Earth Awareness, Earth Body
Green Dragon’s Gather Under the Tree — Bring your heart/mind and “gather under the tree” together, 1st Monday of every month, 7pm – 8:30pm EST. Earth awareness and nourishing words from environmental/dharma leaders and discussion of various Call to Action activities in response climate crisis and our need for mutual support.
Register here to receive a zoom link and meeting reminders for Gather Under the Tree (no need to do so if you have already registered). Upcoming 2026 meetings: July 6th, August 3rd, September 8th(Tues), October 5th, November 2nd, December 7th.
Join the google group MRO Ecosattvas! Send us a note here.
For the source of our monthly action: The Guardian’s 12 Climate Resolutions.
Our Earth and all sentient beings are experiencing an ecological crisis centuries in the making. With courage, empathy and flexibility we can begin to come to terms with the true nature of this reality and imagine new ways forward. Green Dragon Ecosattavas is a sangha-led initiative to approach the climate crisis collaboratively with curiosity, compassion and vigor.
Questions? Contact mro@dharma.net
_______________________________________
“Ecosattva Training” was a deep dharma-driven exploration of the climate crisis and how to respond from an empowered place of compassion. To find out more about “Ecosattva Training,” visit this site.
_______________________________________
TerraCycle, for collective impact!
Lay sangha are invited to join TerraCycle with the Monastery’s on-site plastics collection project. Specific plastic packaging is collected and returned to manufacturers listed below. When you visit ZMM, just add them to our TerraCycle boxes. Here are the many items you can collect for TerraCycle (please bring them clean and dry!)
What you can recycle
All brands of used or empty toothpaste tubes and caps, toothbrushes, toothpaste cartons, toothbrush outer packaging, and floss containers NOTE: Electric toothbrushes, battery toothbrushes, and/or their parts are not accepted for recycling through the program. Colgate® Oral Care Recycling Program
All brands of blades and razors (systems and disposable units, and replaceable-blade cartridge units), rigid plastic packaging, and flexible plastic bag packaging Gillette® Razor Recycling Program
Find out more about Teracycle. and see this article on plastic mass now outweighing the earth’s animal life.
Ecosattvas and the Climate Crisis
Arising from profound love and deep respect for the earth, the Green Dragon Earth Initiative is an ongoing effort by the sangha of the Mountains and Rivers Order to address the individual, institutional, national and global degradation of our planet. Recognizing that all life springs forth from an intricate, causally-related web of interdependence, every action intended to benefit one part must benefit the whole. This Initiative thus focuses on the whole of the Earth, it’s creatures, and human society. Issues of social and environmental justice are also within the scope of this Initiative.
The MRO sangha members are from Zen Mountain Monastery and the Zen Center of New York City. Previous activities have including gathering to share information about, and organize responses to, issues involving the health of the planet that seem most urgent. The Initiative is part and parcel with a broader Dharma Action Initiative that attempts to take on a variety of social and economic issues effecting our communities, our country, and our world.
The Earth Initiative includes:
- Clarifying our understanding of the nature of the self and its relationship to the Earth through traditional study of Buddhist teachings, practice and training
- Reducing the ecological footprints of Zen Mountain Monastery and the Zen Center of New York City
- Examining and adjusting individual life choices to improve our impact on our planet
- Community and Policy action (at the local, state, national, and global levels)
- Identifying global systems and their interdependence
- Education about relevant issues
- Challenging cultural assumptions that undermine sustainability
The countenance of the mountains is completely different when we are in the world gazing off at the mountains, and when we are in the mountains meeting the mountains.
— Mountains & Rivers Sutra, Master Dogen
