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consciousness? Consider that in the Sutra of Buddha Teaching the Seven Daughters the Buddha says,

“If one knows that what is born will end in death, then there will be love. 16

It is not grief, but the fear of feeling, the absence of sadness or rage, which leads to paralysis, despair

and psychic numbing. In a widely circulated op-­‐ed piece in the17 Los Angeles Times, Richard Anderson

asserts: “the alternative [to grieving] is a sorrow deeper still: the loss of meaning.”i Judith Butler

argues, “Without the capacity to mourn, we lose the keen sense of life we need in order to oppose

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violence.”That includes, I would add, the violence of ecological destruction.

When we avoid grief, according to Catriona Mortimer-­‐Sandilands, we live in a state of suspended

melancholia, where grief is internalized and objects of loss are fetishized. She contends that this

process of displacement gives rise to “nature-­‐nostalgia,” manifesting in such activities as ecotourism or

even campaigns to preserve a particular species or wilderness area. Such practices, although well-­‐

meaning, reflect a mythic or idyllic view of a natural world separate from humanity. Nature becomes a

commoditized fantasy. Environmental destruction becomes incorporated “into the ongoing workings

of commodity capitalism.”19

Instead of idealizing a mythic wild, can we dare to love the world in which we live? As we witness

loss—whether family homes, childhood haunts, the croaking of frogs, or stately old oaks and pines—

can we dare to feel the pain of loss? Public grieving is an essential step. In communal moments of

grief, when the flow of life is temporarily halted, when the ache of losing that which was loved feels

unbearable, hearts open. Sense perceptions are heightened. One is touched by the full poignancy of

the living world. From these feelings compassion arises. In this heart-­‐opening, the vital

interconnectedness of the living world in palpable.

16 Quoted in Jeremy Hayward. Warrior-King of Shambhala: Remembering Chogyam Trungpa (Somerville, MA,

Wisdom Publications, 2008) p 390.
17 Richard Anderson, “The World Is Dying—and So Are You,” Los Angeles Times. Jan 07, 2001.
18
Judith Butler, Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence (New York:Verso, 2004), p xvii.
19 Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands, Catriona, “Melancholy Natures, Queer Ecologies,” Queer Ecologies: Sex,

Nature, Politics, Desire. Eds. Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands and Bruce Erickson. (Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 2010) p333. Print.

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