This is text of my talk to the Faith for the Climate speakers meeting at Church House on June 25th. The other speakers included a rabbi, an imam, a young Quaker and Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury. Following the event we all joined the lobby of Parliament, and I met my own MP.
It is an honour to be asked to represent Buddhists at this meeting, and as I look around I reflect that the climate has no religion. We all breathe the same air and rely on the same atmospheric conditions. The planet isn’t leftwing or right wing and global warming will affect us just the same whether we are inside or outside the European Union. For years now our politics has been fixated on Brexit. We need to wake up! Wake up to what’s happening to the planet!
But we don’t really need any more climate rants. We gather as people of faith and the question is, what is our distinctive contribution as we come to terms with the scale of the climate emergency and recognise that how we live is part of the problem.
In my own life I am guided by these words from the Buddha’s Discourse on Loving Kindness:
‘Even as a mother protects with her life
Her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings.’
I would do anything for my son; but the climate emergency means that protecting his future also means protecting the planet. We recently saw Avengers: Endgame, where superheroes rescue humanity from an apocalypse. I don’t know how to tell him that, in the face of a real apocalypse, no one is shooting through space to rescue us, and we can’t turn back time to make things all right.
We are the ones who must act. We must fight for the planet with the fierce commitment of a mother protecting her only child.
This crisis also challenges us to understand ourselves more deeply and with more compassion. Biology tells us that life on this planet is an interconnected web and my Buddhist practice trains me to see life that way. Our faith helps us know, in our hearts and our souls, that if we want to care for ourselves and our children we must care for all living beings. That is our true gift to the world.
Others will heed our voices. As people of faith, we speak from within vast communities and express an understanding that resonates with ancient wisdom.
So let us organise our communities. Let us speak out. Let us be visible at climate protests, in all our regalia. Let the world know how we think Jesus and Mohammed and the Buddha would act at this time.
People sometimes think Buddhists sit around contemplating their navels. I’m afraid I don’t know that meditation practice. Actually, we believe that effective action comes from the mindfulness and compassion that lie deep within us.
So I offer a moment of silence, and invite you to become still, connecting with the values that give our lives meaning.
Let us settle ourselves … and breathe deeply.
How does it feel to be still when as we dwell on such profound challenges? Let us experience that pain that brings.
And let us bring to mind what we love: our family … our God … the vast beauty of the nature – something that’s worth fighting to preserve – feeling that in our hearts.
And let that love spread from our hearts to everyone here … to everyone in the city … everyone in the world.
As we draw this period of reflection to a close, let us gather our strength.
I have been asked to speak for Buddhists, though of course we must all speak for ourselves. So I raise a Buddhist voice for the sake of our health, our natural heritage and our future generations.
I commend the government for making its commitment to net zero carbon emissions by 2050; but, I urge them:
– To act decisively to make this a core tenet of public policy.
– To recognise that a sustainable society must also be a fair and more equal society.
– To work internationally, so we don’t just export our emissions to the countries from which we import our goods.
– To work with our communities in restoring our country’s natural environment, making this a shared national project.
Today we will speak to Parliamentarians, but let us commit, here and now, to continue our own work far beyond today.
For the sake of the planet.
For the sake of our children.
And for the sake of all beings.
The time is now.
