Roko Sherry Chayat, abbot of the Zen Center of Syracuse and one of the first members of the WTB Council, invited each speaker to open with a verse, short prayer or reflection conveying concern and love for Mother Earth. She asked that everyone listen deeply and participate through \u201ccompassionate engagement.\u201d After each reading, a moment of silence was observed for personal reflection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Robin Kimmerer opened with a Mary Oliver poem, \u201cLast Night the Rain Spoke to Me.\u201d Catherine Landis recited \u201cPrayer for the Great Valley,\u201d by Gary Snyder. Peggy Thompson read a short prayer from Diane New, \u201cTo Welcome Spring Renewal.\u201d Robin Tait shared two writings from the Bah\u00e1’\u00ed faith, each emphasizing our relationship with each other and the humility and kindness we should possess toward all of creation. Sherry read a few lines by Elizabeth Roberts, who suggested that each of us should enter into the deep silence from which all action springs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bah\u00e1’\u00ed\u2014Robin Tait <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Robin has two master\u2019s degrees, one in conservation biology from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY\u2013ESF), the other in environmental studies from Antioch University in New England. She is interested in native plant preservation and issues of sustainability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Robin opened with a quote from the Bah\u00e1’\u00ed Universal House of Justice: \u201cThe oneness of mankind which is at once the operating principle and ultimate goal of revelation (God\u2019s revelation) implies the achievement of a dynamic coherence between the spiritual and practical requirements of life on earth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Caring for the earth must be both\nspiritual and practical. The technologies of today and the future must be\nformed by our values and spiritual principles. Robin offered some personal\nthoughts on this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. We are here to fall in love with God, with each other, and ultimately with all creation. All of humanity and creation are our family. The knowledge that my family lives downstream, downwind, or downhill from me, and that my waste could injure them, becomes an important awareness in my life. In the Bah\u00e1’\u00ed faith there are two books, the Book of Creation and the Book of Revelation. We need to be reminded of the Book of Creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. We\nare here to educate. Caring for the earth requires both practical and spiritual\neducation. We all need to acquire at least a basic understanding of how the\nworld works, of food webs, of thermal dynamics. We also need to learn spiritual\nprinciples: respect, love, awe, humility, gratitude. Robin learned these\nprinciples through a lot of healing processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Our\nvalues shape our actions with our inner self, with others, and with the earth.\nEach of us has a capacity for anger and for hurting others that sometimes\nemerges from pain and isolation. We must learn compassion. The essence of\nsustainability is love, community and compassion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. Caring\nabout the earth is about awe and oneness, about looking at plants and animals\nas our friends. You love what you know, and you protect what you love. Love is\nacquired through knowledge. We need also to educate our souls. Biology and\ncreation must be about awe. One does not have to be religious to be awed by,\nfor example, the flight of a hummingbird across the Gulf of Mexico. Our souls\nare quickened by beauty. We were given a capacity to love beauty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Robin concluded that love moves the universe, and that ecological sustainability is about sustainable societies. The fundamental principle of unity is based on justice and on institutions in which people\u2014all people\u2014can participate in non-adversarial processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christianity\u2014Peggy Thompson <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Margaret Susan (Peggy) Thompson, a\nWTB Council member, is professor of history at Syracuse University. She is also\nan associate member of the Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of\nMonroe, Michigan (IHM), an intrinsic part of whose mission statement is caring\nfor the earth and understanding sustainability as a moral mandate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peggy reflected on a weekend spent with\nher \u201cmission unit,\u201d a small group of people that is a part of IHM. She and\nothers were asked to bring to this gathering something that reminded them of,\nor symbolized for them, a wise woman or wisdom figure in their lives. Peggy\nbrought a hazelnut that had been given to her at the funeral of a dear friend\nand \u201cwise woman\u201d in her life, Rita Mary Broadway. Rita, who died at age 84 in\nthe year 2000, was a sister, a medieval theologian, a scholar, a professor of\nEnglish, and a mystic in her own right. Much of Sister Rita\u2019s work was based on\na 14th<\/sup>-century English mystic known as Julian of Norwich (England).\nOne of Sister Julian\u2019s most famous works was \u201cA Reflection on a Hazelnut.\u201d At\nRita\u2019s funeral, a copy of this work was placed on a card, which, along with a\nhazelnut, was distributed to each person. It read: <\/p>\n\n\n\n In this little thing [the hazelnut]\nI saw three truths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first is that God made it. For Peggy,\nthis quote reflects how the environment, creation, and her spirituality come\ntogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spending time feeling good about\ncreation and the environment is all well and good, but action is also required.\nThe community with which Peggy is associated, IHM, does just that. In the year\n2000, IHM, at its general assembly, made the following corporate commitment\nthat was approved by affirmation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Empowered by the growing realization that we are\ninterconnected with the whole web of life and that escalating violence,\nincreased global poverty, and the exploitation of the earth threaten all of\ncreation, we renew our passion to live the liberating message of Jesus in the\nspirit of humility, simplicity and zeal. We choose to in-flesh this calling by\nworking with others to build a culture of peace and to right relationships\namong ourselves, with the church and with the whole earth community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n IHM renovated its own physical\nplant in accordance with its stated values. Even though small in number,\nincreasing in age (the average age of IHM sisters is 69), and possessing no\npersonal wealth, they decided to renovate their whole property (about the size\nof the Pentagon) in ways that maintain ecological sustainability. The cost was\n$58 million, which they did not have. However, this is an order formed during\nthe Depression\u2014and they were up to the task. Their success is an example of\nwhat a small, committed