Here is the third of five Climate Justice Mindfulness Trainings I wrote as a guideline for ethical living during this climate emergency. You can look back at this week’s earlier posts for the text of the first two Trainings.

Sacred Conception
Aware of pain caused by actions that push the ecological and financial limits of Mother Earth, I will look deeply into the resources necessary to support new life, protect children of all species from overpopulation, and prevent the waste of food, energy, and material goods. Because creation is a dynamic, continual process in which all participate, I will support democratic processes sharing wealth and power, and nurture the global community of people, animals, plants, and minerals in my thinking, speaking, working, and playing.

You may observe that each of the Trainings begin with the phrase, “Aware of pain caused by.” This is the format set by my root teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh and it is a powerful place to begin. It is impossible for us as individuals or as a society to transform suffering or take skillful action is we are blind to pain or its cause. Frankly, influential people benefiting from things as they are invest large sums of money to distract society, confound the issues, keep us unawares. But deep down we know global pain is on the rise; what we are less clear about is the cause.

This Climate Justice Mindfulness Training brings us to one root causes: we are violating the limits of Earth’s natural systems. There is balance in nature’s order; it is self-regulating. Predators don’t eat all their prey because when the food source dwindles the predator population drops. Water tables remained steady in the eons before over-development and climate change because of relatively constant rates of evaporation and runoff. Vegetation bursts into life in the spring because of the fertile regeneration of soils from fall’s decayed leaf litter.

Until recently, the planet was so large in comparison to the human population that we could arrange things for humankind’s benefit without bumping into planetary limits. Those days are over, however; there are more than seven billion of us today. (There were only three billion of us in 1960 when I was newly born).

We are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction on the planet; this is the first extinction caused by a single species in overrun.

But sacred conception is about more than the numbers. It is also about how creation comes about. Everything contributes to the spontaneous creation of the whole in equal measure; nothing and no one is left out. As a result, nature’s balance reflects the truth of equanimity. If I am to live in harmony with natural order, I must honor the rights of all beings, both sentient and non-sentient. Further, I must defend and encourage the equal representation of those without a voice.

In reality, we can never fully grasp the stunning complexities of nature’s balance. The Sacred Conception Mindfulness Training encourages us to proceed with extreme mindfulness and boundless loving kindness.