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For me, Ecodharma is learning from the innate wisdom of Earth’s ecosystems. Here an ecosystem means a community of living beings working together with their non-living physical environment. This includes plants, animals, minerals, and tiny bugs interacting with weather, dirt, and water. This notion of ecosystem also expands outward to all the unseen sprits and beings of the more-than-human realms. From land spirits, to nagas, and great garudas, these spiritual beings are constantly interacting with the world and all the living beings that inhabit it. Changes to one part of this connected network affect all the other parts.
Within the context of an ecosystem it is important for communities to come together to celebrate its culture, traditions, and connections to the land and each other. To come together to practice prayers, blessings, and healing ceremonies for the community. These ceremonies emphasize living peacefully alongside nature and showing deep respect for the natural elements. An important part of ceremony focuses on healing the land, as the environment and the well-being of people are deeply connected. There is a spirit and an energy of healing in the environment around us. When the environment is in peace and harmony, then the people who live there can also find healing.
Many people in the community continue to carry the effects of trauma and hardship. This is a needed opportunity for individual and community healing and rejuvenation. As well as a way to bring peace to the community. All living beings share the same desire for happiness and freedom from suffering. We all want to be happy and at peace. No one wants pain and suffering, whether they are insects, birds, animals, or human beings.
Thus for me, an Ecodharma teacher integrates Buddhist practice with ecological awareness, guiding others to reconnect with the living world as part of the path of awakening. Rooted in teachings like interdependence and compassion, this work supports individuals and communities in meeting climate anxiety, grief, and uncertainty with presence and clarity. Through meditation, embodied awareness, and nature-based practice, an Ecodharma teacher helps cultivate resilience and meaningful response, recognizing that caring for the Earth and realizing our true nature are not separate paths but expressions of the same understanding.
My aspiration as an Ecodharma teacher is to help transform the community's energy and improve people's lives and the healing and sense of connection leave a lasting impact on the community and the world.
As I reflect on what EcoDharma means to me, I think about my teacher’s words on mother nature: “Cultivate this wish of wanting to benefit sentient beings and then the moment this wish arises in your mind think of the form of Mother Nature. That then is the actual Mother Nature. There is no difference between what arises and Mother Nature. That's because bodhichitta is your buddha nature, and your buddha nature is the same nature as Mother Nature herself. This really is very important and this is the essence.
As we go into the world, first we need to cultivate love, compassion, and patience. For us ordinary beings this is most important. Love and compassion are like milk. Patience is like the vessel that you pour the milk into. The vessel has to be a golden vessel. A golden vessel cannot break easily and it cannot become damaged easily. To summarize our practice is bodhichitta. That's most important. Bodhichitta is the cause of attaining enlightenment. Bodhichitta is the heart of all the Buddhas of the three times. Bodhichitta is our life force. It is what is most important. To help with this, please remember that Mother Earth is always with us. You are never separate from Mother Earth. What you also can do is not offend the Mamos, the immune system of Mother Earth. Not add to the disarray of elements. Watch your carbon footprint and your impact on nature and the Earth.”
If you are not familiar with the Mamos, how they were explained to me by my teacher was that the Mamos are considered among the main natural forces which respond to human misconduct and environmental misuse by creating obstacles and disease. They can be considered the forces of the natural world, personified – the eyes, ears, and sprits of Mother Earth herself. The immune system of the Earth.
The mamos aren't evil. Yes, they bring plague, hurricanes, fire, and earthquakes. Your immune system is not evil, although it can excessively attack you, causing rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases. When it's out of balance, when your elements are out of balance, your immune system isn't always sensible. So, the mamos, pure wild energy, seeking balance, sometimes overbalance.
We practice ceremony in nature which generates great merit through the practice of gratitude, generosity and making offerings to the Mamos in order to bring the world back into balance. Thus it's a way for individuals to help out with climate change; to help out with disease and pandemics, to praise the Bodhisattvas and Buddhas, and to make offerings to help all beings in the six realms. In a very short time we can collectively generate a lot of merit in which we can offer to the world and all its beings near or far away.
So the practice is to feel yourself becoming Mother Nature, the whole world, this planet. Feel the imbalances of the five elements of your five categories of emotions. As your five categories of emotions settle into harmony, as the five wisdoms of the five Dhyani Buddhas. As that settles, feel the five elements being harmonized within you as the whole world interactive, interpenetrating feel that point within. Then sing to the Mamos songs and make offerings to them.
Great Goddess of Nature, having taken refuge in you, essence, mother of all Buddhists, Great Mother Dharmakaya, true nature of our own minds, protect us from all dangers within and without.
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