Extinction as a result of global warming

Discuss the application of the Dharma to situations of social, political, environmental and economic suffering and injustice.
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Kim O'Hara
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Re: Extinction as a result of global warming

Post by Kim O'Hara »

SilenceMonkey wrote: Wed Sep 08, 2021 3:38 am You're deep in it, Kim!
Indeed. I think everyone gravitates towards a niche in which they feel comfortable and useful, and this seems to be mine.
I'm not a climate scientist but a teacher with a good science background and a :emb: long history of reading SF, so I'm well placed to communicate the science to non-scientists.
Add to that the knowledge that climate change, unchecked, will cause enormous suffering, everywhere.
And add to those two a certain level of commitment to the bodhisattva ideal and ... here we are.

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Kim O'Hara
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Re: Extinction as a result of global warming

Post by Kim O'Hara »

SilenceMonkey wrote: Wed Sep 08, 2021 1:33 am Say, has anyone read "The Ministry of Fortune" by Kim Stanley Robinson? Ezra Klein said last November that it was the most important book he's read all year. So important he hasn't written another article on Vox since then.

https://www.vox.com/authors/ezra-klein
In The Ministry for the Future, Robinson imagines a world wracked by climate catastrophe. Some nations begin unilateral geoengineering. Eco-violence arises as people begin to experience unchecked climate change as an act of war against them, and they respond in kind, using new technologies to hunt those they blame. Capitalism ruptures, changes, and is remade. Nations, and the relations between them, transform. Ultimately, humanity is successful, but it is a terrifying success — a success that involves making the kinds of choices that none of us want to even think about making.
Thanks again for the recommendation. Thanks to the recommendation I'm now reading it, and I'm enormously impressed by it so far.

:reading:
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Re: Extinction as a result of global warming

Post by Dharmasherab »

All conditioned things are impermanent and therefore extinction is inevitable. Mass extinctions have happened since time immemorial and will continue to happen. There is no point trying to defile our minds when this rare human life can be used for transcending suffering by practicing the BuddhaDharma. Trying to create a better Samsara is a pointless exercise. Expecting politicians to make help with the global warming issue, whether that works or not, it doesnt matter. Because politics will eventually always let us down.
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Re: Extinction as a result of global warming

Post by Malcolm »

Dharmasherab wrote: Thu Nov 25, 2021 2:09 pm There is no point trying to defile our minds when this rare human life can be used for transcending suffering by practicing the BuddhaDharma. Trying to create a better Samsara is a pointless exercise.
What happened to your Mahāyāna bodhicitta? Of course we cannot improve samsara. No one is suggesting that we ought to. We work with the samsara we have. And as Mahāyāna Buddhists, we help others work with the samsara they have, right down to the amoeba, plankton, and yes, even plants and other nonsentient creatures.
Expecting politicians to make help with the global warming issue, whether that works or not, it doesnt matter. Because politics will eventually always let us down.
What you are essentially saying is this: since climate change does not matter, the extinction of billions of creatures does not matter, and therefore, their happiness does not matter.
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Re: Extinction as a result of global warming

Post by KathyLauren »

Kim O'Hara wrote: Tue Sep 07, 2021 11:51 pmin the Canadian jungles, for instance.
You've seen my back yard, then, I take it? :tongue:
Dharmasherab wrote: Thu Nov 25, 2021 2:09 pm Trying to create a better Samsara is a pointless exercise.
Trying to create a better samsara is how you manifest compassion. Of course, samsara being what it is, you won't succeed. But if you can't be bothered making the effort, where is your practice?

