Chris Philpott gave a little talk about how Green Spirituality can be a friend of the Climate Change Movement. He explored the commonality of spiritual teachings that pointed to the spiritual causes of Climate Change. He said that one cause was the drive of greed and materialism fuelled by consumerism, as this was shown as a danger and distraction to spiritual progress in the Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, Bahai, Islamic, Hindu, and other spiritual traditions. Another spiritual cause of climate change was identified as how we have lost our connection with nature, which was illustrated in the teachings of Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Shamanism, Paganism and other spiritual traditions. A further spiritual cause of climate change was pointed out to be our collective bad karma which was explained in the teachings of Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism and other spiritual traditions. Finally he pointed out that a spiritual cause of climate change was our loss of balance in our lives which was emphasised in the teachings of Islam, Taoism, Hinduism, and other spiritual traditions.
Chris opened up the discussion to participants. It became very clear that the common thread to everyone's experience was that their spiritual experience was a direct motivator to green action. Some participants did not proclaim to follow any spiritual path
yet felt an urge to act to protect the planet from climate change from a sense of wonder
of nature. Another participant had developed a strong identity to nature through the use of naturally occurring psychedelic drugs and this fuelled his passion for green activism around climate change. One person who had suffered from mental illness implied that she had felt more at home at the Climate Camp because of the nature of the spiritual gathering at the workshop. Finally a person researching for a Phd in faith and green action said then workshop had inspired her because it had shown the things in common between different spiritual traditions and not their differences.
Chris Philpott www.greenspirituality.org
yet felt an urge to act to protect the planet from climate change from a sense of wonder
of nature. Another participant had developed a strong identity to nature through the use of naturally occurring psychedelic drugs and this fuelled his passion for green activism around climate change. One person who had suffered from mental illness implied that she had felt more at home at the Climate Camp because of the nature of the spiritual gathering at the workshop. Finally a person researching for a Phd in faith and green action said then workshop had inspired her because it had shown the things in common between different spiritual traditions and not their differences.
Chris Philpott www.greenspirituality.org
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