By Margo Van Greta
I visited Paula Chichester in her current home in Shetland off the coast of Scotland. During one of our walks along the dramatic coastline, we shared our wish to make a positive contribution to our world.
Paula has dedicated most of her life to Buddhist practice, teachings, and retreats. She has a background in environmental activism and deep ecology. My life includes social activism, Spiritual Ecovillage Findhorn in Scotland, The Work That Reconnects and Buddhism.
We wondered how we could join forces. We created “Active Hope and Green Tara”, bringing together two practices aimed at building resilience and strengthening our ability to respond to the climate crisis.
Active Hope and The Work That Reconnects help people discover and experience their connection with each other and the self-healing powers of the web of life, transforming despair and overwhelm into inspired action. It was created by Joanna Macy, a Buddhist practitioner herself, who brought Buddhist practices into the work.
We combine this with the practice of Green Tara, a tried and tested method from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, including visualization, breath, and mantra. She is especially known for manifesting change and creating positive causes and conditions in our outer world.
This is what previous participants said in 2023:
“It is motivating. Sometimes you can feel stuck and overwhelmed and the course taught me how to recognise this and that every step you take is a step forward.”
“The course was very informative, and delivered with wisdom and compassion. It has helped me to think and act more skilfully in response to the climate crises.”
Sign up for the work that reconnects; Active hope and Green Tara during the climate crisis hosted online over the course of six with Paula Chichester and Margo van Greta.
Margo is SPC at Togme Sangpo Buddhist Group in Scotland and teaches Discovering Buddhism. Paula is a long-term Buddhist practitioner and spent about 20 years in retreat.
