Anonymous

When visiting the Jersey Group recently there was a suggestion to talk about “Response to the climate emergency” Some people in the group are seriously committed to this work and I very much appreciated what everyone said. There was also a suggestion to discuss compassion and The Scripture of Avalokiteshwara came to mind in relation to both. This is an edited version of the talk.

How does meditation relate to the need for a serious response to what we must do right now about climate change? As a Zen Buddhist monk there is something particular that I need to do, and because of that, there are some things I can’t choose to do. The following thoughts are really about how zazen can become the source of all that is seen, and how it is our every action. As we go on with meditation, the more likely it is that what we do and the choices we make will come from our true being; compassion, love and wisdom. The more fully we will live according to right action, coming from right understanding. This is a matter of continuous enquiry; being with this now, all that I am. When it is the case that something is wrong, we may need to respond and we may not know what to do. We sit still right here. We take it to the depths of being and leave it there. Something takes place in the darkness but we need to let go. We can’t make it happen and the thinking mind can’t find a solution at this level. Every kind of circumstance is different here. This is not to deny anything. It is not passive, nor is it irresponsible. It is not so easy. It only becomes like this when we can see how important it is.

Meditation in the way that we do it is the whole of life, the foundation. Its presence spreads everywhere. It takes great effort and a strong engagement through all kinds of times. We go on in faith, and doubt when it is doubt. We go on no matter what. Trust comes despite us. It is often gradual, subtle change, but something is felt. We realise that we are making different choices, stepping forward, or holding back sometimes instead of speaking impulsively, acting in faith in ways that we have not felt able to do before. Things are seen in a changing light. In one way we become not so sure of anything because definitions start to fade away. This allows an openness of seeing. There is a possibility of hearing something that we may not have heard before.

This is altogether with the work that we need to do. What is the offering now? With the climate emergency, like with many things, there is ignorance, choosing not to know what is happening, and lack of willingness to make the urgent changes. It is global. So what can I do in my life now? Each one of us chooses. There are very simple changes we can make, and much of this may depend on the work that others do to inform us. The more we can take care with each choice that we make and bring our attention to the possible consequences, the greater the collective effect for the good of the world can be. It is the everyday things: what do we eat and where do we buy it? What are we recycling, and how much plastic do we use? What about cars, air travel? What domestic fuel do we have and what are we wasting? How much can we be involved with political action and demonstrations? Only we can know this. There is much that we can all do and how we live now is where it happens.

Climate change needs an urgent response. We know that there is also the reality of war in some parts of the world, great injustice, starvation, oppression, racism, gender inequality, violation of human rights. All kinds of suffering. Meditation is serious work. The more clearly we see, the more we trust that we act for the good of all beings. It begins with the ongoing commitment to cease from evil. If the three poisons, greed, hatred and delusion are active, if they are driving us, however subtly, there will be conflict in our intention which will be expressed in what we do. We need to turn the light inwards and come to understand the presence of stillness and action, darkness and light, form and emptiness, always together.

There are many ways that each one of us can do something about climate change. Some people are working with great commitment. It has to be political and is at the same time individual. We can always be better informed and can learn more. We can do our very best in practical ways and bring close attention to the choices we make. We respond each moment to the world as far as we understand it. Am I living as best as I can, knowing that I am not separate from anything or anyone? The more I know this, the more I can trust what I do to be good. There will be ceasing from evil. This is the expression of meditation which reaches way beyond the suffering of a particular time and can respond as needed. We are present now. As meditation is active in us, the less our thoughts and habits get in the way of what is good to do. Our self concern can be seen in a different light and we become more able to not choose this direction.

To be present is to be aware of oneself in relation to all things and to act accordingly. It is not about the scale of the action, or how global. It is right in front of us. We can see the vastness of this, or just a small fraction of it. Meditation is the commitment to open up this vision, this hearing, without limit. It can not be quantified or judged. It is not in the realm of thought and can’t be defined or contained. All that we need to work with is here when we look in this way. This is the difference we can make. This is where good and evil take place. In terms of reversing the direction of climate change fast, we all have much that we can do in the way that we are living. It might be right to be involved in raising awareness and to be active politically, but there is no avoiding the personal choices that we all make. It may start with the need to know more, to choose to see. As with all aspects of life, the costs of not seeing can be high. Not caring? Maybe often to do with not seeing. Too much else going on. We sit with the sense of need, or fear that we may not know, desire that we feel that we can’t contain; anger, a sense of injustice, not being enough, not having enough. These feelings may be subtle, maybe fleeting, but they have the potential to affect what we do. We can always do something about ourselves.

Here at Throssel there are certain things that are accepted as the life that we all choose by being here, whether living here as a monk, or staying however often as a lay resident. Meditation is why we come, and we define some aspects of life so that it can work to be here together. There are the Bodhisattva Precepts. Our refuge is the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. We share the commitment to cease from evil, do only good and do good for others. Our work is meditation and all that this means.

