Dear Sangha,
I’m a story teller, a teller of what has been called “The Great Story,” the story of the birth and evolution of the universe, according to our best science, and how we humans fit into it.
We are alive at a time when the story of what it means to be human is changing radically. Many of us are lost because the story we have been organized around for hundreds, if not thousands, of years no longer serves us and is no longer believable. The story of the industrial revolution, that nature is here to exploit for our human purposes, as resource and dumping ground, has brought us to the edge of extinction, of ourselves and most other forms of life. We need a new story and we need a story shared by all of humanity, because our challenges now are global, including global warming, species extinction, and habitat destruction. Fortunately, the science based story of the birth and evolution of the universe is the product of the whole world, and can serve as a unifying story.
A story of what it means to be human and a practice to embody that story is a powerful combination. Our tradition encompasses both but I think it is much stronger on practice than on story. We are alive at a time when our story is going through a dramatic change and I think it is valuable to reflect on the story we are leaving and the new story that is emerging. This transition has been called the movement “From Empire to Earth Community” and “The Great Turning.” We’ll explore this changing story and how we can practice with it to bring it home and make it our own story.
I look forward to practicing with you,
Keith
True Enlightenment Garden
practicing mindfulness in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh