This post continues the discussion of my revisions to the classic Buddhist text, The Heart of the Prajanaparamita. You will find the revised text–The Earth Holders’ Heart Sutra–below in Part Two.
It was Einstein who described matter as energy, without a separate self. Today, the more deeply scientists look into the physical universe, the more they see space. Modern System Scientists describe the universe as flowing currents of energy. To them, what appears as fixed and solid, is simply a temporary knot of energy. Well being and harmony, they say, are found in a state of flow and sharing; dis-ease emerges when individuals or society blocks or hoards energy’s flow. This discovery is the scientific underpinning of the spiritual insight of emptiness.
If nothing ultimately is solid or pre-determined and everything is empty of a separate self—made of flowing energy—then everything in the universe can (and will) change in the great river of dependant co-arising. So, what is the lesson for professional and citizen environmental activists?
We should not try to repair or fix natural systems in a pure, pre-settlement state. We should recognize the goal of sustaining a handful of key resources is doomed, impossible to achieve; we cannot sustain discrete patterns or functions of nature because nothing can be separated from the rest and made permanent. Instead, as everything flows and transforms, we should apply our expertise to the great work of caring for the whole, easing and avoiding unnecessary suffering for humans, animals, plants, and minerals.
The upside to emptiness—the nature of reality as constantly flowing and changing energy–is that nothing is beyond us; we have everything we need to alter society’s course, avoid planetary destruction. Humankind’s present, dangerous path is not only unsustainable to life; the present course of destruction is in itself unfixed and unsustainable in reality. Nothing is inevitable. Things will change. Everything is not yet lost.
The deep truth of emptiness can rearrange our internal operating systems and society as a whole if we let it. It is possible to look through the worst of our horrors and see great spaciousness in them and through them. For me, my worst fear is the expanding manifestation of global warming. This phenomenon already causes great suffering and I catch myself grieving in anticipation of what lies ahead. But I remind myself global warming—a condition made completely of non-global warming parts like airplanes, feedlots, a lack of schooling and opportunity for girls, greed, politics, and purchases—will someday cease to manifest in its current form. Our present collective action shapes what continues beyond today.
This is inspiring. This tells me the moment here and now is raw opportunity.
In my next post, part five of the discussion, I will consider what we as battle-weary activists can do differently as we go forward. I will introduce the practice of Insight Environmentalism.
