Ground Sprouts Vanished - A Buddhist Depiction of the Climate Crisis and Civilization's Collapse

"Due to corruption and unskillful things among us, the earth's nectar vanished, ground-sprouts vanished, bursting pods vanished..."

Aggañña Sutta

Origin of the World

Painting a portrait eerily reminiscent of the current state of our world, the Aggañña Sutta records an early Buddhist origin story. In fact, the Pāli word "aggañña" itself means origin, from "agga" or the Sanskrit agra, first or foremost. Despite this emphasis on origination, the Aggañña Sutta's contents reflect what appears to be a process of decline, with implications for both the climate crisis and civilization's collapse through neglect of basic civil rights and universal civility.

The origin of the world is intimately tied into its mode of undoing. Much like the way in which the cycle of dependent origination begins with ignorance and culminates in suffering, any alteration to its conditions stands to unravel the process. As we discuss below, the Aggañña Sutta identifies greed as a primary cause for the origin of the world, which we interpret as a psychological basis for our present state of affairs. If our present world originates from greed, it will disintegrate via greed as well...

We thus take up the Aggañña Sutta's story on the origin of the world as a topic of inquiry, especially given the increasingly tumultuous state of the environment, economy, and epidemiology amidst various forms of suffering deriving from racial injustice and inter-generational trauma extending back through time immemorial.

Feasting on Nectar

The Aggañña Sutta begins with an idyllic image of beings unconstrained by coarse bodies, floating through the ether, rapturous and radiant. As if breathing, the cosmos contracts and expands as these beings flicker out and back into radiance, all the while feeding on rapture. During a stretch of cosmic expansion, sweet nectar forms on earth, piquing the curiosity of these beings. It solidifies on the earth's surface, tempting them down from the ether.

What happens next in some ways closely resembles the story from the Garden of Eden. Perhaps it functions as an archetypal literary device, as its basic themes traverse traditions.

Abandoning their rapture, one of these beings recklessly dips their finger into the nectar. Upon tasting its delectable sweetness, craving is born in them. From this moment forward, ruled by desire as if addicted, these previously radiant beings begin greedily feasting on nectar.

Ground Sprouts Vanished

As they feast, the nectar is said to break into chunks, becoming the celestial bodies, including sun, moon, and stars. Despite their beauty, these once glorious beings deplete this cherished resource from the earth.

In the absence of nectar, ground-sprouts appear, like mushrooms blooming from the earth. No longer sustained by rapture, no longer sustained by nectar, the beings whose bodies have by now become coarse and heavy feed off the ground-sprouts. Lo and behold, they deplete the ground-sprouts through their greed. In the absence of ground-sprouts, bursting pods appear, like fruiting trees. Those are soon depleted as well. In the absence of bursting pods, ripe untilled rice appears, for a while regenerating with each passing of the sun. What has by now become a self-perpetuating pattern, driven by greed, continues.

As these beings dig themselves deeper into greed, they think to themselves, "We'd better divide up the rice and set boundaries," hoping to preserve their resources. The plan backfires, given that "While guarding their own share, they took another's share without it being given and ate it," leading to widespread jealousy and theft.

Climate Crisis and Civilization's Collapse

Greed ultimately tips the dominoes in motion for a series of other unwholesome outcomes. "From that day on, stealing was found, and blaming and lying and the taking up of rods." In this chain reaction of events, an initial moment of greed eventually culminates in violence, characterizing the present climate crisis and civilization's collapse. When beings greedily covet resources and deprive others, then further harmful activities are sure to follow.

Greed → Depletion of Resources → Scarcity → Stealing → Blaming and Lying → Violence
What, then, can be done to reverse the cycle? If we treat this web of causality similar to that of dependent origination, there are multiple points at which the process can be re-routed. The Aggañña Sutta suggests a basic foundation in morality - refraining from killing, stealing, and so forth. Interestingly, in the Buddha's teaching that comes immediately before the Aggañña Sutta in the Pāli Canon, the Buddha goes a step further, crossing into the realm of politics. He advises rulers to distribute resources to the masses in order to ensure their basic needs are met. This, says the Buddha, will prevent the emergence of scarcity, poverty, stealing, and other such events.


So where does that leave us? We stand at one of the most complex crossroads, a momentous junction in the earth's history, on multiple intersecting levels. The complex web of causality is coalescing around events with huge potential to shift the state of affairs drastically in the years to come. What role do we play?

Let us collectively reflect: In our present situation, what steps can each of us take to overcome greed, to prevent the depletion of resources, to avoid scarcity and relieve others from poverty? Social justice requires our collective efforts.

What responsibility will you undertake, what responsibility will I undertake, in order to help co-create a world in which all may experience the greatest benefit and the least harm? Each thread in the web, no matter how small, stands to make a difference. To be continued.

Still I Rise - Dust Contemplations by Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Maya Angelou

In light of the abhorrent recent murder of George Floyd, an inexcusably violent act in a string of senseless atrocities perpetrated against communities of color, we turn to the work of African-American poet Maya Angelou.

Born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri, Angelou was a performer turned writer who worked with both Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X during the civil rights movement. Her career spans and merges the realms of theater, literature, and activism.

Maya Angelou's poem "Still I Rise" provides a snapshot into her personal contemplations on injustice. We thus join her in reflection in the midst of protests sweeping the globe, primarily letting her speak for herself.

