DEEP ECOLOGY - PERMACULTURE - MINDFULNESS

Retreat
European Institute of Applied Buddhism
23rd - 30th September 2011

Content of this Booklet 1 - dear friends 2 - humanities 3 - the shambhalas 4 - being environmental 5 - the invitation 6 - 5 remembrances 7 - permaculture 9 - ecological self 12 - poetry for every day 14 - songs

DEAR FRIENDS,

Lets wake up together. Lets move from being homo sapiens to homo conscius. Lets come together in this 7-day retreat to cultivate collective awakening and explore Deep Ecology. Lets look deeply to see that the world we inhabit - with all its life - is nothing less than an extension of ourselves: the world we are.

We can join together to enjoy the conditions for happiness available in the present moment. We can learn how to take care of our inner and outer environment through mindful breathing, smiling, lying, sitting, walking, eating, relaxing, playing and cultivating brotherhood and sisterhood. We will discover concrete ways to apply the insight of Interbeing into our own daily lives, to establish an intimate conversation with Mother Earth and to cultivate understanding and love for our fellow beings. This retreat will offer us an opportunity to experience an interdisciplinary mix of presentations, sharings and workshops on the Five Mindfulness Trainings, Deep Ecology and Permaculture. We will collectively contemplate the question How can we join forces and find a way to live and work together out of our innermost aspiration?. Our love and gratitude towards nature, our ancestors, present and future generations and all beings, will be expressed through the act of planting trees and gardens at the end of the retreat.

humanities

Deep commitment towards inner growth

People sometimes ask me how our species can reconcile with planet Earth after all the harm we have caused. We can reconcile with Mother Earth by practicing walking meditation. On every step we can kiss the earth with our feet, with love, with the promise that we will stop our current course of destroying Mother Earth. If we continue abusing the earth this way, there is no doubt that our civilization will be destroyed. This turnaround takes enlightenment, awakening. The Buddha attained individual awakening. Now we need a collective enlightenment to stop this course of destruction. Civilization is going to end if we continue to drown in the competition for power, fame, sex, and profit. One day during meditation, I was contemplating global warming. With some anguish, I asked Nature this question: Nature, do you think we can rely on you? I asked the question because I know that Nature is intelligent; she knows how to react, sometimes violently, to reestablish balance. And I heard the answer in the form of another question: Can I rely on you? The question was being put back to me: can Nature rely on humans? And after a long, deep breathing, I said, Yes, you can mostly rely on me. And then I heard Natures answer, Yes, you can also mostly rely on me. That was a very deep conversation I had with Nature. This should not be a mere verbal declaration. It should be a deep commitment from everyone, so that nature can respond in kind. With collective insight we can reconcile with and heal our planet. Every one of us can do something in our daily lives to contribute, to protect and care for our planet. It is time for us to wake up together in order to do something to change the situation.

We have to live in such a way that a future will be possible for our children and grandchildren and our own life has to be the message.
-Thich Nhat Hanh (in: The Art of Power)

The Shambhala Warriors

Mind Training

Firmly establish your intention to live for the healing of our world. Be conscious of it, nurture it, honour it every day. Be fully present in our time. Find the courage to breathe in the suffering of our world. Allow peace and healing to breathe out through you in return. Hold a single vision, in the same thought, the transformation of yourself and of the world. Live your life around that edge, always keeping it in mind. As a bird flies on two wings, balance outer activity with inner sustenance. Following your heart, realise your own unique gifts. Cultivate them with diligence to offer knowledge and skill to the world. Train in non-violence of body, speech and mind. With great patience to yourself, learn to make beautiful each action, thought and word. Do not meet power on its own terms. See through to its real nature: mind- and heart-made. Lead your response from that level. Simplify. Clear away the dead wood in your life. Look for the heartwood and give it the first call on your time, the best of your energy. Put down the leaden burden of saving the world alone. Join with others of like mind. Align yourself with the forces of resolution. In the crucible of meditation, bring forth day by day the compassion, wisdom, skill and courage for which the world longs. Sit with hatred, until you feel the fear beneath it. Sit with fear, until you feel the compassion beneath that. Do not set your heart on particular results. Enjoy positive action for its own sake. Rest confident that it will bear fruit. When you see violence, greed and narrow-mindedness in the fullness of its power, walk straight into the heart of it, remaining open to the sky and in touch with the earth. Staying open, staying grounded, remember that you are the inheritors of thousands of generations of life. Staying open, staying grounded, be confident in the magic and power that arise when people come together in a great cause. Staying open, staying grounded, have faith that the forces of wisdom and compassion will manifest through our actions for the healing of our world.

When you see the weapons of hate, disarm them with Love. When you see the fortresses of narrow mindedness, breach them with truth. When you find yourself in dark clouds of dread, dispel them with courage. When the forces of power seek to isolate us from one another, reach out with joy. In it and through it all, holding to your intention, let go into the music of life. Dance!

