Leonardi/Environmental Spirituality, 5. Beloved on the Earth: A Buddhist and Person-centred Approach to the Ecological Crisis

There is a strong scientific consensus (IPCC, 2022) that we are heading towards the sixth mass extinction of life on this planet. However, this is the first such event that is a direct result of human actions. I have spent much of my adult life contemplating how to respond to this knowledge and this has become for me akin to a Zen koan, or unanswerable question, and thus part of my Buddhist practice. In 2015, Pope Francis (2015) attributed the impending environmental catastrophe to the selfishness of human beings. As a person-centred therapist with a buddhist practice, the philosophy underpinning these approaches have led me to question the notion of inherent human selfishness. Both the person-centred approach, which assumes a prosocial self-actualising tendency in humans, and a Buddhist philosophy which recognises the goodness of our buddha-nature, challenge this view. In this chapter, I consider the notion that working towards healing the environment may be dependent on healing and accepting ourselves (Macy, 2007; Nhat Hanh, 2021) and how a person-centred therapeutic approach informed by Buddhist philosophy may enable the recognition and realisation of our true nature. I consider whether these complementary approaches may be of some help in finding ways to respond, act, live and be on this earth as we face the enormity of the predicament of our times.