 Well, welcome everybody to our second session. My name is Andy Gerovich. I'm the president of the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness. I am excited that you are all here. We had a wonderful opening session on Evocative Ethnographies of Florida Silver River Biodiversity Boundaries, Life Experiences and Conservation. They knocked it out of the park and Merrill and her team did a great job. We will have that session recorded and posted in the coming weeks for those of you that weren't able to attend, so you'll be able to check that out. I'm extremely happy to move into our next session. I've been looking forward to this since these two folks agreed to join us. The title is Buddhist and Feminist Approaches to Climate and the Environment. Dr. Sharon Meharis, who is a long-standing member of this organization, a key member of our board, and one of the people who's just really helped keep this organization thriving and growing and relevant, is here along with Darden-Charling, who has presented with us before and has worked with Sharon on several book projects. I'm sure they'll talk about as well. I want to start by doing a couple of things, by doing a land acknowledgement. I'm coming to you today from Portland, Oregon, which rests on the traditional village sites of the Multnomah, the Kathlamet, the Clackamas, the Chinook, the Tuala and Kalapua, the Malala, and many other tribes and bands. As the original caretakers of this land, we need to acknowledge their presence, their dignity, and their continued struggle for respect for restoration and reparations. We are here today because they were here first. I'd like to remind attendees that we are in a webinar format, so that means that your camera and your video, excuse me, your video and your audio does not work. Only the presenters have that option, and so you will be interacting with us mostly through the chat box and the Q&A. If you can please, attendees, open the chat. If you go down on your Zoom screen, you have to click that more with the three dots and open the chat box because you'll be able to communicate with each other and with us in that throughout the session. We're going to be dropping several things in there for you to have a look at and think about, including upcoming sessions, reminders about the Q&A, and all the host of things. Please get that chat box open as soon as possible. You'll see next to it a Q&A box as well, and so this will be the primary place that you will ask questions to the presenters. We have a few options for this. The easiest way is for you to just post them in that Q&A as they come up as the question comes to you, and then when we come to the Q&A session, we'll return to those. You can also post a question in the chat, but that tends to get kind of busy with a bunch of other stuff, and so sometimes we miss those questions. And if you'd like to speak to the panelists directly at the end, you can raise your hand. You have that raise hand option, and then we can come to you and actually turn your audio on if you'd like to interact with them directly. But the easiest way to do it is just through the Q&A function. We'll be reminding you of that as we go forward. The last thing I'd like to say, I'm going to go ahead and do it now, is that if you would like to rename yourself, and we'd like for you to stick with the name that you registered with so we can control who's in the room and understand who's here. But if you would like to add your chosen pronouns so we can keep the space as diverse and as accessible and open as possible, please feel free to do that, to go ahead and change your name. You can click on it, click on your name, click on on the right, and you'll be able to do that. If you don't feel like doing that or don't have the need to do that, then that's fine as well. Okay, with that, I would like to toss it over to Dr. Mark Philanigan, who is the program chair of the conference and who's going to introduce our panelists. Thanks, Andy, and welcome, everyone. We're so excited to have two great presenters here talking about a very important subject, really, that gets at the heart of this conference. So I am Mark Philanigan, I am the program chair, and I had the pleasure to read these abstracts and put together some really, really good panels. So this panel really gets at the heart of what we're trying to do with this entire program. Really, in recent years, we've seen devastating effects from climate change as a result of a lot of human interactions, forces of patriarchy, extraction, and domination that have really been present in our world since at least industrialization. And so while these technological advances have been great in some aspects and have certainly allowed us to have things like Zoom in places to interact virtually, as well as a number of other advances in medicine and other spheres of our life, it has also had the devastating effects on our ecology. So this panel explores alternatives to these destructive approaches and tries to imagine new solutions to those ideas by examining sacred feminine and Buddhist ideologies in relation to ecology. So the panel will explore how harmony, nurturance, interdependence, egalitarianism, compassion, and nonaggression can help guide communities to sustainable coexistence with our world. And we have two very distinguished panelists, Darden-Charlene and Sharon Mejarez, and they will be in dialogue. So this will be a very unique experience, and we're very pleased to have them here presenting. Darden-Charlene will be presenting first, and her paper is entitled, Buddha Would Be Green, the Dalai Lama's Interdisciplinary Approach to Addressing Climate Change. Darden-Charlene is a contributing author in the book, A Force Such as the World Has Never Known, Women Creating Change, published by INA and NNA, Publications and Education. She is among four other authors of the book, The Power of the Feminine, Facing Shadow-Evoking Light, Forthcoming Publication by the Human Foundation. She's a Tibetan refugee born in India. Darden-Charlene is currently a PhD candidate at the Department of Communication, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Without further ado, here is Darden-Charlene presenting her work, Buddha Would Be Green, the Dalai Lama's Interdisciplinary Approach to Addressing Climate Change. Thank you, Mark, for the introduction. Just to add a little bit, the book of which I mentioned in the bio, it's already out, and Sharon, who's also the co-speaker, is the key architect, I would say, of this book. We're happy it's finally out. It's online. It's available online as well, and it really talks about the power of the feminine, which I hope to expand further with my presentation. So thank you, Anthropology of Consciousness, Andrew, for this opportunity again. I am truly honored to be a part of this annual conference that talks about a really pressing issue that concerns all of us, that concerns humanity. So that's climate change. So before I begin with my topic, of course, you've all seen it in The Flyer as Buddha Would Be Green, the Dalai Lama's interdisciplinary approach to addressing climate crisis. And it falls under the large umbrella of Buddhist and feminist response to ecological crisis, which Sharon and I will dwell of deep, will kind of really further our exploration of that topic. Before I begin with, I would like to read a few excerpts from a poem that the Dalai Lama wrote and presented back in 1993. So that was like almost 28 years ago. It's from the book Our Only Home, A Climate Appeal to the World. So the poem is titled The Dalai Lama's Tree Poem and talks about the shelter tree of interdependence. Oh Lord Tathagata, born of the Ikswakustri, peerless one, who, seeing