Dharma Gaia - forum Friday Mar 28

The trees, mountains and rivers are my true face.

New eras produce new challenges which require new responses and initiatives. The Dharma Gaia Fellowship is one of these initiatives.

As practitioners of the Buddha Way we understand that all life is sacred — we practise to protect, care for and save the multitudinous beings, sentient and non-sentient, dissolving the three human poisons of greed, hatred and ignorance.

The motto and the credo “Greed is Good” has now come to dominate much of human activity on the planet, producing disastrous and tragic effects on our environment and climate. The insatiable, greedy pushing for endless growth without limit has been like a cancer, out of control. It has created chaos and havoc in human populations, our beloved plants and animals and indeed the entire ecosystem we call Earth. Economics has more than ever become a moral and a survival issue.

Over 90% of world climate scientists are now convinced that the prevailing climate crisis is the result of human activity. Much of this activity is propelled by ignorance and greed. Ignorance usually precedes greed and hatred. We know that the power of mindful awareness can dissolve ignorance and therefore greed.

Innumerable historical examples show that when groups of like-minded people meet for a common purpose great changes can happen.

The first aim of the Dharma Gaia Fellowship is to meet, share and discuss these issues together  — dispelling ignorance around our relationship to our environment, our Earth and the current climate crisis. To enhance and empower our discussion we shall include periods of mindfulness practice as part of our meetings.

The second aim is to encourage, share and discuss skilful means and knowledge which may facilitate our meeting the lifestyle, food, energy and building challenges which now confront us as a society. How can we most readily and practically make the survival changes which are required?

In our meetings we shall aim to share knowledge, skills and creativity about these matters.

The Dharma Gaia Fellowship brings together two of the most important threads of our lives: our cherished Dharma spiritual practice concerning the Great Matter of birth and death, and the need to return to our mother Earth — giving up ignorant, greedy and destructive pathways by learning and adopting life-sustaining, creative solutions.

Peter Thompson

May All Beings Be Happy