Religion and the Anthropocene

  Fear is the primary force upholding structures of domination. It promotes the desire for separation, the desire not to be known . . . When we choose to love we choose to move against fear—against alienation and separation. -- bell hooks  Shambhala Buddhism posits a philosophy of personal warriorship as the root of basic human wisdom that is available to help solve the world’s problems. Throughout many Asian cultures there are stories of a legendary kingdom of Shambhala: a kingdom of peace and prosperity, governed by wise and compassionate rulers with equally kind and learned citizens, creating a caring and harmonious model society. It is said that the kingdom of Shambhala was formed upon the teachings of the Kalachakra Tantra, a most revered wisdom of Tibetan Buddhism, which focuses on the Wheel of Time and tantric immersion within it as the mode of ultimate non-dual transcendence. Thus, Shambhala teachings uphold the image of the Shambhala kingdom as the ideal of secular enlightenm

Art • Carolyn • Cris • Dhriti • Gabi • Jess • Quinn • Tao • Tench • Tyler  

There Need to Be Other Perspectives Than Science  This semester for me has been a long and deep reflection on humanity for the past few hundred years, since the beginning of the anthropocene, or I should say, the capitalocene. It has placed a heavy impact on me and how I view the world. The readings and discussions in this class have humbled me for my blind faith in Western science and its ethics (as what I believe is the ultimate objectivity). It made me realize the intrinsic impossibility of such objectivity, and the danger to only live by one fixed perspective.  This fixed perspective was born first in the West from its mother, Christianity. It inherited a strong concept of the separation between man and nature, in other words, the separation between the self and the others. This concept allowed Western civilizations to gradually develop what we call modern science: the procedures to objectively observe results from controlled variables; the process of coming to a conclusion require

Wiggle Room  Our contemporary wicked problems can feel hard to swallow, to say the least. The grandiosity of the atrocious happenings and the TV static noise that accompanies them can oftentimes confuzzle us and even feel bigger than life itself.  If we dare to feel inspired by the stillness of Buddhist principles adopted by Schniederman’s geologists or maybe reconceptualize God to account for the consistency of change (our ethereal shaper), we may hear this static noise echoe the shimmer of life. Of course this does not happen without an introspective reckoning, a dive into the conditions of the Anthropocene, if that’s what we wish to call it at all.  The Anthropocene, a name once useful, began to reveal itself as insufficient and obsolete in our endeavour to stay with the trouble of the climate crisis. Within our sessions we, quite quickly and enthusiastically, abandoned an attachment to the term. We pursued tearing it apart, making space for other terms to help redirect our naviga

Being a part of this class has been an enriching experience for my soul and one that will be hard to forget. I started my semester with little to no knowledge as to what anthropocene meant. Although, right after the first class, I realised that this was something that I had heard about almost all my life as the Kali Yuga . And that’s when I really began to understand this subject matter from a personal point of view.  During our discussions, we talked about how all of us go through the process of birth and death just to reach the same level of god (this is just the process of maturing). Personally this really resonated with me because I’ve always had this fear of getting lost in the rats race. I always feared becoming part of the crowd and becoming ordinary. Especially living in crowded bustling cities like New Delhi and New York, this really became something I contemplated quite a lot. However, ever since this class, i have come to understand that even though we are all the same, we

Going Off Trail Over the course of this semester, I found “Religion and the Anthropocene” to be very beneficial for me, beyond academics. This course helped open my eyes to different yet very similar overlapping qualities of various religions, how religious and spiritual practices are connected to nature and how they are connected to the Anthropocene. Beyond religion though, I have been fascinated with the teachings and research behind the term “Anthropocene” for a few years now. I never questioned how religion plays a role within geological epochs. However, an underlying part of me has been wanting to understand various religions a bit more and how spiritual philosophy interacts within our current environment. This course was incredibly thought provoking to say the least. I have come to a realization that our class discussions and small group sessions over zoom were huge enhancements for personal growth. Although this year has been tough for everyone, I am thankful for the shared inte

I went into this class uncertain of what to expect. I had some idea of what I thought it would be like, but that evolved over time. I thought it would mainly revolve around religion, with anthropocentric undertones, and I definitely panicked a bit the first few classes when I realized it was more focused on the anthropocene and all its complexities, utilizing and learning about religions as a way to cope with some of the uncertainties presented by the climate crisis - at least that’s how I came to understand it. I’m very grateful though, to have taken this class and been exposed to the information that I was. For example, the readings of the White Utopia Black Inferno week were beyond impactful. I felt so silly for not having known or uncovered the connection myself, because it makes so much sense and is so necessary in having a better understanding of the world. I found myself feeling more invested in the information related to the anthropocene than that of the information I actually

Terminology and Stories - Why the Word “Anthropocene” Matters Throughout this class, there’s been a consistent back and forth in my mind about the idea of terminology as it relates to discussions of the Anthropocene. Even the first articles we read acknowledge how the word “Anthropocene” can be a misrepresentation of the epoch by implying that we, as humans, are all equally responsible for the current state of our planet. In some of our early discussions, we talked about how perhaps arguing about what we should call the Anthropocene was, in a sense, missing the point: it’s our reality regardless of how we talk about it, and arguing over aspects like names and starting dates can often enable inaction. However, concluding the course, I find myself thinking about the question of terminology again, specifically in relation to the idea of storytelling that’s come up in so many of our readings.  There’s no shortage of discussions for alternate terms to “Anthropocene” among the works we read.

As a History Major, I registered for this course, Religion and the Anthropocene as an elective. Especially with this semester taking place online, I wanted to take a class which was very different from the rest of my course load in the History department, and I was drawn to the idea of a new epoch: the Anthropocene, a chance to watch as history unfolds before my eyes. While the readings and discussions did in fact feel very different, I was surprised by how often ideas from this class would come up in my history classes, and vice versa. So much of the Anthropocene is looking ahead to the current epoch, but by taking a historical approach, grounded in the study of religion, the connections between religion, imperialism and the environmental crisis we now face become clear, and have been my focus over the semester. I first made this connection when reading about the Orbis Spike.  “ White Utopia/ Black Inferno: Life on a Geological Spike ” was my first exposure to the Orbis Spike, but it

Over the course of the semester, I feel that I have developed a really nuanced and well-rounded picture of the Anthropocene. I had taken classes on the Anthropocene before and it was a concept I was familiar with, but I had never encountered it from so many perspectives and traditions of thought. While I have been fascinated by the idea of a new geologic epoch since I took Stephanie Wakefield’s class in 2017, I had criticisms about the white, Eurocentric narrative that always surrounded it. I never questioned, however, the way that the Anthropocene was used to justify the way that people in the industrialized world had become alienated from the earth and from nature. The complete disavowal that humans are also natural. I had grown used to hearing John Green’s voice describe the Anthropocene as the “human centered planet” on his podcast.  In our first classes I was very taken by the way that we investigated and questioned the notion of the Anthropocene. I remember reading "The Anth