the all-pervasive nature of interdependence between the environment and sentient beings, samsara and nirvana, moving and unmoving, teaches the world out of compassion, bestow thy benevolence on us, our opterate ecocentricity ingrained in our minds since beginless time, contaminates, defiles and pollutes the environment created by the common karma of all sentient beings. Lakes and ponds have lost their clarity, their coolness. The atmosphere is poisoned. Nature's celestial canopy in the fiery firmament has burst asunder and sentient beings suffer diseases unknown before. Perennial snow mountains resplendent in their glory bow down and melt into water. The majestic oceans lose their ageless equilibrium and inundate islands. The dangers of fire, water and the wind are limitless, lashing a world with unprecedented storms and oceans surrender their salt to the elements. Though people lack not wealth, they cannot afford to bear breathe clean air. Rains and streams cleanse not but remain inert and powerless liquids. So that was a segment of the poetry I wanted to read. Well, so the Dalai Lama made a revelation that the Buddha would be green and he explained that Buddha was born as his mother leaned against a tree for support. He attained enlightenment, seated beneath a tree and passed away as tree stood witness overhead. Therefore, where Buddha to return to a world, he would certainly be connected to the campaign to protect the environment. That was the Dalai Lama and the Dalai Lama himself loved nature since his childhood and he attributes it to being born in Tibet, the roof of the world, home to earth's largest glaciers, highest peaks and also known as Asia's water tower. The Dalai Lama's vision of the world in which different approaches to understanding the self, universe and one another can be brought together in the service of humanity, combines science and spirituality, Darwinism and karma, quantum mechanics and philosophy. So in today's presentation, I will explore the Dalai Lama's commitment to environmental conservation efforts best expressed by his advocacy for greater human action to combat climate change. So this presentation will delve deeper into the interdisciplinary aspect of the Dalai Lama's remark, in particular, the impregnation of science, spirituality and humanity's call for action. I'll also make a critical analysis of the Dalai Lama's remarks within the framework of the concept of Buddhist ecology, a term premised on the Buddhist recognition of interrelation and employed by ecologists to not only explain ecology as a study of the interrelations between organisms and their environments, but also to emphasize the fundamental identity of subject and surroundings. So this presentation will further investigate the understanding of Buddhism as an ecological religion or religious ecology based on its advocacy for a non-aggressive attitude toward nature. The Dalai Lama calls the blue planet our only home and I found that home metaphor quite interesting because this planet is our only home and taking care of it means taking care of a very own home. So according to the Buddhist philosophy, one should be nature friendly and one should have a deep respect for nature and evolution because nature is sacred. Nature is the true home and the ecological balance is the very basis of a life on earth. So one of the pressing areas of concern for humanity that requires science and spirituality according to the Dalai Lama is in terms of tackling climate change. He said that we have reached a tipping point in global warming and that within 300 years we robbed nature of resources that she had gathered in 300 million years. So the Buddhist approach to understanding the ecological damage explains that destruction of nature and its resources result from ignorance, greed, lack of respect for the earth's living things. So according to the Buddha, greed for money is born out of ignorance and the antidote to greed is compassion and according to the Dalai Lama the environmental crisis is the crisis of our inner world therefore we need the training of the mind to limit our wants and live a balanced way of life. Therefore it is time we pay attention to the inner values over material values. So from this I want to talk about ecology and economy. So both economy and ecology derive from the Greek word or cause meaning economizing. So we cannot separate economy from ecology. We need a balance between the two we need to reconcile the two and it is nature and not money that is the basis of all economizing. So I want to bring in Peter Spiegel the author of VQ more than the IQ a farewell to the eye culture who introduced the concept of V economy that show new ways toward a more human economy based on greater mindfulness, empathy, non-violence, truthfulness, transparency and responsibility and these six values are the basis of the ethics of compassion in Buddhism. In order to maintain a universal appeal such ethics need to have a secular basis. So the Buddhist economy ethics is similar to the word ethos or reverence for life as understood by Christian theologians. So we need environmental ethics that focus on action and compassion for all sentient beings. The Buddhist ethics encourages us to embrace all form of life not only humans but also animal and plant life. While the advances in technology is remarkable that the Lailama believes that technology alone cannot solve the crisis therefore he calls for something called the interdependence between technology and ethics and so the need of the hour is environmental ethics, education, the kind of education that will educate the heart and not just only the mind. So before we dwell further into understanding the Buddhist ethics and the concept of caring for nature it is useful to understand Buddhism not as a religion or a spiritual practice but according to what the Lailama would describe as a science of the mind. So a thorough understanding along with proper investigation of Buddhist teachings helped the training of the mind as I said before. So the Lailama's flagship book calls the Beyond Religion Ethics for the Whole New World published in 2011 exposes his lifelong interest in science and its evolving nature of consciousness, subjective experience, rhythms of nature and the fabric of the universe and according to the Lailama the Buddhist concept of rebirth or reincarnation stirs a consciousness because it because it calls for environmental and climate protection because you would need an environmental friendly planet in your next life as well. So likewise the Buddhist concept of karma a spiritual law based on the simple logic you reap what you sow. So change will come about by action and not prayer. We must create positive karma which means positive action. So expanding further on the importance of interconnectedness best explained by the Buddhist concept of the Eightfold Path that underlined the importance of viewing others as part of who we ourselves are instead of viewing them with fear or contempt. So this arises from a belief in separation that the Lailama observed that all seven billion human beings alive today are physically, mentally and emotionally the same and the Buddha said we are what we think. Everything arises from our thoughts. Our thoughts shape the world. Thoughts are the energies that form in our mind. So this brings me to elaborate on our understanding of the word ecospirituality. All of us do agree that spirituality is the key to our survival. Human consciousness is the key and I'm sure Sharon is going to dwell more on that. Longing for nature for green surrounded by green gives us a sense of being surrounded by life. Life that grows, that nourishes, flourishes and thrives. All of us