Do Your Bit.

Where Mindfulness practice & Eco-Responsibility come together.

Why does elephantjournal.com focus so much on “green”? Personally, I don’t give a shiite about the hype, but I do view it as right action, and a great gateway into mindfulness. ~ ed.

Turn your lights out when not in use. Minimize use of AC and heating. The future of the world could depend on it. Even more importantly, perhaps, the enjoyment of your own life is dependent upon it.

When we’re children, we’re taught not to put our hands on a hot oven. We’re taught about animals, and how math equations work. We’re never really taught where energy comes from, or what it costs beyond dollars and cents.

A longtime staffer of mine just popped by my house, and left the lights on. Aside from mindfulness, or lack thereof—a spiritual or religious practice that helps us to live fully and enjoy life—there’s the very real effect of electricity—a modern miracle of science, really—being cavalierly used and taken for granted. That’s why, last week, I recommended folks watch this film—so you can see how coal comes to be. That’s why, last month, we were involved in trying to help Boulder close its old-timey coal plant and in so doing set an example for the rest of our nation in giving a care about the next seven generations.

Every time you drive your car instead of taking public transport, you’re using gas that encourages our government to go to war and protect our citizens’ oil interests. So car-pool, pack your whole family in your SUV, go veggie diesel or hybrid. Ride your bike. All obvious choices, and usually more fun, too.

Every time you turn a light switch on, whether for a ceiling fan or light or AC or heating, you’re also using energy. That’s not bad. What’s bad is not updating our fixtures, so that we use less and save more money. What’s bad is when we use energy that we don’t need to. And that’s where mindfulness comes in: the good news is that environmental-responsibility and meditation practice coincide in two things: one, keeping our karma footprint close to zero, or better; and two, the both help us stay present to the effect of said actions, which helps us to enjoy our own life while keeping the welfare of others, and our planet in mind.