The Dalai Lama – The Planet is our Home

In a video clip from 2011, the Dalai Lama responds to Mind & Life Fellow Dekila Chungyalpa about ecosystem conservation at the Mind & Life Dialogue on Ecology, Ethics, and Interdependence. We shared this video in 2022 as part of our 35th anniversary celebration.

Listening to Our Body’s Intelligence: Reflections from Mind & Life’s Summer Research Institute

Mind & Life periodically invites guest writers to contribute their perspectives and experiences on the blog as a way of deepening dialogue and understanding around key themes related to our mission. This post is adapted from a longer piece Megan published reflecting on her experience at our 2021 Summer Research Institute. “Storytellers have only three …

Merging mindfulness and climate change education

In light of the climate crisis, one of the biggest impediments to social action is changing individual mindsets towards greater human-earth connection, and sustainability practices. The “Bending the Curve” (BtC) Climate Change solutions curriculum has now been adopted at-scale across nine University of California campuses and also at the University of Stockholm, with over 1000 …

Documenting Mayan Milpa biocultural heritage through embodied ethnoecology

Milpa is a millennia-old agricultural polycrop system from Mesoamerica that continues to be widely used in México. Milpa includes maize, beans, and squash, often mixed with other crops. This agroecological system has many sustainable properties, including the ability to support large crop yields without requiring pesticides or fertilizers, even in nutrient poor soil. Lineage holders …

Vandana Shiva – Earth Democracy: Connecting the Rights of Mother Earth and the Well Being of All

“Earth Democracy : Connecting the Rights of Mother Earth and the Well Being of All” by Vandana Shiva. We are facing an existential crisis with multiple emergencies. The multiple crises and pandemics we face today—the health pandemic; the hunger pandemic; the poverty pandemic; the climate emergency; the extinction emergency; the emergency of injustice,exclusion, and inequality; …

Roshi Joan Halifax – Integrity & Moral Suffering in Relation to the Climate Catastrophe and Health

“Integrity and Moral Suffering in Relation to the Climate Catastrophe and Health” with Roshi Joan Halifax. Roshi Joan will speak to some of the psychosocial effects of climate change and the role of moral suffering and integrity as we address health issues related to the climate catastrophe. She will briefly explore four valences of moral …