The document discusses the need for system-based solutions to address the sustainability crisis. It notes that the crisis is a complex problem involving many interrelated factors. Overconsumption, poverty, health issues, environmental degradation, economic disparity, social injustice and unsustainable growth all contribute to and exacerbate the crisis. Introducing green products alone will not be enough to solve it. Meditation can help by cultivating qualities like wisdom, clarity, equanimity, contentment, generosity, happiness, critical thinking, compassion, creativity and tolerance which can help create system innovators and conscientious consumers to move towards more sustainable systems and ways of living. However, challenges like ignorance, lack of resources, opposition and issues with technology

1.  “The sustainability crisis is a spaghetti junction of cause
and effect. It’s the quintessential ‘system’ problem: you
can’t just pick out one strand and straighten it out. So, to
effectively address it, we need system-based solutions.
Introducing green products and services won’t be enough,
no matter how useful they may be.” - Anna Birney, Head of
the System Innovation Lab at Forum for the Future
Introduction

2. The Benefits and Problems
associated with the present mindset
• Overconsumption
• Poverty
• Health
deterioration
• Environmental
degradation
• Economic disparity
• Social Injustice
• Unsustainable
growth

3.  A state of being where one gets “familiar” with his/her/its mind in the present state
through calm abiding practice of open awareness of concentration ( shamatha)
technique and sharp insight training through contemplative introspective ( vipassana)
technique.
 “Meditation is very simple. It is simply attending. You can begin by attending to your
breath, and then if a thought comes, attend to it, notice it, be open to it—and it will
pass. Then you can come back to the breath. Your normal response is to react to all
your thoughts, and this keeps you ever busy in a sea of confusion. Meditation teaches
you to attend to what is taking place within without reacting, and this makes all the
difference. It brings you freedom from the mind and its meandering. And in this
freedom you begin to experience who you are, distinct from your mental turmoil. You
experience inner joy and contentment, you experience relief and inner relaxation, and
you find a respite from the tumult of your life. You have given yourself an inner
vacation” – The Art of Joyful Living, Swami Rama
What is Meditation?

4. Fundamental Principles
4 Laws of Ecology
1) Everything is
connected to
everything
else
2) Everything
must go
somewhere
3) Nature knows
the Best
4) There is no
such thing as
a free lunch
Buddhism
Dependent Origination:
 Everything in the universe, including objects, ideas,
beings, events, and processes, depends on numerous
causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone
or independently of others. Because causes and
conditions exist, there are effects. With dependent
origination, “If there is this, then there is that; with the
arising of this, that arises.
 Subatomic particles are always dependently originated.
This can be seen from the way electrons orbit around
protons and neutrons. If someone tries to split up the
nucleus of an atom by fission, the atomic mass will turn
into energy immediately. When we shift our attention
from macroscopic objects to the microscopic world of
atoms, we find a complex web of relationships among
subatomic particles.

6. Benefits of Meditation
It brings "serenity" or "tranquillity"
(samatha) which steadies, composes,
unifies and concentrates the mind;
"insight" (vipassana) which enables one
to see, explore and discern "formations"
(conditioned phenomena based on the
five aggregates).
5 Aggregates:
• Form or Matter ( external or internal)
• Sensations or feelings (
pleasant/unpleasant/neutral)
• Perceptions (registers whether the object
is recognized or not)
• Mental formations/ impulses ( all types of
mental habits, thoughts, ideas, prejudices,
compulsion and decision triggered by the
object)
• Consciousness or discernment (
cognizance which discern)

7. "Half of all our cash, we're
spending on our trash"-
Tom Chapin

8. Benefits of Meditation
• Wisdom and clarity
• Equanimity
• Contentment
• Generosity
• Happiness
• Critical thinking/
discernment
• System innovators
• Compassionate
conscientious
consumers
• Creativity
• Tolerance/ Patience
“We need political leadership that is
not only thoughtful and measured but
also courageous and inspirational. It
is time for clarity and strength in both
vision and action.
The people and the politicians of the
world, community by community,
nation by nation, will now determine
whether we can create and sustain
the international vision, commitment
and collaboration that will allow us to
take this special opportunity and to
rise to the challenge of the planet in
peril.”- Stern and Garbett- Shiels,
“Global Sustainability – A Nobel Cause”

9. Challenges

12. Challenges and Opportunities
• Ignorance or lack of awareness/ communication/ fear of
change
• Lack of funding for research, lack of researchers, lack of
trained teachers
• Opposition from profit driven entities ( political and
nonpolitical)
• Technology – mass social media
• Bottom up process/ Contagious/ Empowering
• Mindfulness/ Yoga Research
• Civic responsibility
• http://www.aei-ideas.org/2014/02/happiness-free-enterprise-and-human-flourishing-
a-special-online-event-featuring-his-holiness the-dalai-lama/
• Mind and life
• UW, Emory, UCLA, UVA, etc
• TIME

13. “The Seahawks believe their kinder, gentler
philosophy is the future of football,” says
Alyssa Roenigk in ESPN The Magazine. So
could mindfulness and meditation be a way
to win the Super Bowl? The Seahawks
obviously believe that it can. They are taught
yoga and sitting meditation as a part of their
training, as it’s difficult to be focused if they
are distracted by a monkey mind jumping
from thought to thought.