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Re: Extinction as a result of global warming

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I think the idea is that you can’t perfect samsara. The reason we eat food is to improve samsara temporarily by making hunger pangs go away.
1.The problem isn’t ‘ignorance’. The problem is the mind you have right now. (H.H. Karmapa XVII @NYC 2/4/18)
2. I support Mingyur R and HHDL in their positions against lama abuse.
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Re: Extinction as a result of global warming

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There are many potential practices within Vajrayana which can slow down or ameliorate global warming, but I'd like to recommend one that I think is frequently overlooked: Kshitigarbha/Sai Nyingpo. Kshitigarbha is most popularly practiced in China and Japan. In China, Kshitigarbha is practiced for liberation from hell. In Japan, He is commonly practiced for any and all lost fetuses. However, Kshitigarbha can also be practiced for control of the earth and all the Lords of the Earth and other spirits associated with the earth. In terms of Tibetan Buddhism, Ju Mipham has a very nice short practice which is available at www.lotsawahouse.org. There is also a modern terma revealed in the last 20 years in (I believe) North America by Orgyen Kusum Lingpa. It can be received from Tulku Sherdor Rinpoche Who has a FB page if one is interested. "Better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness."
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Re: Extinction as a result of global warming

Post by Genjo Conan »

Dogen instructed,

Once, while the late Sojo [Archbishop] Eisai was at Kenninji, a poor man came and said, "My family is so destitute that we have had nothing to eat for several days. My wife and children are about to die of starvation. Please have compassion on us."

At the time, there was no clothing, food, or other possessions in the temple. Although Eisai contemplated what to do, he was at a loss. There was a little bit of thin copper allocated for making the halo for the Yakushi-Buddha which was under construction. The abbot took it and broke it apart, rolled it up, and gave it to the poor man, telling him to exchange it for food to relieve his family's hunger.

The man was very delighted and left.

Eisai's disciples, however, reproached him [Eisai] saying, "That is nothing other than the halo for the statue of the Buddha. You gave it away to the layman. Is it not a sin to use the Buddha's property for personal use?"

The Sojo replied, "Yes, it is. Yet think of the Buddha's will. The Buddha cut off his flesh and limbs and offered them to living beings. Even if we gave the whole body of the Buddha to people who are actually about to die of starvation, such an action would certainly be in accordance with the Buddha's will."

He went on, "Even if I fall into hell because of this sin, I have just saved living beings from starvation."

Students today should also consider the innermost heart of this venerable predecessor. Do not forget it.
Eihei Dogen, Shobogenzo Zuimonki, 2-2
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Kim O'Hara
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Re: Extinction as a result of global warming

Post by Kim O'Hara »

pemachophel wrote: Fri Nov 26, 2021 8:59 pm There are many potential practices within Vajrayana which can slow down or ameliorate global warming, but I'd like to recommend one that I think is frequently overlooked: Kshitigarbha/Sai Nyingpo. Kshitigarbha is most popularly practiced in China and Japan. In China, Kshitigarbha is practiced for liberation from hell. In Japan, He is commonly practiced for any and all lost fetuses. However, Kshitigarbha can also be practiced for control of the earth and all the Lords of the Earth and other spirits associated with the earth. In terms of Tibetan Buddhism, Ju Mipham has a very nice short practice which is available at www.lotsawahouse.org. There is also a modern terma revealed in the last 20 years in (I believe) North America by Orgyen Kusum Lingpa. It can be received from Tulku Sherdor Rinpoche Who has a FB page if one is interested. "Better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness."
Thanks.
There's actually a whole thread dedicated to such practices, Reversing Global Warming - Prayers and Aspirations at https://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=31593.

