In Greening Spirituality we will study the often unacknowledged ecological influences of Asian religions and Native American cultures on America’s literary, artistic, and architectural heritage, as well as the growing presence – in the United States – of Dharma traditions, and their influence on contemporary meditation methods as they have opened the door to ancient approaches interweaving the elemental potencies of wilderness (and wildness) into the fabric of contemplative practice. 

We will reflect, together, on the critical importance of acknowledgement of other cultures and cosmological views that existed before us, and to which—at the very least—we owe a debt of gratitude. 

The contemporary greening of spirituality has deep roots in American soil and the sanctification of the wonder and mystery of treasured national spaces, such as the red hills of Sedona, Yosemite, and Muir Woods, has begun to resemble an alternate form of civic religion—one that envisions and embraces a spirituality of place"

The course includes 4, modules:

Module 1: Roots: What is “spirituality”? What is “sacred” beyond the diversity of varied religions and rituals? How and why is it connected to the verdant natural world around us?

Module 2: Turtle Island: The Beat Poets and American Buddhist Ecocriticism

Module 3: Decolonizing the Spiritual

Module 4: Ecopraxis: Greening Spirituality on a Warming Planet