The Earth Peace Treaty can be seen as a set of mindfulness trainings through the lens of the climate crisis, with concrete practices to guide our engagement with our climate reality, and to restore harmony in ourselves and Earth's systems.
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DonateZen Master Thich Nhat Hanh“This beautiful, bounteous, life-giving planet we call Earth has given birth to each one of us, and each one of us carries the Earth within every cell of our body.”
The trainings intend to help us look deeply at the root causes of the climate crisis, and how climate change relates to suffering. We hope this offering addresses roadblocks to climate action, which are the same inner roadblocks to happiness and peace – mental health and climate health inter-are.
The purpose of these trainings is to build a foundation of peace from which to weather the confusion, uncertainty, and suffering of the climate crisis, and to engage in climate action with the insight of interbeing.
“A few inspired monastics, including Brother Pháp Dung, Sister Lăng Nghiêm, and I (Brother Phap Luu), approached Thầy in 2007 as he embarked on a U.S. tour from the newly opened Blue Cliff Monastery. We hoped Thầy would institute a worldwide ecological initiative across all of our centers. The initiative we had in mind was based on what we were developing at Deer Park Monastery; it included solar panels for our electrical needs, the practice of a no-car day once a week, and cars altered to run on used vegetable oil.
Thầy, as Zen master and teacher, took our intentions even further and declared: “What we need is a peace treaty with the Earth.” That night, I drafted the first version of the Earth Peace Treaty Commitment Sheet based on our collective aspirations. The current version of this treaty, recently updated, is available for download below. In the years following its inception, thousands of people committed to the actions suggested by the Earth Peace Treaty; many sent a copy of their pledge to us at Deer Park Monastery.
When I returned to Deer Park during the pandemic in August of 2020, one such recently completed pledge was in my mailbox. I took it as a reminder from Thầy to continue my own commitment of shepherding the Earth Peace Treaty movement.
In the following summer of 2021, the community offered me two weeks to write and sleep in a hammock amongst the Engelmann Oaks in the wild of Deer Park’s hidden mountain. There, I composed the first draft of the contemplation below—a more integrated path that flows from the Earth Peace Treaty commitment sheet and is based on the Eightfold Path. This draft expresses my own insights and practice of reconciliation with Mother Earth.
In the lead-up to COP26 in the fall of 2021, Sister Lực Nghiêm asked Thầy Pháp Dung and me to draft a statement to our international community. Our statement included a revision of the contemplation I created while on writing retreat in Deer Park. Further helpful insights and edits were contributed by Sister Thệ Nghiêm, Sister Hiến Nghiêm, Sister Đẳng Nghiêm, Hisae Matsuda, Heather Weightman, John Bell, Felipe Viveros, Aaron Solomon, and many others. Ánh Hương and Thư Nguyễn contributed a decisive shift in the tone, and together we created a contemplation that now stands as a practice of touching the earth: an intimate conversation with Mother Earth.
After the initial group of fifty people read the text and gave input, I let it sit for a while in the crucible of my own practice. Any shortcomings or hidden dualisms are due to my own still-growing understanding of the Dharma and Thầy's teachings.
I hope it contributes to your own path of making peace with the Earth.”
– Brother Phap Luu
Written by the Earth Holder Community Care-Taking Council members and coordinator“Every one of us can do something to protect and care for our planet. We have to live in such a way that a future will be possible for our children and our grandchildren. Our own life has to be our message.”
For more inspiration visit the Earth Holder website.
These trainings intend to help us look deeply at the systems we are a part of, honoring and acknowledging the pain and harms we and our systems have caused. They offer mindfulness practices of forgiveness and compassion concerning those harms, gratitude for our life-giving Mother Earth, and courage and joy to engage with the knowledge we are made for these times.
Many lists and ideas for climate action exist out there – what is more rare, and what Thay has pointed a way towards, are practices for shifting our consciousness to engage in climate action with the insight of interbeing.
The climate crisis itself illustrates interbeing: the actions we take in one part of our planet affect all other parts of the planet – from sea level rise and melting ice, to warming currents and severe weather.
These trainings use the framework of the eightfold path, the three poisons and how they obstruct our view of interbeing, and other teachings.
There are eight contemplations for touching the Earth to guide our engagement with climate and social justice. The first is below.
Mother Earth, I open myself to your joy and your pain. Recognizing that we inter-are, I see that my views and actions affect your well-being and suffering, and the well-being of myself and all other beings.
[Bell: You may like to bow deeply, or practice a prostration while the contemplation is read]
Breathing with mindfulness, I am in touch with the insight that I am not separate from you, Mother Earth, or from all beings; your well-being and mine are connected. When I cling to and act on views based in ignorance, craving, fear, and aversion, I contribute to corporate and governmental policies and systems that have harmed others, degraded the environment, and brought our climate into crisis. With compassion, I bear witness to the sacrifice zones, melting permafrost, rising sea levels, extreme temperatures, and wildfires, as well as to the steep decline and extinction of species. I recognize that these events arise from generations of neglect and violence that stem from wrong views about our collective relationship with you, Mother Earth.
Knowing that suffering and happiness inter-are, I draw strength from your great equanimity. As I see and meet these challenges, I aspire to train myself not to fall into despair, escapism, or paralysis, but instead to cultivate loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity toward my body, feelings, and others. Through the concrete practice of nonviolence, I am determined to find ways to change the situation, both in my own life and in society.
Touching the earth, I am aware that I am part of a larger planetary body, and I share limited resources with countless others. I see clearly that when I live more simply and share with others, I already have enough conditions for happiness and can better support equitable living conditions for everyone.
[Bell & Stand Up]
Access the additional contemplations via The Mindfulness Bell.
From time to time we offer multi-week courses related to mindfulness, the teachings and life of Thich Nhat Hanh, and a variety of similar subjects. Please see our schedule of upcoming courses.
Take the Deer Park Monastery and Plum Village community with you wherever you go. The Plum Village app is designed to cultivate mindfulness, compassion, and joy through guided meditations, deep relaxations, practice poems, bells of mindfulness, and other practices — all through a mobile device.
