By Dr Diana Warner
Ecodharma was present in my mind before I knew Buddhism. I think it is present naturally in the minds of those I meet and work with on that other path – the path of civil resistance, for life and for justice. When I describe this to people taking action, they reply no, they are selfish and full of faults. I ask them to show me someone who is not.
There seems to me no separation between ecodharma, the dharma, and action. My teacher, Simon Child, once suggested that my life’s koan may be to work out how others can perform actions which they know will result in the destruction of the earth, or destroy other people’s lives. I have a strong sense of justice and wish to relieve suffering, started meditating to become a more efficient activist, and took the Buddhist lay vows because I was practising them anyway. With my Buddhist vows I have started what seems to be a constant journey.
When I started this article, I was staying in a hut in Wales for three weeks, noisy river behind it. I was enjoying wonderful sunshine after several days of mist, damp, and cloud. Regular texts and emails told me about amazing things people in Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil, and international groups were doing, and the harsher and harsher punishments they received. I was worn out after taking several actions with Insulate Britain in quick succession, Autumn 2021, and then three periods of imprisonment leading up to June 2022. I have several more trials coming up in 2023, the first in January.
The Constant Journey
Finding out who I am, which includes the present, recent past, past, previous generations.
Understanding my limits and my place in the communities of earth and humans.
Seeking truth – my own, the earth’s, and that of others.
Wise action, meditation, and reflection.
Imagination: seeing others as they may be. This can be difficult right now.
Underlying Principles
Compassion
Justice
Beauty: I had lost my sense of beauty after my last stint in prison. A friend, Mark Ovland, told me he is part of a group exploring how beauty can be integral to the dharma path, and I was interested but didn’t feel a connection. Three weeks later I was walking the hills of central Wales, observing sunshine at play on the distant panorama, valley paths thick with oak leaves, delicate red roots thrusting into earth from acorns. Here is beauty and mystery. We never permanently lose our attributes, appreciation of beauty among them. I thank my friends Marian and Nick for having hosted me in their beautiful home.
Why me?
Early experiences / family history
My peculiar qualities of reflection, independence, stubbornness, and sense of responsibility. I now pass responsibility on to you.
The place for Buddhist exploration: Early experiences, Jewish and colonial history; privilege of being a white doctor; hiding my light under a bushel; being female in a male dominant world; delving ever deeper into myself to find courage; unlearning in prison; freedom as a state of mind.
Right action
In the 2022 Reith lecture on freedom of religion, Rowan Williams reflected that religious conviction requires action both moral and visible. Imposing your religious practices onto others, because you believe they are the only correct ways to practice, becomes tyranny. Acting on the conviction that every human deserves to be treated with dignity, allows society to learn and change.
Diana’s list of suggestions to consider (note this is a personal list reflecting my own pathway and what I have learned):
I was about forty when I realised that there was something very wrong with where Western society was heading. The first thing I did was to make space to find out what was happening in greater depth. At the time my children were ten and seven. My work was well paid and I could work less while we maintained a good standard of living. To work less felt like a privilege, a luxury.
Now, making time for investigating the truth about how you live, how it impacts others and future lives, is no luxury but an essential part of the Buddhist vow of not killing.
Why are United Nations bodies calling for transformation of society and the way we live? If you aren’t sure or are complacent about it, find out more. Check what is going on within yourself, that you are not acting.
Consider three-fold action: adapt your own lifestyle; observe, and possibly change, your conversation with others; and work with others to push for change.
Take part in the development of strong interfaith and secular connections and networks; help form an unstoppable community demanding and making change.
Help support those on the frontline, especially indigenous peoples.
Understand why peaceful activists in the Global North are being imprisoned in the UK and Europe, North America and Australia. They are few. Support them by writing letters to prisoners and /or writing for publication or on social media, talking on local radio and in your communities. What can you do to promote a positive dialogue for transformation? What do those who oppose change fear?
Consider promoting Citizens Assemblies as a publicly inclusive way to direct change. Citizens Assemblies could, for example, replace both the London Assembly and the House of Lords.
Give spare money away wisely, to facilitate the work of others.
Live how you want to be.
Who am I?
Early experiences / family history
My peculiar qualities of reflection, independence, stubbornness, and sense of responsibility.
I am 63, mother of two, middle of three children, born into a Jewish family. As children we attended Hebrew school on Sundays and we observed the most important religious festivals. There was much love in the family but also hardship. My father had escaped the holocaust at the age of seventeen; many of his extended family were killed including his mother. As a child my mother experienced a traumatic separation from her father during the invasion of Singapore by Japan. Both these events left their marks on me, especially my father’s experience which we knew of but were not to speak about.
Zen meditation has helped me uncover a relationship with my paternal grandmother. My awareness spans five generations: from my grandmother Martha Lewen, whom nobody saved, to my granddaughter not-yet-born, whose future lies in the balance.