have sensed the healing power of the forest. So ecospirituality is achieving success in thinking that combines religion and philosophy, nature and reason, freedom and responsibility. And I want to dig deeper into the core relationship or the correlation between Buddhism and feminism both of which have the underlying core concept of interdependence. So I want to bring in Rita Gross, a Buddhist and a feminist scholar who explained that much of the feminist analysis and reconstruction of Buddhism will involve making connections between these two wars and profound modes of understanding experience. So Buddhism is feminism because when Buddhism is true to itself, it manifests the same vision as feminism does. And Rita Gross points to the similarities between the fundamental orientations of Buddhism and feminism, one of which is that both Buddhism and feminism begin with experience, their stress experiential understanding and novice and move from experience to theory, which becomes the expression of experience. So Rita Gross defines feminism in Buddhist terms as the radical practice of going to the root of things which she describes as a Buddhist approach to major existential questions. So she calls this radical practice the co-humanity of men and women. Therefore, Buddhist and feminist response to ecological crisis is the key. And so does the topic of this session suggests. So when the Dalai Lama was in conversation with leading thinkers on climate change at the 23rd mine and life dialogue, which took place in 2011 at his residence in Duramsala, the title, the topic of that dialogue was ecology, ethics and interdependence. And they articulated on engaged environmental ethics. So this dialogue sought to understand interdependence through an examination of the most recent data on scientific case for effective ecological action. And it provided a unique opportunity to meet with other faith traditions and have arrived at a religious basis for motivating environmental activism. And the conversation explodes three key ideas, the nature of climate, the human actions that change it, the nature of a mind, which gives rise to these actions and the individual and collective behaviors that could shift our action from destructive to regenerative. And I want to bring in the aspect of the Dalai Lama's call for action. So the Dalai Lama's appeal to the world during the COVID period was to care for the planet. He said that despite the coronavirus, climate change is not taking a break. And COVID-19 showed the brutal structure of social and economic inequality because the poor and the marginalized were becoming the worst victims. But I must warn everyone, climate change will show the structure of equality, because it will brutally strike everyone rich and poor. So according to the Dalai Lama, a sense of universal responsibility should be a central motivation to balance our relations with the environment and with our neighbors. And appreciating the oneness of humanity in the face of the challenge of global warming is the real key to a survival. And he is said, he has quoted to have said, as a Buddhist monk, I appeal to all human beings to practice compassion, the course of happiness, because our survival depends on hope. So the sense of global responsibility means making a commitment to ourselves to work together beyond profit and religion, beyond conferences and climate deals, and to be able to set timetable for real change. The Dalai Lama's advocacy for climate justice is premised on his belief that although Buddhist theology, Christian theology and likewise philosophy can offer science the insight to help save the planet from climate disaster, but it is the action of every individual, whether it be on an individual or a community level that has an influence on the collective environment. So I believe that with spiritual and thought leaders like the Dalai Lama at the forefront of environmental advocacy, caring for the planet can become the highest form of virtue and the purest form of religious and spiritual act. And I think this is what is needed. And this will make us hopeful and optimistic. And likewise, according to the Dalai Lama, he is hopeful because he sees humanity seem to be to be more conscious and scientists are now paying attention to inner values, to the training of mind and emotions. And he sees that the metaphysics of the wise men of ancient India and the West by converging in times of ecological crisis and he sees the younger generation to be rebels in demanding climate protection and climate justice because their future is at stake. And he called the youth of the 21st century the planet's real humanity now. And today the Dalai Lama has publicly claimed or said that he draws inspiration from Greta Thunberg. Greta inspires me. This is what he has said on the record. So finally, the Dalai Lama's call for a revolution of compassion premised on the understanding that compassion is a fundamental attribute of a human being and of a good global society. And compassion extends beyond empathy. Compassion moderates action because the phenomena we observe are unjust, not worthy of the world we would like to live in. So caring for the planet requires a commitment to act. And this includes the cultivation of social, racial, ethnic and gender equalities based on a just, mindful and non-competitive sharing of the natural resources and beauties of the planet. Therefore, the power of the feminine is compassion based on scientific ethics. And that I believe is the cure for the current state of the world. It is time for eco-feminist principles that enable us to reconnect with nature and listen to the real stewards of nature. I would like to conclude by reading another excerpt from the very same poem that the Dalai Lama's Street. Being attentive to nature of interdependence of all creatures, both animate and inanimate, one should never slacken in one's efforts to preserve and conserve nature's energy. On a certain day, month and year, one should observe the ceremony of tree planting. Thus, one fulfills one responsibilities, serves one's fellow beings, which not only brings happiness, but benefits all. May the force of observing that which is right and abstinence from wrong practices and evil deeds nourish and augment the prosperity of the world. May it invigorate living beings and help them blossom. May silver and joy and pristine happiness ever increase, ever spread and encompass all that is. Thank you and I'm very excited to hear from Sharon after this. Darden, that was wonderful. As always, what a spectacular presentation. I have a million questions for you, but we want to move on to Sharon and see what the participants and the attendees bring as well. So let me bring Sharon into the conversation and we can move forward. But what a wonderful presentation. The Buddha is green. Dr. Sharon Maharas is an international speaker, workshop leader, author, and anthropology of consciousness board member, long-term board member. She has enlisted authors representing a variety of cultural perspectives in her many books. Her sixth book of fourths such as The World Has Never Known, Women Creating Change, has received global international attention. It's a fabulous book if you haven't checked it out, please do. Her latest book, The Power of the Feminine, Facing Shadow Evoking Light, is in its final publication process. She's also a specialist in gender studies, shamanic and psychospiritual healing, over 30 years specializing in trauma, addiction, and teaching at the university level. Dr. Maharas touches on many different areas in her work and each one is focusing on improving the human condition. Dr. Sharon Maharas, welcome to the panel. Thank you, Andy. It's great to be