“These days, whatever you get comes with a great deal of packaging and that is a problem. Therefore, whenever you give gifts to others, try to use the minimum possible packaging.”
“If we think from little to big, that will be easier to work with in our minds, and more convenient to practice in our lives. Otherwise if we think from big to little about this challenge, then we can get discouraged because whatever we can do seems to be too small, and we have doubts about what the benefit is of doing it. Therefore, I think it is important for all of you to start from yourselves, taking on the individual responsibility and starting by doing little things to protect the environment”
—17th Karmapa (2023)
Two days ago, the Karma Kagyu centre, KTD in the USA, re-posted a short talk that HH 17th Karmapa gave in May 2023 on the importance of individual effort and responsibility in protecting natural resources and the environment (at the request to speak on climate change by the KTD centre).
I have typed up a transcript of the short talk below. As I have written about before here, the 17th Karmapa is the foremost Tibetan Buddhist lineage holder to really focus on and launch environmental guidelines for monastic and Dharma centres. The Gyalwang Karmapa is a passionate environmentalist and regularly incorporates this theme into his teachings and life’s work. For example, he established the Khoryug movement and annual conference to encourage Buddhist communities and monasteries in the Himalayan region to act in sustainable and environmentally friendly ways. He has also spoken on many occasions (as did the Buddha) about the importance of not eating murdered animals and its extremely harmful impact on the environment and resources and animals themselves.
In this short five minute speech, the Karmapa encourages us to not feel overwhelmed by the environmental issues facing us all, and that we can each do our own little bit, which would then add up to something big.
Listening to this speech, was timely indeed. The last couple of weeks while on pilgrimage, I noticed how much waste there is in packaging of food, gifts, clothes etc. and would often voluntarily return such paper bags, plastic containers or recycle them when possible. As the Karmapa said, we did not use to have this issue of having to divide our waste into degradable rubbish and non-degradable plastics for recycling. However, like eating animals, the effect of plastic pollution and packaging is causing huge issues with littering the natural environment, waste disposal and harming animals.
In addition, it takes lots of trees to make paper and twice the energy used to produce a plastic bag. 2,700 liters of water is used to make 1 tonne of paper (average for the European industry). Yet still we consume and readily throw away huge amounts of paper used in packaging and bags. It is said that paper waste makes up 26% of total waste at rubbish landfills.
In conclusion, I leave you with this photo of dead albatross chick whose stomach was opened up to reveal the predominantly human plastic packaging contents inside it. For more on Chris Jordan’s photos of the contents of bird’s guts and the plastic pollution issue, see here. Also a photo of a typical waste landfill of plastic and paper packaging.
Music? SOS Mother Nature by Will.I.Am.
Written and transcribed by Adele Tomlin, 19th November 2023.
“From Little to Big” 17th Karmapa on individual action to protect the environment
Transcript
“Today I have been asked to say a few words about climate change by the KTD in the United States for one of its events. As you all know, this environmental problem is the biggest challenge we human beings face in the 21st Century. If we cannot respond to it in an effective way and the environment keeps declining, then it is very likely that the consequences for our world will be inconceivably great.
However, when we learn about the changes in the climate, and especially the weather, that are happening it is really a very vast situation that is affecting the whole world. Looking at it from our individual point of view, it just seems to be too much. Whatever one person can do seems inadequate and inconsequential. Therefore, it is hard for many people to develop the courage and enthusiasm to work on this challenge. Because of that, we should not think too big. I think it is important to think about what each of us as individuals can do in everyday life. For example, when we buy things, it is extremely important to use reusable or recyclable bags.
Likewise, when things are discarded, we should make sure what is just trash and what is recyclable. Dealing with waste with full attention is very important. I don’t think there was this kind of problem, say a hundred years ago. These days, whatever you get comes with a great deal of packaging and that is a problem. Therefore, whenever you give gifts to others, try to use the minimum possible packaging. Anyway, I think it’s important for each of us to start thinking about what we can do in our own everyday lives. If we think from little to big, that will be easier to work with in our minds, and more convenient to practice in our lives. Otherwise if we think from big to little about this challenge, then we can get discouraged because whatever we can do seems to be too small, and we have doubts about what the benefit is of doing it.
Therefore, I think it is important for all of you to start from yourselves, taking on the individual responsibility and starting by doing little things to protect the environment. You should see what you yourself can do. That is all, I do have much else to say. Thank you.