4 (part three)

[Naiko]

The final sections of Chapter 4 are pages 72-79, beginning with A Different View of Self, and a quote by Ven. Thich Nhat Hahn: “What we most need to do…is to hear within us the sounds of the Earth crying.” This can only make sense if we see ourselves in the web of life instead of as separate individuals. This a thread we’ve been following since our reading of David Loy’s EcoDharma. The authors write, “When we hear the sounds of the Earth crying within us, we’re unblocking not just feedback but also channels of felt connectedness that join us with our world.”

The spiral of the Work That Reconnects means that we will always be returning to connect with pain. The following practices are offered as a tool kit as needed.

* The Parsifal Question: What aileth thee? What troubles me about what’s happening in our world?
* The open sentences on page 69 we considered last week. More:
* When I imagine the world we will leave those who come after us, it looks like…
* One of my worst fears about the future is…
* The feelings about this that I carry around with me are…
* Ways I avoid these feelings include…
* Some ways I can use these feelings are…
* The Breathing Through meditation, page 70.
* Creation Expression: Drawing Out Your Concerns, page 75*
* Using Ceremony: A Personal Cairn of Mourning, page 76, or perhaps creating a special altar. What else might you do?
* Personal Conversations. Also, workshops, study groups.

Do any of these practices speak to you? If you try any, please share your thoughts. Although the material in the chapter was created for a workshop setting, has it helped you see your anguish for world differently, or allowed you to accept it? Do you feel your Zen practice helps you sit with these feelings?

*The instructions for drawing were very brief. I’m no expert in this but I have done this as a practice. My good friend is an artist and art therapist. For some years she, another artist, and I would meet weekly and draw, using a recent dream as inspiration. While that, or in this case feelings and concerns for the earth might be an intention, everything gets dropped when drawing. It’s goalless, and you don’t try to produce anything. Often, it’s months or years later that I look at drawing and “see” what I drew.

Thank you for journeying through this chapter with me.

Gassho,
Naiko

[Tairin]

Thank you for leading us through this chapter Naiko

It was a good chapter full of a number of useful exercises and practices.

I think for me the practice that I am finding most meaningful is the last “personal conversation and study groups” including this group right here. By reading these books together and by asking each other questions I force myself to try to express in words how I am feeling. If I wasn’t doing that there might be a tendency to just read but not reflect at all. There isn’t much dialog here, by that I mean a back and forth, but we are participating and I believe reading what each other writes. Reading the books, reflecting and answering questions, and reading all of your responses is helping me crystallize my own views and feelings. May seem weird to say this but it is also helping me feel more confident in a connection to the Earth that feels intuitive yet is not supported by today’s culture

Does my Zen practice help me sit with these feelings? Yes but it helps me sit with all sorts of things that arise. I’d put it another way. I am glad to be anchored by my practise for without it I feel I might be overwhelmed.



Tairin
Sat today and lah

[paulashby]

I concur with Tairin that book study groups are helpful. Even before reading comments
posted a book is a conversation with the author. Each chapter is a dialogue with a person
whose heart has been shaped by environmental concerns for decades. When drawing out
concerns on page 75 my vision was of a crystal clear lake with every animal finding refreshment
with clean water. I volunteer to do clean water projects at the intersection of the Colorado
and Gunnison rivers. Good conversations from books and posting can inspire or renew the energy
that practices compassion with This in whom we move and have our being.

Gassho,peace, Paul sat lah

[Kokuu]

The reason I have taken so long to reply to this is that I realised I am really bad at dealing with my pain on this topic. Like the others I am grateful for this group as generally there are not too many places to express feelings around the climate emergency and environmental degradation. I often feel that I am sitting and silently screaming while everyone else goes on about their normal business and wonder if I have misunderstood the situation.

I like the idea of drawing or expressing feelings in other creative ways. If people do this, feel free to share your work in this forum.

The only thing I do really, is to try to channel my feelings into activism as it seems like a productive way to use them.

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-

[Meian]

The reason I have taken so long to reply to this is that I realised I am really bad at dealing with my pain on this topic. Like the others I am grateful for this group as generally there are not too many places to express feelings around the climate emergency and environmental degradation. I often feel that I am sitting and silently screaming while everyone else goes on about their normal business and wonder if I have misunderstood the situation.

I like the idea of drawing or expressing feelinsg in other creative ways. If people do this, feel free to share your work in this forum.

The only thing I do really, is to try to channel my feelings into activism as it seems like a productive way to use them.

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-

Gassho2 stlh

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[Naiko]

I often feel that I am sitting and silently screaming while everyone else goes on about their normal business and wonder if I have misunderstood the situation.

Yes. It’s disorienting. This is why I am so very grateful to read these books with you all, and for the thoughts you share. These very conversations are activism too.
Gassho,
Naiko
st