Join us for the first Dharma and Justice Dialogue for this academic year with Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Sensei Kritee Kanko, PhD, Cláudio Carvalhaes ’07, and Rev. Kosen Greg Snyder. This online event will take place on Thursday, September 23 from 7:00 to 8:30 pm ET. Click here to register for the webinar. 

In a time of climate crisis when we are grieving the mass extinction of species, the suffering and relocation of peoples, and the increasing regularity of cataclysmic weather events everywhere, many are questioning the very foundations of the dominant culture and its very ill and confused relationship with our sacred Earth. Rather than recognizing Earth as the source of our being and the interwoven, living presence that is our life, we continue to objectify the Earth as a dead heap of resources to be extracted for our consumption, comfort, and pleasure. Elders, ancestors, protectors, and many practitioners of indigenous spiritual traditions who treasure and champion the Earth’s guidance are asking us to renounce these more destructive paths and find our way to wise and sustaining ways of living together. In this conversation, we hope to explore what it might mean to leave behind the destruction and domination our planet in favor of listening to the Earth, regaining a genuine humility, respect, balance, and slow wisdom that can support us in transforming ourselves into justly aligned, effectual, and intimate guardians of this sacred Earth. 

REGISTER TODAY

This event is offered by the Thích Nhất Hạnh Program for Engaged Buddhism. 

**ASL  interpretation will be provided

About The Speakers

Tiokasin Ghosthorse is host of First Voices Radio, which explores the cultures of Indigenous peoples and the threats they face. Cheyenne River Lakota (Sioux) Nation of South Dakota, he has long been involved in Indigenous rights and advocacy. As a musician he performs worldwide on the ancient red cedar Lakota flute and other instruments. At the website , he says: “We have to stop with the idea of creating peace on earth and begin with creating peace with Mother Earth. We’ve tried the first alternative for thousands of years, but look where that has led us; now is the time of the Original Ways, the Native ways … We all must make peace with Mother Earth.”

Sensei Kritee Kanko, PhD, is a climate scientist, educator-activist, grief-ritual leader, and a Zen priest. She is a Sensei in the Rinzai Zen lineage of Cold Mountain, a founding Dharma teacher of Boundless in Motion, and a co-founder of Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center. She has served as an Ecodharma teacher for Earth-Love-Go (Lama Foundation), One Earth Sangha, Impermanent Sangha, and Shogaku Zen Institute. As a senior scientist in the Global Climate Program at Environmental Defense Fund she helps implement climate-smart farming at scale in India. She was trained as a microbiologist and isotope biogeochemist at Rutgers and Princeton Universities. Kritee believes in identifying and releasing our personal and ecological grief and bringing our gifts into strategic collective actions for societal healing. She is committed to learning from and bringing dharma to young adults, permaculture communities, LGBTQ, black, indigenous, and other people of color. Her synthesis of myths surrounding climate crisis, racism, ethics, and action is available as a Youtube video. Her other interviews and articles can be accessed here.

Cláudio Carvalhaes, theologian, liturgist and artist, a native Brazilian, completed his Ph.D. in Liturgy and Theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 2007. He earned a Master of Philosophy in Theology, Philosophy, and History at the Methodist University of Sao Paulo in 1997 and a Master of Divinity from the Independent Presbyterian Theological Seminary (Sao Paulo, Brazil) in 1992. A much sought after speaker, writer, performer, and consultant, Dr. Carvalhaes has preached at Wild Goose Festival, Festival of Homiletics, Forum for Theological Education, Child Defense Fund – Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry, Academy of Homiletics and many other places. He has given lectures at the Liturgy Symposium Series at Yale Divinity School, Princeton Theological Seminary, the Buddhist-Christian Conference at Denison University, the 7th Aasta Hansteen Lecture on Gender and Religion in Oslo, Norway, the Jubilee 800 Order of Preachers of the Dominican Order at the Vatican, Italy, Societas Liturgica in Belgium, Liturgical Conference in Germany, and the International Academy of Practical Theology in Brazil.

Kosen Gregory Snyder is the Senior Director and Assistant Professor of Buddhist Studies at Union Theological Seminary, where he oversees the Master of Divinity degree program in Buddhism and Interreligious Engagement as well as the Thích Nhất Hạnh Program for Engaged Buddhism.

Professor Snyder is an ordained Zen Buddhist priest and dharma-transmitted teacher in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki. He co-founded and is currently the senior resident priest at the Brooklyn Zen Center and Ancestral Heart Zen Monastery in Millerton, NY. He is one of the founders of the Buddhist Action Coalition, whose mission is to organize and inspire compassionate Buddhist initiatives in advancing social, economic, and environmental justice through advocacy and nonviolent direct action.