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Kim O'Hara
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Re: Extinction as a result of global warming

Post by Kim O'Hara »

KathyLauren wrote: Thu Nov 25, 2021 2:37 pm
Kim O'Hara wrote: Tue Sep 07, 2021 11:51 pmin the Canadian jungles, for instance.
You've seen my back yard, then, I take it? :tongue:
After that comment I can imagine it :smile: but, with all due respect, I'm sure your back yard now is not a jungle as I know jungles - and, more to the point, as your back yard may be in 20 or 50 years' time. Pythons? Crocodiles? Green-ants? Wait-a-while vines? Giant Stinging Trees? Fungi growing on everything that doesn't move - including you, if you stand still for too long? Strangler Figs? Mangroves along the river banks and the coast?
Florida - or even Guatemala - now is our model for Canada in the future.
And Florida (- South Carolina - Texas - etc) isn't doing too well these days, either -
Communities 'rooted in this soil' face a managed retreat from climate change and rising waters

A "managed retreat" is the planned relocation of people vulnerable to flooding and rising sea levels
Parts of Louisiana, Wisconsin and Illinois have used this strategy in the US since 1989
Parts of Florida, California and New York could some day need to use the same strategy ...
:reading: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-26/ ... /100640950

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Re: Extinction as a result of global warming

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KathyLauren wrote: Thu Nov 25, 2021 2:37 pm
Trying to create a better samsara is how you manifest compassion. Of course, samsara being what it is, you won't succeed. But if you can't be bothered making the effort, where is your practice?
Yes it is a way to manifest compassion. However when done mindlessly it is also a good way to develop delusion even further. It is not unusual to increase their disturbing emotions based on trying to change things which are far beyond their control so they miss the time and waste their effort which could be used for practice of the mind. In an age like this including in the West, most people's deepest disturbing emotions tend to lie within their beliefs in politics and some of whom are into engaged Buddhism who try to promote and push their own political narrative on others in the disguise of engaged Buddhism. This is not compassion. Instead, it is manipulative behaviour based on delusion. For others who are of the more sincere type, its the attitude of trying to cover the entire surface of the earth with rubber instead of wearing rubber shoes.

As for my practice, I am a novice monk living as a full time resident in a Buddhist monastery. Renunciation, ethical conduct and meditation requires effort and that is my practice.
“When one does not understand death, life can be very confusing.” - Ajahn Chah
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Re: Extinction as a result of global warming

Post by Malcolm »

Dharmasherab wrote: Thu Dec 09, 2021 2:02 pm
KathyLauren wrote: Thu Nov 25, 2021 2:37 pm
Trying to create a better samsara is how you manifest compassion. Of course, samsara being what it is, you won't succeed. But if you can't be bothered making the effort, where is your practice?
Yes it is a way to manifest compassion. However when done mindlessly it is also a good way to develop delusion even further. It is not unusual to increase their disturbing emotions based on trying to change things which are far beyond their control so they miss the time and waste their effort which could be used for practice of the mind. In an age like this including in the West, most people's deepest disturbing emotions tend to lie within their beliefs in politics and some of whom are into engaged Buddhism who try to promote and push their own political narrative on others in the disguise of engaged Buddhism. This is not compassion. Instead, it is manipulative behaviour based on delusion. For others who are of the more sincere type, its the attitude of trying to cover the entire surface of the earth with rubber instead of wearing rubber shoes.

Lot of judgement of others in your post, buddy. I guess you don’t see the yak on your own nose because you are too busy looking for spots on the noses of others.
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Re: Extinction as a result of global warming

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I read this notion a lot on this board - not for a better samsara - and then observe the general dispositions displayed on the board that go with those quips...

Any diligent student of Buddhism understands the features of samsara. The path to awakening, however, winds through samsara (leaving aside after death options). We can go a long way to securing for ourselves and others the freedoms and advantages that are conducive to treading the path. Nagarjuna encouraged us to make the conditions conducive to the appearance of bodhisattvas. Buddhist kings kept monasteries of monks and nuns the way others kept stables of horses. If you're barely keeping your own head above water, by all means you should do your best to save yourself. If you have the ability to make establish the circumstances and supports for others to tread the path, as a Buddhist practitioner, it behooves you to do so. In my ideal vision, I am able to build a dharma garden where good dharma friends can gather and practice, with feeders attracting bodhisattvas to bless us with their songs.

