Sumeru News — Environmental Issues

December 11th marks International Mountain Day. This year’s theme: Glaciers matter for water, food and livelihoods in mountains and beyond. This brings attention to the vital role of glaciers in sustaining agriculture, water security and biodiversity. And nowhere on earth is this more critical than in Tibet, home to tens of thousands of glaciers that drip-feed freshwater into rivers that sustain over 1.5 billion people downstream. December 10th marks the anniversary of HH Dalai Lama’s NobelPeace Prize Award. As we celebrate the Year of Compassion that heralds HH Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday, this is  auspicious timing to announce the winners...

LIVING NEMBUTSU: Applying Shinran’s Radically Engaged Buddhism in Life and Society -- Jeff Wilson https://sumeru-books.com/products/living-nembutsu and ENGAGED BUDDHISM IN JAPAN: Historical Perspectives and Contemporary Exemplars -- Jonathan S. Watts Volume 1 An Engaged Buddhist History of Japan from Its Origins to the Dawn of the 21st Century https://sumeru-books.com/products/engaged-buddhism-in-japan-volume-1

Nick Hunt, whose collection of short stories we published earlier this year (https://sumeru-books.com/products/loss-soup-and-other-stories) was recently interviewed in Resurgence & Ecologist magazine about how fiction, his stories, and the larger work of the Dark Mountain collective, are a way to grapple with the hyperobject that is ecosystem collapse and extinction. You can read the article here: https://www.resurgence.org/magazine/article6073-a-darkening-terrain.html

I'm delighted to announce that Sumeru will be publishing Jeff Wilson's upcoming book: Living Nembutsu Applying Shinran’s Radically Engaged Buddhism in Life and Society Publication planned for Spring 2023.

On the canadianbuddhism.info directory of Canadian Buddhist organizations, you will be starting to see an additional field being added: ENVIRONMENTAL PROFILE. For starters, I'm just going to add how many acres each rural centre's property comprises. This will be one small step forward in doing environmental audits on them. My ultimate goal is to share best practices from these organizations. Here is one example of what that might look like: https://www.buddhistdoor.net/features/ajahn-sona-off-the-grid/