Like Dust

The image of dust invoked by Maya Angelou in "Still I Rise" carries an especially nuanced power. Prior to its mention, Angelou references the cloud of misinformation, a miasma of distorted history, written at the hands of those in power, who intentionally warp reality to fit their chosen narrative. She observes that although she and other people of color are portrayed as defiled caricatures and thus essentially trodden into the dirt under the heels or knees of oppressive forces, she absolutely refuses to be snuffed out by them. Whatever dust they grind her into becomes her new means of rising above.

But still, like dust, I'll rise
Those voices that are most stifled will nonetheless continue to speak in spite of efforts to suppress them. Angelou herself was mute for several years a child after suffering rape by her mother's partner, whom her protective relatives later killed. As a young girl, she felt responsible for all that had occurred and lost the will to speak. With the encouragement of a black female teacher educated in literature, Angelou eventually recovered her voice and went on to use it skillfully for social justice in the civil rights movement, rising like dust so fine it can be lifted up into the open expanse.

Still I Rise

Much of Angelou's carefully chosen words speak volumes to resilience in the face of horrendous injustices, which continue to plague us today. In fact, with an unrelenting sense of determination, she drew upon the collective strength of her community to triumph over tremendous adversity and traumatic life events during an era of social unrest and turmoil. Shining a beaming light of hope for the future in a time of darkness, which characterizes the atrocities of her time as much as ours, Maya Angelou concludes the poem "Still I Rise" with a set of momentous verses, through which her thunderous voice resounds.

Out of the huts
of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past
that’s rooted in pain
I rise

I'm a black ocean,
leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling
I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights
of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak
that’s wondrously clear
I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise
I rise
I rise.

Maya Angelou. "Still I Rise," And Still I Rise: A Book of Poems. 1978.

An Inescapable Network of Mutuality - Martin Luther King Jr. on the Interwoven Fabric of Justice

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

— Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from the Birmingham Jail

An Inescapable Network of Mutuality

With contagious disease and an outrageous political season rippling over society, seemingly tearing apart its foundations by sewing the seeds of disharmony, it may appear a bit cliché to invoke these lines from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on "an inescapable network of mutuality."

If, however, we can actually appreciate their immense relevance, their deeply pragmatic and realistic message, then we may stand a chance at collective, scalable, regenerative organizing at the micro- and macro- ecological, economic, and epidemiological levels.

Arrested for violating an injunction against unauthorized demonstrations during tensions over Birmingham, Alabama's segregation laws, King spent eight days in jail, during which he authored this letter to his fellow clergymen. Here we interweave a few strands of contemplative reflection around one of its most salient themes.

The Interwoven Fabric of Justice

Written while incarcerated at the Birmingham city jail, dated April 16, 1963, the letter details King's vision of justice. Contextually, it was penned in response to an initial open letter signed by eight local white clergymen, published by the Birmingham News, criticizing King's direct action campaign as untimely and unwise, instead urging black residents of Birmingham to obey the law and cease their support for the demonstrations. King supposedly scrawled much of his reply on scraps of paper available to him in prison.

In the letter, King emphasizes the sentiment, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Refusing to submit to status quo, he defends his choice to protest.

Most tellingly, rather than distance himself from these conservative opponents or pit himself and his supporters against the opposition, King consistently highlights the interwoven fabric of justice, declaring, "I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham...Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial 'outside agitator' idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."

Radicals and Revolutionaries

Accused of extremism, King responds by reframing the question of extremism as a choice between acting as extremists for love and justice, or extremists for hate and injustice. Standing between those who would rather acquiesce and those who instead resort to violence and vitriole, King occupies a liminal space characterized by persistent non-violent protest. Invoking the likes of Jesus Christ and other so-called radicals and revolutionaries of their time, he calls upon others to unite in their differences, prioritizing justice for all.



Presently, we face a similar set of concerns over what have been deemed radical and revolutionary politics, striking fear and panic into those who associate such terms with violent authoritarianism and ruthless dictatorship. Radical and revolutionary terminology has been corrupted and tainted, but with wisdom and compassion, they may still be reclaimed and reframed in reference to a radically and revolutionarily inclusive movement, the first to fully acknowledge and embrace that we are each and all embedded in an inescapable network of mutuality, a single garment of destiny. Perhaps there is more freedom to be gained than lost if we transcend the deeply ingrained tendency to view ourselves as separate entities operating in the mindlessly self-serving ways that characterize individualism.

Threads of Synergy that Support and Sustain

Given the increasing complexity of our environments, we face a set of uniquely complex challenges, whether epidemiologically, climatologically, or otherwise. Unfortunately, when it comes to interrelatedness, we too often focus on the networks that spread disease and panic instead of those threads of synergy that support and sustain us.

Rather than let a pandemic of pandemonium ensue through the contagion of division, a disease gone viral as it spreads across networks, let us envision ways in which the inescapable network of mutuality may work to the advantage of all, the health and well-being of each part of the whole.

Repairing and regenerating the network, ensuring that its routes of transmission are open and clear and, importantly, that what is transmitted is medicinal and not pathological will be how we transcend outdated modes of being and transform the system from the inside out into a sustainable society for all.



Source:

King, Martin Luther. "Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]" 16 April 1963.