The following talk is given by Tara Brock, meditation teacher, psychologist and author.

The following talk is given by Tara Brock, meditation teacher, psychologist and author.

The following talk is given by Tara Brock, meditation teacher, psychologist and author.

In this coming week, some of you may be aware that it's probably the greatest mobilization on behalf of the Earth that's ever happened in human history.

And on Sunday, the 21st, there's going to be a people's climate march in New York City, but it's also happening this activity in about 188 plus other countries around the world.

And of course, there's the UN climate summit. It's a lot going on.

And in one way to look at it, as humans are actually really waking up to the crisis of our planet.

And another view is it's happening really slowly. It's scary how slowly. There's a huge amount of indifference and ignorance.

What I'd like to do tonight is through the lens of Dharma, through the lens of what sometimes is described as a spiritual path or the bodhisattva path.

And the word bodhisattva, bodhi means awakened and sattva is being.

Through this path that we're all on, really, of waking up, how can we view this? What's our role? How do we pay attention?

And I've been inspired since I was a young girl by the Museum of Natural History in New York.

That's the place we used to go with my parents and learn about the planetarium was awesome.

And it's just an amazing museum. And in recent years, they've done a lot on global warming.

And the scientists describe there that were in the sixth extinction, meaning that it's this is predicted to be the most devastating of all the extinctions, that there have been a number in the past.

The most, since the asteroids wiped out all living creatures, you know, the dinosaurs plus, this is supposedly to be the most devastating since then.

And I'll give you a little bit of what they say. They estimate that half of all plants, animals and bird species will die off in the next 85 years.

So I think of that. I think of, well, that would be my grandchildren's lifetime, that half of the creatures we know of won't be here.

That 75% of all mammals in the next 334 years will be gone.

So one scientist writes this, he says, this should keep you awake at night.

And it's interesting that it doesn't really. I mean, that's probably, that's something we'll explore a little.

But most scientists are saying that the, that in contrast to all the other extinctions, the cause is human.

...