Fierce Compassion, Resiliency, and the Climate Crisis:
A Work That Reconnects Online Retreat
DATES:
Friday, February 11th from 3pm-5pm PT/4pm-6pm MT/6-8pm ET: Introduction and Grounding
Saturday, February 12th from 8am-11am PT/9am-12pm MT/11am-2pm ET AND 12pm-2pm PT/1pm-3pm MT/3pm-5pm ET: Day-Long Retreat
Saturday, February 19th from 8am-11am PT/9am-12pm MT/11am-2pm ET AND 12pm-2pm PT/1pm-3pm MT/3pm-5pm ET: Day-Long Follow-Up
PLACE: At Home/Remote Retreat
COST: $40/$100/$250/$600 Sliding Scale Donation (Scholarships available by request - email Eden to explore options)
If you are able to attend the day-long retreats but not the Friday evening session, you are welcome to view Friday’s introductory session on video. While the safety and integrity of the container we are creating requires participants to attend all other sessions live, the first session is an Introduction. We will send the video out just after the session ends so that you can view it before Saturday’s session. In addition, this is a powerful series to do with friends, co-workers, or other loved ones with whom you hope to create consistent support and accountability for consciousness in the face of climate change.
The most important thing, in response to climate change, is to be willing
to hear the sound of the earth’s tears through our own bodies.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Over the past few years, humanity has witnessed the alarming and sobering acceleration of our climate crisis through enormous fires, floods and droughts. Transforming our pain and love for our world into compassionate action and resilience begins with honoring our grief for what has been lost or the fear of what could be lost, e.g., the loss of forests and rivers, animal and plant species… and the fear of potential annihilation of our species. Turning towards, rather than away, from our feelings, can initiate deeper embodiment of relational intelligence, courage, and conscious response in times of change.
Please join us for a restorative and empowering retreat integrating dharma practice with The Work That Reconnects. When we honor ourselves as part of the natural feedback system of planet earth, we remember the inner strengths we have to navigate global uncertainty. Some of the questions we will explore are:
How can we meet the intensity of the climate crisis with a clear mind and open heart, rather than feeding the collective habit of fear and reactivity?
What is the meeting point between acceptance and greater commitment to being of service/taking action? How can we contribute to slowing down the effects of climate change and supporting those populations who are being impacted most directly and dramatically impacted?
Acknowledging that action is not the only medicine needed here… that It is only useful in balance with receptivity… how do we cultivate our relational intelligence during this time?
How can we stay anchored in our soft, compassionate, forgiving bodies in order to affirm the unity that is more real than separation?
And how can we commit to practices that restore us, so that we are positioned to create a more regenerative world?
Lastly, what qualities of wonder and respect for the mystery re-awaken in our hearts when we recognize emergence, alongside our grief for what is changing?
Beyond the repetitive action of talking and thinking, talking talking and thinking about climate change and what should humans do, can we take our inquiry more deeply into our hearts, our collaborations, and into the process we bring to life?
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About your co-facilitators:
Kritee (dharma name Kanko), is a climate scientist, Buddhist Zen teacher and grief ritual leader. She is cofounder of Boundless in Motion Sangha, a meditation community in the Buddhist lineage of Cold Mountain Zen. She is also a founding board member of Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center, a center that brings meditation in nature together with dharma teachings for ecological action as well Frontline Farming, an advocacy group that lifts up people of color and women farmers and focuses on food cultivation, education, policy change and justice. As a senior scientist in the Climate Smart Agriculture Program at Environmental Defense Fund, she is helping to implement environment and climate-friendly methods of small farming at large scales in Asia with a three-fold goal of poverty alleviation, food security and climate mitigation / adaptation. She is the leading teacher of Dharma of Resistance - an online course that builds on teachings of Kingian Nonviolence, Social permaculture and Buddhism to teach participants how to take sacred and radical direct actions to bring in climate justice and racial healing.
DEBORAH EDEN TULL, founder of Mindful Living Revolution, is a teacher of Zen meditation and engaged awareness practice, author, activist, and sustainability educator. Her teachings emphasize the connection between personal awakening and collective transformation, bridging the spiritual, interpersonal, transpersonal, societal, and global impacts of compassionate awareness. Eden spent seven years training as a Buddhist monk at a silent Zen monastery and has been teaching dharma for over 20 years. She has spent many years living in sustainable communities and has taught the essential wisdom of nature for close to 30 years.
Eden's teaching style is grounded in mindful inquiry, fierce compassion, partnership with nature, and an unwavering commitment to transformation. Eden teaches from the heart of Zen and draws upon the wisdom streams of deep ecology, shamanism, relational intelligence, and conscious movement to support embodiment.
Eden is a teacher for UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center. She also teaches The Work That Reconnects, a program created by Buddhist scholar Joanna Macy for transforming our pain and love for our world into compassionate action. Eden offers retreats and consultations nationally and internationally and has taught at the Omega Institute, Esalen Institute, and 1440 Multiversity. Her work has been featured in The Los Angeles Times, Tricycle, Yogi Times, Shambhala Times, and The Ecologist - and is featured internationally through online media such as The Shift Network. She also offers a 6-month facilitation training called The Heart of Listening.
Her newest book, Luminous Darkness: An Engaged Buddhist Approach to Embracing the Unknown, will be released by Shambhala Press in September 2022. Her past books include Relational Mindfulness: A Handbook for Deepening Our Connection with Our Self, Each Other, and Our Planet (Wisdom Publications 2018) and The Natural Kitchen: Your Guide for the Sustainable Food Revolution (Process Media 2010).
PRICING
The actual cost of putting this retreat together is $250 per person. However we like to offer registration on a sliding scale to ensure socioeconomic diversity.
$40 (intended for those living paycheck-to-paycheck, especially on hourly wages, or in significant debt)
$100 (intended for those with access to some income but struggling to build savings and move away from debt)
$250 (intended for those that are able to pay for “wants” and generally able to secure necessities for your household)
$600 (intended for those with ample savings that are able to offer generosity and subsidize the participation of others)
Registration is currently closed.