Being Environmental
There are many teachings that can help us understand our interconnectedness with our Mother Earth. one of the deepest is a dialogue between the Buddha and a student. It is called the Diamond Sutra and it is the most ancient text on deep ecology. // What should people do, if they want to cultivate the highest mind and spirit possible? We have to do our best to help every living being across the ocean of suffering. But after all beings have arrived the shores of liberation, no being at all has been carried. If you by that time will still be attached to words and notions of a self , a person, a living being and a life span you will still suffer. // Life is one; we dont need to slice it into pieces and call this or that piece a self. What we like to call a self is actually made of nonself elements. Look at a flower. Could it possibly exist without the rain, the sun, the soil, the gardener, the minerals or even without your consciusness? It could not exist, if only one of the above is not there. If one is missing the whole flower is missing, too.
Thich Nath Hanh

Subhuti:

The Buddha:

Oriah Mountain Dreamers

Invitation

I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your hearts longing. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive. I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by lifes betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it. I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy. I want to know if you can see beauty, even when it is not pretty every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence. I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, Yes! I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
It doesnt interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. It doesnt interest me who you know or how you came to be here. It doesnt interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. It doesnt interest me if the story you are telling me is true. It doesnt interest me what planets are squaring your moon. It doesnt interest me how old you are.

It doesnt interest me what you do for a living.

This is the practice of the Five Remembrances, designed to help us recognize fear and practice sitting with it. You face the truth. You bring the seed of fear up and you face it and embrace it with your mindfulness. This needs courage. By doing this you reduce the strength of fear and the seed of fear becomes weaker. This practice helps us accept old age, sickness, and death as realities, facts that we cannot escape. We have to learn to accept the end of this civilization of ours. If we can accept it, we will be more peaceful. We accept our own death, we accept the death of our civilization. We touch the truth of impermanence and then we have peace. When we have peace, there will be hope again.

mindfulness _ the 5 remebrances

With this kind of peace we can make use of the technology that is available to us to save this planet of ours. With fear and despair were not going to be able to save our planet, even if we have the technology to do it. It`s possible to die peacefully, with love, if we have the insight of interbeing in us and we know how to touch our true nature of no-birth and no-death. Breathing in, I know I am of the nature to grow old. Breathing out, I know I cannot escape old age. Breathing in, I know I am of the nature to get sick. Breathing out, I know I cannot escape sickness. Breathing in, I know I am of the nature to die. Breathing out, I know I cannot escape dying. Breathing in, I know one day I will have to let go of everything and everyone I cherish. Breathing out, there is no way to bring them along. Breathing in, I know that I bring nothing with me except my actions, thoughts, and deeds. Breathing out, only my actions come with me.

An introduction to
History

Permaculture

Permaculture is a design system based on ethics and design principles which can be used to establish, design, manage and improve all efforts made by individuals, households and communities towards a sustainable future. The permaculture flower uses the evolutionary spiral path to link together the key domains required for this change. These concepts are adapted from Permaculture Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability by permaculture co-originator David Holmgren. Intention The 12 permaculture design principles are thinking tools, that when used together, allow us to creatively re-design our environment and our behaviour in a world of less energy and resources.

These principles are seen as universal, although the methods used to express them will vary greatly according to the place and situation. They are applicable to our personal, economic, social and political reorganisation as illustrated in the permaculture flower. Each principle can be thought of as a door that opens into whole systems thinking, providing a different perspective that can be understood at varying levels of depth and application. Ethics Central to permaculture are the three ethics: care for the earth, care for people and fair share. They form the foundation for permaculture design and are also found in most traditional societies. Ethics are culturally evolved mechanisms that regulate selfinterest, giving us a better understanding of good and bad outcomes. The greater the power of humans, the more critical ethics become for long-term cultural and biological survival. For more information, turn to: Every Body on this planet
Excerpts taken from http://permacultureprinciples.com to spread the word. thank you.

Deep Ecology

The ecological self (by arne naess)