here again. I'm always happy to be with the anthropology of consciousness and it's also really wonderful to be with Darden once again. This is our third panel in I think a little over one month and our second in a week. Now as Darden did, I'd like to point out apparently we have old bios that don't note that the book The Power of the Feminine, Facing Shadow Evoking Light, is actually out and so it is available. It's easier to get it on Amazon and also a lot of what we talk is also included in the book. Now my talk is on ecology, nature and the feminine and I'm going to be, excuse me, that was a big mistake. Okay. My talk is about ecology, nature and the feminine. I apologize for my phone going off. I thought that it was totally off and some of the stuff that's in the book and a lot of things that were touched on by Darden will be discussed in a little bit of a different way. Although my talk is primarily about the feminine archetype and its relationship to nature and the human relationship to life, I want to begin with the discussion on changes in time, yeah, time like the clock and our human progress through it. Human beings have always found ways to measure time through observation of the movement of the stars and constellations. One measurement determines astrological ages with each age lasting approximately 2500 years. Wikipedia notes that quote an astrological age is a time period in an astrological theology which astrologers claim parallels major changes in the development of earth's inhabitants, particularly relating to culture, society and politics. In observing these time frames, it is possible to see the changes reflected in the development of patriarchal ideals and related behaviors. As many of you know, we are living at the end of the Piscian age. Previous archetypal influences, for example, the ages of Pisces, Aries and Taurus, represent over 7,000 years of dominance over others. But here's the point here. As an old age ends, a new one begins, we are already feeling the positive energies of the coming Aquarian age as we have approached its cusp, a time when old and new influences are both equally present. If the moon can impact the movement of oceans, of earth's oceans, it suggests the fluids in our bodies are likewise impacted. Our emotions, a lot of our actions are influenced by the cosmos and our relationship with it. Everything is in relationship and we cannot discount the relationship to the planets associated with earth, the stars and the planets in our own solar system. So we are seeing destructive energies as this old age ends. Patriarchal ideologies are being challenged as change is coming. We are moving away from dominating others and enacting colonist behaviors. Increasing numbers of people are awaking to the immense diversity and creativity inherent within all people and all life on this planet. Although it looks like a 50% split in these paradigms, increasing numbers of human beings around the world are demanding that abuses against fellow human beings cease so that we can live together peacefully. This means being safe while being treated with dignity and respect. Black Lives Matter, Me Too movement and similar activist groups are all signs of positive change. Continued life on earth requires that we live in harmony with nature and with one another. Our religious ideals have not been grounded as both women and nature have been suppressed and abused during the ages mentioned and the circumstances that initiated patriarchal rule. Engaging with a deeper relationship with nature is needed and I'm also going to be sharing a spiritual practice to connect with the elements. Nature is abundant with diverse expressions, colors are profuse throughout the natural world and this also includes skin pigment. Black, brown, yellow and white skin pigments are all part of the mix. As the planetary influences of the new age, namely this Aquarian Age that we've heard so much about through our own lifetimes, increase, they will be increasing. We see the beginning movements embracing diversity of sex, gender, class, honoring our frontline workers, for example, as an example of people really recognizing the positions and the services provided by people that were considered lesser than somebody that was very rich or of some kind of a Hollywood or political notoriety. We also will see the beginning movements embracing nationalities, cultures, everything and we see that already. Recently I heard US President Biden publicly note how many commercials are evidencing pluralistic ideals by including sexual, racial and religious diversity in their ads. This has become pretty normal to see a black wife with a white husband or a white husband with a black wife and Asians and women to women, men to men, we're seeing that there is this coming into consciousness which is being portrayed through these ads. Even though they're more about what attracts us to a product, it's still a visual channel influencing viewers on more than one level of consciousness. This includes young children growing up seeing multiple representation of human beings as natural as it should be. Human diversity, human divisiveness, I'm wrong word, human divisiveness has also been evidenced in our disconnection from nature. Patriarchy idealized a sky god deemed to be dominant to and separate from the natural world and the power of nature herself. The earth is generally considered to be feminine. She's called a mother earth, Pachamama, Gaia and many other feminine names. The patriarchal regime figuratively and metaphorically has raped her, taking riches of water, oil, precious metals and more, all representing her body and her blood. During its hierarchical era, both women and nature have been relegated as second best with their primary role being that of serving the male and children while robbing nature of her resources. The feminist movement recognizes these imbalances, including their contributions toward current global threats. Feminists are found in all racial, sexual, religious and socioeconomic class groups. Influential archetypal energies are available from collective often unconscious fields filled with potential, sometimes as we work in these inner fields that be bends to bring change from an inner realm into affecting the outer one. An archetype is a universal pattern. It carries a motivating spirit. The late Carl Jung recognized these patterns to be universal, albeit emerging in unique ways according to each culture and also the person, the individual. Likewise, the mythologist Joseph Campbell studied and preserved the archetypal influences, evidenced in cultural mythologies throughout human history. His work analyzed true stories, moving one beyond comfortable old patterns to bring something new into the culture. These are still powerful forces coming from the inner realms, from the field that fills us and surrounds us into our outer actions. What is changing is the recognition that women are the ones to bring in a new era as the patriarchal one ends. I'd also like to note that in the beginning when I noted the old age ending and the new age beginning, I'm reminded of a conversation with a friend of mine when I was lamenting over what was happening in the world and she pointed out that it's the ending of an old age and in order for things to really end and change, it needs to kind of fall apart. So we are seeing a death and a rebirth which is also associated with the female. But it is important that the feminine archetypal influences this leadership that was needed to change because it's relational in nature. Traditionally the masculine archetype has focused more on ideals. Women are the natural mothers of the human race. Our presence and contributions have