Thomas Merton, Jacob Boehme, Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddha, and Dalai Lama

On the Road with Thomas Merton from Emergence Magazine on Vimeo. Used with permission.

"When we think of it with this knowledge, we see that we have been locked up, and led blindfold, and it is the wise of this world who have shut and locked us up in their art and their rationality, so that we have had to see with their eyes." -- Jacob Boehme quoted by Robert Bly in The Light Around the Body

According to Thich Nhat Hanh, "The Buddha said, 'This is like this, because that is like that. This is because that is.'"  In other words, climate crisis is what it is because men in power are who they are.

According to the Dalai Lama, "Because we all share this small planet earth, we have to learn to live in harmony and peace with each other and with nature. [. . . .] [. . .] we can no longer live in isolated communities and ignore what is happening outside those communities [. . .] [. . . .]  in our struggle for freedom, truth is the only weapon we possess [. . . .] Responsibility does not only lie with the leaders of our countries or with those who have been appointed or elected to do a particular job. It lies with each one of us individually. [. . . .] What is important is that we each make a sincere effort to take our responsibility for each other and for the natural environment we live in seriously."

Here is his prayer at the end of a Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1989:

For as long as space endures,
And for as long as living beings remain,
Until then may I, too, abide
To dispel the misery of the world.