Zen and the art of saving the planet

Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet

Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet (ZASP) is a 7-week in-depth online learning journey held by Plum Village, to nurture insight, compassion, community, and mindful action in service of the Earth. We have recently been undertaking the course as a sangha here at Dharma Gaia, and have been deeply touched, inspired and nourished in our personal and collective practice through the course. We wish to share and encourage friends to join the course also, as it has been a profound and valuable experience and learning for us.

We were a part of the first cohort of the ZASP course, which included more than 750 people from different countries around the world. The course includes weekly themes with a range of videos and audio recordings from Plum village monastics and lay practitioners, including guided meditations, dharma talks, discussions, Q & A’s and more. There are also weekly Dharma sharings, offering the opportunity to connect, share and listen deeply with others participating in the course.

At Dharma Gaia, we deeply enjoyed participating in the ZASP course together, and have been touched by many reflections and insights which we wish to keep alive and practice with in our daily lives.

Next ZASP 

At the end of August, the Zen and the Art of Saving The Planet organisers  will open registrations for the next cohort of the course, running October - December for more information please go to this link plumvillage.org/zasp, and sign up for updates if you might like to join this wonderfully nourishing online retreat

‘It is possible to train ourselves to see and experience the present moment in a deeper way. And once we touch reality deeply in the present moment, we touch the past, we touch the future, and we touch eternity. We are the environment, we are the Earth, and the Earth has the capacity to restore balance.

It doesn’t take years of practice to touch eternity in the present moment. In a split second, you can touch it. Taking just one breath, or one step on the Earth, with mindfulness and concentration can help you transcend time. When you touch the present moment deeply, you have an eternity to live’ - Sister True Dedication

Some words from Plum Village about the ZASP course

Why Take this Course?

• Balance personal wellbeing with climate action 

• Begin to master difficult emotions and develop inner resilience

• Join a grounded purpose-driven community of changemakers

• Train in deep listening and compassionate communication

• Nourish a profound relationship with the Earth

• Turn your climate concern and anxiety into sustainable action

What Will You Learn?

Week 1 – Embracing the Pain - Become able to ground ourselves in our breath and body to create the stability and clarity needed to handle the difficulty of our situation.
Week 2 – Cutting Through Illusion - Learn to move beyond a human-centric view of the world, to break out of our separation and touch a greater wonder and mystery in life.
Week 3 – Living with Courage - Face our deepest fears about our death and the possible destruction of our civilization to have the peace and energy to respond to big challenges.
Week 4 – Learning to Rest – A chance to rest & restore, and to reflect on course learnings up until this point
Week 5 – Brave Dialogue – Discover strategies for listening and speaking to help us in the challenging dialogues needed to heal relationships and address the climate crisis.
Week 6 – Mastering Mind and Habits – Explore how Buddhist psychology and self-compassion can help us take care of fear, anxiety, and despair, transform our habits, and identify our deep aspirations.
Week 7 – Action Dimension – Identify and nurture the power of community to support us beyond this course and feel empowered to walk in the company of bodhisattvas.

ZASP Reviews from Dharma Gaia and wider NZ sangha

‘Why we're glad we took this course- Tim and I have recently completed it. We kind of knew we'd "enjoy" it but it went far beyond that! We feel we've been "gifted" so much and that it's a "gift that keeps on giving". And we have access to the material for another 6 months after completion so we can (and will!) go right back through it.  It's hard not to "rave" about it!. In the preview "Why Take this Course"? the Plum Village presenters give the following reasons.

• Balance personal wellbeing with climate action 

• Begin to master difficult emotions and develop inner resilience

• Join a grounded purpose-driven community of changemakers

• Train in deep listening and compassionate communication

• Nourish a profound relationship with the Earth

• Turn your climate concern and anxiety into sustainable action

We feel they (all of the teachers, monastic and lay),  gave us all of those reasons and inspirations  - and more! We're involved in "Saving the Planet" action in our community and notice that there's a lot of Climate Anxiety about amongst fellow "warriors" and in ourselves. The theme of accessing the energies of Meditator, Artist and Warrior in us resonates strongly. I've just looked through my notebook and here are some of our key takeaways and practical reminders in no particular order:

• How we can turn neutral moments into moments of joy (non-toothache idea)

• That we can "decolonise" our minds

• "We can choose overwhelm or turn our pain into a positive energy - use the mud to make a lotus"

• That "worrying doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrows - it empties today of its strength"

• We can "unlearn" things - and that "entitlement" can displace gratitude

• Before the planet dies we can already die if fear consumes us.

• "It's amazing what you can achieve if you don't care who gets the credit"

• How to be fully present and really listen deeply

• We can Cultivate ways of being and responding that can give us strength peace and serenity. (Courageous Conversations)

• We are part of growing mindful movement that wants to bring "zenness" into our planet-saving’

  -Barbara and Tim, Nelson sangha

‘The ZASP course has been a source of deep inspiration, connection and motivation for me, in the practice and in living deeply and being in touch with myself, the earth, and living beings. I really enjoyed the perspectives and variety of content offered; it was a great inspiration to hear wisdom from a range of Plum Village monastics and lay practitioners, and take in reflections and insights which resonated very deeply. I appreciated the balance between the invitation to look deeply inside ourselves, and in practical, grounded ways to practice in embodied ways in our daily lives to be present, in touch with what is real and here, and bring peace and healing to the earth, our lives, and the lives of those around us and living beings.. realising the interconnectedness and interbeing of all of these things. The ZASP course touched me very deeply and I am looking forward to continuing to learn from it, and to go back again and delve even more deeply into the course, as I feel the richness and insights which have been shared through it’ - Mirren

‘I am so grateful to the ZASP team of monastics and lay teachers for starting me on a life changing journey. The teachings and practices of the ZASP course are beautifully crafted to help us through the unprecedented difficult times that we are currently facing. For an online course, it has a remarkably face-to-face feel about it. I ended up feeling a wonderful combination of reverance and familiarity for the teaching faculty. This all facilitates work into deeply personal issues. It is amazing that already much of my anger, dispair and grief, over what we have done to this miracle planet, has been transformed into increased energy for caring actions and helped me lead a happier simpler life. I cannot compliment this inaugural ZASP course enough, or overemphasise the importance of this work’ - Paul.

‘Thay is blazingly clear: there’s one thing we have the power to change, which will make all the difference, and that is our mind. Our mind is the instrument with which we engage and interact with the world; it holds our despair and fears, our hopes and dreams. Our mind’s way of seeing determines the decisions and actions we take or avoid, how we relate to those we love or oppose, and how we respond in a crisis’