 |
|
GPIW at the United Nations Climate Summit in Paris - December 2015
|
In early December, 2015, GPIW brought a delegation of spiritual teachers to the United Nations Climate Summit in Paris through a grant from the International Council for the Day of Vesak (ICDV) and ITRI, an organization of lay Buddhists in Japan, and DDMBA. During our days in Paris we organized a number of activities including an official side event at Climate Generations, the NGO portion of the UN Summit organized by the French government. Other activities included an afternoon of meditation and prayers for the Earth at Kagyu-Dzong Tibetan Buddhist Center, the launching of the Citizens' Pact for the Earth with Dr. Vandana Shiva, a reception for those attending the Climate Summit with friends from the local Paris community. The delegation also held a silent meditation and prayer at the Place de la Republique memorial for those who had lost their lives during the terrorist attack a few weeks earlier.
|
|
| L-R Wahid Ur Rehman Para, Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Ven. Chang Ji, Swami Atmarupananda, Mihir Mathur, Judy Lief, Angela Fischer, Father Michael Holleran, Dena Merriam, Richard Cizik, Ven. Chang Zao, Sraddhalu Ranade, Zarko Andricevic, Ven. Guo Chan Fa Shih |
While there was much focus during the official meeting on how to limit carbon emissions to keep temperature rise within 2 degrees Celsius, ways to finance the transition to alternative energy for the least developed countries, etc., there was little attention paid to the spiritual dimensions of the climate crisis - to the accompanying ecological damage, the destruction of life forms and life systems and the impact of this damage on the human community. Our side event The Inner Dimensions of Climate Change sought to address these issues from a spiritual perspective. Our presenters, from various meditative traditions, spoke of the need to renew our relationship with the Earth and Her many communities of life, to learn to listen and to come again into a caring relationship with the Earth. The session was held in one of the larger conference rooms with nearly 200 people in attendance. Many in the audience came forward afterwards to offer appreciation to the speakers of the delegation for bringing the spiritual dimension of the climate crisis to the UN Summit.
|
|
|
| Session at Climate Generations COP21 with Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Angela Fischer, Swami Atmarupananda and Rev. Richard Cizik |
There was cause for both optimism and despair at the Summit; optimism because finally the countries agreed that climate change is a serious threat, and therefore action needed to be taken; despair from the NGO sector because of the realization that whatever action would be taken would be far too little too late and that the effects of climate change would not be halted. The best we could hope for was to minimalize the impact, but in the end adapt.
There was another dimension, however, to what was happening in Paris. Only a few weeks earlier a terrible terrorist attack had occurred. We could not help but feel the connection between the growing violence in human society and the human violence against the natural world. As we cause harm to the natural word, we cause harm to ourselves. As we unrelentingly damage the life energy of our planet, we bring imbalance and disruption to human society. A society built on acts of violence against nature - through deforestation, mining, and harming animal and plant life - will instill this violence subtly in the minds of people. The state of our planet and the state we find ourselves in as a human community are deeply connected. If we embrace the principle of interconnection, we know that to address one issue, we must address the other. The serious imbalances in nature resulting from human action are also causing deep imbalances in the human mind.
One of the issues that we raised, and that the UN is seeking to address, is the contribution of industrialized agriculture and the meat industry to climate change - and to a culture of violence. It is estimated that 70 billion animals a year are raised and killed for meat production, raised mostly in unnatural and cruel ways - in great contrast to any natural rhythm of nature. People are now beginning to be aware of the suffering that animals endure in captivity and the brutality and injustice that is purposefully hidden from the public. There is also a lack of attention to how we care for water and soil. We pour several billion pounds of pesticides and chemical fertilizers on the Earth annually, poisoning our waters, soils and all of life. Just two behavioral changes - a reduction in meat consumption and the transition from industrial agriculture to local, organic food production - would have a huge effect on climate change, and these are behavioral changes that everyone can make. Many now realize that these simple changes are good for the animals, our planet and our health.
|
|
| Sraddhalu Ranade of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Jiribati Berlin Diques Rios, leader from Tambo River Ashaninka peoples of Peru, Swami Atmarupananda, Ramakrishna Mission ~ photo Eliane Fernandes |
Our days in Paris were spent in meditation, presentations, discussions and meetings with local people. As our group of 17 people from different parts of the world and different religious traditions participated in the working sessions and meditated together at the memorial to the victims of the terrorist attack in La Place de la Republic, we reflected on the spiritual aspects of the climate crisis and the human crisis. The acknowledgement that human behavior is the cause of climate change is just the first step in being able to address the problem. A much deeper understanding is needed. When we speak of human behavior, it is not just the burning of coal and oil, but our whole attitude toward the Earth and the natural world. It is the behavior of domination that must change. How do we cultivate gratitude and move beyond human self-importance so that we can experience the subtle realms, which give rise to all we see. Can we learn again to listen to the wisdom of nature, which maintains the balance and harmony in the natural world. Instead of seeking to dominate nature we should with humility seek to learn from it.
|
Not all conflicts in the world can be linked to climate change, but it is known that the four year, climate change induced drought in Syria was one significant cause of the great unrest that led to the current civil war - which is now causing violence in many parts of the world. To address climate change and violence in our societies we must transform our collective behavior from that of domination to one of humility and gratitude. If we have any hope of mitigating the effects of a changing climate, we must look beyond our carbon emissions.