been repressed for thousands of years. We have all this creativity to birth and bring forth. Women embody the power to enact change through their inherent relational nature. This relational archetype is what can guide us in dismantling patriarchal influences to bring forth new ways of living with one another. We also need to ground in nature. One way I do this regularly is through a Sufi breathing practice that may go back to ancient Zoroastrian practices aligning us to the five elements namely earth, water, fire, air, and ether. So let's take a little bit of a break. Just settle in, take a deep breath in, and just let go of everything on the exhale. Breathing in and just letting go on the exhale. And we're going to be learning five different forms of breathing and each one connects you to a different element because many of our spiritual traditions have always included the elements and the need to integrate them within the field of ether. Now let's begin with earth. First I'll just give some mental clarification. Earth is a breath that is in and out through the nose. These are very refined breaths. Water is a breath that is in through the nose. As water comes up the spine and you breathe out softly through soft pursed lips. Very fine breath. Fire is in through the belly and through the solar plexus circling up to the heart and out to the heart purifying our bloodstream. Air is what we feel within our skin and what we feel surrounding it. It's this clarity and movement and flow that comes through air as well as water. And then ether is the field in which they all integrate. So let's begin with the earth breath. We'll do four of each breath and I will guide the practice. Earth we're breathing in and out through the nose to the bones of our body that which brings form and structure. And we are recognizing at the same time that our the connection of the elements the minerals within our earth body and its connection to the earth herself. So breathing in and out through the nose to the bones of our body and as we become more conscious of earth the earth becomes more conscious of us. And moving now to water and the element of water feel it and sense it within you and surrounding you as you breathe in through your nose breathing a column of wine of water up the spine so that it can then be released at the crown of the head and come down through the muscles bringing greater fluidity water in through the nose out through softly pursed lips a very refined breath feel your connection with water as you become more connected with water and aware of it it becomes more aware of you. And now moving to fire fire which inspires us the passion within our being the passion within the universe to create so breathing in fire element through our breath in the belly breathing up to the heart and our exhale goes through the heart and the blood screen connecting with the warmth of the sun the fiery passion within all of life and its creativity breathing into the solar plexus through the mouth and out through the nose and the heart realizing that as we become more aware of fire fire becomes more aware of us and now the element of air consider our skin as an envelope we have the inner spaciousness and the outer spaciousness and we begin to breathe in and out through the mouth very softly very refined breath feeling the presence of air within and around clearing enlightening and now breathing with either mouth and nose at the same time or through the nose we now do the ether breath combining earth water fire and air remember the sensations as you bring the consciousness of these elements within your own consciousness alchemical healing forces becoming conscious of our connection with the elements that fuel and feed our nature our life our world these universal energies renew and attune us to healing forces we can use such practices which by the way are on my website www psychospiritual.org again you can find these elements they're great practices i try to do them every day they're spiritual practices that connect us with the forces of nature on all levels and they're needed to connect more intimately with nature we need to remember how to flow like water to move freely like the air to feel the fiery pulse of life feeling our passions and to see the ground we walk on as precious and the same minerals are in our bones a long hidden columbia tribe known as the koji point out that the younger brothers dominant humanity are disconnected for nature lacking the respect that gives back to earth to assure balance now the koji are from the sierra nevada region of columbia and from their hidden village they have watched the slow deterioration of a luna their name for mother nature the koji bribes message is likewise concern with the robbing of oil the earth's lifeblood the global north takes without giving back this imbalance is evidencing itself and disease and death so even doing these element breaths and feeling the gratitude for the elements moving through life helps to connect us with a sense of awareness and a sense of giving back which gratitude not only our care of every element of life but the experience and felt gratitude is a way of giving back as well now cold 19 and nature are one of the ways that we are seeing disease and death by climate change although progressive movements have been steady many people did not foresee that a viral pandemic would change the world and impact feminist movements environmental movements and as dartin pointed out the dalai lama said we must not neglect in the midst of the pandemic the needs for our care of the environment now by the end of 2019 the world had learned of a deadly virus in muhan china within a short time as we all know it began appearing throughout the world the consensus is that it originated in bats it has been established that and this is a quote occupational residential dietary and environmental exposures to mixtures of synthetic anthropogenic chemicals after world war two have a strong relationship with the increase of chronic diseases health costs and environmental pollution end of quote and that more quote uncontrolled poor scene bat mouse bovine avian and human coronaviruses dispersal can impact both global public health and economic stability resulting from this neglect and maltreatment of the environment is contributing to disease on many levels there are increasing reports of more virulent diseases emerging alongside coven 19 in short human behaviors may well have evoked these new viruses human beings must change with the goal of a healthier and sustainable relationship with life herself people are moving rapidly into efforts to give to one another and to help those in need that's one of the positive things that has come with the with the pandemic this is feminine and it's relational women must regain knowledge of their innate power to enact change the task is to evoke and embody the sacred relational power of the feminine archetype bringing it into our actualized world as it will guide us in dismantling patriarchal influences to bring forth new ways of living with one another this need is stronger than ever before as life on earth has reached a major precipice and we are facing the possibility of extinction the last great extinction eliminated approximately 70 percent of all species ending the dinosaur era many scientific and environmental experts believe we are approaching the sixth grade extinction as a combination of the anthropocene epic the era of profound human impact on this planet and all of its life it is imperative that we restore our relationship with nature we need to flow like water to move freely like the air to feel the fiery paths of life fueling our passions and to see the ground we walk