We do our best not to kill and are vegetarian. At present we do buy dairy products and some people choose not to have them. We take care with what is given to us, to use all resources well, and to know what we are doing in relation to others. We have four cars right now and we limit their use as much as possible. We look carefully at our use of domestic fuel and endeavour not to waste it. We are conscious of how much heating and light is really needed. We do much to take care with food: what we receive, what we buy and where it comes from. We are careful about how much food we eat and not to waste it. We start every meal with The Five Thoughts:

“We must think deeply of the ways and means by which this food has come.

We must consider our merit when accepting it.

We must protect ourselves from error by excluding greed from our minds.

We will eat lest we become lean and die.

We accept this food so that we may become enlightened.”

We have an alms box with things given to monks. We share what has been given and then pass on what is no longer needed to each other and then to a charity shop. We use second, third, fourth hand things, and also buy what we need from charity shops when we can. We don’t travel much and we use public transport where possible. We do what we can about excessive use of anything and work hard to take only what we need. We go on making the commitment to sit with greed, hatred and delusion, and not turning away. There is always more that we can do.

At the individual level there is much to see. What do I really need? Much of what we do reflects something of this. I can act in a way that supports a sense of me as a separate being, and in some ways I will do this. I can also ask “Is this good to do, and what effect might I be having?” The more that I can be still in the moment of choice, the greater my ability to see what I am doing, and the possible consequences. Much of our feeling of need can change as we sit with fear and desire, our sense of suffering. Habits may seem powerful, and we keep going. It takes a lot of kindness.

The Scripture The Most Excellent Mirror Samadhi begins:

“The Buddhas and the Ancestors have all directly handed down this basic truth:- Preserve well for you now have; this is all”

It is through exploring what we have that all relationship can begin to change, and we can feel more able to let go of clinging and be willing to approach our fear of being nothing, and having nothing. In coming towards death things can fall away very quickly. There may be no dilemma at all in terms of knowing that most things are not needed, nor are they relevant. What is already there can become apparent. We can do this now. This is the zazen of each one of us. In this moment, what is driving me? Can I put down self concern and give? As we go on, we become better able to see the functioning of self concern, and the effects. It can be as if an energy, from a source not bound in any way flows more freely. It doesn’t see in terms of “me” and appears to be impartial, not dependent.

It can seem as if there are two directions in a decision to act, one that involves self concern, the other that does not. The one that does not may seem frightening and unknown. The courage to take this direction is necessary. The choice seems to fall away. The self concern is not what we truly wish for and we understand this more clearly in the willingness to sit in the midst of all that is there. We see the clinging and turning away and can choose to return. It can be very subtle, and a lot may be asked of us.

Many of us are familiar with The Scripture of Avalokiteshwara or Kanzeon, the Bodhisattva of Compassion: “She who hears the cries of the world.” It is a chapter from The Lotus Sutra and is expressed in the language of the Buddha’s time but it is relevant to this question of how to act in relation to the climate emergency now. It is about the presence of compassion in all circumstances. Can we trust like this? Something responds, beyond our knowing, beyond our doing. The scripture describes the most overwhelming and difficult experiences. It tells us to call on Kanzeon at all times, and talks of how we come to know the presence of compassion in extraordinary ways. Here are some lines:

“Just listen to the life of Kanzeon.

To calls from every quarter She responds;

Of oceanic depth Her holy vows.

When people hear Her name and see Her form,

And think of Her not vainly in their hearts,

All forms of ill, in all the worlds, shall cease.

In all the world, in all the quarters,

There is not a place where Kannon does not go.”

Compassion is apparent when we can see. We don’t always see. Meditation is the commitment to do whatever it takes to know our true being. If love, compassion and wisdom are Buddha Nature, they are here now. If the world appears as it does, we need to truly let go of all such appearance and see what is there. How we do this is sitting still. We look carefully. Judgement has no place here. In the silence, the opposites dissolve. It is not as it seemed to be. This is about faith and not turning away. We have to find out what this means. “All forms of ill in all the worlds shall cease.” It can be seen differently. It is about how we experience all that is here now, whether it seems to be suffering or not. Seeing and action are not separate. We can trust it to the great offering that meditation is. Letting go of everything. Who we think that we are, our fears, our longing; all can be offered here. We may not find answers to many of our questions and we may not resolve our concerns in the way we expect to, but in the sitting, it doesn’t look the same any more. A space within it all appears again and again. Something always present is known to us. We could call it compassion because it can respond as needed. The world changes every moment.

The effects of meditation can be hard to see and hard to trust. We need to let go of judgement, let go of grasping and wishing for results. We are letting go of this as we sit. In the stillness what is there? There will not be an answer to all the worlds’ suffering, but something changes completely here, and this is radical. As circumstances come to be seen differently, there is the sense that what is here at present calls forth something. This is known to be enough because the depth of being is not changed by all these circumstances and does not depend on them. This is the refuge, the depths of us, not separate from anything. We offer all that we have to the wisdom that is there in each one of us. The more its presence is active, the more we can see what to do and trust when not to do anything. This can make it a different life, and so a different world.

Do we hear the call to respond to the climate emergency? Within this call, there is something that we can rely on. We trust our lives to this, and go on.

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