There was general admission at COP 21 that a transition to clean energy societies is a must, but we have yet to realize that the deeper and more urgent need is to shift our collective thinking away from this domination mentality. This is the challenge before us if we have any hopes of mitigating the climate crisis.
|
|
| Ven. Lama Gyurme begins afternoon of interfaith prayers at Kagyu Dzong Buddhist temple in Paris |
|
Highlights and statements from Inner Dimensions of Climate Change session at the Climate Generations COP21
"So much of the discussion that has been taking place here (COP21) has been about the reduction in carbon and some of the external changes that need to take place. We want to look at the internal changes that can facilitate these external changes. Without a deep transformation in the human community it's going to be a challenge to make the changes we need in the external world." ~ Dena Merriam
|
"We are not healing the Earth, we are healing ourselves and in order to heal ourselves we have to be able to face, in a courageous way, the harm we have done to our home, to our fellow beings and to see the power of that. The key to moving forward is not losing hope and that has to do with love, love for this planet Earth. When we really love something we would not consider doing the harmful things we have done." ~ Acarya Judy Lief
View full video presentation here
|
|
|
|
| Young leaders panel with Mihir Mathur, Ven. Chang Zao, Brianne Chai-Onn Wahid Ur Rehman Para, Adam Bucko |
"In listening to the negotiations and presentations here at COP21 I hear, 'What solutions do WE have?' 'What can WE do?' We have forgotten to leave space. Unconsciously we do not leave space, space which can open us to more than just problems and solutions, space for mystery to come in. If we can breathe consciously then we allow for this space, a feminine quality which has been forgotten. We can listen to the space of infinite potential -- that which is wanting to come into life." ~ Angela Fischer
View full video presentation
here and read her reflections and profound inner experience of the Earth while in Paris
here
|
|
| Marishori Samaniego Pascual, representing the Ashaninka people of Peru Photo by Eliane Fernandes |
"In the Lakota language there is no word for domination. How can you have a concept or thought process of domination if you are in relationship with everything."
~ Tiokasin Ghosthorse
View full video presentation
here
"What we need is a spiritual revolution -- and that has to be done in small communities. When there are enough of those communities the center of life will simply switch from the dominant culture to what's emerging in those communities and what will be emerging are those values of compassion, justice, aliveness and beauty."
~ Adam Bucko
View full video presentation here
"What are the root causes and what is it we need to change fundamentally if things are to come back together meaningfully, if things are to last, if life is to continue? When at all such a discussion takes place it is reduced to finances, business transactions, it is reduced to saving or protecting a certain species from extinction but the root cause is always missed. "
~ Sraddhalu Ranade
View full video presentation
here
|
|
| Wahid Ur Rehman Para, young peacemaker from Kashmir |
"How can we clean anything when it is our hearts that are polluted. It is not the pollution outside but the pollution that is inside all of us. We need to clean our hearts first."
~ Waheed Ur Rehman Para
view full video presentation here
"[As a young person] for the future I envision equilibrium within us, between us AND between the economy and ecology. I envision responsible and pro-active societies. As a model of change we need to have indicators and information systems that tell us the real state of the world that we live in -- in real time. We need not understand things after they have happened."
~ Mihir Mathur
view full video presentation here
"Usually in the modern world we often think that action comes first - there is no time to think, no time for being 'we gotta get out there and act'. There is a good reason for that but it is missing the larger point that action comes out of being and unless our being, that is who we are is taken care of, how we see, our actions won't be true."
"A traditional Hindu, when waking up in the morning, getting out of bed and putting their feet on the earth would say, "kshamaswa", which means forgive me -- but not really forgive me, not from a feeling of guilt or being unworthy, but from the realization that one is stepping on Mother Earth and moving about on her. Knowing Earth as the source of our being and recognizing Earth as a responsive being. Also, when first seeing the rising sun one salutes it as a manifestation of the Divine. What are the ways we can learn in our different traditions to expand these concepts and make them part of our way of seeing, being and way of acting."
~ Swami Atmarupananda
View full video presentation here
"If we can, like Saint Francis, [who had such a communion with all of nature] re-kindle the natural sense of kinship we have in existence, forming one planet, one reality, one universe then we will be much less tempted to mistreat it. "
~ Father Michael Holleran
View full video presentation here
"How we feel about ourselves permeates all areas of our life. How can we not alienate ourselves and have a relationship with nature if we are trapped in our small selfish perspective and looking only at everything around us only from our interests. How could we understand nature, others, ourselves?
If we look deeply within we will see that we are very often not in touch with our feelings, our own bodies, with others, not in touch with nature. We are deeply alienated and out of this comes wrong strategies that often end in our own suffering, the suffering of others and the destruction of the natural world in which we live. "
~ Zarko Andricevic
View full video presentation
here
"We are spiritually moving people here today, moving them to be defenders doing what God would have us to do, because ultimately He owns it, we don't own it."
~ Rev. Richard Cizik
View full video presentation here
"We have to feel the interconnection with the earth. We are not living alone on this planet. Our attitude can create a different world for the next generation."
~ Ven. Chang Zao
View full presentation here
We extend also a deep note of thanks to Kathrin Scheel-Ungerleider, and the support of our friends in Paris who generously gave of their time and provided much needed help and assistance. Gratitude to Ann-Sofi Carlborn, Elizabeth and Joe Asch, Jean-Paul Mertinez, Lama Gyurme, Jasser Haj Youssef
,
and Bernadette, Robert Heurtaux
and members of Kagyu Dzong, Veronique Cheynet-Cluzel, Ridha Baldi, Trude Reed, Deb Ferden and many others.
|
|
| Ven. Chang Ji, Ven. Guo Chan Fa Shih, Elizabeth Asch - by Philipa Daria |
|
|
| Join in the Support of the work of the Global Peace Initiative of Women
|
|
|
|
|
|
