Finding Right Livelihood in a Time of Apocalypses

On December 17, 2021, WildSeed gave a dharma talk on how global crisis can offer opportunities to build new worlds - of joy, abundance and belonging - in the shell of old.

In case you missed it, please watch the video!

WHO: This talk was for both Buddhist practitioners and those interested in exploring possible collective responses to the global crisis facing U.S. society - that are informed both by Engaged Buddhism and a radical analysis of today’s social movements.

WHAT: Sitting at the intersection of climate justice, racial justice, and Engaged Buddhism, this dharma talk revolved around:

• How WildSeed understands the different global crisis the U.S is facing through a spiritual, political, and economic lens
• Why WildSeed is not trying to help people better survive the oppressive and exploitative system we live in but is focused on building new worlds in the shell of the old
• How WildSeed uses the Buddhist concept of Right Livelihood to bring people together to build a new ecology where we all get to belong and where our needs can be met with dignity - through caring community and right relationship with the land

From this place of deep community, WildSeed believes that collective actions can be taken that BUILD alternatives ways of meeting our needs, BLOCK attempts by the state or capitalism to control our lives for the benefit of the few - all while being grounded in our highest hopes of what it can mean to BE human.

WHY: It is easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer weight of the unprocessed pain and grief of the present moment - as we face a pandemic, ecological collapse, state violence, natural disasters, and more.

It can be tempting to escape the totality of the present moment by intellectualizing the crisis or through spiritual bypassing. We are often taught to either deny our emotional reality, to escape within it, attack others, and more. However, this only compounds the issue and makes it harder for us to do anything skillful to address it.

By combining the Buddhist Noble Eightfold Path, particularly Right Livelihood, with the analysis of revolution, we can act with both spiritual insight and radical skillfulness to build a world where everyone can belong and get their needs met with dignity.

SPEAKERS:

Sandra Kim is the Spirit Weaver at the WildSeed Society - where she helps people learn how to take refuge in themselves, each other, and the land so they can turn towards the frightening realities we live in and not lose connection to the joyous realities we also live in. Sandra identifies as a lay monastic and mystic for the (r)evolution, practicing Zen Buddhism in the Plum Village tradition and animism. She is also the Founder of Everyday Feminism and Re-Becoming Human, and creator and facilitator for different online anti-oppression spaces offering spiritual and emotional support.

Aaron Goggans is the Dream Gardener at the WildSeed Society - where he builds movement infrastructure before people know they need it and helps them achieve things even he never imagined were possible. Aaron is a co-creator of DC chapter of Black Lives Matter, Liberation Logic training, and a handful of other projects that have made liberatory marks on the world.