Healing Our Trauma *is* Climate Action I Sr. Lang Nghiem (Sr. Hero, Br. Phap Linh (br. Spirit)

Recorded on 31.10.2021

"Our way of being led us into the present crisis.
Our way of being can lead us out."
- zen master Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay)

Many of us feel an urgency to do something to support Mother Earth. What can we do, and do sustainably, that will really help?

In this special livestreamed sharing upon their return from the TED Countdown Climate Conference, Sr. Lăng Nghiêm and Br. Pháp Linh continue the work of our teacher Thay and offer us a clear path to address the deep roots of our current ecological crisis. They explain how, together, through the way we train our understanding and live our daily lives, we can bring about the collective awakening that is needed to meet and transform the situation.

Sr. Lăng Nghiêm shares with us the path of moderation. She describes the power of this practice when we look deeply and transform not only to our way of consuming material goods, but also our way of thinking, our measures of success, and our ideas of happiness. She describes the connection between moderation and self-acceptance, and explains how moderation provides us with true security and an antidote to fear and greed, and is a concrete expression of our love for Mother Earth and those who will come after us. She reminds us that the agency and the power to break the cycle of excessive production and consumption lies not only with political leaders and large corporations, but fundamentally resides in each one of us.

Br. Pháp Linh begins by acknowledging the deep anxiety and despair experienced by so many of us around the world today, and especailly young people. He describes how, by mastering two fundamental skills, we can transform this pain into resilience and collective effective action- and can help others cultivate this same capacity and inspiration. Our brother shares a perspective that may be surprising and counterintuitive for many of us: that our society's ability to effectively mitigate and adapt to climate change rests fundamentally on our capacity to care for our physiological and emotional well-being; and in particular, to learn, in any context, how to generate a feeling of joy and happiness and to take care of a feeling of pain.

Br. Pháp Linh offers us a path to develop these skills individually and collectively, and to transform our narrative and outlook regarding the current global situation. He encourages us to train to see that we are "not just a leaf, but also the whole tree"- to see our deep interconnectedness with Mother Earth and all of life. When we see that, we never need to feel like a victim. When we see that, we also see that we can help transform the global situation in any moment, in any action of our daily life.

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Видео Healing Our Trauma *is* Climate Action I Sr. Lang Nghiem (Sr. Hero, Br. Phap Linh (br. Spirit) канала Plum Village