Eco Dharma Centre | Radical Ecology Radical Dharma

What is EcoDharma?

Eco abbr.adj [i kó]: 1. Abbreviated from ecological and pointing to the ecological or holistic worldview that underpins resistance to the destructive juggernaut of industrial growth society and strengthens the renewal of ways of living that support a creative and life affirming future. 2. Celebrates the fundamental interconnectedness of all phenomena and the fact that, as individuals and societies, we are embedded in the cyclical processes of nature. 3. Not just another misuse of the ‘eco’ prefix to simulate a light green aura around a product or service for the ethical consumer, but rather pointing to the radical change in consciousness and socio-economic structures required to address the crises of our time, as in Deep Ecology, Social Ecology and Radical Ecology. 4. A challenge to the human-centred assumptions that humans are somehow above nature and the source of all value, and which ascribes only instrumental or ‘use’ value to nature; and instead affirming the intrinsic value of all living beings, including humans as one unique strand in the web of life. 5. The realisation that the way we treat the environment, the way we treat other species, and the way we treat each other, are all interlinked; the ‘eco’ paradigm helps us make the shift from ways of living based on hierarchy, domination and control to those based on co-operation and partnership; to move from isolating assumptions about our nature to a life affirming connection in community with others and the living earth.

Dharma noun [dáarma]: 1. A Sanskrit Buddhist term often used to refer to the ancient lineage of practices and teachings of Buddhism, dharma includes all practices which experience shows can support the development of consciousness in opening into the creative and open dimension of becoming which has the taste of freedom. 2. The path of practices, such as ethics and meditation, which support the unfoldment of ever greater levels of wisdom and compassion, alleviating suffering at the deepest level and leading to release from the bondage of greed, hatred and ignorance. 3. Indicating the profound interconnectedness of all things and the radically non-dual nature of reality, it indicates an ultimate reality beyond definitions and yet intuited in its thusness in the fecund and creative interplay of becoming. 4. All outer and inner phenomena, the mind and its surrounding environment, inseparable and interdependent, as teachers of reality.

Eco-Dharma noun [i kó-dáarma]: 1. A creative exploration in a time of ecological and social crisis which brings into playful, critical and augmenting association the valuable methodologies and insights of the Buddhist tradition with an emerging ecological paradigm and consciousness to support the realisation of life affirming individuals, societies and cultures. 2. A radical ecological sensibility understood as an aspect of the maturation of consciousness, through which we can come to know ourselves as the mysterious interplay of the elements, experience ourselves as part of the exquisite dance of biological self-organisation, as the untameable vibrancy of emergent consciousness, and tear down the veils of ignorance which cause us to suffer. 3. Fully rooted in the complexities of the historical moment, Eco-Dharma contributes to the ongoing revitalisation of the Dharma, staying responsive and relevant, challenging institutionalised greed, hatred and ignorance, nurturing a dharma that stands in courageous and compassionate defence of the earth, a Dharma that stands in solidarity with life. 4. A spiritual exploration which eschews the life denying traps so many religious traditions are liable to fall into, fetishizing the spiritual above the socio-political, remaining confused by residual beliefs in an otherworldly salvation, a somewhere else heaven or nirvana, a split between the spiritual and the everyday, between mind and matter. 5. A socio-political exploration that affirms that the transformation of the world and the transformation of the self are not separable, and that the transformation of consciousness is integral to subverting the conditions which give rise to systems of oppression and domination. 6. Well, who knows what you might bring to this dialogue?