March 2022
XR Buddhists stand with our fellow Buddhists and all within Extinction Rebellion at this most momentous of times.
The climate emergency brings both the most terrible of possibilities and the most transformational. The possibility of mass extinction of life on this planet is forcing upon us a truth long forgotten by the so-called developed world: that all things are connected. We have lived too long in a delusion of separation, disconnected from our true selves and the astonishing grace and beauty of human and non-human animals, plants, rivers and mountains with which we share our world.
This delusional state of separateness has paved the way for the widespread and critical harm our way of life has had upon the Earth. It has enabled the systemic oppression of indigenous people, marginalised groups, and people of the global south who have done the least to create the crisis but who are bearing the worst effects.
And in our hearts we have also paid a heavy price: a sense of meaninglessness, and of personal and spiritual loneliness has become pervasive. The climate crisis asks of us that we urgently awaken to the reality of interdependence, that we heal and to grow into a new relatedness, including the undoing of systems of oppression in ourselves and in the world.
And the way to this awakening is love. In Buddhist practice, as in many faith traditions, we invite this loving heart through meditation, ritual, and our wisdom teachings.
With our dear friends in this emerging and courageous movement, we sit and walk in the light of love and the spirit of the awakened heart.
May wisdom and love prevail.