From kagyuoffice.org

“We as Buddhists believe that benefiting others is an act of kindness, and the first thing that comes to our mind, as act of kindness, is giving alms to the poor. That’s not the only way, there are many ways to be kind. Taking care of the environment and nature is also a very important act of kindness that can benefit many humans and animals alike in the future.”

His Holiness was speaking at a modest gathering at the McLeod Ganj Day School on the International Day of Climate Action - a special day that is being observed throughout the whole world. His Holiness inaugurated a signature drive on climate action by signing his signature on a giant piece of cloth.

His Holiness took the audience by surprise when he shifted his role from that of "chief guest" to that of "resource person" when he gave a PowerPoint presentation about the environment. The PowerPoint presentation was not on the organizers’ list of planned programming for the day. His Holiness said that every human being has a responsibility towards preserving nature and that we must act now if the fight against climate change and the destruction of the environment are going to be won.

“Human greed is unlimited and uncertain. We have wants for many things that we don’t even put to use. I heard most Tibetan families in the settlements have one or more motorcycles. We all know that we Tibetans like to follow the West. Many westerners go on long bicycle rides to places as far as Ladakh. So, why don't we Tibetans get rid of our motorcycles and get bicycles?,” His Holiness Karmapa said as he laughed away along with the audience.

The Environment and Development Desk of the Exile Tibetan Government, the Clean Upper Dharamsala Project of the Tibetan Settlement Office, and Tesi Environment Awareness Movement, jointly organized the day's event. The event was attended, among others, by the deputy speaker of the Tibetan Parliament, members of the Tibetan Parliament and representative of the various institutes and organizations

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Washington Post article about the Day of Climate Action

Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change HH Karmapa has signed the Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change. To join him please go to Ecobuddhism.org and click ‘Buddhist Declaration’. In the run-up to the crucial U.N. Climate Treaty Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009, the Declaration that follows will present to the world's media a unique spiritual view of climate change and our urgent responsibility to address the solutions. It emerged from the contributions of over 20 Buddhist teachers of all traditions to the book A Buddhist Response to the Climate Emergency. The Time to Act is Now was composed as a pan-Buddhist statement by Zen teacher Dr. David Tetsuun Loy and senior Theravadin teacher Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi with scientific input from Dr. John Stanley. The Dalai Lama was the first to sign this Declaration. We invite all concerned members of the international Buddhist community to study the document and add their voice by co-signing it at the end of this page. We humans have already done such immense damage to the environment that it is almost beyond our power to heal it. The challenge is far more complex and extensive than Buddhists can tackle alone. However, we can take a lead, and to do so we must educate and inform ourselves. This is the time when our pure aspirations and our bodhisattva activity must come together. This is the time to ensure a safe-climate future for our planet. This aspiration comes from my heart. -Excerpt from HH Karmapa’s chapter in A Buddhist Response to the Climate Emergency (Wisdom Publications, May 2009)

The Earth is Our Witness by Chris Keyser May every creature down to the smallest worm Fall into samsara never more For each and every one without a single one left out May I be there to lead them on their way -Jetsun Milarepa, Translated by Jim Scott If we are unable to conceive of all sentient beings throughout limitless space, that's not so important. But we live on this Earth, and everyone can see it. The Earth is in great danger and it needs our care, so we should try to help protect the environment for all the beings in the world. Even if we can't do anything else, it is not too difficult to explain the basic things we need to do to protect the world. The more interest we take in learning about the environment, the more we will cherish and care for it. -Orgyen Thinley Dorje, Gyalwang Karmapa XVII. The buck's soft black eyes held mine in a frozen gaze of terror as I fumbled with my ancient double reflex lens camera to capture his image before he bolted from sight. His eyes watering in fear pierced deep into my heart, stilling my clumsy hands. I put down the bulky camera, ashamed at what my human species had done to this noble creature, terrifying him for his life and safety. No one has the right to strike terror into the heart of another living being or place a bounty on their head and velvet antlers. That is bedrock - the fundamental Rule One for how to live in peace and harmony with all creatures upon our shared commons, our beautiful Earth home. It was a bright autumn day 30 years ago, and the buck and I were alone in a quiet matchbook meadow next to the retreat cabin on Sugarloaf Mountain up Boulder Canyon near the Continental Divide. The golden aspens were aglow against the clear indigo sky. All around us gunshots rang out intermittently, proclaiming deer-hunting season. The retreat space provided a fleeting sanctuary from the violence and terror exploding all around us. -continue

HH Karmapa In March 2009, HH Karmapa convened the first Kagyu Conference on Environmental Protection at Saranath. During the conference the following list of practical guidelines was developed:  108 things you can do An Aspiration for the World Sung by Christopher Stagg and Tyler Dewar. Used by permission. His Holiness composed this aspiration in 2005. Please follow this link to read the lyrics

A call to contemplation and action from Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

This disconnect from our primordial basic goodness is amplified by unparalleled technological and industrial capacity, dramatic population growth, and the vast inequalities we witness everywhere in our world. Disastrous as this situation is, it is still possible to change course. The earth is calling to us for protection and for a return to basic sanity. We must all heed this call by adopting an approach that returns to a deep respect for our environment, and conserves our threatened resources.

