{"id":98,"date":"2010-06-07T19:10:12","date_gmt":"2010-06-08T01:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/buddhistportal\/?p=98"},"modified":"2010-06-07T19:10:12","modified_gmt":"2010-06-08T01:10:12","slug":"oil-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/asthewheelturns\/2010\/06\/oil-water\/","title":{"rendered":"oil + water …"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

British Petroleum\u2019s catastrophic\u00a0 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico<\/a> is the largest in American history, and as of this writing the crisis continues. To date, every two to three days<\/em> the ruptured BP oil well spews out the same amount of oil as the entire<\/em> Alaskan Exxon Valdez oil spill.<\/p>\n

By way of preface to a portal onto recent Buddhist<\/a> response to the catastrophe \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014 here\u2019s a quote from scholar activist Joanna Macy, in conversation with John Seed, director of the Rainforest Information Center in Australia :<\/p>\n

One day we were walking through the rainforest in New South Wales, where he has his office, and I asked him, \u201cYou talk about the struggle against the lumber interests and politicians to save the remaining rainforest in Australia. How do you deal with the despair?\u201d He replied, \u201cI try to remember that it\u2019s not me, John Seed, trying to protect the rainforest. Rather I\u2019m part of the rainforest protecting myself. I am that part of the rainforest recently emerged into human thinking.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[from The Greening of the Self<\/em> by Joanna Macy, from World as Lover World as Self<\/a>, <\/em>1991
\nParallax Press, Berkeley. ISBN 0-938077-27-9 (also collected in Dharma Gaia<\/em><\/a>, Ed. Allan Hunt Badiner.\u00a0\u00a0 With thanks to Steve Silberman, & Emily Hoyer,\u00a0 denizens of the Buddhist conference at The Well<\/a> (Whole Earth \u2018Lectronic Link) for pointing this out. ]<\/p>\n

On May 27, Marketing Director, Strategist, Producer, Writer, Critic, and Activist Josh Schrei posted an open letter to the CEO of BP, Buddhist Ethics for a Harm-Free Livelihood<\/a><\/em>, in Huffington Post.<\/em> [\u201cLivelihood\u201d is one of the components of the Eight-Fold Path<\/a>.\u00a0 It might be summed up: \u201cDo no harm.\u201d] .<\/em> Beginning with a pair of quotes from Thich Nhat Hanh, and the film Iron Man,<\/em> his epistle has garnered over 200 comments.<\/p>\n

Buddhist blogger Barry Briggs spotlights ways people can volunteer.<\/a><\/p>\n

Science writer and editor Steven Goodheart offers, in Engaged Buddhism \u2014 How To Help with the Gulf Oil Disaster, <\/em><\/a>as positive possibility the enlistment of oil-eating microbes<\/p>\n

The Shambhala Sun Space published\u00a0 Spin and the Gulf Oil Spill <\/em><\/a>by Ian Prattis, Zen teacher in residence at Pine Gate Sangha in Ottawa and author of Failsafe: Saving The Earth From Ourselves<\/a>.\u00a0 In it, he draws upon an essential Buddhist precept, as interpreted for our times by Thich Nhat Hanh.<\/p>\n

Buddhist blogger Nathan DeMontigny weighs in at Precious Metal on the need for clean energy<\/a><\/p>\n

Matt McDermott published an article in Planet Green on June 2, How Heeding the His Holiness the Dalai Lama\u2019s Advice Could Have Prevented the BP Oil Spill<\/a> \u2014 <\/em>springboarding off something the Buddhist teacher posted in FaceBook :<\/p>\n

Because self and others can only be understood in terms of relationship, we see that self-interest and others\u2019 interest are closely interrelated and there is no self-interest completely unrelated to others\u2019 interests. Due to the fundamental interconnectedness which lies at the heart of reality, your interest is also my interest: in a deep sense, \u201cmy\u201d interest and \u201cyour\u201d interest basically converge.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

For further reading<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Earth Sangha on Green Buddhism<\/a><\/p>\n

The Greening of Buddhist Practice<\/a><\/em> by Kenneth Kraft<\/p>\n

Mindfully Green : A Personal & Spiritual Guide to Whole Earth Thinking<\/a> <\/em>by Stephanie kaza<\/p>\n

Dharma Rain: Sources of Buddhist Environmentalism<\/em><\/a> edited by Stephanie Kaza and Kenneth Kraft<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

British Petroleum\u2019s catastrophic\u00a0 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is the largest in American history, and as of this writing the crisis continues. To date, every two to three days the ruptured BP oil well spews out the same amount of oil as the entire Alaskan Exxon Valdez oil spill. By way of preface […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":272,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[31,61,65,74,105,269],"class_list":["post-98","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bp-oil-spill","tag-dalai-lama","tag-dharmagaia","tag-ecobuddhism","tag-green-buddhism","tag-thich-nhat-hanh"],"yoast_head":"\noil + water ... - As the Wheel Turns<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"British Petroleum's catastrophic\u00a0 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is the largest in American history, and as of this writing the crisis continues. 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