The Experience of the first Forum “Wisdom Working for The Earth”
Buddhism and Environment Forum Team
The first ‘Wisdom Working for the Earth Forum’ took place from 4-6 June, 2022 at Lerab Ling, Rigpa’s main retreat centre in France.
First of all, the organizing team of the forum would like to thank all the participants of this first forum who contributed to enrich this first dialogue between environmental protection and Buddhist thought.
The Forum aims to bring together environmental awareness and Buddhist wisdom, to open a dialogue that will serve the greatest number of people. We tried to make the event useful for all participants, and to allow everyone to connect what was presented with their own reality and needs.
Here some numbers of this first edition:
353 participants in person
50 participants online who followed four live streamed talks on Youtube
11 talks (including 6 in English – 3 of which can be found on Youtube
2 roundtable discussions, 14 workshops
27 speakers, 8 associations, 28 volunteers
In particular, we had the great honor to hear from His Holiness Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje for the forum ! In his message, HH the Karmapa made a vibrant and optimistic call to action for the environment.
"That is why I believe that there is hope, as long as we all do whatever we can at our level to protect the environment, and slowly build up our actions. By collecting drops of water we can end up with an ocean: in the same way if we all work together I believe it is possible to solve this problem. There is hope.
But if we continue to ignore this global problem, one day soon it will become a problem beyond our power to solve. Then it will be too late for regrets. Protection of the environment is not something to just talk about, but something that we need to do something about." His Holiness Ogyen Trinley Dorje
Thanks to the expertise and kindness of the speakers, the generosity of the volunteers (Cordula, Pierre-Emmanuel, Dominique, and more) and the collaboration of the different teams (Carla, Astrid, Tobias, Sophie, and more), we offered the participants three days of richness and diversity of interventions that exceeded our expectations.
The participants particularly appreciated the diversified program, alternating between morning conferences, afternoon roundtables and workshops, and evenings of immersion in nature on the hill of Lerab Ling. During these three days, we learned so much about the forest, mycorrhizae, polymers, or even plastic recycling!
Many people told us that the forum touched their hearts and answered some of the questions they have been asking themselves for many years, especially about the right attitude to find in this world in crisis. Listening to the feedback from the participants, we can see that this forum gives real hope, and inspires us to unite in order to concretely embody the necessary change in the face of the challenges before us.
After this first forum, everyone came back with ideas, projects, questions, from the smallest to the biggest, from the short term to possible changes to be made in the long term; things to change oneself, and things that we would like to see changed elsewhere.
We hope that this first forum will start a continuous process in which everyone will actively participate, questioning their experiences as well as their way of being and doing.
For the future there is still so much to accomplish! For us, the most important thing is to encourage encounters and to be creative in the links that can be forged over the long term. We will develop this basis for dialogue and extend it to a second edition of the forum next year.
And what’s next? It continues!
Following the first forum full of goodness, kindness and hope, we want to continue to explore and deepen what we have seen during the forum (understanding our mind, caring for ourselves and others, the Earth, developing the qualities of the heart and contentment). There are some details of what we are programming for the post forum :
1) Propose an online post forum package in September 2022
If you missed the forum this year or you would like to watch the main talks again, all the main talks and two round table discussions will be available on the Prajna Online platform in September 2022.
2) Organizing the themed days in Lerab Ling from September
Between September and the next forum in 2023, we would like to offer a regular program of philosophical and practical reflections and lectures on the subject of ecology and Buddhism, as well as organize some thematic days at Lerab Ling, open to everyone, in collaboration with local associations (e.g. about forest management, permaculture & meditation).
The whole forum team wishes you a great summer and we would be delighted to see you at the next forum.
‘Wisdom Working for The Earth’ Forum event team
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