I turn on the fan

Responding to the climate crisis

I avoid turning the fan on. Britain is experiencing a heat wave. With my Celtic constitution I struggle more than some others. With my fitness health and age, I struggle less than some others.

In the hottest part of the day my thoughts become sluggish and I become aware of my heart working hard in my chest.

I avoid turning the fan on.

Wells next the Sea beach, taken on Saturday when I was there with Satya and her mother.

We bought the fan one day after the hottest day ever recorded in May. I was thinking of the comfort of my clients who also have to come up in to this hot room and sit and do the work of therapy.

I am grateful my room doesn’t face south. I am grateful that I know to close all the windows and curtains in the daytime, and open them at night.

I avoid turning the fan on. Even though half of the UK’s electricity is now generated from green sources, and even though we are with a green energy supplier, I am suddenly, in the heat, acutely aware of the cost of the climate crisis, and I can’t bear the idea of using more any more power.

On the hottest day ever recorded in May I felt uncomfortable. Last year over 1,000 people died in heatwave related deaths in the UK. Other countries are much worse off and heat wave illness and deaths are just one consequence.

When I used to lead Buddhist Action Month here in the UK, I found myself quoting Case 14 of the Blue Cliff Record over and over again.

‘A monk asked Yunmen, “What is the teaching of a lifetime?”
Yunmen replied, “An appropriate response.”

What are we called to do in the face of the climate crisis? Make an appropriate response.

‘An appropriate response’ is not a cop out. It is not prescriptive, which some parts of us may be hoping for, but it is not a cop out. ‘An appropriate response’ knows that conditions are constantly changing and that even the precepts cannot guide us on the wise course of action in every circumstance. ‘An appropriate response’ invites us to bring wisdom and compassion together.

David R. Loy, the author of Eco Dharma, once told me that to help people find their appropriate responses he invites them to reflect on three questions.

1. What does the world need

2. What can I offer

3. What tugs at my heart

There is no one appropriate response. What I can offer is different to what you can offer. We each see different worlds, or different pieces of the world, at least. My heart’s feeling will be different to yours.

Last week I installed a couple of water butts here, to collect rainwater from the roof of the house to water the veg. patch. I have three more to install. That’s one appropriate response, I think.

On Saturday I will sit with the Extinction Rebellion Earth Vigil in the centre of town. That’s another appropriate response.

There are others I will make. ‘An appropriate response’ is ‘going, always going beyond’ to quote the heart sutra. It does not stand still. It does not rest in the idea that everything is known. It is not one gate that we walk through, but many gates leading to many different fields.

This year, for Buddhist Action Month, XR Buddhists are inviting people to meditate in ‘unloved places’. This is another appropriate response.

My heart opens to the suffering of the whole world. It is a grace, this opening. The gift that comes from years of practice and who knows what else. This opening and loving the whole world is another appropriate response.

The world is suffering. I am suffering.

I would like to be a perfectly resilient being. I would like to be a perfectly wise being. I would like to know what one lever to pull to heal the world.

I do not always know the next right action to take.

I do know that my heart opening is always an appropriate response.

I turn on the fan.