Tag Archives: Eco-Spirituality

by

Adyashanti’s Climate Wisdom

Here are teachings from Adyashanti‘s inspiring talk on “Climate Change as Spiritual Teacher“ on 1/21/23, with Jonathan Gustin of the Purpose Guides Institute (from my notes, lightly edited & resequenced.)

Adyashanti: We are simultaneously holding the facts of climate change, the arising of heartbreak, and the fullness of courage in finding a full-hearted response. It is not about rejecting the facts, nor about rejecting the heartbreak. It’s about accepting, about being with what is.

I experience human heartbreak / sadness / grief at what is happening, alongside an experience of transcendence. The only thing I trust, in my own experience, is when both perspectives are present.

The closer we get to paradox, the closer we get to truth. We can be not okay and okay at the same time. Everything is eternally, absolutely okay, even though it is very not okay.

Is there a little corner of you that is okay, even with the situation of our planet not being okay? Once you find that corner, you may find it is more expansive than you could have imagined.

Continue reading →

by

The Eco-Wisdom of Rachel Carson

Rachel Carson‘s eco-wisdom has long inspired me. She was a founding force of the global environmental movement. Her vision and impact stretch far beyond her time. Here are quotes from her writings.

“Here and there awareness is growing that man, far from being the overlord of all creation, is himself part of nature, subject to the same cosmic forces that control all other life. Man’s future welfare and probably even his survival depend upon his learning to live in harmony, rather than in combat, with these forces.”

“We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost’s familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road — the one less traveled by — offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth.”

“The human race is challenged more than ever before to demonstrate our mastery, not over nature but of ourselves.”

Continue reading →