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Buddhism and the Climate Crisis ~ a Bright Earth Newsletter

Kaspalita writes:

At the beginning of the week the IPPC released its sixth report. You’ve probably seen the headlines in newspapers and on the radio and television. The headline from the IPPC press release is: climate change: rapid, widespread and intensifying.

This is a longer newsletter than usual. But it's an important topic to address. Perhaps the most pressing issue of the day. I also wanted to share with you the video from last Saturday's practice session, which included our first refuge ceremony since the temple's change of name: Practice, Sh*t, and refuge.

Over the past few weeks the news has been full of flooding in Europe and wildfires around the world, in Turkey, Greece, California, Siberia and so on.  The fire in California now covers 724 square miles. There have always been forest fires there, but the climate crisis means they are bigger, more damaging and more unmanageable.

On Monday morning I sat and watched the beginning of the live-streamed press conference from the IPCC. I listened to a couple of speakers and then I couldn’t listen any more. I stood up and decided to get on with the day’s work. I went into the bedroom to change into my painting clothes, collapsed onto the bed and sobbed.

After a minute or so I picked myself up, got changed and carried on with my day. Throughout the morning the grief and upset sat just behind my other thoughts and feelings.

Remembering Amrita

Today is the 15th anniversary of the death of my astonishing friend and Dharma sister, Amrita.

Here is the obituary that Caroline Brazier wrote:

The Rev Linda Amrita Dhammika, who has died aged 50 from an asthma attack*, spent her life working for the destitute, the sick, and for animals, principally in Africa.

Her mission culminated in the founding of the Tithandizane primary health care project at Kamulaza, Zambia, which she built from 1997 onwards into a thriving centre serving 72 villages. Five hectares of land were made available; charity grants were found; villagers contributed labour; and five buildings were constructed. Today, the centre provides medical care, training, counselling and community services.

Linda Dolan, as she was born, grew up in Eccles, Manchester, trained as a laboratory technician and qualified as a teacher in 1978. Doing VSO in Nigeria (1981-83), she saw the importance of primary health care and community involvement in empowering people. In 1985, she worked at Balaka leprosy hospital in Malawi. In 1986-87 she was a community worker with the elderly in Salford. From 1988, her work focused on Zambia. She became a Buddhist, adopting the name Dhammika.

For many years she was projects officer for the International Buddhist Relief Organisation (IBRO), and in 1998 she met my [former] husband, Dharmavidya David Brazier, a priest from the Pureland tradition, took vows with him and became a member of the Order of Amida Buddha. In 2004 she received a further ordination, becoming a chaplain in the order. She conducted marriages and funerals, and offered spiritual counselling, education and support to Zambians. IBRO and the Amida Trust, a UK-based Buddhist charity, supported her.

Amrita's Buddhism took particular shape in an intense concern for animals. She campaigned for vegetarianism, cared for animals wherever she went and was not averse to sharing her living accommodation with baboons or other rescued creatures. She was a walking example of kindness and harmony between species.

In 1993 she started the first rural self-help group for HIV-positive people in Zambia. Three years later, she set up a free nursery school in Dar-es-Salaam, and worked to help Aids victims in Thailand. Her other activities included projects to create bore holes in rural areas of Africa, the conducting of immunisation, dental, eye care, family planning and health information campaigns, and improvements in nutrition, sanitation and education. In 2001, Manchester University awarded her its John Owens award for work in Africa. Following the tsunami of December 2004, she travelled with a Muslim friend to northern Sri Lanka to help Hindu victims in a demonstration of inter-faith solidarity.

She is survived by her husband John Edwards, whose Buddhist name is Sudana, and her adopted daughter Perry.

:: link

David Brazier [Dharmavidya] wrote: 

We, here at The Buddhist House, have just been communicating via Skype with our friends in Zambia. The funeral of Reverend Amrita Dhammika took place yesterday morning. She was buried with full ceremony. For two nights prior to the ceremony there was dancing around her coffin and lamentation. The ceremonial which took several hours was a mix of Buddhist and local custom. Sr Modgala and Willemien Hoogendoorn took a central role in the proceedings which were appropriate in all respects. Well over one thousand people attended. Amrita was dressed in her Ngoni costume and her Buddhist robe when her body was laid to rest. The inspiration that Amrita has given to the people of this afflicted part of Africa is immense. She was an indefatigable worker for compassion to all sentient beings - a true bodhisattva - and she gave her life for them.

*It now seems that the cause of death was in fact malaria rather than asthma as originally reported.

