At the end of 2024, I undertook the Zen and the art of saving the planet course by Plum Village, rooted in Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings. It served as a great companion as I navigated and transformed through challenging times. A couple of months later, conscious of my own memory limits and knowing that one of my ways of learning and remembering is through writing, I am revisiting my notes and attempting to distil their essence.
Here are my seven key take aways. Since this was a seven-week course, you could imagine that this could be a 1:1 – week:take away summary. Of course, it is not! My thinking is neither linear nor chronological, so I won’t begin to pretend that it is!
Inter-being
To be in service to life, we must take care of ourselves and examine our own suffering. Because, by taking care of ourselves, we are taking care of the earth, because we are earth.
We cannot exist by ourselves. Literally, ‘try walking without a planet!’, one of the teachers said during the course. In deep ecology, we realise that we are more non-human than human. The self is made of non-self elements; like the flower, which is ‘made of non-flower elements’ and carries the whole cosmos. We are a community of symbiotic interconnection, and every cell in our being carries the insight of inter-being. I love that.
We need to remember that the earth is us, beauty, wonder, suffering: a miracle.
To help with cutting through this illusion of separation, the Diamond Sutra comes in.
Diamond Sutra
This is probably one of my favourite learnings from the course: bringing in the energies of the meditator, the artist and the warrior. To me, it is a form of articulation of the importance of tapping into different parts of oneself and that the community of us brings insight into deliberate action towards beauty.
- The meditator brings clarity, from a place of insight found in contemplation and stillness.
- The artist sees the beauty, from a place of joy, curiosity and wonder, it challenges status quo and brings new light and poetry.
- The warrior cuts through the illusion with the sword of insight, it cuts off destructive habits or afflictions, courageously confronts obstacles and takes action.
Impermanence and presence
A somewhat perplexing learning was that of the dance of life and death: the seemingly contradictory truths co-existing that we will die, yet we will never die. We must accept that our civilisation will end, with a degree of courage that enables us to find peace in the impermanence; from which stems a clarity to move forward.
‘We cannot change the reality of impermanence, but we can influence the direction of change’.
Since future is made of the present, by taking care of the present moment, we take care of the future. This helps us come back again and again to the present moment, and to be in touch with the wonders of life.
Acceptance is essential in that it helps us live with courage and freedom, as we learn to free our mind from fear: ‘freedom is non-fear’.
Mind, habits, language
On the journey to freeing our mind, decolonising our mind is part of the process. In many Indigenous languages, the insight of inter-being and harmonious interconnection as part of life is embedded in the way rivers or forests are spoken of: ‘rivering’ or ‘foresting is happening’. How beautiful – can you hear the whispers it creates in your eyes?
We must unlearn what does not serve us: the ways in which our mind, language and habits have been colonised.
We must also cultivate seeds of joy, love, gratitude that can neutralise seeds of anxiety, despair and worry. It is essential to become aware of our suffering, that we listen to the sensations it brings and where it is felt in our body, and that we tend to it with curiosity. We can talk to our despair with kindness yet not dwell or drown in it.
Through mindfulness, we are invited to practice the selective watering of our mind seeds: that of joy, love and gratitude.
Fierce compassion and kindness
The energy of compassion, which stems from the understanding of our own suffering, helps us understand the other’s suffering. Compassion to ourselves thus opens it to other beings.
Building bridges of understanding requires courage and curiosity, and the practice of deep listening to reconcile with ourselves and others.
‘The courage of the warrior is not to be drown into the mud’ or not to ‘produce more mud’.
It is the courage to lead with love and to be kind. To walk as a good ancestor with the energy of compassion to ourselves and all beings, with joy, inclusiveness, reverence and trust that we have love in our hearts.
And yes, some days are definitely harder than others, but this is a practice, where we learn and unlearn, again and again.
Action and non-action
The hardest one for me to fully lean into might be this strong paradox of action and non-action entangled within a triple r knot of rest, resistance and result.
Thich Nhat Hanh shares that ‘your actions should be based on the quality of your being’. In order words, of your non-action.
Action is based on the quality of non-action. See how it mirrors the ‘self is made of non-self elements’?
Mind blown yet?
There is more.
‘Rest is resistance’ and we must:
‘Practice the practice of non-practice.’
‘Attain the attainment of non-attainment.’
‘The wave is already water’, meaning that you already are what you want to become.
Mind fully blown.
Loving the earth
And to come full circle: remember that we are the earth.
Or perhaps that we are earthing?
Remember her vitality, creativity, strength and resilience.
Plant seeds of love and compassion, water them.
Be responsible gardeners of the seeds in your mind in service to creating more beautiful realities.
Be curious.