Meditation on Ecodharma and Buddhist Ecology 
- Sit calmly and begin to breathe in and out deeply and slowly.
- Open your eyes to see and appreciate the natural environment you are in.
- Close your eyes now if you wish to do so.
- Know that this nature – the sky, clouds, stars, father sun, mother moon, especially the trees – is your natural environment of being in this life.
- This biosphere is our sacred ground, from which we all arise and to which we all fall at our end.
- Mother earth and the surrounding universe deserve our deepest respect.
- In Asia, forest monks have ordained old, wise trees to spare them from the wrath of consumerism.
- Know that ecodharma is an activist Buddhist program aimed at protecting nature and the earth.
- We are living and dying in a vast ecological man made disaster, escape from which requires that our species survives AND that the earth survives as well.
- Our survival depends upon a healthy, breathing, cleansing earth and atmosphere.
- Now take a few minutes in your own silent solitude to contemplate deeply what has been noted above. Pause.
- Recall that The Buddha was confronted by the devil-like Mara. This was an attack on his hard-won enlightenment. The Buddha touched the ground with his fingers and hand to re-establish his connection to mother earth, and his enlightenment survived all challenges.
- So today, we should all touch the earth gently with respect – we can touch earth with our fingers, hands, feet, heart, soul, and self. We may even wish to prostrate ourselves on mother earth to show our deep love and respect.
- The Buddha was born, lived, became enlightened , and died (parinibbana) in the gracious company of trees.
- Thich Nhat Hanh noted that our caring for and being with the earth is a way of reconnecting with interbeing of all living things. This great teacher also advised us that to walk and live on Pure Land requires that we love the earth.
- Soto Zen founder Eihei Dogen noted that rivers, mountains, and “the great wide earth” as well as “the sun and the moon and the stars” are all part of our personal enlightenment in our minds.
- Take a few more minutes to contemplate these teaching. Pause.
- Today’s bodhisattva have become an ecosattva to help save the world and humankind – the greatest and most noble act of active compassion and love.
- We must be fearless as we confront the extremes of “conspicuous consumption” and its destruction of the earth and all living things. This deadly competition may kill all of us in the future.
- Contemplate on this: What will you do very soon to join this battle to save mother earth and the human race as we know it? Pause.
For more information refer to https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/growing-buddhist movement… https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/trees-meditation-teaching... https://tricycle.org/magazine/100-best-climate-solutions… https://tricycle.org/magazine/love-letter-earth… Retrieved 4-21-18
Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC
From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton Sangha
Author of Mindful Happiness
(drugs of abuse, alcohol, nicotine, opioids, cell phones, and “conspicuous consumption” as anormal process). So instead of healthy self-care many American take the path of least resistance and self-medicate. To improve psychological and physical health, we need to ritualize self-care practices. We need to make them one of our most important priorities on a regular basis. You may want to note that you must care for your child within. The list below provides some starting points for you to consider. Try as many of these practices as you can, and adopt as ritual a few you really like. Remember effective self-care is bio-psycho-social-spiritual. Ritualize it!
his book Harris notes several common barriers to regular meditation practice, and what to do about them. Since I have been meditating since the early 1980’s I have added additional suggestions. Here are the barriers and suggested solutions.
practices Christian Centering Prayer as a norm, and uses MBSR to cope with the stress of being in American politics. Most people think in neutral of favorable ways about meditation practice. Commit to spending more time on your cushion and less time on your “hand-held-dopamine-delivery- device” (not my original terms). Practice more NOW!
relaxing. It includes improved self-defense, greater compassion, much better cognitive awareness skills, and better equanimity in the chaos.
learning HOW you help to cause your own emotional suffering. It enhances the view that long-term happiness is internal, and comes about via extended acute observation of how the mind works. In today’s words, we may learn to live and act via our wise mind skills, thus be happier. It easily relates to core Buddhist views on The Four Noble Truths, The Eight-Fold Path, as well as samsaric suffering by incessant attachment, desire, and craving. The main learnings are personally witnessed impermanence (arising and falling of all phenomena), dependent origination (nothing comes about by itself), and ultimately emptiness (Eastern not Western). This form of meditation has been used extensively all over the world for addictions and for people who have difficulty with action urges and emotion regulation (mainly in prisons).
relaxation, improvements in chronic pain, depression, anxiety, emotional self-regulation (anger, addictions), and spirituality.