In practice, at this moment as a comfortable householder in the first half of the 21st c., I must do what I can to avert the worst case scenarios from human caused climate change while supporting the flourishing of the dharma - supporting teachers, translators, and diligent students, while of course practicing for myself as well. Even with the fading of Shakyamuni's teaching, this world is still blessed with echoes of his lion's roar. When you look out at the telescope images we are getting, the vast open loneliness of space makes it even more compelling we need to do what we can here, now. This moment now is that log floating in the ocean found by the one eyed turtle. I'd like to make it last as long as possible.

It seems to me that what is often styled as non-attachment is really just a defensive posture against the overwhelming bad news. Maybe I'm wrong and people who quip, "not for a better samsara", are actually diligently treading the path with virya, but I can't shake the impression that I see a lot of people shrinking into fetal positions, using dharma as their excuse.

I bow to all those extending themselves in their own practice and their practice for others.
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
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Re: Extinction as a result of global warming

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Malcolm wrote: Thu Dec 09, 2021 3:05 pm
Lot of judgement of others in your post, buddy. I guess you don’t see the yak on your own nose because you are too busy looking for spots on the noses of others.
Its not a judgement. Its more of an observation. The statement about the yak on the nose I take it that it may apply to you also? Given that you also do make lots of judgements about others (like calling others 'right wing nut jobs'). Also that statement is so generic to the extent that it can be applied to pretty much anyone who gives reasons to disagree with another's position. Just because I dont share your political views it doesnt make you more holier. You like most of us are subject to greed, hatred and delusion. So from that viewpoint we are all on the same boat.
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Re: Extinction as a result of global warming

Post by Malcolm »

Dharmasherab wrote: Sun Dec 26, 2021 6:31 pm Just because I dont share your political views it doesnt make you more holier.
No, it just makes me more sensible.
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Re: Extinction as a result of global warming

Post by Dharmasherab »

Malcolm wrote: Sun Dec 26, 2021 6:41 pm
No, it just makes me more sensible.
No. That's just being arrogant and conceited.
“When one does not understand death, life can be very confusing.” - Ajahn Chah
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Re: Extinction as a result of global warming

Post by Malcolm »

Dharmasherab wrote: Sun Dec 26, 2021 6:51 pm
Malcolm wrote: Sun Dec 26, 2021 6:41 pm
No, it just makes me more sensible.
No. That's just being arrogant and conceited.
All views are not equal, if they were, it wouldn't matter if one was a Buddhist or a Christian as far as liberation goes. This also applies to politics, where some views, the views of liberals who are committed to democracy, are better than the views of others, such as conservatives, who are not committed to democracy and never have been.
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Re: Extinction as a result of global warming

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Dharmasherab wrote: Thu Dec 09, 2021 2:02 pm
KathyLauren wrote: Thu Nov 25, 2021 2:37 pm
Trying to create a better samsara is how you manifest compassion. Of course, samsara being what it is, you won't succeed. But if you can't be bothered making the effort, where is your practice?
Yes it is a way to manifest compassion. However when done mindlessly it is also a good way to develop delusion even further. It is not unusual to increase their disturbing emotions based on trying to change things which are far beyond their control so they miss the time and waste their effort which could be used for practice of the mind. In an age like this including in the West, most people's deepest disturbing emotions tend to lie within their beliefs in politics and some of whom are into engaged Buddhism who try to promote and push their own political narrative on others in the disguise of engaged Buddhism. This is not compassion. Instead, it is manipulative behaviour based on delusion. For others who are of the more sincere type, its the attitude of trying to cover the entire surface of the earth with rubber instead of wearing rubber shoes.
.
As for my practice, I am a novice monk living as a full time resident in a Buddhist monastery. Renunciation, ethical conduct and meditation requires effort and that is my practice.
I've met plenty of ideological Buddhists who dig themselves into a dour, depressing, insular and fixated (not in a good way) point of view that easily rivals people who are into politics. It's kinda silly to support the samsara of religious people over the samsara of secular people - they are both samsara. Failing to distinguish one's own downfalls is at the root here. Would you like me to list off all the abuse scandals, etc. present in religious institutions - including Buddhism? One does not escape the kleshas simply by abandoning politics.

