By Gabriel Moreno

We do not just have a climate crisis; we have a crisis of the bios—of the living system itself, of all life, not just the climate or the biosphere. 

The environmental crisis is not limited to the climate. It is a global ecological crisis. What we euphemistically call “biodiversity loss” is in reality the destruction of life on Earth. It is not just the health of the planet that is being badly damaged. Our own health is also in trouble.

In the richest nation in the world, life expectancy has been decreasing for the past several years. Globally, cancer, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, and iatrogenic illnesses are on the rise. Depression, anxiety, and burnout have also been on an upward trend. 

The health of our bodies, our psyche, and our planet are not three different issues. Our planet is also our body in a biological sense. The life within us could not exist without the planet. Science has also demonstrated that our psyche and our bodies are not separate. Planet, body, and mind are intertwined. They are all part of one living system. We separate these dimensions only for practical convenience which ironically is turning out to not be so practical. 

Instead of taking the usual approach of seeing all these problems as external issues, perhaps it would be better to pause and see the whole picture. To reflect on what this says about how we are living in late industrial civilization.

Most of us are living hurried, frenetic, and hyper-busy lives that are making us and the planet sick while we go nowhere. Add to this the characteristics promoted by our hectic, competitive way of life, which seem to be increasing in intensity and ubiquity – namely, selfishness, envy, dishonesty, theft, and greed – all of which cause significant harm to people and the planet. Is all this harm done to both personal and planetary life resulting in happier human lives? What if the future of the planet was tied to our own true happiness and health?

The way we live, our current ethos, seems to be against life. There is nothing more precious than life but we do not seem to care much for it, including the life we carry within ourselves. All this exists in the name of a hunger that can never be satisfied. 

The elephant in the room in mainstream discussions about climate change, biodiversity loss, and human health is the sense of hollowness inside us – a void that cannot be filled with the typical offerings of modern industrial society, such as money, social status, and the endless consumption of material goods and luxuries. We modern humans often behave like black holes that suck in everything around us without ever being satiated. Even the few individuals who materially profit most continue to seek more with no end in sight – they are never content with the huge fortunes they acquire, to the chagrin of everyone else.

The only way to fill this inner void is through an experience of life that is radically different from one based on material wealth that is produced at the expense of human and planetary life. 

Our existence needs to be rooted in an embodied experience of biophilia, a sense of love and connection to life in our body, not just our mind. This would result in a new bioethos, or way of life, that supports and respects life, including our own well-being and true joy. If we actually pursued such a path this world would change radically. 

An embodied transformation is, by definition, not going to be achieved by change at a conceptual level or through moral precepts or ideas. An embodied biophilic ethos will require a profound transformation in how we live and experience the world, with genuine practical consequences that allow life to thrive in all its manifestations. This is where Buddhism can be engaged and offer tremendous help. 

One key dimension where Buddhism can help is in providing practices that generate the embodied change we need. Simple practices such as slowing down to engage in mindful doing, being present, observing, listening, experiencing mindful suffering, and embracing silence in meditation or the quietude of being in nature, can all be very powerful in transforming our way of being in the world. 

The ultimate outcome of these practices is an embodied experience of connection with all life – ourselves, our bodies, our fellow humans, and our environment imbued with an enhanced experience of beauty and joy and a deep sense that we already have enough with what we have right now. 

One discovers that the experience of simply being, including doing everyday tasks like cleaning or cooking, is unmatched by anything else. Regaining this connection is fundamental to our joy and to truly satisfying the hollowness most humans carry within, which is the cause of so much trouble. In other words, embodied practices like these are key to recovering a way of being that has been ‘educated away’ and buried by a socioeconomic system that, through competition, frenetic living, and a cult of the self, continues to sever our natural connection to the rest of life – that is, to all that is part of us.