 

We, here at The Buddhist House, have just been communicating via Skype with our friends in Zambia. The funeral of Reverend Amrita Dhammika took place yesterday morning. She was buried with full ceremony. For two nights prior to the ceremony there was dancing around her coffin and lamentation. The ceremonial which took several hours was a mix of Buddhist and local custom. Sr Modgala and Willemien Hoogendoorn took a central role in the proceedings which were appropriate in all respects. Well over one thousand people attended. Amrita was dressed in her Ngoni costume and her Buddhist robe when her body was laid to rest. The inspiration that Amrita has given to the people of this afflicted part of Africa is immense. She was an indefatigable worker for compassion to all sentient beings - a true bodhisattva - and she gave her life for them.

*It now seems that the cause of death was in fact malaria rather than asthma as originally reported.

 

buddhist action month handbook available now

The Buddhist Action Month Handbook is here   Download it now! Buddhist Action Month in in June. The handbook contains information about the theme for 2021, and ideas and inspiration for actions. Download it now and start getting ready for BAM.  Please do pass the handbook onto your group leaders and centre managers and start a conversation about what your community can do in June. Save the date April 14th 1900 - 1200 BST Ideas and Inspiration: How we speak up as Buddhists A sharing and listening space as we approach Buddhist Action Month June 16th 1900 - 2000 BST BAM Check-in What action are we taking, and how are we doing? A sharing and listening space Zoom invite coming soon. Check the BAM calendar

Appeal in aid of Amida India

Download Amida India Appeal 7th July

Below you will find a message from ITZI and the Amida Trustees, who are fundraising in support of our sangha in Delhi.

*****

We, the trustees of ITZI*, would like to tell you about the Amida Sangha in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.

The Sangha began over thirteen years ago, when Rev Sahishnu and Acharya Modgala were invited to go to Delhi to carry out an educational programme which taught English to Dalit children on the streets of Delhi. The Dalits – or so-called ‘Untouchables’ – are the lowest caste in the Indian system and have been subject to the most extreme prejudice, seen as less than human, worthy of no respect and restricted to work regarded as unclean. Dalits generally live in great poverty and often fear for their lives, especially if they challenge the system. The Dalit community told Dharmavidya that learning English is an essential first step to improve the prospects of Dalit children.

The educational programme was a great success, teaching English to many dozens of street children and their Dalit families, and helping to gain respect from the local authorities.

The Delhi sangha grew as the fruit of this work. Children and their families asked for classes in Buddhism and then became Buddhists, inspired particularly by the legacy of Dr Ambedkar’s Dalit Buddhist Movement, which sees Buddhism as a way out of the Dalit predicament.

When Rev Sahishnu retired in 2014, Rev Suvidya, a local member of the Dalit community, was ordained as a full minister and took over the leadership of the project, to great success. A local organisation, the Amida Buddhist Association (ABA), was set up at the same time and now oversees the work of the project. In 2016, new premises were rented to become the sangha’s first Dharma centre.

Rev Suvidya runs three busy weekly children’s classes in three different locations, teaching English and Buddhism, as well as leading two adult/mixed family services. He also makes regular pastoral visits to Buddhist families and others needing support.

Since 2014, Amida Trust has supported Rev Suvidya in his work by providing him with a modest allowance and paying the Dharma centre rent. However, the Trust now needs to find additional donations to maintain the level of financial support needed to sustain this wonderful project. Given the financial impact that COVID-19 continues to have in the Dalit community...

We need your help. 

Please help us to support Suvidya, Suando, Sudoshin and the community by making a donation today. 

No matter how small, your contribution will make a difference and help us secure the future of this project. 

We would particularly welcome regular monthly contributions.
Even £5 per month would have a significant impact.

 

Donate Help Bestow Contribute http://www.amidatrust.com/india/donate-now

Read individual stories http://www.amidatrust.com/india/ 

More Info  https://www.facebook.com/AmidaDelhi/ 

Contact Susthama [email protected]

Yours gratefully, 

The trustees of ITZI: 

Dharmavidya David Brazier, Cordelia Grimwood, Rachel Joyce-Gibbons, Geeta Chari, Susthama Kim

The trustees of Amida Trust:

Tony Danford, John Croxon, Pam O’Brien, Ian Summers-Noble

*The International Zen Therapy Institute, ITZI, is a consortium of trainers and centres around the world dedicated to the development and dissemination of education in Buddhism, Buddhist Psychology and related approaches to spirituality, therapy and personal growth.

