“As soon as I sat down under the tree, just finding my place, before starting my practice, the thought just popped in my mind of how much things have changed in the 2,500 years since the Buddha first enunciated the Four Noble Truths there. And the question that popped into my head was, how would he phrase the Four Noble Truths now if he came today and was aware of the scale of human suffering and human-caused suffering in the world?” — Zhiwa Woodbury
Resonant World #144
If ever I have moments of doubt about the paths I’ve taken in life, recalling the cascade of serendipities that forged my friendship with Zhiwa Woodbury, and the comfort and clarity I experience so palpably in his presence, is one of the ways I reorient myself to the knowledge that all is as it should be.
I’m unfailingly inspired by Zhiwa’s (
) spiritual explorations in , but a post he wrote in April setting out a new elaboration of the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths for the metacrisis had such a quality of direct transmission that I invited him to say more on Resonant World. (Zhiwa’s work on climate trauma was a major inspiration for starting this newsletter).Zhiwa left the U.S. late last year to begin what — as far as I can tell — appears to be an indefinite pilgrimage through Nepal and India, taking him from Old Kathmandu to the charnel grounds and sacred pyres of Benares on the banks of the Ganga, and latterly to Bodh Gayā in the state of Bihar, where Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment under the bodhi tree.
I wanted to connect with Zhiwa while his post on the metacrisis was still fresh, and he beamed into the Resonant World studio in southwest London from a hotel about a quarter of a mile from the spot where the Buddha awakened 2,500 years ago.
We spoke about Zhiwa’s pilgrimage — his “third great spiritual adventure” (I recommend immersing yourself in the
to read more about Zhiwa’s lifetime of Dharma practice, unfolding revelations, integration of the ‘Buddha Molecule,’ and Gaian-centred quantum ecopsychological worldview).Zhiwa then walked me through the Four Noble Truths transmission he’d received a few weeks earlier while meditating at Deer Park, a site northeast of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, where the Buddha shared his first teachings with his first five disciples.
In my view, there’s no substitute for sensing into the quality of Zhiwa’s words by listening to the recording above. To help guide listeners, here’s a summary of the Four Noble Truths for the Metacrisis we explore:
The Truth of Trauma
Cause & Effect: The Truth of Karma
The Truth of Reconciliation: True Cessations
There is a Path Away from Trauma: The Noble (if inconvenient) Truth of Reparations
Our conversation offered a new way of thinking about the principles of collective and inter-generational trauma healing I’ve been studying with Thomas Hübl and team (thanks to Zhiwa introducing me to Thomas’s work some years ago). Our dialogue also tapped me into Zhiwa’s inexhaustible well of faith in both human nature, and Gaia’s awesome recuperative capacities.
We also touched on Zhiwa’s reading of our global moment through the lens of archetypal astrology (more on his latest findings in his post Sedna’s Lament: A Cosmic Symphony for a Regenerative Epoch).
If you enjoyed our conversation, please do follow Zhiwa’s extraordinary journey at
. I’d love to hear any resonance in the comments.This episode aims to:
Explore Zhiwa’s concept of Four Noble Truths for the Metacrisis
Offer a new perspective on the global significance of trauma work
Convey the essence of Zhiwa’s Gaian-centred spiritual worldview
Ideas that intrigued me:
Central importance of trauma healing in responding to the metacrisis
Buddha’s recognition of Gaia’s sentience after his awakening
Role of reparations in collective and inter-generational trauma healing
Questions I was left with:
What would it mean to cultivate a deeper relationship with Gaian sentience?
How could Zhiwa’s perspective inform more effective climate activism?
How can I further explore the emerging theme of relationship to the land — which also surfaced powerfully in recent conversations with Kritee (Kanko) and Greta Franklin Matos.
