Saturday, July 9, 2016

What we can do to save our Mother Earth

Read deeply the following special message from Sister Chân Không. http://plumvillage.org/news/can-you-hear-mother-earth/
The followings are excerpts.

Quote:
Many of us have forgotten that we are one with the Earth. The Earth is not a separate entity from us. We are part of the Earth, and the Earth is part of us. The Earth is not a resource for us to exploit at our will. The Earth is us; we are intimately interconnected with the Earth, just as we inter-are with all other species on Earth, too. Our spiritual ancestors have taught us about the law of interdependent co-arising: this is because that is. We are here because the Earth is here. All species are our brothers and sisters; we are all children of the Earth.

When we see our deep interbeing with the Earth and with all species, we will see what to do—and what to stop doing—to help the situation. We will have the clarity and compassion we need to help change the situation, so that a future can be possible for us all.

Each one of us can take action in concrete ways.
We can:
1. Recognize that what we choose to eat greatly impacts our personal health, the distribution of wealth and resources, and the global environment. We can go closer to a vegan diet as recommended by a recent study by the National Academy of Sciences to reduce our impact on climate change and global pollution, and nourish not only our health but our compassion. We can commit to reducing our meat consumption by 50%, or to not eating meat and dairy products 15 days a month.

2. Recognize that environmental ills are inherently linked to human ills. We should look deeply at our lifestyle and make changes to reduce our consumption and simplify our life. Greed is a byproduct of an individualistic and materialistic way of looking the world. It has become rampant and is a major cause of the imbalances on our planet. Each one of us can support efforts to alleviate inequities wherever we live and between affluent northern hemisphere societies and southern ones.

3. Recognize that there are alternative renewable energy sources. We can encourage governments to find sustainable energy sources and transition away from nuclear and fossil fuels. It is possible to develop society and industry in new ways, and not at the cost of Mother Earth and numerous species on land and in the ocean, nor at the cost of the wellbeing of future generations. Nuclear waste, whether hidden beneath the earth or exposed, is a toxic cancer to our planet. We will be paying for the luxuries of today with sicknesses tomorrow. Each one of us can make efforts to reduce our personal consumption of energy, in terms of electricity, water, transportation, and the products we buy every day.

4. Recognize that the meat and agricultural industries are a major cause of environmental degradation. We must encourage governments to adopt sustainable development practices to minimize waste and pollution caused by cultivating, processing and transporting meat and fish, and to move away from meat and fish production, which are not sustainable food sources for a growing global population.
:Unquote

(My commentary)
David Bohm said, "We are the earth because all our substance comes from the earth and goes back." If we understand that we are the mother earth, we can never harm it. So, every one of us must be aware that we are children of the mother earth. So, the mother earth is in us. In this sense, we are the mother earth. Once we understand this reality, we can automatically change the way of our life through mindful consumption in order to take good care of ourselves, namely the mother earth. 

(Cf.) http://plumvillage.org/letters-from-thay/sitting-in-the-autumn-breeze/
http://compassion5151.blogspot.jp/2014/11/vegan-and-vegetarian.html

 Sister Chân Không