*****

Dharmavidya writes: (with reference to the podcast he sent out today):  It concerns a topic upon which there was a good deal of discussion in the Zoom groups last weekend.

These podcasts go out to members of Amida Shu and over a hundred other people who have requested to receive them.  They, and the associated zoom meetings, are all offered free of charge.  If, however, you would like to make some donation, I would prefer that you send it to support Amida work in India.  (:: link)  I hope you will give generously to this request for funds as there is a great need and the more resources they have the more they can do.

New Year message from Roshi Joan Halifax

New Year message from Roshi Joan Halifax:

For 2020, I am deeply advocating for our collective and individual realization of wise hope, hope grounded in boundless compassion.

Wise hope reflects the understanding that what we do matters, even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can really know beforehand. Our vows, our actions, how we live, what we care about, what we care for, and how we care really do matter all the same.

The peacemaker Daniel Berrigan once remarked “One cannot level one’s moral lance at every evil in the universe. There are just too many of them. But you can do something; and the difference between doing something and doing nothing is everything.” Berrigan understood that wise hope doesn’t mean denying the realities that we are confronted with today. It means facing them, addressing them, and remembering what else is present, like the shifts in our values that recognize and move us to address suffering right now.

For many of us, it is an imperative to march for peace, to work for the ending of nuclear proliferation, to engage in climate protests, to put pressure on the US government to re-sign the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. It makes sense to shelter the homeless, including those fleeing from war and climate devastation; it makes sense to support compassion and care in medicine in spite of the increasing presence of technology that stands between patients and clinicians. It makes sense to educate girls and vote for women. It makes sense to sit with dying people, take care of our elders, feed the hungry, love and educate our children. In truth, we can’t know how things will turn out, but we can trust that there will be movement, there will be change. And at the same time, something deep inside us affirms what is good and right to do.

So my aspiration for you, for me, in this coming year is to actualize bravely wise hope, hope that is based in unconditional compassion. May we do this together, for the benefit of all beings.

Buddhist Action Month 2019: Climate Action – Personal Action

Buddhist Action Month 2019

Climate Action – Personal Action

:: link to download your own copy

BAM Handbook Ideas, Tips, Inspiration

Ver. 2

Contents

2019 Theme .....................................................................................................................................................

3 A Buddhist Approach .......................................................................................................................................

4 Some more about Buddhist Action Month.......................................................................................................

5 Who are the Network of Buddhist Organisations UK (NBO).............................................................................

6 What Can I Do? ................................................................................................................................................

7 Suggestions for BAM Activities ......................................................................................................................

15 Appendix 1: The Language of Climate Change ...............................................................................................

18Appendix 2: Letter to the Earth......................................................................................................................

21 Appendix 3 : Resources for our times ............................................................................................................

23 Appendix 4: Other Groups .............................................................................................................................

26 Appendix 5: Verses for inspiration .................................................................................................................

27 Acknowledgments .........................................................................................................................................31

2

2019 Theme

The Network of Buddhist Organisations has chosen the theme Climate Action – Personal Action for Buddhist Action Month 2019.

In the last 50 years the average global temperature has risen at the fastest rate in recorded history.1

This rising temperature has fuelled the extreme weather patterns and events that we are becoming more familiar with. Climate change has created droughts that lead to forest fires, and floods that wipe out homes and habitats and lives.

As the temperature in the oceans increases tropical storms gather more energy and create more destruction.2

“Climate change is devastating people's lives all over the world. With drought, storms,floods, crop damage and sea-level rise, millions are fleeing their homes. And it's the world’spoorest who are hardest hit.

The UN Refugee Agency says climate change adds to many of today’s conflicts — fromDarfur to Somalia to Iraq and Syria.”3

According to a recent study burning fossil fuels is now the “most significant threat tochildren’s health”4

The first teaching of the Buddha was the Four Noble Truths. How can we form a Noble response to climate change?

Supported by the teachings of the Buddha and our teachers through the ages we begin to inhabit the good qualities the Buddha described: generosity, ethics, wisdom, compassion and so on.

Supported by experts in climate change and environmental work, we can bring these qualities to actions that make a difference.

We can educate others, change our individual habits and take collective action.

1 https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/ 21/02/2019
2 https://www.nrdc.org/stories/global-warming-101 21/02/2019
3 https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate-change 21/02/2019
4 Perera F, Pollution from Fossil-Fuel Combustion is the Leading Environmental Threat to

Global Pediatric Health and Equity: Solutions Exist, Int J Environ Res Public Healthhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29295510

3

A Buddhist Approach

What is a Buddhist approach to responding to the climate crisis?