Most of your posts on this subject say as much about you as they do the people you are constantly criticizing. That isn't meant as an insult, we all have our areas of conflict and doubt.
Meditate upon Bodhicitta when afflicted by disease

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when sad

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when suffering occurs

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when you are scared

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Re: Extinction as a result of global warming

Post by Dharmasherab »

Johnny Dangerous wrote: Sun Dec 26, 2021 9:28 pm I've met plenty of ideological Buddhists who dig themselves into a dour, depressing, insular and fixated (not in a good way) point of view that easily rivals people who are into politics. It's kinda silly to support the samsara of religious people over the samsara of secular people - they are both samsara. Failing to distinguish one's own downfalls is at the root here. Would you like me to list off all the abuse scandals, etc. present in religious institutions - including Buddhism? One does not escape the kleshas simply by abandoning politics.

Most of your posts on this subject say as much about you as they do the people you are constantly criticizing. That isn't meant as an insult, we all have our areas of conflict and doubt.
When the Prince Siddartha left to live as an ascetic, one of the things he abandoned was politics given that he was raised by his father and other supporters to take up the leadership among the Sakyans. The Buddha's life is meant to be an example to be followed. This is not to say that politics is unimportant, yet political ideals are still within the limits of Samsara.

Please do note that the scandals in Buddhism are because of those who dont follow the Dharma. I am not with them either. Just like a lot of people who are into politics wont consider Nazis and fascists as part of them, those who are in positions of religious authority who do abuse are not my people either.

Its provided that one practices the Dharma, then the results go above and beyond the limits of Samsara. This is why there is no point in quarrelling about politics in Buddhist circles as it just creates disharmony and discord. Its best to let go of the view that just because one holds a political position that they are a more 'sensible' type of Buddhist compared to other Buddhists.

I am not surprised if there are people who think I am conservative (I am not, never been and never voted for any conservative). I used to be of the left and I left the left as today's narrative of what the left tends to support things which dont align with Buddhist teachings (such as refraining from abortion). Right has never been an option for me. I do have Buddhist friends who are of the left and of the right and I dont treat them differently based on their political views. I am in the process of becoming neutral by letting go of whatever the left wing views I used to have. So yes in that sense some of the posts I made do say something about me.
“When one does not understand death, life can be very confusing.” - Ajahn Chah
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Re: Extinction as a result of global warming

Post by Dharmasherab »

Malcolm wrote: Sun Dec 26, 2021 7:07 pm All views are not equal, if they were, it wouldn't matter if one was a Buddhist or a Christian as far as liberation goes. This also applies to politics, where some views, the views of liberals who are committed to democracy, are better than the views of others, such as conservatives, who are not committed to democracy and never have been.
When it comes to religion this is correct. But when it comes to politics it doesn't matter given that politics will always let us down. Liberalism hasn't made the world a better place. Actually in one year abortion became the number one cause of death around the world and this is partly due to the popularity of liberal ideals. By considering that Buddhists who are liberals are more sensible than conservative Buddhists you are creating a the grounds for further division among Buddhists. What is liberalism today will not be the liberalism in another 2 decades or more. The same labels will be used over and over again but their meanings would change. Todays liberals are for censorship and authoritarianism which is more aligned with fascism than with democracy. This is part of the reason why I am no longer of the left and I left the left. However this doesn't mean I consider myself superior to Buddhists who hold left wing views. When it comes to being Buddhist what political party you support is not much different from which football team you support. Its the Buddhist teachings that really matter, other forms of knowledge whether that is communism, socialism or capitalism are samsaric forms of knowledge and practice and will only lead to suffering and disappointment.
“When one does not understand death, life can be very confusing.” - Ajahn Chah
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