I’ve spent a lot of time this year thinking about how we relate to the climate crisis as individuals. It’s such an overwhelming, global problem, and each of us has to pick a way to contribute to solving it. Do we focus on scalability? Or do we each make our own choices and hope that it adds up to meaningful change?
Over my vacation, I’ve been reading Being Peace by the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. Nhat Hahn is truly a voice of the current moment, although he died in 2022. He was exiled from Vietnam for refusing to take sides during the Vietnam War, insisting that his movement was only on the side of peace.
Nhat Hahn writes eloquently about the relationship of ourselves to our community and the universe. For me, there has always been a paradox inherent in being: we are both individuals, and we are part of an infinite number of infinite communities and networks. Nothing we do matters, and everything we do matters. Nhat Hahn introduces the idea of non-duality, which is simply the rejection of the binary of “self” and “universe”. He calls on us to embrace the dialectic, because accepting it is the basis of compassion. By choosing to feel our connection with others, we open ourselves to feeling compassion for them, their lived experience, and their beliefs.
The search for meaning that occupies so much of our time on this earth is really just a search for a way to commune with that oneness. We are pulled by evolution and common decency to care for each other, and each of us finds a different kind of observance that connects us to that feeling of universality.
For me, as a physicist and curmudgeon, I don’t look for spiritual guidance from supernatural forces. But I see that we are bound together by our planet, and its atmosphere. And our choices reverberate around the globe, changing weather, displacing people, and destroying futures. So I try to make sense of non-duality by committing to working towards a more just climate for our children’s children.
Each of us grasps towards the oneness in ways that vibe for them. It isn’t so much important that we get it right all the time. As long as we approach each other with empathy, we will find our way towards a better, more just future.
There's only one rule that I know of, babies —God damn it, you've got to be kind. — Kurt Vonnegut, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, or Pearls before Swine
I hope your New Year is full of peace and love.
- Matt
Matt, yours is a beautiful piece of writing. I'm starting to read Aldous Huxley's The Perennial Philosophy, which delves into eastern religion's belief of God in persons and in the universe.
We have opposite beliefs about the climate emergency. I am guided by Spinoza's quote "The truth about things isn't changed by how many disagree with it," and Descartes, "Truth by itself is so little respected." Recall the eugenics movement thrived upon a "scientific consensus" in the 1920s, which allowed Princeton to excuse Woodrow Wilson of his blatant administrative segregation in naming the International Studies building.