“Our own life has to be our message” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
The direction we want to take in the journey of our lives is engaged with what we actually care about. We walk this path with the willingness of finding the ways to manifest our care and express our love.
Healthy and mighty forests of Northern Thailand
Yagi, Asia’s biggest Typhoon of 2024 hit multiple countries in Southeast Asia, leaving dozens of dead or missing. Thousands of families effected, thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed due to landslides and flash floods. Scientists have warned that as the world warms, typhoons can bring higher wind speeds and more intense rainfall. Warmer ocean temperatures cause tropical cyclones to intensify quickly. Scientists have linked this to the ‘human-caused climate crises!
When Typhoon Yagi reached North Thailand, I was there. Its impacts were very destructive. I haven’t seen such heavy rains in my life that poured down constantly for some weeks. Floods were everywhere. Latest news was informing us that people were dying, animals – including elephants- were dying. People became homeless. Huge areas of agricultural fields and forests tore down by the flood. In a smaller scale, I was watching the environment at the farm where I was staying at those days. So many animals -including snakes, scorpions and insects- were trying to find new homes for themselves and for their colonies. Some trees were swinging, having difficulty in standing still as their roots weren’t able to hold the soggy soil tight.
Everything was happening right under my nose which was very different from accessing the news through media. These devastating events were said to be linked also to human activity. Unavoidably this was reminding me of critical global matters that we are all exposed to collectively. Environmentally we face issues like; climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, exploitation of natural resources, pollution of soil, water, ocean and air, and etc. On the other hand, social and political issues we have to face are; wars, poverty, hunger, inequality, violation of human, animal and minority rights, decolonization, forced migration, etc.
Such a heavy reality, right? We had to be aware of our footprint on this planet. NOW! Feeling the suffering we create as a species on our planet, my conscience was restless. Waves of grief were coming. Senses of loneliness, helplessness were pushing me to seek my community, my tribe. Senses of hopelessness and inadequacy was causing a tendency to do something right away.
Life is generous as it brings us what we need sooner or later. At those times I came across and attended an online course that brought me the whole collection of perspectives and understanding I needed in order to approach the current situation of our world and our suffering. This 7-week course was called “Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet” and it was offered by some monastic and lay members of Plum Village tradition founded by beloved teacher Thich Nhat Hanh who was a Buddhist monk, peace activist, and a poet.
I felt very lucky to be part of the community of the course. We were over a thousand people from various parts of the world, many of whom were activists working on environmental, human or minority rights, inequality etc. So many reminders, perspectives, practices were shared in the course which were very helpful to see the crisis in a wise way, cultivate insight and compassion, remember the significance of community and respond to the crisis from a more grounded, thoughtful, connected and effective position. Below I would like to share some of the gems from the course from which we can benefit in the midst of the current crisis. For sure course materials were so rich and diverse but I hope the brief list below will give you a taste.
~ Being Mindful: First of all, we need to be mindful of ourselves, of how we live our lives. To be aware of our thoughts, speech and actions, our consumption habits, we can review our place, our contribution or harm in life. With the right view and right action, we can be in service for the life we long for.
~ Acceptance & Grief: We need to accept the inevitable change of life and the world. We need to confront our fear and suffering in the nature of this change. Our individual and collective pain wants to be embraced so we need to give decent time to grief if we need to. Only in this way can we move to a more peaceful, fearless, inclusive and accepting, therefore more balanced and grounded state.
~ Impermanence: We need to remember that every being -including us, our loved ones, all the elements of nature- are going to die one day. The moment we accept death, peace finds us, a presence that is less fearful finds us. This teaching is there for us to recognize our fear. Can we befriend with it without treating it as an enemy? How can I embrace my fear because that is what it really wants; to be seen, to be loved.
~ Time of transformation: At such a pace, we need to acknowledge that our civilization will clearly collapse. But it would be wrong to read this teaching as the world and our civilization are dying out. Instead of imagining a sharp end, we can know that a transformation is coming.
~ Constructive Optimism: Instead of acting with stress, panic, anxiety, hopelessness, helplessness, we can realize what we want to create. This is radical positivism. When we are with our pain only, there are many things we miss seeing. For instance, when we see a tree that is going to die, we forget that it is alive. Likewise, it is also possible to choose to see love, gratitude, sense of connection or joy instead of worry, despair or anxiety. When we find the right path, there is always joy there.