on is precious new traditions valuing both women nature and all life while usher in the creativity needed to birth this new era thank you now I think we'll start to open to a discussion between Jordan and myself and any questions and then a Q&A yes absolutely thank you both for that wonderful and insightful and challenging presentation for both of you I Sharon said I think this is the time for for questions but so please do attendees direct your questions to the Q&A or into the chat but I Sharon said maybe a brief conversation between Sharon and Darden to start and so I guess I would ask you both I mean take it in any direction you would like but I would ask you maybe both to speak about a couple of things maybe speak to how your views Sharon of the planet being feminine reconciles with Darden's Buddhist presentation of how we interact with the natural world from which we emerge and are always immersed how do these ways of seeing how do they complement one another and do they diverge in any places many people have an understanding of Buddhism as a belief system or as a practice that is decided the masculine in its orientation I don't hold that view but I'm wondering if you two can maybe speak to those orientations and where they coincide and where they diverge Darden why don't you begin because you're the expert on Buddhism First of all I mean I definitely am no expert on Buddhism if we are looking at Buddhism as a religious practice in that case not at all I'm still a novice I would say I associate myself with Buddhism but I'm not a Buddhist in the sense of Buddhism as the practice as a religious practice but yes as a spiritual practice yes but more so my identification or association with Buddhism is my understanding of Buddhism as the signs of the mind that's the Dalai Lama is advocating you know it he has I think popular popularized this word called science meets Dharma Dharma is religion which is Buddhism so science meets Dharma and he also has said that if there comes a time when science will prove Buddhism wrong he said he will change Buddhism so I think Buddhism is that space that invites a cross-pollination of ideas beliefs practices it is like what you call the melting pot as I would say and that's why feminism is also that understanding of feminism is not male female it's not that binary it's not just women's struggle for liberation but it is essentially a space a cosmopolitan space that allows you to question injustices that allows you to witness and to intervene when required and my finest understanding of feminism is the struggle to dismantle structures of power and as Sharon would say the structures of patriarchy that has dominated and wrecked this world for far too long and that's where Buddhism and feminism meet and that's why I'm profoundly inspired by this theory or that one concept that our book also tries to propagate ecofeminism or ecofeminist principles and can I have you Sharon chime in and and expand on what our understanding of ecofeminist principles is all about well one of the things I was thinking as you were talking that equates ecofeminism and also Buddhism is that Buddhism in itself teaches you to be present in the moment and nature is present in the moment and in that there is a big relationship in Buddhism it is more about being and the action is the action that one learns from mindfulness to be the one with the most ethics and that is very important and as women and men began to open to the influences that you can learn through mindfulness practices of quieting the mind and opening up so that you can have influences and I'm reminding of Tara and the 21 attributes of the goddess Tara which is very strong in Tibetan Buddhism is that these gifts come to us from the feminine I want to make sure we have room for our questions and answers though so I don't want to talk much longer on none at all this is great and actually what you're both speaking to leads to one of the questions that's come from our attendees loose has put a question into the Q&A that asks you to maybe expand on your kind you've already done this a little bit maybe you can continue on your concept of patriarchy and in the chat lose put a similar concept in response or question in response to statement excuse me to Darden that by expanding our concept of what feminism is beyond simply these discussions of binaries and and gender identities but to include larger discussions of power dynamics including the that which exists between us and our non-human relatives that this really starts to shed some light on it so maybe Sharon if you can start but maybe Darden as well speak a little bit to your concept of what patriarchy is and what you mean when you use this term and how specifically it stands maybe as a barrier between us and this more integrated eco-psychological thinking why because patriarchal by its nature patriarchal by its nature it's mainly deemed to have been influenced somewhat during the agricultural period when we were learning to take control of plants and then animals and whatever and getting getting our dominance over nature rather than living with it as we saw with nomadic tribes and people that were more in touch with nature and this was also feminine because it was laser relational and we were in the present moment now as patriarchy began to emerge and also when we get into the rise of the world's religious traditions we get more abstract thinking and it begins with abstract thought we begin to separate from now i believe that this is not all bad i believe this is part of human evolution and one teacher that i read back in my thirties suggested that it was an evolution that we then reconnect but we we reconnect with even a more profound human development that's a good thought but first we have a lot we have to clean up we have a lot of changes we have to make because in the patriarchal hierarchical kind of stuff that has classified all these steps it has robbed us from a sense of togetherness a sense of unity with all of life and darden would you like to add to that yeah i think you know i think these are do appear as abstract concepts if i may say which really needs a deeper investigation but i think the whole idea is to kind of really understand what charon was explaining about the archetypal relation or the relational archetype between feminism nature and and our whole uh uh you know aspiration to really caring for the planet how all of these kind of really converge beautifully i think that's where real change comes you know or i think the biggest uh misunderstanding with climate change is that you need to protest and there will be that change but then that's why i was particularly focusing on why this ecological crisis that we are faced with today is not necessarily the big companies and these failed climate policies it's our individual action that's why dealing with the ecological crisis tackling that you know it there is this internal work that needs to be done and feminism is is about looking within you know finding that soul finding that balance the ecological balance which is the basis of all forms of life and that that's where the real change is it's in you and your thinking and that's why i had to bring in buddha who said 2,500 years ago that you are what you think thoughts become things yeah so how we can work with that is let's say on a very practical level we're going to brush our teeth or get a drink of water from the faucet or wash our hands how aware are we of that water as it falls over us and the felt sense of it same as in that breath i was teaching and how that connection with water are we aware of not only the gratitude for it but how much we are using and limiting that use and when we begin to do