Ecological Questions, Buddhist Responses: The Dharma of the Natural World
A virtual discussion exploring how Buddhist philosophy — from dependent origination to non-attachment — offers frameworks for understanding ecological crisis beyond policy and technology fixes.
Why we picked this
Unlike secular environmental discourse, Buddhist frameworks offer a metaphysics of interdependence that makes ecological crisis not merely a policy failure but a spiritual diagnosis — this discussion explores what follows from taking that premise seriously.
Buddhist philosophy has long articulated a vision of the natural world as a web of interdependent relationships — a view that looks prescient in the age of ecological collapse. This virtual discussion asks what resources Buddhist thought and practice offer for understanding and responding to the environmental crisis, moving well beyond generic appeals to “mindfulness” to engage the deeper philosophical commitments of the tradition.
Topics include the doctrine of dependent origination as an ecological framework, Buddhist critiques of the consumerism driving environmental destruction, and the tradition of contemplative activism — the idea that inner transformation and outward action are inseparable. The conversation draws on both classical texts and contemporary engaged Buddhist thinkers from Asia and the West.
The event appeals to those seeking philosophical alternatives to technocratic environmentalism, or exploring how ancient wisdom traditions can speak to distinctly modern emergencies without being flattened into self-help.