We can take advantage of both traditional methods and innovative technological advances based on living in harmony with the fundamental intelligence of nature. But this global crisis cannot be transformed into a new way of living, if we rely on the same attitudes and habits that brought us to this terrifying brink in the first place. To do that would merely reinforce, despite our good intentions, the degradation and inequality that is already so widespread.   -continue

Chris Keyser

Journal entry, Sunday afternoon, March 15, 2009: Strawberry Creek tumbles down from the Berkeley hills gurgling freshness, wonder, and delight into a concrete busy world by the bay. Along the steep and narrow banks coastal redwood trees stand sentry, guarding nature's timeless bounty of stillness and repose from the encroaching cement buildings and bustling campus life.

In this very spot just two short centuries ago grizzly bears waded into the creek to snatch leaping salmon for their lunch. The crimson choke cherry bush just beneath the bank where I'm perched would have been a grizzly's dessert - clearing her palate and fishy breath.   -continue

Robert Aitken Roshi

I had the pleasure of meeting with Joanna Macy recently. Joanna points out that we live in a world that can die. Whole species and life-support systems are already dying, and massive want, hunger, oppression, disease, and conflict assail a growing proportion of the planet's beings. We can do something about it and yet we tend to act as if we don't believe what is happening. She asks, "How can we become simply present to what is going on and let it become real to us? Great adventures await us; what is it that erodes our will, our creativity, our solidarity?" Joanna finds that many people (especially those drawn to Eastern paths) have developed notions about spirituality that hinder them from realizing their power to effect change. Among the 'spiritual traps' that cut the nerve of compassionate action are these:

That the phenomenal world of beings is not real. With this view the pain of others and the demands on us that are implicit in that pain are less tangible than the pleasures or aloofness we can find in transcending them.

That any pain we may experience in beholding the world derives from our own cravings and attachments. With this view, the ideal way to deal with suffering becomes nonattachment to the fate of all beings, not just nonattachment to matters of the ego.

That we are constantly creating our world unilaterally through our subjective thoughts. Confrontation is considered negative thinking, acceptance is positive. Therefore it is concluded that when we confront the injustice and dangers of our world we are simply creating more conflict and misunderstanding.

And the corollary, that the world is already perfect when we view it spiritually. We feel so peaceful that the world itself will become peaceful without our need to act.

Shackles and traps drop away in such lucid exposition of Wrong Views. Our responsibilities stand forth clearly.

Joanna Macy A talk by Joanna Macy Used by permission. This talk was given at the Boulder Shambhala Center on April 6, 2009. Joanna Macy is a scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. Visit her website

Hudson Shotwell Magyal Pomra Encampment photo by Hudson Shotwell It's Earth Day, 2009 and I'm thinking about the historical Buddha. This is the same planet that he reached down and touched, after waking up, saying, "The Earth is my witness." Today our beautiful blue marble, Mother Earth, is going through profound changes. Assuredly the Earth's been going through profound changes forever, but this time it's the Anthropocentric Age. Having an Age named after us makes some Homo sapiens, such as climate scientists, extremely nervous, because said Age, having been named, might be coming to an end soon. We know from studying the geologic record that the Earth and its Rube Goldberg climate machine have gone postal on us before. The seas became anaerobic, killing off most aquatic life for millions of years, the continents crammed back and forth together into gigantic single continents, the super-continent Pangaea broke apart into Gondwanaland and Laurasia; the rest is history and it will happen again in 250 million years. When you study the geologic climate change record around human beings, the climate is a serial killer*, wiping out whole civilizations with a mere change of moisture distribution. Then there's the meteoric wild card, smacking into the planet and bringing down the curtain on T-Rex and his friends. But the good news is that if we give it a few million years, life crawls back out of the slime. I was chatting with Bill Gilkerson about all this awhile ago and he made a good point—the planet will be fine, but we humans are in trouble. We're in real trouble because we, including all spiritual seekers and warriors, should now know better, but we're still not fixing it. Not taking action to stop pollution and greenhouse gases today, after 20 years of knowing just why the climate is changing, now qualifies as volitional action, klesha activity and lazy ignorance. If a Buddhist isn't personally doing something about climate change today it's either nihilism (it doesn't really matter, I can't really do anything about this, the problem is too vast) or eternalism (it's all a manifestation of the guru, it's co-emergent wisdom, it's an illusion, a dream, it's cosmic, without reference point). If none of those apply we can cast back to Pratyekabuddha-style (I really only care about my own practice, flying to India or California to see my teacher and getting more teachings,) or plain old indifference, which may be the saddest, most cowardly way we manifest our lack of concern.   -continue *Eugen Linden, from Winds of Change.