group can do to benefit a larger community regarding\necological sustainability combined with spiritual values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Buddhism – Catherine Landis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Catherine is pursuing a master\u2019s degree\nin forest ecology at SUNY\u2013ESF. She is working on a project to restore the\nnatural waters of Onondaga Creek, which is the seat of her spiritual practice\nat the Zen Center of Syracuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Catherine said that as a student,\nwhat informed her ecological awareness was the land itself, learning directly\nfrom the land. She had the opportunity a while ago to work for the forest\nservice in Utah, where she was stationed in a very remote setting of\napproximately 300,000 acres. Part of her job was to take a map, jump in a truck,\nand \u201ccheck out things, find things,\u201d like woodpeckers and Mexican spotted owls,\nand map their territory. Working alone, she learned how to listen and pay\nattention to nature and to undo bad habits, like crashing impatiently through\nthe woods. During this time spent alone in nature, she also discovered much\nabout bird calls and learned the language of birds. She became aware of a whole\nnew world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This experience taught her two very\nimportant lessons: (1) She was not in charge. She was completely at the mercy\nof the land. Extending beyond this experience to encompass the whole world, we\ncome to realize, with global warming and other natural phenomena, that we are\nnot in charge. She quoted former SUNY\u2013ESF professor Paul Mannon, who said, \u201cYou\ncan\u2019t control tree diseases. The fungi are smarter than us.\u201d (2) We are not\nalone. While in Utah she became aware of being in a community of sovereign\nbeings. These beings were \u201cpeople,\u201d just not human people. To her, this was not\na wilderness but a major metropolitan area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Through this experience, a question\narose in her mind: How can there be cultural relationships between humans and\nother species? Although her work on the Onondaga Creek Project has been a\ndifferent experience, she recognizes that the Onondaga Creek area is still an\necosystem, similar in many ways to the remote Utah area. Both involve water\ncycling, energy flow, nutrient cycling; only with Onondaga Creek, these\nprocesses are dysfunctional due to changes made by humans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Relating her Buddhist practice to her\nrelationship with nature, Catherine explained that in Buddhism there is a\nstrong sense of interdependence. Things do not exist by themselves. Buddhism\nreflects the ecological web and takes it into a further reality by saying that\nthe pieces are all one. Buddhism also focuses on the individual experience.\nThis awareness in Buddhist practice has enriched her ecological understanding.\nThings are constantly changing, with a flow that is compatible with the\nevolution of species. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Native American\u2014Robin Kimmerer <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Robin is a professor of environmental\nbiology at SUNY\u2013ESF and chair of the Traditional Knowledge Ecology Section of\nthe Ecological Society of America. She is also on the advisory board of SEEDS\n(Strategies for Ecology\/Education Diversity and Sustainability).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The holiness of Mother Nature is\nRobin\u2019s church. Planting peas is an act of worship. The richness of the dirt, and\nof all that live in and on it, represent mutual sustainability. Peas do not\nplant themselves. They rely on other parts of creation, just as all of creation\nrely on each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Robin, a member of the Pottawatomie\nNation, said that some Native American teachings are not universal to all the traditions.\nOne teaching shared by all the 600 or so different Native American cultures in\nNorth America, however, is a mutual respect for the earth and a caring for it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As a scientist, Robin is very much\ninfluenced by her Native American heritage. The gifts of nature are always a\npart of her awareness. The definition of a gift is something that comes to us\nwhether we deserve it or not. When we live on this earth in not such a good\nway, we are less deserving of these gifts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The earth is incredibly generous\nand knows no bounds. When thinking of the world as a gift, we should ask\nourselves\u2014A gift from whom? What is the source of this gift? To Robin they are\ngifts from themselves. They give their gifts directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Native American tradition,\nall beings are thought of as persons. Nonhuman persons have their own will,\ntheir own intentions, and their own history and story. We should always think\nof these beings as our teachers. As a scientist, Robin is aware of the teachers\naround her in nature. In the native way of thinking, humans are the younger\nbrothers of creation. We know the least about how to live on this earth. Our\njob is to look to our elders of creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is our response to a gift? Should we, or should we not, take care of it? If the gift comes from someone or something we love, the relationship between us changes. We become grateful and caring. We become bound to the giver. We want to return the gift. Thinking of our ecosystem as a gift opens up this culture of gratitude. It also opens up the door to giving back. The idea of gifts and responsibilities is at the core of mutually sustaining ourselves and the earth. Gifts and responsibilities are two sides of the same coin. If you are given a gift, it becomes your responsibility to use it. Robin refers to this as an original instruction from the Creator. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As Kathleen Dean Moore says, \u201cIn a world of gifts, how then shall we live?\u201d As humans, one of our gifts is thanksgiving. We know how to be thankful, and it is our job to take care of each other. We should never stand in the way of another being exercising her, his, or its gift. We must be vigilant in finding our gifts and then using our gifts and dreams for the good of all creation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Women from four traditions shared their concern and love for Mother Earth. They spoke of caring, gratitude, sustainability, connectivity, and regarding all humanity and all of life as our family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[30,21,15,34],"class_list":["post-7639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-programs","tag-bahai","tag-buddhism","tag-christianity","tag-native-american",""],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7639"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9025,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7639\/revisions\/9025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The second is that God loves it.
The third is that God looks after it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n