Twisted Vine: Photographed during sesshin, 2019
it's alive! eco-dharma group
"There is no me, and you. Just me-and-you, always arriving together, me-and-you healing into each other. The depth of the ‘and’ in me-and-you is the breadth of this universe. The whole Earth, her ecosystems, and the entire cosmos turns on this mutuality. Everything moves together."
- Susan Murphy Roshi, from 'A Fire Runs Through All Things'
Aim Of 'It's Alive!'
Our aim is to work on projects that address the climate emergency, to protect, sustain, and save the natural environment and its many inhabitants, and to deepen our own connection with Mother Earth. Along the way, we hope to inspire others to do the same. As climate change and the destruction of the natural world and her inhabitants escalates critically, each one of us experiences ongoing grief and a great desire to do something towards supporting all life on this wonderful and bounteous planet, Earth.
What Is Eco-Dharma?
It’s Alive! began as a collaborative project between members of Zen Open Circle who were engaged in eco-action in their own lives and communities. People came together to share the successes and challenges of these projects — from local environmental efforts to wider forms of ecological care and advocacy.
Meetings became a space for presenting this work, receiving feedback, and offering mutual support. We allowed time to reflect together on obstacles, possibilities, and practical ways forward.
Over time, the group has evolved to include talks, discussions, and more interactive formats that support participation and shared inquiry. Events are open to Zen Open Circle practitioners and to the wider community.
The term eco-dharma may itself be unnecessary. From a Zen perspective, true Buddha Dharma is already grounded in the whole — in the ecology of life. The wisdom of emptiness reveals our interdependence with all beings, and compassion naturally gives rise to the wish to protect and care for the Earth. In this sense, all Buddha Dharma is eco-dharma.
“I have a choice: do I want to give up and surrender to the great unravelling of this planet earth, or do I want to join those who are working for a liveable future? Since the outcome is uncertain, we have to enjoy doing something exhilarating and useful without knowing for sure if it’s going to work out. We need to and we can find adventure in uncertainty. That’s the best we can offer right now. Uncertainty rivets the attention. It’s like walking on a narrow trail with the land falling off on either side. It concentrates the mind wonderfully.”
- Joanna Macy from Interview, ‘The Great Awakening This Planet Needs’, Lion’s Roar Magazine, May 2021
Eco-Intelligence of Flora and Fauna
Human intelligence has long been revered as the ability to learn, problem solve and create alongside cognitive, emotional and social abilities. And these capacities have been viewed as setting the human species apart from other sentient life on planet earth given their ‘higher’ intelligence’. It is very possibly this human notion of being ‘more intelligent’ that has led to, or at least allowed, the massive exploitation and destruction of fauna and flora on this planet prompting catastrophic climate events such as floods and fires and multiple species extinctions.
Another form of intelligence known as ecological intelligence appears to have been largely ignored or denied by humans making it easier, for example, to bulldoze and destroy forests and thereby thousands of homes of native fauna. Humans appear to dismiss ecological intelligence which looks to maintenance of the interconnectedness of all species on Earth and a collective ability to adapt to and nourish the environment.
Below is the It’s Alive! Blog, which includes recordings of past talks, calls to action, articles on eco initiatives, and Lizzie Finn’s ongoing columns highlighting the ecological intelligence of fauna and flora across Australia. These pieces aim to inspire respect and care for native species, recognising that their wellbeing and our own are deeply connected. They are offered as information to read and share with others who may be unaware of this vital eco intelligence.
It's Alive! Blog: Event Recordings and Eco-Dharma Articles
acknowledgement of country
We acknowledge that every place we walk, sit down, drink, eat, breathe and sleep within this continent Australia is not a ‘thing’ but country – a lived mystery of the sentient kinship that creates every detail of place, held in mind and tended by the tens of thousands of generations of people who walk before and with us.
We just accept our indebtedness to them, past, present and future, with respect and gratitude for this 60,000-year deep tap-root in time and refined awareness.
