'The World We Have'
27 August 2010
“Throwing a plastic bag into the garbage, I know that I am throwing a plastic bag into the garbage. That awareness alone helps us protect the Earth, make peace, and take care of life in the present moment and in the future. If we are aware, naturally we will try to use fewer plastic bags. This is an act of peace, a basic kind of peace action.” Thich Nhat Hanh, ‘Peace Is Every Step’ (1992)
Last week I had the great privilege of attending the five-day long retreat with inspiring Buddhist monk, rights activist and green crusader, Thich Nhat Hanh. Thây, as he is known to his followers, talks and writes so profoundly about the effect that being truly awake in the moment can have on our lives, our happiness and our ailing planet. Following the retreat I immersed myself in his beautiful writings and this quote from ‘The World We Have’ (2008) is one that I feel compelled to share:
“The bells of mindfulness are calling out to us, trying to wake us up, reminding us to look deeply at our impact on the planet.”
How true this is, in this very month of this very year, when we are witnessing devastating and unprecedented flooding in Pakistan, landslides in China and forest fires in Russia. But somehow we remain “like sleepwalkers, not knowing what we are doing or where we are heading”.
Climate scientists are telling us that the floods in Pakistan are not just another terrible natural disaster occurring in a faraway country. We can no longer ignore the fact that they are caused, at least in part, by global warming. “There’s no doubt that clearly the climate change is contributing, a major contributing factor” (World Climate Research Program). The bleak predictions of storms, floods and drought are now a reality.
If climate change is causing these tragic events, we are all responsible. Each of us individually contributes to climate change. At Thây’s public talk in London earlier this month, entitled Global Ethics for our Future, he said, “We have borrowed too much from this planet…and from our children… We have borrowed too much from ourselves.”
Some people argue that plastic bag usage is a red herring, a distraction from the larger, more urgent issues. But it is these most basic actions that make up the fabric of our daily lives. If we start living mindfully, with even the smallest of our actions, we can create change. We may have overslept but there is still time to act, to stop exploiting our planet. As Thây says, “We have the power to decide the destiny of our planet. If we awaken to our true situation, there will be a change in our collective consciousness.”