I live with face blindness (prosopagnosia), but only discovered that my disability has a name recently. It’s estimated that between one and two per cent of the population have face blindness to varying degrees. I do not recognise people by the layout of their faces in the normal way, but over the years have learned to recognise people by hairstyle and clothes, how they walk, and by their voices. As a child starting a new class, I would recognise who was who long after friendship groups had been formed. This increased my natural shyness.
I have completed a full career as a GP, and am now retired. I had thought that I would travel, write, practise yoga and maybe become a yoga teacher or teach writing for wellbeing after retiring. I have done none of these (so far)!
Independence, determination, and sense of responsibility
My mother’s family trace their origins to Sephardi Jews who fled the Spanish inquisition and found homes in Baghdad, where they were welcomed and thrived. My maternal grandmother, Flossie, fled an arranged marriage and came to Singapore to stay with her older sister. I inherit these qualities of independence and determination.
A pamphlet about antisemitism suggests that a Jewish person will take on responsibility for their own wellbeing without relying on other people; that self-reliance, almost to the exclusion of others, has arisen after generations of persecution. I think this runs true. But I have always empathised with others, and perhaps because of this have felt a sense of personal responsibility for the wellbeing of the whole human family not shared by the majority of people. However, in this globalised world, no one can separate their own and their family’s wellbeing, or their tribe’s, from the wellbeing of everyone. For civilisation to survive we need to learn this immediately. We must also realise how reliant we humans are on the web of life, especially life in the oceans.
Colonialism and the privilege of being a white doctor / Hiding my light under a bushel / Being female in a male dominant world
Truth is hard to uncover. Yet before we speak our truth, we have to find it. Truth can come quickly, in a flash of insight; or slowly and sometimes painfully. The path of ecodharma is to be open to enquiry: to careful observation; to critical evaluation of what we see, hear, and do; to constantly check where we are emotionally and how that impacts us; acknowledge, hold, and look at the sudden surprising thoughts that come. These skills improve with meditation practice such as Chan, similar to Zen, which is the tradition I follow.
I am aware of seeming contradictions inside myself; maybe the dharma path is to understand the whole being that contains the contradictions – a whole that is sometimes revealed as one with the earth and its elements, holding the mystery and spirit of life.
I started meditating when I was forty. At some point I had a thought I recognised from the bible: “Don’t hide your light under a bushel”. This became a recurring thought of increasing frequency and painfulness. I remember it coming up at several silent retreats, until I was forced to acknowledge that yes, I was hiding my light under a bushel. I was tucking my light well down beneath a short, thick bush. What did that mean?
The process of revealing my light, of coming into my power, was slow, practical (came out of action, not through sitting), unfathomable, and is still evolving. A part of my reticence to show myself was learned in childhood. However, other more general conditions were at play which may be revealed by looking at colonialism, the privilege of being a white doctor, and being female in a male dominant world. It’s worth exploring these here to show the power of self-enquiry, and to deepen awareness of the conditioning imposed upon women, children, and men.
Some years ago, a research paper was presented on the radio. The paper looked at attention listeners had paid to different speakers, and the influence each speaker had on the listener. The findings were stark: notwithstanding whether the listener was female or male, almost everyone paid more attention to the male speaker than to the female speaker; and listeners were more likely to be influenced by the male even when the female speaker was known to be the most knowledgeable.
“I don’t do that!” Paying attention to my own attention during the next radio talk, I found that I did. During a discussion I took part in, I even noticed myself deferring to the opinion of a male speaker despite knowing more about the topic than he did. Once recognised, soon dealt with. However, such learned tendencies die hard and I still have to be vigilant.
Male hatred of women is taking almost unbearable form in Iran right now. But it is present and extremely harmful throughout society here, as well as being internalised in women such as myself. You can see it play out in the courts and prison systems: women are sent to prison while men routinely receive community service for similar crimes. No thought appears to be given to the devastating impacts on children who are separated from their mothers.
While hiding my light, and being female in a male dominant society, I have lived my working life as a privileged white doctor. People came to consult me and I was accustomed to them listening to me and accepting my advice. I learned to speak in a variety of ways so I could communicate and listen well. Now, when I stand up as defendant in court, I can speak to both judge and jury on their own terms. Most of the time I am regarded with respect. Here are inherent contradictions.
A doctor has a specific role and is expected to behave in a certain way. Doctors are in a position to help people stay healthy in society, and can be held up as superior to ordinary people. This goes two ways: I had taken on the role fully, and it took me a long time to see major flaws in the structure. High esteem and deference towards doctors are cultural; in Russia most doctors were traditionally women, and doctors’ status and pay lower.
Half way through my career it struck me that I was prescribing too many antidepressants. Antidepressants had become sticking plasters to patch people up so that they could keep going in society under unsatisfactory conditions that were harming their health. I resigned and took up work in a deprived area, where I thought I could see more tangible benefits to my work.