that with all of the sources resources on this planet we begin to take better care of it and that again that feeling of gratitude that gratitude that connects us with with every moment which is a saving grace you might say and how we see everything we do as being connected to nature and to one another that is relational we have about 10 minutes left and i would love to get some more comments and questions from attendees but i'll throw this out there while i throw that challenge out and maybe get some more questions you could also raise their hand and yes absolutely um so here's a question for both of you you both mentioned uh in your discussions about eco psychology a relationship to time and i wonder if you can speak to that in terms of this this these sort of parallel threads that i see running in your in your discussion about how this this type of thinking requires from us an awareness of deep time and of long-range thinking um but at the same time it requires us to be utterly present in the moment and so i wonder if you can kind of speak to how we reconcile those two ways of moving in these spaces by being utterly present in the moment and mindful of the moment and at the same time living with this awareness of deep ecological time i'm gonna say something real quickly and then turn it over to dartin i actually did an article based on a talk many years ago at the anthropology of consciousness it was a pretty far out one on the archetypal presence of time and looking at the fact that uh time is both linear and not and and so how how are we with both of these dartin do you want to address that yeah i think the time aspect is very important because you know i mean when you talk about the ecological crisis it's current but then it was a 300 years of doing and undoing human action and in action that actually got us to this and now we have as little over 30 years to undo all that wrong doings right so yes time is ticking it is going to be the only constant when it comes to really tackling or dabbling with this whole idea notion of tackling climate crisis but i think at the same time you know we always i think say that hey this is for the future generation you know this is for our children for our offsprings we want to give them a future you know we don't want to give them uh a dried lands whilst uh uh uh stretches of dry lands but i think it also matters to us at this current moment at this period of time also because if you look at the scarcity you know i mean yes covid struck the world it kind of left everything at a standstill but what i found was interesting was climate change kind of uh uh became like like kind of little got got little shove to the sidelines because oh we were like let's tackle covid first and then i heard the Dalai Lama say that covid is a blip the real danger is climate change it's just waiting to pounce on you so tackling climate change is not for the future generation it's for this generation for us because it could strike us like covid with covid came without warning at least there is a warning when it comes to climate change so yes time is is the real uh ticking ball as i would say when we talk about or dealing with the ecological crisis yeah and i'd like to add that one of the reasons why i use the feminine archetype more than just saying women will change everything because not all women are led by the feminine archetype and there are many men that are led by it quite well in this relational sense in the sense of how we influence one another and how to be with them in in positive ways uh so um the feminine archetype is within all and needs to be a vote because it is what will help to create a better future the feminine is not all fluff and nicety it is basically power as well the 21 attributes of tara is an example of that the power to create change and so women need to really recognize this within them and also men need to recognize the softness and the compassion more and because patriarchy has influenced the male even more than it has the female but we are clearing all these influences out of our bones we cannot say that one gender one race one religion one nationality etc is preferable to another and that includes the woman's movement we want we want a feminine movement that embraces all because no one group can face the changes that we are dealing with on this planet at this time we need to all work together Karen that's a great statement and that actually uh prefigures a little bit you've started to to speak to what a question that's just come in from dr mark shagoy and who's one of our attendees and is a board member and will be presenting later in the conference as well and he asks this you mentioned a lot about a return to the feminine but where do integral approaches that embrace androgyny and transcend polarized gender dynamics fit into your model for the future it seems a return to the feminine is just a dualistic approach to patriarchy and that integral approaches that transcend and include gender polarities is where we need to go and then he adds to that a build on that you mentioned archetypes young young pushed for integration and androgyny as the model for a holistic self not the feminine per se as discussed at length in his mysterium conjunction is i totally agree but i would like to add that the feminine archetype has not come into its fullness and there and and that women and nature considered feminine were repressed we have to bring in what has been under shadowed influences and we have to see that clearly but we have to do so with the concept of egalitarianism and that it's something present for all of us the feminine archetype is needed because it hasn't been present very much during patriarchy so it is a transforming element but i totally agree with what he's saying the goal is to bring we're still living in a consciousness that includes this so we can't bypass that that would be spiritual bypass or some kind of a intellectual bypass that doesn't deal with what's really facing us so we hold that and we also hold this opening that it is bringing us that it is all together and dart any want to add uh not really i think you have pretty much explained everything but i also wanted to kind of really pivot to our understanding of the self you know we uh i think in the buddhist principles uh it it is said that it has to be others before self but with climate crisis uh that we are facing now i think it kind of really boils down to the fact that we took too much care of the self you know our wants are unlimited and that's why i think for me practically living in america largely capitalist society the crude capitalist structure is there to really exploit you and your tendencies and one of the things i try and practice is uh whenever i need whenever i'm tempted to buy something i always try and see whether it's a need or it's a want that's something you know that's why i keep saying it comes down to individual level because when you say policy climate deals climate strike you think there's a collective who's going to do that job and you can just voice your opinion but no it all starts with individual action and so from my end you know one of the things i've started doing is uh uh reducing my meat consumption so that's one thing and now lately you know when i go shopping because there's shops everywhere you know amazon is eating your brain so what i do is whenever i'm tempted you know i i kind of first things first yes i do a little meditation just as your daughter's Sharon and then i see whether it's a need or a want and if everyone of us you know these are doable you know if every one of us could really uh throw these kind of practices it could could have been oceans you know droplets in the