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ABC anchor DAN HARRIS talks meditation with SHARON SALZBERG, JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN & MARK EPSTEIN SBUDDHISMHAMBHALA CULTURE MEDITATION L IFE SUNNOVEMB ER 2014 Get off the wheel of Habit How to free yourself from habitual patterns of thinking, relating, and acting. It’s the whole point of Buddhist meditation. (They don’t call it the Wheel of Life for nothing.) Helpful teachings & techniques from: THICH NHAT HANH SYLVIA BOORSTEIN TSOKNYI RINPOCHE Reviews Contemplador del blanco (1999) by Tomás Sánchez, acrylic on canvas Bodhi Trees In nature we see Buddhist truths unfold, while in Buddhism we find ways to heal the natural world. JESSICA M OREY on Minding the Earth, Mending the World. W YORK W MINDING THE EARTH, MENDING THE WORLD: rhythmic shadow of trees and winter grass outside her window. E Zen and the Art of Planetary Crisis It’s a book that must be absorbed slowly. RY, N RY, By Susan Murphy E Murphy writes, “The hour is beyond ‘late’ and in our heart LL Counterpoint 2014; 320 pp., $16.95 (paper) A of hearts we know it.” Indeed, we are living today with the con- sequences of carbon emissions released two decades ago—and HOW CAN WE WRAP OUR MINDS around something so they have only been increasing more rapidly each year since. It’s OROUGH G OROUGH B vast as the destruction of the planet, and—instead of going not surprising that so many of us turn to skepticism or silent RL mad or numb—grow interested? And how do we slow down despair. We do not know how to hold in our hearts the disaster MA Y enough to quickly take right action? we’ve created, which may well make the planet uninhabitable TES These are the opening questions of Susan Murphy’s new for our grandchildren. book, Minding the Earth, Mending the World: Zen and the Art At the root of the environmental crisis is our overconsump- Z, COUR Z, E of Planetary Crisis. Murphy does not shy away from the stark tion of the Earth’s resources, our never-satiated greed for more realities of the destruction we are wreaking in every ecosystem pleasure and comfort. The West has enjoyed the benefits of SÁNCH S on Earth. And though her book is dense with facts, it reads like postindustrial technology for decades, and now billions of Á M poetry or a series of koans. The reader can feel the author’s people in the developing world, coming out of poverty, under- © TO presence, the inspiration of her roosters and dog, and the standably want the same. According to our capitalist economic SHAMBHALA SUN NOVEMBER 2014 71 system, this is a great thing. But it is very much at odds with the universe—a story that began between five and thirteen billion carrying capacity of the Earth. years ago. Murphy writes that we are “inseparable from the The Buddha pointed to this kind of greed as the root of our ceaseless creation of an unfinished cosmos.” We are sun, rain, suffering, and he taught an end to suffering. He taught us to and soil transformed through food into breathing, sentient see the ephemeral, unsatisfactory, and ultimately empty nature beings. With some quiet reflection, emptiness and dependent of sensual pleasure and comfort and to look instead for a more co-arising are vividly apparent in nature. lasting contentment. This ceaseless changing from one thing into another—prey From the start, nature played a central role in the Buddha’s becoming predator, decomposing leaves transforming into enlightenment. As Gautama lay emaciated after years of futile trees—only causes suffering when we cannot perceive it as a asceticism, he recalled a time when, as a child, he sat in the shifting whole, when we cannot see beyond our one life. shade of a rose-apple tree and in quiet solitude experienced an Murphy provides a striking story that speaks to this truth. She effortless, abiding calm. This memory spurred him to sit under describes an abandoned mining pit in Montana that is still today the bodhi tree until he realized full enlightenment. slowly filling with water toxic from heavy metal. A number of As the story goes, throughout the night, the soon-to-be Bud- years ago, a flock of geese drank the water and died from festering dha was assailed by the armies of Mara, who personified sensual burns throughout their intestines. Months later, scientists discov- desire and fear. The Buddha brushed off these temptations eas- ered that growing in the pit there was a new form of yeast that has ily. Then came Mara’s final attack, meant to cast doubt on the the ability to extract heavy metal from water at a rate nearly seven Buddha’s effort and worth. “Who are you to claim the throne times more efficiently than other yeasts. They also discovered that of enlightenment?” he asked. “Who is your witness?” The Bud- this yeast is found in