In February 2019 members of different Buddhist groups came together at an NBO facilitated event in London. Shared values that emerged from conversations at that event include:

•   Compassion for self, others and planet, love of humanity

•   Having responsibility for our actions and their consequences

•   Truthfulness, non-greed and non-harmfulness

•   Responsivity not reactivity

•   Wanting to hold space for reflection rather than rushing in

•   Becoming aware of our underling motives to act

•   Aiming to avoid polarisation: the middle way

Buddhist Peace Fellowship: To Muslim Kin, from Buddhists in the wake of Christchurch

:: link

Dear Muslim family,

As Buddhists, we bear witness to your suffering and grief, and offer prayers of deep metta to you across the world in the wake of the Christchurch massacre.

Wherever Muslim kin may feel under threat, from New Zealand to Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Tibet, India, Palestine, Turkistan, Thailand, Europe, the occupied US, and more, we offer love.

We support your right to live free from fear, and we vow to confront anti-Muslim sentiment that might make you feel anything less than safe, beloved, and holy in this world.

We share our prayers in recognition that white, Christian, or Hindu supremacy, colonization and occupation, or violent nationalism by any dominant group — including Buddhists — are systemic manifestations of the Three Poisons: greed, hatred, and delusion.

We must work to uproot these poisons not just from within ourselves, but also where they sit in structures of oppression in society.

Throughout space and time, people in our families have been on either side of such religiously-justified, angry nationalist violence — attacked for our faith, attacking others, or both.

Taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and joining movements for justice, may we continue to learn how to skillfully turn toward peace.

This is our hope, and our deep commitment.

With sadness, solidarity, and love in this time of grief,

 

Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Equality Labs

Dedunu Suraweera, Sri Lankan Buddhist Community on Staten Island

Dorjee Tseten, Students for a Free Tibet

Sonamtso, Students for a Free Tibet

Myokei Caine-Barrett Shonin, Nichiren Shu Order of North America

Ouyporn Khuankaew, International Women’s Partnership for Peace and Justice

Ravi Mishra, Awaken Meditation App

Katie Loncke, Buddhist Peace Fellowship

Mushim Ikeda, East Bay Meditation Center

 

If you support this statement, we welcome you to sign your name by adding a comment below. 

(by following the link at the bottom of this post)

Notes:

Our signatures and affiliations do not necessarily represent organizational endorsement. We speak for ourselves, in a diversity of Buddhist lineages and social movement organizations to which we belong.

We the undersigned are Buddhists who are not also Muslim; however, we want to honor and recognize those who do carry both traditions. 

:: link

Rohingya ~ Dharmavidya

QUESTION: In light of Medecin Sans Frontiere’s recent comments on the Rohingya, and the backlash against Aung San Suu Kyi, I wonder if you might be able to post on the site about your thoughts. 

SHORT ANSWER: Violence springs from delusion and we strive to overcome it and bring compassion into the world, but understanding the roots of particular delusions is complex and difficult.

LONGER ANSWER: I have no solution, but I can, as you ask, post some thoughts. This is not a situation that I have followed in detail so there is a danger that I may be misinformed. That said, it appears that the Myanmar government decided to drive the Rohingya out of their country and set about doing so in a brutal manner, but have now agreed to let many of them back in, though understandably many are frightened to return as there has been killing and persecution. The Myanmar government has a different version of events, but most of the international media are not taking that account seriously. Although the recent dreadful events are suddenly shocking there is, presumably, a long history to this problem and it is difficult to understand the whole situation without knowledge of this.

The Buddhist view is easy to state in regard to immediate events: hatred is not overcome by hatred, by love alone is hatred overcome. This is a clear principle. On this basis, one prays for an end to the killing and ill-treatment and some reparation for damage already done. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the case, lethal violence is not the answer. But where is the love?

One then comes to the really difficult question of what should be done. Stop the killing, certainly, but what then? How ease the tensions that led to the killing in the first place? Is it better for the Rohingya to go back to Myanmar or to go back to Bangladesh? Where did they come from in the first place? Why did they go to Myanmar? To the Burmese, I gather, they appear as interlopers, unwanted illegal immigrants. The USA is currently trying to get rid of illegal immigrants and this is causing a lot of social friction in that country. They are not shooting people, but they are breaking up families in many cases. The problems caused by the strong feelings people have about immigration are troubling many countries at the moment and passions can run very high indeed.