ocean but ultimately it does make the ocean so it all boils down individual action i would say anti q people had raised their hands i see now there's a q and a again okay yes i'll i'll have a look for the raised hands but we'll ask george's question as well we only have a couple minutes left but that's fine george asks wondering if you could speak to the surgeon popularity of buddhist ideology and teachings in the form of mindfulness as prescriptive medicine and the material industry of wellness that has emerged around that great question popularity and buddhist ideology and teachings in the form of mindfulness as prescriptive medicine and the material industry of wellness that has emerged around that not maybe you want to start with that yes i i think george i think that's a very smart question because then there is this dichotomy or that irony or you know okay so buddhism is about making your life simple but then it's uh there are a lot of programs that kind of really monetizes you know with these uh with these ideas that's prescriptive and for me someone born into a buddhist family a very devoted you know follower of the alama i would say anything that's prescriptive is not buddhist it's because lot buddha himself said that whatever is told you know whatever is presented to you test it experiment it and then follow do not follow it blindly so anything that's going to be prescriptive is un buddhist that's what at least i have the authority as a buddhist myself to say that and yes the material packaging of buddhist values is something that i'm personally against it's against my principles and that's when you have to use your conscience you know your individual conscience to make that collective decision i think it all comes down to that i'd like to add quickly even though i'm not on the panel that this dovetails nicely with marx question that the material industry around the selling of gender identity back to us is also another patriarchal way to deal with the gender binary and it actually moves us away from what i think is the essence of what both of you are talking about so i think marx question and the way you dealt with the dovetails perfectly into into this answer one one of the reasons that i started dealing with the feminine archetype was because i felt that the whole woman's movement was claiming that they were to be the world's saviors and that we don't need another savior or anything i agree with tik naan han that it would be a community that would bring forth change but i think it's the earth community it's all of us together i'd like to say a little bit on the mindfulness thing as a psychologist as well i i've chaired a doctoral committee and the whole dissertation was by a buddhist who was really pretty much affronted with the way that mindfulness is used to train psychotherapists with little understanding if any of its sources or the sense of a deeper meaning to the connection of mindfulness as opposed to just observing more of the ego identity any final thoughts from both of you this has been a wonderful panel and a great follow-up to our first session today yeah i think you know i think it's great that you know anthropology of consciousness society for the anthropology of consciousness is bringing this topic so timely so so so relevant and i always believe you know that academia is for social change i believe in that you know i i do not propagate or advocate or favor a kind of an academia that is all about big talk you know but but then i always wanted to see education for change education for empowerment and i see that happening with with aoc and all the work that you do and i'm incredibly honored to be associated with this because i think this conference this convening it's not just an intellectual discussion right this is that little action you're taking on an individual level which has like a collective impact and this will all kind of really converge in being the catalyst for change that we so desperately need to see so for me i think this is humanity in action and it's thank you andrew thank you anthropology of consciousness for doing this and more power to us and to work like this thank you to both of you and i guess i would add at the end here that and please correct me if i'm misunderstanding this but the buddhist concept of non-attachment is a key one in this discussion because i think many of us come to these meetings attached to our behaviors attached to our patterns attached to our training and our ways of thinking and defining these ideas and if we can step have a like like sharon said that dissociation that mythic dissociation that occurred at the beginning of the agricultural ages is the source of many of our problems but it also created a space for us to be able to contemplate these systems and our place in them and so i think the non-attachment provides a way for us to have a little bit of a step back from our own sacred cows and to be able to take in these concepts in in these communal spaces and have them lead to a transformational thinking and behavior thank you both so much for this this has been an absolutely wonderful panel we are going to head to lunch now for an hour and then we will be back at 2 p.m eastern time for something a little different this is an experiential ecological grief cafe and this will be in the zoom meeting format and so this will be in the format where everyone can see one another and everyone's cameras and microphones will be on and we're going to be led by julie rayman yacobi and through one of our one of our long time members as well through an experience of basically discussing grief that we experience around these ecological changes it's sort of a discussion on planetary hospice if you will and we're going to be hearing from julie we're going to break out into some into some breakout rooms and be able to speak to one another and so the 2 p.m eastern time session is going to be a lot more interactive than some of the previous webinar sessions have been so we hope to see all of you there and then we have a 4 p.m session entitled altered states of consciousness and transcendent change and then we will be finishing the evening with our keynote with dr. nicole torres a roundtable discussion entitled title changes through spiritual activism which will be a roundtable discussion with dr. torres and several water activists including some indigenous water activists so we hope you're able to join us through that we'll be posting that stuff throughout the day if you have any questions please please email us at this email address and then come to the conference communities page because this will be where all of the links and all of the materials going forward will be posted and so get ahold of us there on the discussion board or send us an email and we'll get you sorted out but hopefully we'll see all of you at 2 o'clock eastern please enjoy your lunch this is a absolutely wonderful session and lastly I would say also we have an asynchronous media page as well that is posted on the it's in the program but it's also posted on the conference communities page and this is a series of podcasts short films video clips songs and other things that members have submitted for you to check out on your own time on your own schedule you don't have to sign into them at a specific time of day but you can kind of check them out at your leisure so please do check that out as well any final thoughts from our panelists as we close this up just to say thank you it was wonderful as always thank you both so much and your participation was wonderful as always and this video will be up within the coming weeks and we'll make sure you each get a copy of it as well thanks and thanks all we'll see you soon