As a community that supports the cultivation of contemplative and ethical practices toward a better world, Natural Dharma Fellowship has a strong commitment to expanding ecological consciousness and action within our sangha and beyond.
Through ongoing teachings, retreats and resources, we support a deepening relationship of our members to the natural world, and the actions that may flow from that.
Two special NDF programs focus on this process of deepening awareness, especially as climate realities increase in their impact.
Green Dharma Retreat
This unique weeklong retreat is designed to help participants explore the truths we know about our changing planet, while seeking a path forward that includes both mobilization and transformation. Through a combined approach of study, council practice, discussion, contemplation and meditation, we begin awaken the inner “ecosattva,” the contemplative activist within.
This retreat is designed for those who long to reconnect to inner sources of strength, support and healing while joining activism with spirituality: to deepen in relationship with the self, reconnect with the natural world, find community and explore what it means to be a mindful steward of the planet.
Natural Dharma Fellowship is the co-sponsor of a growing series of EcoSattva CUHF Councils in conjunction with the Council on the Uncertain Human Future (CUHF).
The Council practice involves reflection, reckoning, and listening for collective wisdom; the EcoSattva CUHF focuses on our planetary climate crisis and how we choose to behave from here. As a practice, the CUHF builds insight, trust, and community between members, and the potential for creative collaboration and action. In the process of the CUHF, we engage these questions:
- What is the political and social context in which we are meeting?
- What is taking place on the planet, and why is it happening?
- What are the implications of these changes for the Earth and all living beings?
- How do we choose to conduct ourselves in the face of these grave dangers?
- And finally, given what we know, how do we live now?
Two full EcoSattva CUHFs have taken place since 2018, with members continuing to be involved in a collective conversation and in the larger CUHF network. We currently are convening Council sessions via Zoom, and members of the EcoSattva Council have participated in several of those sessions since March 2020.