In 2018, evidence of the extent of the climate and ecological emergencies was coming in thick and fast. I was checking the hips of a six-week-old baby for a condition called congenital hip dysplasia which, if unnoticed, would cause severe hip pain in her twenties and thirties. I suddenly realised that I was missing the point. All doctors were missing the point. By ignoring the climate and ecological emergencies, we were ignoring the most important things that would affect her health as she grew to adulthood and beyond. This realisation changed my life. At that moment I vowed to do everything I could to make her life as healthy as possible, and that vow has led me to this point.
Unlearning
In early summer 2020 I joined Beyond Politics, renamed the Burning Pink Party. That summer I was imprisoned on remand for four weeks for planning to throw paint at Trade Union buildings, including the British Medical Association. The trial is due to be heard in January and February 2023.
I had needed to show fellow doctors that change was urgent. Doctors were largely turning a blind eye to the effects on health of climate change, pollution, and gross inequity. Instead, doctors were occupied only with treating the effects – lung conditions and cancer, for example. I went on hunger strike for five days while in prison, to try to show doctors the urgency of the climate and ecological emergencies and the need for change. I stopped the hunger strike after five days, when a friend emailed to say that I was already making a difference, and doctors were talking about it.
That first time in prison I was a climate activist, a doctor, and not like other prisoners.
Yet the last time I was imprisoned I did not feel different from other prisoners. I think important reasons for the change were lack of agency, a feeling of powerlessness within a punitive regime not really concerned about prisoners’ wellbeing; the poor diet which became more of an issue as the weeks passed; and, most importantly, my growing understanding of other women prisoners and their circumstances. The way I was imprisoned also made a difference.
The courts are not safeguarding us, but maintain the status quo. In May 2022, I glued my hand to a glass partition inside a courtroom instead of pleading guilty or not guilty of obstructing a road. This was a separate act of civil resistance to urge judges and lawyers to apply the law morally. In the court I spoke about Angus Rose and Wyn Bruce. Angus Rose had just finished a prolonged hunger strike in front of Parliament, with the aim of making sure that MPs were properly briefed on the climate emergency. Wyn Bruce had self-immolated in front of the US Supreme Court. He had committed this final act, to make sure the judges knew that the ecocide law in front of them is a matter of life or death.
I was charged with criminal damage for leaving a glue handprint on the glass and interrupting court procedure. During that trial for gluing my hand in court, I repeated what I had said about Angus Rose and Wyn Bruce. I explained that my ninety-year-old mother had just become seriously ill; I needed to visit her straight afterwards. Fortunately, she improved. However, the judge reacted as if we had challenged his personal authority, and gave co-defendant Ana and I three-month prison sentences. I heard him say “How dare you have done that in MY court? This is the most violent act you could have done to be tried in this courtroom.” He had transferred his own angry or violent reaction, onto us.
Colonialism and entitlement – what are we up against?
There is a Buddhist tradition to know the lineage of your teachers, likening it to the importance of knowing the source of the water you drink in case you have to go out and find water yourself. We must understand what prevents change, or else struggle in the dark.
My understanding is that our problems are caused by power imbalance. Gross inequity exists between individuals, within and between countries, and between continents. Financial and economic models, and the arms industry, work to maintain inequity.
Gross power imbalance in Europe stems back to the feudal system and (in the UK) to the enclosures. Power imbalance was hugely aggravated by colonialism. The mindset is one of entitlement: life on Earth is there to be used (used up); other people exist to be used (the other is considered inferior and / or dehumanised).
The ideas of economic growth and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are results of the idea of entitlement. Economic growth calculations are made to follow the needs of entitlement. They ignore the effects of industry, extraction, and pollution on living plants and animals, including humans. This model is harmful and pervasive, undermining the integrity and humanity of everyone. Application of the law takes little account of people the world over, treating them as if they exist only to serve the economy, and takes no account of human beings who get in the way.
Weapons are made to be used. In the West, the arms lobby is powerful. The arms industry thrives on the arms race, conflict, and war. The industry needs the arms trade to exist. Weapons need to be made in quantity, otherwise cost of manufacture would be prohibitive. UK soldiers are stationed in foreign countries to help maintain or operate the weapons sold: in the words of one X-soldier he was working “as a mercenary”.
