Eco-Justice Meditation as a Pedagogy of Connection, Response-ability, and Love

• In Event: 15.059 - Fairmont Royal York Roundtable Session One
  In Roundtable Session: 15.059-8 - Toward Pedagogies for Eco-Ethical Becoming: International Collaborations for Eco-Justice Education

Abstract

This paper explores important connections between the primary strands of EcoJustice Education, and the principles and practices delineated in Buddhism, particularly in the Seven Factors of Awakening and in the Four Immeasureables-metta (loving kindness), karuna (compassion for all sentient beings), mudita (sympathetic joy), and upekkha (equanimity)- defining the way of love as both a way of being in the world, and as a principled response to the social and ecological problems we face (Analayo, 2015; Bodhi, 2003, 2016; Makransky, 2007). A primary assumption in the meditation practices around these principles is that we are embedded in a vast weave of life that should be cared for and appreciated, protected and loved (Titmuss, 1995). Meditation practices that focus on the principles of loving kindness, compassion, and sympathetic joy can be understood pedagogically as learning to actively connect ourselves in non-hierarchical, non-clinging "equanimity," recognizing, experiencing, and attending to the relationality that defines and creates life itself. This is a core principle of the EcoJustice framework. To engage with the world in compassion is to both recognize and actively respond to suffering and well-being and is thus a necessary step in the analysis of social and ecological violence (Loy, 1997, 2002; Martusewicz, 2001; 2014). To engage sympathetic joy is to actively celebrate the experiences of joy and jubilation of those working as activist educators against degradation of any sort (Ehrenreich, 2006), a necessary step in the mitigation of despair in this critical work. And to stay curious, to investigate-the second of the Buddha's Seven Factors of Enlightenment-is to be able to confront both what causes destructive relationships, policies, and assumptions, and the forms of warmth and wonder needed to mitigate against the violation of life. Here we connect these principles to the need for cultural ecological analyses of deeply embedded cultural assumptions that lead either to violence and or mutual well-being.
We see these principles as alive and modeled in various indigenous or land-based people's world views and approaches to teaching and learning, particularly those who have survived genocide and have much to teach about how to survive and thrive (Armstrong, 1995, 2006). In the last section of this paper, we explore direct connections between Buddhist meditation principles, EcoJustice pedagogies of responsibility, and models of living indigenous wisdom (Esteva and Prakash, 2014; Mander & Tauli-Corpuz, 2006; Wolff, 2001; Batalla,1996) as means toward revitalizing healthy, just and sustainable communities.

Authors

• Derek Rasmussen, Simon Fraser University

• Rebecca A Martusewicz, Eastern Michigan University