Welcome.
What is this site?
This is a site dedicated to contemplative practices for the ecological and social present. We are curious about contemplative forms-of-life situated within social ecosystems. As climate chaos and the injustices of capitalism intensify, we need new contexts for contemplative practices. The duality between inner and outer is changing—it is being "ecologized" as we remember our entanglement with the web of life. Or as climate mutations force us to remember.
This site contributes to the development, discovery, and creation of ethical contemplative practices attuned to a transforming planet and a collapsing civilization. It is oriented towards the skill, love, and courage required to invite a more beautiful world, a "great turning," enlightened societies, beloved communities—a Symbiocene beyond the Anthropocene, unleashed from colonial-modernity. This includes a contemplative life informed by psycho-social training, ecologies, and political analysis as much as influences from established religious traditions.
Is there a source or lineage of these practices?
The practices we explore here are often inspired by the Dzogchen tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, as well as the Shambhala teachings. Adam trained and taught within the cauldron of these traditions for over 25 years in the West and in Tibet, Nepal, India, and China, and pursued rigorous, critical academic training, holding a PhD from Harvard University. This academic training included issues of theological innovation and adaptation. Adam is active in conversations with contemporary teachers about the future of modern Buddhism and is involved with thinking through "speculative non-buddhism" and other creative interventions. He also experienced numerous failures and limits within traditional institutions and is critical of attempts to uncritically replicate the past. So, we do not claim that this is a traditional Dzogchen teaching and we refuse claims of "authenticity." For those seeking traditional training, there are many excellent teachers out there. The approach here is eclectic, diverse, heretical, experimental, and creative. At the same time, we have tremendous reverence and respect for the older traditions, scholasticism, and methods. We remain in awe of our ancestors, teachers, and lineages. Yet ecological mutations, the influence of cultural capitalism, and the political contexts of our world require different approaches
This approach also differs from adapting older teachings for the present. We also refuse the modernist and colonialist rhetoric of "getting rid of the cultural baggage" in attempts to update or modernize traditions. This is not our approach because we do not see contemporary society and modernity as an unquestionable context. We also refuse claims of being "modern" or scientific.
We attempt to sail between the Scylla of unquestioned traditionalism and the Charybdis of unquestioned colonialist modernism. This leaves us suspended in a threshold, a liminal space.
We therefore also draw from contemporary critical theory, ecological philosophy, radical ecopsychology, and socio-political thought. Psychological traditions that arose in modernity are also necessary to work with our modern subjectivities and inner lives. We integrate modern studies of the psyche, trauma work, and the gendered, racialized, and capitalized aspects of our sense of self. This site is part of an experiment in developing contemplative practices for today: we approach with care, respect, humility, rigor, critique, and are part of an iterative and nimble experiment.
What are contemplative practices?
We are curious contemplative practices that are practical and useful. But we also want to preserve space for uselessness and patience. Many attempts to bring spirituality into this world end up being trapped by goals, trapped in time and practicality.
Simply making contemplative life immanent and this-worldly is not radical enough. The question is how to be in this world with confidence in freedom.
Is this just about "inner" transformation or is this also about "outer" material ecological and political transformation?
What are Ecological practices?
Who is involved?
Adam Lobel's teachings, inquires, experiments, and offerings.
What is the framework for these contemplative practices?
