Wisdom Teachings for the Polycrisis: When No Thing Works

by Prajna Choudhury, L.Ac

At our last Wisdom Teachings for the Polycrisis, we delved into what may be the most important practice from Norma Wong’s When No Thing Works: imagining the future we want for our descendants (Roshi Wong instructs us to imagine the future 7 generations ahead). Imagining is like the act of planting a seed in a garden. Then there’s the weeding, the fertilizing, protecting from pests - all the work of tending. And there’s forces of nature - the sun, the rain, the magic and mystery of lifeforce itself - things we can’t control, but we work together with, to co-create our garden/ reality. The Buddha said, "The mind is like an artist; it can paint various worlds, the five aggregates arise from it, and nothing is created without it." These days, many of our minds seem to inhabit the world we don’t want: our greatest fears. But what do we want, what are our greatest aspirations? In order for our actions to be meaningful, we must know our destination, what we are working towards. 

 At our next gathering, we will be starting What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World. The first chapter continues our journey by reminding us the importance of the work of visioning to create a just and sustainable future. The Author, Prentis Hemphill, is a fresh new voice with much wisdom for our times. They combine personal memoir, historical reflection, and their experience as a leader in the Black Lives Matter movement and as a somatic trauma therapist, to give us a way forward. As adrienne maree brown says, “Hemphill teaches us where healing begins, and how crucial our healing is for the worlds we want to conjure.”

For more visions of a possible future, I really enjoy Becky Chambers’ works of science fiction, including the Wayfarer’s series starting with The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, and the Monk and Robot series. While these are post-apocalyptic books, they paint a picture of what a world with living values of care, sustainability, and equity might look like. You might also enjoy the painting of a possible future at the very beginning of Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s book Abundance.  (book links are affiliate)