For at least 2500 years, humankind has struggled with basic questions about who we are, what we are heading for, what kind of reality we are part of. Two thousand five hundred years is a short period in the lifetime of a species, and still less in the lifetime of the Earth, on whose surface we belong as mobile parts. 1. We underestimate ourselves. We tend to confuse it with the narrow ego. 2. Human nature is such that with sufficient all-sided maturity we cannot avoid identifying ourselves with all living beings, beautiful or ugly, big or small, sentient or not. 3. Traditionally the maturity of the self develops through three stages--from ego to social self, and from social self to metaphysical self. In this conception of the process nature--our home, our immediate environment, where we belong as children--is largely ignored. Society and human relations are important, but our self is richer in its constitutive relations. These relations are not only relations we have with humans and the human community, but with the larger community of all living beings. 4. The joy and meaning of life is enhanced through increased selfrealization, through the fulfillment of each beings potential. Whatever the differences between beings, increased self-realization implies broadening and deepening of the self. 5. Because of an inescapable process of indentification with others, with growing maturity, the self is widened and deepened. We see ourself in others. Self-realization is hindered if the self-realization of others, with whom we identify, is hindered. Love of ourself will labor to overcome this obstacle by assisting in the self-realization of others according to the formula live and let live. Thus, all that can be achieved by altruism--the dutiful, moral consideration of others-- can be achieved--and much more--through widening and deepening ourself. Following Immanuel Kants critique, we then act beautifully but neither morally nor immorally. 6. The challenge of today is to save the planet from further devastation which violates both the enlightened self-interest of humans and nonhumans, and decreases the potential of joyful existence for all.
taken from: joanna macy. voice for peace, action and compassion www.joannamacy.com

aware of the suffering caused by unskillful actions in the past, present and future, we dedicate the wholesome energy of this moment of interbeing to this soil and vow to nourish the seeds planted in us during this wake-up retreat. may we cultivate the capacity to bear fruits of love and understanding. may this wake-up tree bear nourishing fruits for our ancestors, present and future generations. /// we bow to all beings in gratitude. // /// //////// //////// / /// //// ////7//// ////// /// /// ///// . //////// ////// / ///////// //////////////// //// //// //////// // ---------------------------------------------------------------// /// ////// // //// /

we wake-upers from all directions have gathered to explore the precious gift of life and our great potential to live, in celebration of brotherhood and sisterhood.

with reverence to the buddha nature within all beings,

wake up tree

poetry

for daily life by Thich Nath Hanh

Poetry helps us to practice mindfulness in our daily lives and to look deeply. Reciting these short poems will bring awareness, peace, and joy to the simple activities we may take for granted, like eating a meal, washing our hands, taking out the garbage. The images are all real and practical. You might even create your own poems for the things which are important to you. We need more poetry in our daily lives, dont we? Going Back To Your Breathing Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor. Waking Up Waking up this morning I smile, 24 brand new hours in the day. I vow to live fully in each moment, And to look at all beings With eyes of love and compassion. Taking The First Step Of The Day Walking on the Earth is a miracle! With each mindful step a flower blooms, With each mindful step a gentle wind blows. Looking Out The Window Looking out the window, how wondrous is life! Attentive to each moment, my mind is clear like a calm river.

Turning On The Water Water flows from high mountain sources. Water runs deep in the Earth. Miraculously, water comes to us and sustains all life. Brushing Your Teeth Brushing my teeth and rinsing my mouth, I vow to speak purely and lovingly. When my mouth is fragrant with right speech, a flower blooms in the garden of my heart. Looking At Your Empty Bowl My bowl, empty now, will soon be filled with precious food. Beings all over the Earth are struggling to live. How fortunate I am to have enough to eat. Serving Food In this food I see clearly the entire universe supporting my existence. Touching The Earth Earth brings us into life and nourishes us. Earth takes us back again. We are born and we die with every breath. Watering The Garden Water and sun green these plants. When the rain of compassion falls, even the desert becomes a vast fertile plain. Recycling In the garbage, I see a rose. In the rose, I see the garbage. Everything is in transformation. Even permanence is impermanent.

Songs / Lieder
I am open

willing I am open and I am d seem so strange To be hopeless woul who go before us It dishonors those e light of change So lif t me up to th family There is hurting in my town There is sorrow in my nation There is panic in the whole world round There is wailing the more clearly May the children see re wise May the elders be mo ange caress us May the winds of ch our eyes Even though it burns ion k to hold my confus Give me a mighty oa hold my fears Give me a desert to hold my wonder Give me a sunset to hold my tears Give me an ocean to

the circle of life

We are circeling circeling together we are singing singing our heart song This is family this is unity this is celebration this is sacred.

Above and below _ and all around us all Above and below _ and all around us all life of all the beauty in You are the essence e of the lo ve in my lif You are the essence _ within and below Sacred source from within and below Sacred source from

above and below

I love nature nature is cool The forest is my classroom the earth is my school trees are my teachers animals are my friends and on this school all life depends

nature is cool

silence is an ocean
Silence is an ocean language is a river a hundred voices inside saying that s enough for now When the ocean calls to you dont go to the river le listen to the ocean the litt that s enough for now. snail snail ttle m s I a li tin y step alk with I w se m y hou I carry ere I go everywh i am h me l sing wit walking beautifu world is the I am walking, on s lo ve a journ ey let s smile, let to nowhere, taki n it easy, takin it slow. No more worries , no need to hurr y, nothing to carr y, let it all go

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