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  Very
simple miracles
John Seed
and Sulak
Sivaraska are both environmental and peace activists. They
consider sane alternatives to greed, consumerism and exploitation.
Touched by nature
John Seed is the founder and Director of the Rainforest Information
Centre in Brisbane. An author, lecturer and workshop facilitator,
he has written that he would like to "change our ways of being
and listening so that we can hear within ourselves the sounds of
the earth crying". Formerly a systems engineer for IBM, Seed
returned to Australia and moved to the north coast of New South
Wales, where, for the first time in his life, he was "touched
by nature". Involved in direct actions for protecting rainforest
and interested in raising awareness and social change, he founded
the Rainforest Information Centre. Seed stated that this planet's
rainforests were home to more than half of the species of wildlife
in the world and yet, the rainforests were being annihilated. The
destruction of rainforests was the 6th mass extinction in the history
of the planet. He said that there was no way rainforest destruction
could be solved one forest as a time. As one forest was being protected,
one hundred others were being destroyed.
In his lecture, he described his approach to conservation, environmentalism
and engagement with deep ecology.
File: seed.mp3 Duration: 9:16 Size: 768K
The root cause of suffering
As a former Buddhist monk, environmentalist and activist, Sulak
Sivaraska discussed his Buddhist approach to environmentalism, activism
and social change. In Buddhism magic, does not mean walking on water
or flying in the sky. Walking on the earth mindfully is indeed miraculous.
If we do not exploit the earth or any aspect of nature, then nature
will grow holistically and help human beings to grow mentally, physically
and spiritually. When we look at a flower mindfully, we will realise
that it is indeed a very simple magic. The flower also has non-flower
elements. At one point it is fresh and beautiful but soon it will
decay and die and become compost to be reborn as a plant which will
again produce flowers for all those to share beauty and goodness.
Each of us too will die and our dead bodies will unite with the
earth and rebirth will take place miraculously or magically for
those who wish to understand the interconnectedness of all things,
the inter-being of all.
Breathing, according to Sivaraska, is the most important element
in our lives, in any living being. If we take care of our breathing,
that would be a simple magic. Breathing in makes us calm, breathing
out makes us feel at ease. "With the in breath I smile, with
the out breath I release, breathing in there is only the present
moment, breathing out is a wonderful moment," Sivaraska said.
Apparently, this technique helps one become calm or seize the peace
within and it helps develop critical awareness of the self, not
to take the self so seriously. One becomes less selfish in order
to look for peace and justice in the world and reconstitute consciousness.
Sivaraska says that greater understanding of violence, peace and
environmental balance ensues.
Using and applying his Buddhist model of development, he describes
the process of understanding and addresses the root cause of suffering.
File: sivaraska.mp3 Duration: 17:50 Size: 1.3MB
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