The Dharma of Collapse, with Daniel Thorson

Buddhist Geeks

"Climate change", as a term, no longer captures the real danger that climate scientists say that we as a species, along with our fellow creatures, face today. Already the impacts of climate change have turned into a genuine ecological crisis. A growing group of people are asking out loud, if the recent string of dire government-backed climate reports are too conservative to accurately describe the real dangers ahead of us. What if, in fact, we are on the fast track toward both an ecological & civilizational collapse, and it's already too late? What would it mean to practice dharma in "the spectre of collapse?"

Vince Horn is joined in this episode by a former team member of Buddhist Geeks, current monastic resident at the Monastic Academy, and host of the Emerge podcast, Daniel Thorson to discuss the dharma of collapse.

Memorable Quotes:

“It’s collapsing into certainty, in any case, that’s the real danger here, because then we foreclose on all kinds of possibilities and opportunities that we won’t see because we think we know what’s going on.” - Daniel Thorson

“If it’s true, everything needs to change. And if we can be uncertain about it then we can play with how things might change, in order so that it doesn’t have the worst impacts we fear it might.” - Daniel Thorson

“I wonder to what degree the spectre of collapse will be a kind of strange attractor that will pull people out of this deconstructive habit, into realizing that we need to make something that works, for the sake of our lives, for our children’s lives, for the sake of life on earth.” - Daniel Thorson

“The world is ending, but at least I can breathe through it.” - Vince Horn

“There are a lot of people and communities who are trying to retreat instead of retrieve.” - Vince Horn

Episodes Links:

🎙 Emerge: Making Sense of What’s Next

🔗 What is Emerging?

🔗 The Monastic Academy

📖 "Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha" by Daniel Ingram

📖 "American Dharma" by Ann Gleig

🔗 Dharmachanics

🔗 Metamodernism

🎧 Hanzi Freinacht - Towards a Metamodern Politics

📖 “The Listening Society” by Hanzi Freinacht

🎧 Dr. Jem Bendell - The Meaning and Joy of Inevitable Social Collapse

📄 Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy by Jem Bendell

🔗 IPCC Fifth Assessment Report

🔗 Transhumanism

🔗 David Loy

🎧 Max Borders - The Coming Social Singularity

🎧 Zak Stein - A Metaphysics of Love for a Time Between Worlds

📖 “Education in a Time Between Worlds” by Zachary Stein

🔗 Ken Wilber

📄 From Western Marxism to Western Buddhism by Slavoj Žižek

🎧 Buddhism Unbundled by Vince Horn

🔗 New religious movement

📖 “Metamodern Leadership” by James Surwillo

🔗 Meaningness: The fluid mode

🎧 Bonnitta Roy - A Source Code Analysis of Power

🔗 Roy Bhaskar

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