~ We are not the masters: Anthropocentric view is narrow by its nature, advocating that only humans can save the planet. We need to remember that we are just a part of whole life. Even though we have a big impact on the devastation of life in many levels, life has a greater intelligence, power, resiliency and regenerational strength far more than human capacity. All our good intentions are limited and nature has its own way of responding to new unfoldings.
~ Do not hurry: We hurry with the belief that time is running out. But in contrast with our rush, mother nature has a different understanding of time. She is patient. It may take millions of years for her to heal her wounds, create new species that can replace extinct ones. Just as there had been so many eras on our planet. As Lao Tzu said; “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
~ Right action: Right action in service of the Earth requires us to develop our different aspects. Can we embody these 3 qualities at the same time? Fearless warrior, conscious meditator and compassionate artist.
Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet course is repeated every year. If you are interested, you can search for it at the webpage of Plum Village: plumvillage.org
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These issues also brought me closer to the notion of Deep Ecology which is an eco-philosophy that looks more deeply into the reality of humanity’s relationship with the natural world. It criticizes the narrative of human supremacy (anthropocentric environmentalism) and regards human life as just one of many equal components of a global ecosystem where the survival of any part is dependent upon the well-being of the whole.
One other source of inspiration had been the talks and paradigm shifting perspectives that Bayo Akomolafe suggests. He is a philosopher, professor, activist, writer and poet that comes up with the concept of postactivism. What do you do when the world kicks back? He says postactivism is not a formula for saving the world. Instead, it is the site where continuity becomes impossible, a crack opens in the totality and knowability of things, disrupting the exclusivity of human agency and inquiry, and expanding sociality to include things we hadn’t considered. Postactivism invites us to move beyond the binary thinking of “us versus them” thinking of traditional activism and engage in more open-ended, and transformative ways of addressing social and environmental challenges. Bayo also criticizes white modernity, accomplishment, success and result oriented, leadership-based, individualist and anthropocentric perspectives.
Bayo’s inquiries disrupt my learnings, beliefs and ideals. This shape shifting question of him enabled new and fresh perspectives to find room to open up in my understanding. “What if the way we respond to the crisis is part of the crisis?”
For further reading on Bayo Akomolafe’s works, you can visit his website: bayoakomolafe.net
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I often find myself struggling with feelings of inadequacy about so many different things. This time seeing the suffering of the world, I point the finger at myself saying; “You are not participating enough to change things. You are passive and slow to take action.” Doing becomes an issue. Doing the right action -as a thought- becomes complicated. How can I be a fearless warrior that guides her fire in the most wise and compassionate way?
In fact, by putting all the tangled narrative of the mind aside and by being honest with myself, I see that there are valuable things in my life that I should take notice of. Listening deeply, feeling my heart, sensing into the voice of my essential Being, asking the right questions, contemplating, connecting compassionately, holding space for the other, giving attention and care, making them feel seen, asking their needs, smiling sincerely. And then illuminating all of these with consciousness and aligning them with my true nature. These are quite a state of doing in themselves.
I find these words of Thich Nhat Hanh so inspirational. In his essay called; ‘A Poem and a Peppermint Plant’ he writes:
“I don’t know what job you do every day, but I do know that some tasks lend themselves to awareness more easily than others. Writing, for example, is difficult to do mind-fully. I have now reached the point when I know that a sentence is finished. But while writing the sentence, even now, I sometimes forget. That is why I have been doing more manual work and less writing these past few years.
Someone said to me, “Planting tomatoes and lettuce may be the gateway to everything, but not everyone can write books and stories and poems as well as you do. Please don’t waste your time with manual work!” I have not wasted any of my time. Planting a seed, washing a dish, cutting the grass are as eternal, as beautiful, as writing a poem! I do not understand how a poem can be better than a peppermint plant. Planting seeds gives me as much pleasure as writing a poem. For me, a head of lettuce or a peppermint plant has as much everlasting effect in time and space as a poem.”
I think we just need to be true to what inspires us. This will be our contribution. Without rushing, we just let it evolve on its own…
PS1. I’d like to link another related article here; “Bali / Looking through the Lens of our Changing World”. There I wrote on the impacts of our civilization upon our dear planet, through observing life in the small island Bali which is overly occupied by tourism.
PS2. Some of the photographs of this post are taken by dear brother Chan. You can take a look at his photo collection on his instagram page: lazygotji
