What is it going to take to heal the planet?

Artificial Intelligence is part of our climate.

Earth's Healing: Sacred Space and the Wisdom of Embodiment

On September 9, 2025 we will again take up contemplative ecology in a 100 level Dharma College class on Zoom. You can find details and sign-up links below.

Our intention has consistently been to help find a way to deal with the climate crisis. Always, the dilemma staring us in the face is that knowledge to save our planet is well in hand, but enacting this knowingness lags dangerously behind. In now our 4^th iteration of the class, we continue pursuing the idea that a spiritual transformation is important in enacting our know-how to save the planet. But know-how is how we got in this fix in the first place! There is something holding humanity’s feet to the fire, maybe because we so love fire and our very clever ways of harnessing it.

Now, I don't know but I was told
In the heat of the sun a man died of cold
Keep on coming or stand and wait
With the sun so dark and the hour so late

Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia

And now, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is coming fast, too. AI can both exacerbate the crisis, and provide solutions. AI data centers have a huge carbon footprint, but hopefully AI may be much more clever than us at engineering solutions. But, what happens if an autonomous AI decides that more data centers are more important than the primates who designed AI? This nightmare is possible.

While it may be too simple to assert that contemplative practice will magically heal the earth’s ecosystem, what could be more helpful than wisdom and compassion? Know-how is necessary to unwind the crisis of knowing how to release more energy than the earth can dissipate, but if know-how remains unharnessed to wisdom and compassion what are the chances that a livable world will exist at the end of the current century?

So we will begin again to work again to develop wisdom and compassion in service of our whole planet on September 9^th with our Dharma College Course entitled this year:

Earth's Healing: Sacred Space and the Wisdom of Embodiment

Much of the content will remain unchanged, but our old presentations have evolved, and this time, we are going to add one class session on the subject of AI. This new element is not reflected in the information on the Dharma College website about the class, since this is a new initiative. Admittedly, it’s a stretch to consider AI as ‘ecological’ which is mostly about biology, but at least metaphorically, AI represents a major change in the cultural, economic and psychological climate of our times.

So please join us again, or for the first time, in practicing contemplative ecology for the benefit of all sentient beings on this planet (and everywhere). This link will take you to more details and registration:

https://dharma-college.com/earths-healing-sacred-space-and-the-wisdom-of-embodiment/