DESPAIR: Famous Buddhist and environmentalist discuss antidote (video)
By Douglas Todd 20 Aug 2011
“Despair is the depth of hell, as joy is the serenity of heaven.”
— John Donne, English poet (1572-1631)
Who knew what would happen when one of the world’s most renowned Buddhists talked with one of the globe’s best-known environmentalists?
The rare meeting took place this week at the University of B.C. when Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, 84, sat down for a chat with Canadian geneticist, broadcaster and ecologist David Suzuki, 75.
The conversation between the two elderly scholar-activists quickly turned to life’s big, hard topics — greed, misuse of power, waste, suffering and the highly uncertain future of the planet.
And one thread seemed to tie it all together: Despair. (Watch six-minute video.)
How can humans keep going when the world seems headed for disaster?
Sometimes called “the culture of despair,” there is a pervasive dread felt by many people who are genuinely concerned about the future of this world, which they see rife with war, ethnic conflict, terrorism, growing slums, economic crises and a struggling ecosphere.
Despair is not exactly a new phenomenon, however. Kings, mothers, poets, priests and philosophers have for millennia tried to understand what it means to stare into the abyss — and not give in to depression and passivity.
But people such as Suzuki suggest that despair has taken on an even more insidious character in recent decades — because unparalleled technological power has handed humans the very real ability to wipe out their own species.
Like Suzuki, Hanh, who spent 40 years in exile from Vietnam after protesting the U.S.-led war, cares about the environment.
About 40 of his brown-robed monks and nuns were in Vancouver for the past two weeks to share that message while promoting the benefits of mindfulness, a popular meditation technique that focuses on breathing to calm fear and help people attain “happiness.”
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More than 800 people, almost all Caucasian, had taken part in Hanh’s six-day retreat at UBC. A Sunday talk at the Orpheum Theatre also sold out. When not on the road, Hanh leads about half a dozen ecologically sensitive Buddhist retreat centres, with a total of about 700 nuns and monks, in North America, Europe and East Asia.
Toronto-raised Brother Phap Niem said before the Suzuki dialogue that the monastery he and Hanh consider home base, Plum Village south of Paris, follows an organic vegan diet, since it uses less resources.
“We want to reverse global warming,” said Niem, who was born in Vietnam.
There is also no smoking or drinking permitted at the monasteries, including by the thousands of pilgrims who come through every year.
The Vancouver dialogue between Hanh and Suzuki was moderated by Jim Hoggan, a public relations executive who is chair of the Suzuki Foundation and author of The Climate Cover-up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming. Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson was invited to sit in on the conversation, since he is publicly committed to making Vancouver the “greenest city in the world.”
Hoggan and Suzuki kicked things off by quoting a pre-Depression-era Wall Street financier, who in the late 1920s said all human beings must be taught to become avid consumers; they must be convinced that their “desires transcend their needs.”
Suzuki — who was guest editor in 2007 of a special edition of The Vancouver Sun — said the Wall Street promoter’s dream has pretty much come true. Many humans don’t believe there should be any limits to their wants. And it’s leading to ecological disaster.
Hanh didn’t quite take the rhetorical bait, however. Even though he is a Buddhist who teaches that people should not cling to their compulsive desires, the first thing he said was that there are “good desires” — such as the desires to understand, protect and love.
That was not the end of it, though. Both Suzuki and Hoggan, who is a student of Hanh’s, know full well that the Buddhist teacher is devoted to combating climate change. So Suzuki reminded the monk that some climate scientists say it’s now too late to avoid catastrophe.
Since global warming’s devastation does not have the “overnight” effect of war, terrorism or economic disaster, Suzuki said many people seem to be in psychological denial about it — particularly North American politicians and business leaders. In light of such resistance, Hoggan asked Hanh how it might be possible to accomplish a “collective awakening.”
It was hard to tell whether Hanh was on topic, since he’s prone to speaking indirectly. He also often teaches through stories, through parables that are either brilliantly simple, or just simplistic, depending on your point of view.
Somewhat enigmatically, Hanh talked about how many people fail to quit smoking, even after hearing about its health dangers. Then the monk seemed to cut to the emotional heart of the conversation, which was turning out to be despair. He talked about all the things people do to avoid facing their own suffering.
The celibate meditation teacher didn’t actually spell it out, but he seemed to be saying that people who deny human-caused climate change are not willing to face the destruction it is causing. Many people, he said at one point, don’t want to face their “guilt.”
Suzuki said it will be amazing if humans can stop the planet’s devastation. But the environmental warrior said he keeps going out of concern for his grandchildren. “The idea they would be part of the calamity is very, very difficult for me to accept.”
What, Suzuki said, can people like him do to encourage others to keep hoping, keep fighting the good fight? Hanh offered a few simple-sounding suggestions for Suzuki and the mayor.
Just as a Buddhist monastery operates on hundreds of “precepts,” or monastic rules, Hanh told Robertson he should get city hall to publish a list of environmental principles that all people are expected to follow.
Ignoring the harsh realities of modern-day, democratic politics, Hanh also suggested that Vancouverites who break the environmental principles should be asked, like his monks, to “confess” their wrongdoing.
 Suzuki responded with a smile: “That’s a very hard standard to set.”
For his part, Robertson (left) acted as if he would love to follow through on Hanh’s ideas. But, putting it mildly, he cautioned: “We have been criticized for setting environmental goals for the city.”
The question, therefore, seemed to hang in the air: Since people who care about the environment are having great difficulty getting the powers that be to listen to them, how can they deal with their feelings of disillusionment?
Hanh seemed to understand where the conversation was going. He acknowledged: “We have to deal with our feelings of despair, which can be overwhelming.”
One way to find the strength to go on, Hanh suggested, is by forming communities of like-minded people, whether of five people or 500. He described his monasteries as places where monks and nuns drink tea and practise breathing — living “simply” and “happily.”
Hanh suggested that people need to learn there are satisfying ways of living, which do not rely on entertainment, distraction and owning lots of things.
“We have to educate our children to see happiness does not lie in consumption,” he said. “We have lost our capacity to be happy.”
The monk seemed to agree that global warming could be leading the human species to its destruction.
Yet he talked about a cancer patient he knows, who found peace only after accepting he was dying from the disease. The patient’s inner calm seemed to help heal him. “Eleven years later he’s still alive,” Hanh said.
People who are upset about what humans are doing to the environment, he said, need to meditate to face their anger and despair. That will make them more peaceful. “That way they become better workers for the environment.”
Given the monk’s emphasis on inner happiness, Suzuki and Hoggan asked him if he felt there was a place for activism, for criticism of politicians and corporations, on behalf of the planet.
Hanh said there was — “as long as we have compassion.” Bitterness was not an option, he seemed to suggest. But that didn’t mean people should not stand up for what is right.
“We should not [engage in activism] as an act of punishment,” Hanh said. “But we can do these things to reveal the truth.”
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