This book is born out of a conversation begun between the Gen-Z climate activist, Greta Thunberg, and the world’s most popular living religious leader, H.H. the Dalai Lama, who is about to turn eighty-eight.
“A Buddhist lama and a climate activist walk in a Zoom…” the story begins, showing that it is possible to speak with humor and hope when addressing the most serious crisis we all face: climate change.
Author Susan Bauer-Wu — an organizational leader, clinical scientist, former professor at the University of Virginia, and mindfulness teacher — tells us what took place when these two important teachers were in each other’s company and what it means for the rest of us.
It becomes clear that none of us live independently of others, of our communities, or from the Earth upon which we stand and rely.
It also becomes clear that there is no time to wait for governments around the world to take decisive steps to halt climate change.
Other great spiritual teachers are interviewed and quoted as well, including Joanna Macy, who says: “Through our suffering with our world, we are seeing the immensity of the life in us. Saint Francis, for example, the saint of ecology in Christianity, he didn’t run from the bad news of his time. He walked with Lady Poverty. He kissed the leper. He kept his eyes open to the devastation of war and was a prisoner of war. And by being that pain, collectively with his brothers and sisters he could sing the 'Canticle of the Sun' and open to the blessedness and holiness of life and get a sense of una immense vita [one immense life].”
And it becomes clear, in some of the richest moments in this powerful book of inspiration and conversation — sprinkled throughout — that there are rituals and spiritual practices we may observe and create, with the help of these experts, for connecting our lives most intimately to the Earth, to help us realize that we are all one. See the spiritual practice accompanying this review for one of these.
