Thich Nhat Hanh
Love Letter to the
Earth
Parallax Press, 2013
Like Joanna Macy’s book Active
Hope, this is an essential text for any activist or student of ecology who
seeks to find a way to look clearly at the damage we’ve done and the peril
we’re in, without giving way to despair.
It seems to me that books like this one may provide an essential
balance. Otherwise we risk being
transfixed by disaster, both ongoing and imminent.
If we have a chance of survival -- real survival, as a
culture and not just as a few remnants of human scavengers focused on brute
survival – we must transform our thinking in the most fundamental ways, clear
down to the optical illusion of separateness, the delusion that we are separate
from each other and the Earth. What we
must do will simply not be possible if we continue to see the Earth as “our
environment”, as something “out there”.
As Thich Nhat Hanh writes, “The Earth is not just the environment we
live in. We are the Earth and we are
always carrying her within us.”
I am fed up with the way most spiritual books avert from
their eyes from catastrophe. It seems to
me that many so-called spiritual books are primarily interested in pulling the
blinds and cranking the air conditioning.
They are like delightful little packets of bubble soap: something in
which to soak while awaiting the end of the Earth.
Thich Nhat Hanh “gets it”.
He sees what we’ve done and what we go on doing. He sees the full extent of the harm and the
danger – and he shows that it is possible to see all of this and remain not
only able to act, but even able to experience joy. Peace and happiness remain possible – even in
full view of the situation and the possibilities. That’s stunning.
If you are seeking ways to see and serve the Earth without
falling apart, this is a book you’ll be needing.
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