I would prefer a world in which people were free to move from country to country as they wished, but I can see that when this happens on a large scale with people of a culture deemed alien by those already resident in a country, it is experienced as invasion, and the historic response to invasion has generally been armed resistance. My ideal, therefore, may not be attainable in the real world. This means that many real life situations actually require delicate diplomacy and compromise. This leads me to ask how it has come about that this situation has got so bad that nobody notices until people start being slaughtered. The international community - if one can make such a sweeping generalisation - seems not to have seen this coming and not to have done much, if anything, to avert the catastrophe.

Issuing condemnations rarely does much good. The popular media want to have heroes and villains and when somebody seems to have switched from one of these categories to the other it causes great confusion, but this confusion is really the result of a way of thinking that was wrong from the beginning. People are people and they have to deal with the situations that come before them and in those situations there are often a complex balance of forces in play. What decisions has Aung San Suu Kyi actually made? What were the influences that she was juggling when she made those decisions? Why did the pope not even mention the Rohingya during his visit to Myanmar? How is a newspaper reader in a country on the other side of the planet to make sense of what is happening? What is needed is not the passing of moral judgements. What is needed is for help to be mobilised, informed by an in-depth understanding of the full situation. I myself cannot claim to have such an understanding, but there must be people in positions of authority who do.

The resolution of complex international problems requires more than knee jerk reactions. It requires in-depth understanding and resolute compassionate action that somehow helps all the main parties. This is, however, asking a lot since all the players who have the power to assist also have vested interests. These comments do not just apply to the Rohingya crisis - they apply to refugee problems all over the planet and all the other actually or potentially lethal political situations - N Korea, Syria, the stand-off in the Gulf, Ukraine, and so on. We pray and work for a wiser, more compassionate world, an end to bloodshed and enmity, reconciliation and repair, while all the time knowing that there are few certainties and real progress requires the wisdom of Solomon.

Who actually loves the Rohingya? Where will they find a secure home? What have they themselves done to make this development more likely? Who else can help and how? Why do the Burmese feel so angry? What can bring peace? These are the kinds of questions that need to be understood.

:: link

Whispers from the Bamboo Grove #39: News of the UK Faith Leaders' letter to the Prime Minister in support of refugees

UK Faith Leaders Write In Support Of Refugees

Over 200 leaders of the UK's major faiths met yesterday morning in London to call on the Prime Minister to do more to help refugees fleeing Syria, Iraq and other areas of conflict. The Amida Order's ::Acharya Modgala Duguid, who does sterling and important work as the ::Network of Buddhist Organisation's interfaith officer, is one of the signatories and spoke at this event (see below).  

Here is the Faith Leaders' Open Letter to the Prime Minister, signed by leaders and representatives of the Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist communities. It includes the words “The best of this country is represented by the generosity, kindness, solidarity and decency that Britain has at many times shown those fleeing persecution, even at times of far greater deprivation and difficulty than the present day. We rejoice in the mosaic of different faiths and British communities that we now represent.” :: link to letter. 

This is a ::newspaper report on the event: "Rowan Williams and 200 faith leaders call for revised refugee policy."

and a ::reflection by the Bishop of Croydon
"Why faith leaders are demanding urgent change to the refugee system."

Amnesty is arranging many 'Refugees Welcome' events, including ::this one in London on Saturday, which members of our Amida Malvern sangha will attend.
 

*****

Acharya Modgala

Some of our great Buddhist teachers came to the west as refugees and brought with them the teachings of wisdom and compassion. 

I travelled giving teachings and in 2003  spoke at a psychology conference in Sarajevo. The main concern of the participants was how to help their traumatised children. From running workshops I learnt more about the terrible long term psychological effects of such a war. 

 Amongst the refugees here in the UK we have many traumatised children and families, the trauma made worse because they are separated and are worried about family members and the dangerous journeys they are taking to escape war. Families need to be together to recover and then can take their place in society. 

 Once here much help is already available, many of our Buddhist groups are already linking with local communities to help refugees. In the UK  there are many people of all faiths and none waiting to help refugees. 

 As humans we feel an ethical imperative to help and I join my fellow faith leaders in making a plea to this government to design a safe, legal route that can enable reunions.
 

Acharya Modgala Duguid

Namo Amida Bu

 

Read previous Whispers from the Bamboo Grove newsletters here

:: link

Whispers from the Bamboo Grove - Amida Newsletter Number 13

Featuring Acharya Modgala Louise Duguid's involvement in interfaith work in Islington:

:: link