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The Conspirituality Report
Buddhism Can Soothe Eco-Anxiety. But Beware its Cults.
Absorb the wisdom. Ditch the emotional exploitation and neoliberal apathy.
If you’re keeping track of climate news and not in a state of dissociation, despondency, or despair, you have found a secret I hope you can share with the world.
But if you do feel these things, and you have access to therapy but it hasn’t entirely helped, you may be looking more closely at whether there are spiritual cultures or ideas that will give you some relief and support.
You wouldn’t be alone. In the climate change/collapse/preparedness social networks I follow, it is common to see people encouraging each other with spiritual content, and offering first-person testimonies for the power of contemplation or spiritual study as an antidote to climate despair.
Christian resources sometimes come up in this mix. People will share titles and quotes from Thomas Merton, Teilhard de Chardin, or medieval mystics like Hildegaard of Bingen. Some will share the brilliant Papal Encyclical Laudato Si’, by Pope Francis, which opens as follows:
“Praise be to you, my Lord”. In the words of this beautiful canticle…