Related Resources:
Four Noble Truths for the Meta-Crisis Age
Sedna’s Lament: A Cosmic Symphony for a Regenerative Epoch
Climate Trauma: Towards a New Taxonomy of Trauma
Fire Sermons: Seneca and Thoreau on Climate Trauma
About Zhiwa Woodbury:
Panpsychologist (panpsychism-informed psychology), visionary and long-time advocate for all things natural and wild, Zhiwa studied Thermodynamics, Science/Math and Communications at Southern Illinois University before obtaining a doctorate in Natural Law (1983). After a successful career advocating for wildlife and wild places, he returned to school and obtained an M.A. in East/West Psychology, with an emphasis on quantum eco-psychology and spiritual counselling, and also trained and served at world-renowned Zen Hospice in San Francisco. Zhiwa is a vajrayana practitioner who follows Hua-Yen philosophy and practices Kalacakra tantrayana. Author of a book on climate grief, Climate Sense ~ Changing the Way We Think & Feel About Our Climate in Crisis, and two influential lead articles in the peer reviewed journal Ecopsychology: Climate Crisis & the Cosmic Bomb: Is the American Dream an Expression of Cultural Trauma (Dec. 2015) and Climate Trauma: Towards a New Taxonomy of Trauma (March 2019). Zhiwa was a featured speaker and part of the inspiration for Thomas Hubl's inaugural Collective Trauma Summit, and a presented a model of climate grief at H.H. Dalai Lama's Mind & Life Conference (Harvard 2014). Zhiwa Blogs at PanpsychologyNow! and
.
Transcript:
Show Notes:
00:00 — Zhiwa offers attunement to invite higher intelligence into the dialogue
04:55 — Matthew recaps how he and Zhiwa met
06:05 — Zhiwa’s pilgrimage through Buddhist sites in Nepal and India
08:07 — Recognising immense power of sacred sites at Deer Park, Bodh Gayā
10:28 — Overwhelming contrast between the immensity of Buddha’s impact on human consciousness and the immensity of current global suffering
10:59 — Buddha’s recognition of Gaia as sentient being
12:46 — Mahabuddha stupa
14:09 — Cumulative zhigpa (‘just-having-happenedness’) of holy sites
15:23 — Psychological impact of charnel ground meditation at Ghats on river Ganga
17:30 — Meditation in Deer Park where Buddha first turned the Wheel of Dharma
18:47 — Origin of question of how Buddha would phrase Four Nobel Truths today in light of the scale of global suffering afflicting human and non-human world?
20:48 — Dharma practice as being in relationship with Gaia
22:33 — Instantaneous transmission of fully-formed answer to the question
24:29 — First Noble Truth: We are here to address unresolved trauma
27:53 — Second Noble Truth: Trauma caused by dissociation from our true nature as humans, and from nature herself
30:22 — Trauma can be inherited from ancestors and past lives
31:04 — Zhiwa’s past life memories of violent death during Chinese invasion of Tibet
32:18 — “Life-stream” (individual, ancestral, collective trauma) and “mind-stream” (past lives) can both carry trauma
33:28 — Third Noble Truth: We have to come into proper relationships with ourselves, others and nature to resolve the metacrisis (cessation)
33:57 — Collective failure to respond to climate crisis is trauma symptom
35:42 — Fourth Noble Truth: Addressing legacy of past collective transgressions is key to addressing the climate crisis
37:11 — How repairing relationships with Native American tribes, land, bison has positive impact on the climate
42:15 — Origins of Zhiwa’s paper on Climate Trauma
42:41 — Climate Trauma entering global lexicon
47:56 — Recognising Climate Trauma in context of wider events in 2016-2017
50:20 — From exploring Climate Trauma to facing collapse
53:34 — Archetypal astrology of our global moment
01:00:12 — Chaos as necessary precursor to quantum leap
01:01:03 — Unshakeable faith in human nature; and Gaia’s recuperative abilities
01:03:19 — Emergence of global higher consciousness and coherence
If you found value in this conversation, I warmly invite you to subscribe to Resonant World to receive more dialogues — and join the Resonance Council, a community comprised of several dozen paid subscribers who form the energetic foundation of this initiative to build a trauma-integrating media system. Thank you. 🙏
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