By Marylou Butler

The monastics are coming! The monastics are coming!

I smile when I learn ten monks and nuns from the Plum Village monasteries in France, New York, and California have offered to lead an Earth Holder Mindfulness Retreat in New Mexico as part of their bi-annual US tour. The Earth Holder Sangha is an international community of engaged Buddhists who commit to personal actions to help reduce global warming and generate care for Mother Earth.

I join an organizing team of six friends on the path of mindfulness to help plan the retreat. We agree on Ghost Ranch Education and Retreat Center in Abiquiu as the venue. The team meets weekly for five months, arranging housing and vegan meals with the Ranch staff, securing grant funds for scholarships, and responding to inquiries from an unanticipated group of 190 retreatants from the US, Canada, and Mexico. “We have taken on something big,” I declare to the team as we sit together, stunned by the flood of registrations that pour in. We did not expect more than fifty.  

Breathe, You Are Alive

The monastics arrive in Albuquerque two days before the start of the retreat last September. They make their way to Santa Fe in rental vans with only a few possessions packed in small, soft-sided satchels. They range in age from twenty-one to forty-five, each ordained in Thay’s Order of Interbeing before they were thirty. Dressed in simple brown robes, some are barefoot; others have hoodies and heavy overcoats for warmth; most wear neck scarves for protection from wind and inclement weather. Their shaved heads, rosy cheeks, and calm radiance unnerve me. How I long for the simplicity and joyfulness they embody.  

The monks and nuns speak humbly, sharing where they are from—Sweden, the Netherlands, France, Vietnam, Australia, and the United States. They offer a compassionate update on our Thay. “He is in Thailand now, being cared for by young monks, still without the ability to walk or speak,” offers Brother Phap Luu. “He is happy there and truly present, though he may want to return to Plum Village in France,” reports Brother Minh Hua. 

A Source of Happiness

The first retreat I attended with Thay more than twenty-five years ago had thirty American participants with a small core of Vietnam veterans. The experience transformed my life. I never knew my breath could be such a valuable resource. When my runaway mind judges my family for failing to thank me for birthday and Christmas gifts, I stop and breathe. When my runaway hunger overeats blue corn chips and dark chocolate late at night, I stop and breathe. When my runaway rage erupts toward a US president determined to deny climate change, I stop and breathe.

One hundred and ninety retreatants arrive, including environmental advocates, LGBTQ activists, people of color, people with Jewish roots, and a few young people under thirty. What we share is a love for Mother Earth and a search for right actions on behalf of all living beings, including animals, plants, and minerals. 

The Future of all Life Depends on our Mindful Steps

The retreat opens with a blessing from the Tewa Elders, two grandmothers from San Ildefonso Pueblo, who give us permission to inhabit their ancestral lands for our retreat. Tears flow in the presence of their humility and generosity. Awareness of the harm done to indigenous people’s homelands moves through our minds.

The weather report promises three days of rain while we are at the Ranch. Each day retreatants are drenched as we scramble from sleeping rooms to the meditation hall to the cafeteria. The sandstone cliffs of Pedernal are shrouded in mist; the trails, muddied; and our vehicles are pockmarked by hail. No one complains. I keep breathing.    

At the first morning meditation, Sister Uu Bat reads a Love Letter to Mother Earth from Thay. Deeply moved, I resolve to write my own love letter to Mother Earth when the retreat ends. On the silent group mindfulness walk, I notice how the deep red earth, softened by rain, and the gently-flowing streams meandering through the Ranch, offer a respite from the news back at home of rollbacks in environmental protections. Our collective tears of grief fall like the rain. Breathing In, I Smile.

Dharma talks at the retreat soothe my hunger for a big perspective on the suffering of the world.  Sister True Vow speaks about the need to consume less, declutter, and simplify as ways to support the earth’s well-being. I am embarrassed by my house full of possessions, more than I really need. I resolve to make some habit changes: no more plastic water bottle purchases as I dash through an airport; no more L.L.Bean catalogue orders for things I already own. I commit to other efforts, such as writing letters to the editor of the local newspaper to underscore the evidence for climate change and supporting green initiatives and campaigning for candidates who lead the way on stricter CO2 emission standards. And, closest to my heart, activism on behalf of animal protections. Breathing out, I let go.  

Brother Phap Ho asks us to avoid watering seeds of discouragement. “When we are born into good conditions,” he urges, “We have a greater responsibility to care for more and more people.  These good conditions belong to everyone.” Breathing in, my heart expands. 

To close the retreat, the Tewa elders return to thank us for our mindful presence. The monastics chant the Heart Sutra, guiding us in a ceremony of Touching the Earth. I walk out of the hall into the warmth of the sun finally radiating from the canyon walls. I feel relieved to have completed what I agreed to do five months earlier. Looking around, I smile. A flock of wild sheep munches in the grassy fields ahead of me.  

We Are the Earth

Dear Mother Earth,

Thank you for your unconditional love. I receive so much from you each day. When I walk the river trail, I breathe fresh air into my lungs and relax. The anxiety I feel when I first wake up subsides. The tension in my neck and shoulders eases. My eyes take in the endless palette of blues, greens, golds, reds, and purples of the seasonal landscape. A crow flies overhead; a family of quail crosses my path; a trickle of water makes its way through the arroyo. And, best of all, my beloved golden retriever blissfully saunters and sniffs, loosening the stiffness in her ageing joints. She is happy. I am grateful. 

But I worry. Joseph Lam, Lakota Sioux teacher and Earth Holder, reminds us of the great harm we are doing to you—plastics pollution, pipeline spills, fracking, clear cutting, animal agriculture, depleted uranium, and worst of all, the US war machine. The need for action is more urgent than ever. I know I must do my part to preserve your immeasurable beauty and well-being. I lean away from pledges and vows because I have broken some earlier in my life. I even refuse to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, standing with arms at my side.

When I read the list of actions Earth Holder Sangha members engage in, I’m overwhelmed, even ashamed. I thought I was already a steward for the Earth. Instead, there are many more actions I can take if I’m your advocate, dear Mother Earth. I’m relieved Earth Holders are encouraged to begin by adding three new commitments to our lives. Several from the list jump into my awareness. As is my habit, I’m drawn to the hardest for me: becoming fully vegan, reducing airplane travel by staying close to home, and composting all kitchen waste. I immediately think of reasons why these will not work. I stop and breathe, looking deeply at my resistance while agreeing to eating vegan one or two days a week and having a weekly, non-driving day.

In her Dharma talk, Sister True Vow reminds us, “The more you love Mother Earth, the less you will want to take what you do not need.” In fact, if I remember to love you as much as I loved my own mother, then this letter holds great promise.

I send a blessing of metta to you, beloved Mother Earth. May you be free from harm.

Marylou Butler, Joy in Patience of the Heart, practices with Desert Rain Sangha in Santa Fe, New Mexico. As a citizen-activist, she advocates for marginalized and under-represented communities, voting rights, and the preservation of Mother Earth and all her inhabitants.