the rectums of geese. Things are as they are. dha silently reached down to touch the Earth, which roared in Not only do the Buddha’s teachings provide a powerful view response, “I am his witness!” And in that moment, just as the for relating skillfully and compassionately with the Earth, but morning star appeared in the sky, the Buddha achieved full the Buddhist contemplative practices of meditation and koans liberation. may also hold answers to our current environmental challenge. Murphy points out that these practices cultivate a “flexible, non-fixated, creative, and playful state of mind” out of which As a child, the Buddha sat in the wise action can emerge. shade of a rose-apple tree and in quiet Mindfulness meditation practices teach us that meeting diffi- culties directly can be healing, joyful, and deeply rewarding, and solitude experienced an effortless, this is an important lesson for us as we face the difficulties of the climate crisis. I witnessed the intractable complexities firsthand abiding calm. at annual UN climate conferences, many of which I attended as a clean energy analyst representing both small nonprofit think Perhaps the Earth arose in support of the Buddha out of her tanks and multinational organizations. The other representa- own self-defense, knowing that the teachings of the Buddha tives and I always came prepared with expert financial strategies might be her only salvation 2,600 years later—a mere blink in and technical solutions, only to find no traction in the political geologic time. The Buddha did not seek support from celestial morass. It didn’t matter if a proposal would save millions of tons beings or other realms but from the Earth beneath him. And of carbon, spur innovation, and pay for itself through a small the Earth can lend us a similar support in our search to under- tax that would be offset through hundreds of well-paid jobs. It stand the central teachings of the dharma—of impermanence, didn’t matter that our solution made perfect sense when you suffering, and no-self. took the greater good into account, rather than the short-term Today many of us are suffering from nature deficit disorder, profit of a few powerful corporations and their beholden politi- estranged from the Earth in our air-conditioned comfort. I cal representatives. Each country, corporation, and politician am a prime example of this; despite my fierce love of nature, I at these conferences took a perfectly rational position, which spend most of my time indoors staring at a screen. But when cumulatively assured environmental destruction. we do get outside, when we go out into the wild, everywhere we Our environmental crisis will be the making or breaking of us look we can see the truth of the Buddha’s teachings. as humans in a global community. It’s the ultimate opportunity Impermanence is vibrantly apparent in the weather, the sea- to realize our interdependence and act accordingly with kind- sons, rivers, and even in rocks. Contemplate, for example, how ness and generosity. To confront the climate crisis, every country what was once lava turned into granite boulders and how tens must participate, or at least a critical mass of us must decide to of thousands of years ago, glaciers dragged these same boulders trust each other, to broaden our frame from national to global, to new locations. from short term to long term. We must not only recognize but Indeed, Murphy encourages us to look even further back also act on the truths of interconnectedness and karma. and see the Earth and ourselves as actors in the story of the Minding the Earth, Mending the World, like a koan, does not 72 SHAMBHALA SUN NOVEMBER 2014 provide easy answers, but Murphy does Ligmincha Institute at Serenity Ridge sprinkle in some signposts. She touches Nelson County, Virginia on ideas from the major eco-philoso- phers of the past half century, including OCT. 31–NOV. 2, 2014 Joanna Macy, Thomas Berry, and Wen- The Sacred Body in the Bön Tradition dell Berry. That said, this is where the with H.E. Menri Lopon Trinley Nyima Rinpoche book is weakest, a bit too simplistic. The We are pleased to welcome back H.E. Menri Lopon Trinley Nyima concrete solutions Murphy references feel Rinpoche, head instructor of Menri Monastery in Dolanji, India. a bit tired and unworkable, but perhaps He will teach the fve tsa lung movements, supported by a teaching prayer, to help alleviate physical or other disturbances. it’s me who is tired and disillusioned. I was inspired by many eco-philosophers photo by Janine Guldener DEC. 27, 2014–JAN. 1, 2015 in college only to find no foothold for TENZIN WANGYAL Winter Retreat: The Experiential Transmission their ideas in the worlds of Washington, RINPOCHE, founding of Zhang Zhung, Part 1: Ngöndro D.C., and international finance.