Nature My Teacher Parts 1 & 2

Common Threads: An Interfaith Dialogue

Ever run into one of those people whose resumes are so bloody full of awesome accomplishments that you wonder why they even let you take up precious space on earth? Well this is one of those guys. James Thornton is a world-renowned environmental lawyer, author, poet, and Zen Buddhist priest. The New Statesman named him as one of 10 people who could change the world, and he has won the Financial Times Lifetime Achievement Award for Innovation in Law. James is the founder and president of Client Earth, the leading global not-for-profit law group who represent the natural world, advocate for policy changes that protect it, and hold governments and corporations accountable where policies have been violated. James is also the author of Client Earth which won the Judge’s Choice Business Book of the Year Award. In 2021, he was a judge of the Laurel Prize for the world’s best collection of eco-poetry, pointing to his deep understanding of the genre. Nature, My Teacher is his latest work. It is divided into 12 books, each a sequence of intimate essays, James investigates the nature of human consciousness. James discusses his own anxiety, why anxiety is a rational response to climate change, and he explains why environmental problems are mental problems. Both from his work as an environmental lawyer and his role as a Zen Buddhist priest, James shows us ways to find hope in a world under threat. This book is a meditation on those principles that will serve to both ease our fears and invigorate us to take action. Of course, I kid about those of us lesser mortals "taking up space" here. We all are worth something. Still. People like James do make one take stock.