Entitlement (most specific to the UK)
In his book ‘Wounded Leaders’, Nick Duffell explains why UK leaders think they are infallible, and why party politics played out in the House of Commons is adversarial (unlike more cooperative styles of government in Europe). Top private schools in the UK are called ‘public schools’; most people in top government positions boarded in public schools, sometimes from the age of eight. Using his own and others’ experiences Duffell was able to analyse how, as adults, X-boarders cannot allow themselves to make mistakes. They stop seeing their mistakes. They learn how to finely categorise and place problems in silos to avoid seeing contradictions. It rings true in medicine: for example, doctors have only recently changed their prescribing to take greater account of harmful interactions between drugs. University and research funding is set in silos. Very few researchers look at whole Earth systems and the effects of a cocktail of man-made pollutants (now called novel entities), but confine themselves to looking at the effects of one or two chemicals at a time. The Goes Foundation https://www.goesfoundation.com/ explains the catastrophic effects such closed vision has on ocean life.
Compartmentalisation may explain why successive UK governments can favour the already wealthy when setting budgets, resulting in the largest gap between rich and poor in Europe, while maintaining the myth that money will ‘trickle down’ to those who need it most.
What does seem to trickle down to the rest of society is intransigence, antagonistic conduct, and concentration on consumption and financial gain.
As a group, elite people may be riddled with more severe internal conflict than the rest of us (https://www.boardingschoolsurvivors.co.uk/). Duffell has said that the best way to puncture the bubble they are living in, is to seed doubt. This feels intuitively correct: I have seen doubt bring about significant changes in my own and others’ views.
People and nature are allies
After detailed explanation, most people get what is happening. On Friday 9th December, a London jury found three people not guilty of causing a public nuisance by blocking a major road during the Insulate Britain campaign. The jury got to know the people on trial and understood their reasons, and understood the importance of a government programme to properly insulate all British homes, starting with the homes of the poorest.
We need to nurture our imagination, our common humanity, our human spirit, our natural inclination to help and cooperate with each other.
We need to work with nature rather than against it. Our survival depends on healthy ecosystems. The greatest human healing comes from the natural power of our own bodies. The greatest Earth healer is the complex web of life, when allowed to recuperate in its original place.
Last week I was walking in Marian and Nick’s part-wild garden, a place of beauty. I felt overwhelming sadness. The sadness had started in prison months before. I thought about the whistle blowers who continue civil resistance while the government is doing its best to stifle them. I thought about the people I know who have been in prison for months. I thought about the continuing righteous anger they express. Maybe I needed a little anger to overcome my sadness?
No sooner thought than summoned. A heat started in my belly and spread through my body. The energy has taken me forward to write this essay.
I mentioned the experience to Marian that evening. Marian Partington is a fellow Buddhist, a Quaker, and author of the book ‘If You Sit Very Still’. Marian has done the most intensive inner work around unattended sorrow, grief, loss, and anger, and has worked with prisoners for The Forgiveness Project. Marian understood what I said and helped me to think about it. She also recommended a TED talk by Valerie Kaur: ‘Three Lessons of Revolutionary Love in a Time of Rage’.
Can we think about grief and anger as our natural allies? Can we find poise between the two, akin to a state of mastery? This is what Marian called equanimity – not a passive way of being as I had previously interpreted the word, but active and energising.
My friend Jill Bird has dug deep into herself to find courage, and has taken action with Just Stop Oil. Jill’s dharma teacher was the late Rob Burbea, based at Gaia House in Devon. Rob was also Mark Ovland’s teacher. Through her practice, Jill aspires to master her anger and grief to use as a tool.
Energised, the lingering depression post-prison gone. During meditation my head buzzed with agitation. What emerged was the memory of the news presenter mentioning climate change the previous day. The BBC now speaks about climate change as fact, but in the tone of normality and without urgent context. Mainstream media is normalising climate change, habituating us to it, while government has given the go-ahead to new coal mining in the UK. New forms of denial.
People around the globe are looking finality in the eye. Do we wait for catastrophe to catch up with us individually, and face the final period alone? Or do we act now, together? Your choices.
Recommended listening
Rowan Williams’ Reith Lecture: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001fw1l
Valerie Kaur’s TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/valarie_kaur_3_lessons_of_revolutionary_love_in_a_time_of_rage?language=en
Rob Burbea: https://dharmaseed.org/teacher/210/?page=29 – 459 talks. No surprise that I was drawn to listen to this one first: Rob Burbea 2011-07-31, 1:10:02, The Meditator as Revolutionary, Gaia House: The Boundless Heart, https://dharmaseed.org/talks/player/13850.html
About the author
Diana Warner is 63, of Jewish background. She lived in Thailand for her first two and half years, and was told that she learned Thai hand dancing there. The family then moved to North London. Diana has lived in Bristol for most of her adult life. Diana started meditating at the age of forty, and took the Buddhist lay vows about ten years later. Diana retired from General Practice on her sixtieth birthday. She considers that she has not stopped working as a doctor but has only changed tack, determined to work alongside others to safeguard our children’s health. Diana has two children, who are her most stalwart friends and supporters.
This article first appeared in EBU Magazine #10 – Ecodharma (Spring 2023). Download the full issue as PDF or browse all issues.