BESS Family Foundation Project Partnerships

Eco-Advisory Groups

We build community and learn cooperatively by bringing together groups of experienced practitioners who are addressing the challenges associated with the ecological crisis to advise us.  We have convened two groups of advisors.  

2022-2023

Our first eco-advisory group was composed of 14 senior mindfulness and meditation practitioners who were invited to participate.  Over the course of one year, the advisory discussed ways that Buddhist and mainstream mindfulness practices can most effectively help people meet the intersecting political, social and environmental crises in the world today.

Earth Based Mindfulness and Meditation: An Exploration of Eco Dharma Practices reflects a synthesis of what the 2022-2023 Eco-Advisory group shared with the BESS Family Foundation over the course of the year together. 

Tricycle Magazine published this article describing the Eco-Advisory’s work.

2023-2024

A second eco-advisory group, composed of 24 experienced mindfulness and meditation practitioners, 50% of whom are BIPOC, met in 2023-2024. To learn more about members and their work, check out this Yearbook.

The following projects emerged from the learnings and connections of these eco-advisory groups and we are pleased to support the creativity and expansion that is possible as we develop this area of practice and community.

Earth Awareness Community Retreats

The BESS Family Foundation is sponsoring a series of Earth Awareness Community Retreats over three years (2025 – 2027). Our primary goal is to foster community among teachers and other practitioners whose work and interests are focused on the intersection of mindfulness/meditation and climate change. One retreat each year will be exclusively for folks actively teaching mindfulness or meditation and will be by invitation only.  All other retreats are for mindfulness/meditation practitioners already involved in earth awareness work or who would like to become more involved.  

Each retreat will have its own theme and format designed to build and support our earth awareness community. The retreats will provide a space for rejuvenation through practice, ample time for discussion, and opportunities for collaboration.  Attendance at all Earth Awareness Community Retreats is free, other than a refundable deposit due at registration.  Travel and other costs are participant responsibilities.  Participants will apply to the retreat center for each specific retreat.  If your application is approved, you will be invited to register. 

Retreats will be held at four geographically dispersed retreat centers:  Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center, Seven Oaks Retreat Center, and Big Springs Retreat.  Representatives from each of these retreat centers meet regularly with the BESS Family Foundation to identify and apply best practices for earth awareness retreats.

Tribal Nations and Buddhism Conversations

The Tribal Nations and Buddhism conversations, facilitated by Karen Waconda-Lewis, a native from Laguna and Isleta Pueblos and meditation teacher, explores the intersection of Native earth awareness practices and those of mainstream and Buddhist mindfulness practitioners with a goal to expand both by identifying best practices.

The project arose initially from Karen’s experiences as she taught at Buddhist retreat centers and her desire to share her perspective and stay true to her ancestral lineage of tribal spiritual and environmental knowledge.  An overarching goal is to identify ways to respectfully interact with tribal nations members and to share those learnings with our partners.  How can we share earth awareness practices in ways that are culturally appreciative and not appropriating? This series of conversations seeks to consider how western, predominantly white dharma and retreat centers can make efforts to welcome and engage tribal nation peoples, as well as nurture support for elders who are bringing mindfulness into their communities.

Earth Awareness Teacher Training

The Earth Awareness Teacher Training is a working curriculum created in response to the accelerating climate crisis. At this time, we are called to a profound cultural and spiritual transformation–one that reorients our relationships with the Earth, each other, and the more-than-human world. Mindfulness and meditation teachers offer an important space for people to develop the inner resources needed to respond with wisdom and compassion to our times, and yet many Buddhist and mainstream mindfulness teachers are needing their own support to navigate the ecological realities and the emotional, ethical, and spiritual dimensions of our planetary crisis.

This curriculum and pilot program seek to prepare facilitators who can work themselves and guide others into deeper connection with the living Earth. Such a program equips participants with the tools, knowledge, and inner resources to cultivate ecological literacy, embodied presence, and a sense of sacred reciprocity with the natural world. It fosters a pedagogy rooted in relationality, mindfulness, and justice—capable of addressing both the outer and inner dimensions of ecological collapse.

The aim of this project is to develop an accessible curriculum for teachers to practice and start to incorporate earth awareness practices into their teaching. This curriculum will be piloted as a professional development teacher training in collaboration with Sky Mind Retreats with the intention of refining an open source curriculum to be made widely available. For more information on the pilot training, please visit Sky Minds Retreats.

MBSR and Eco-Awareness Project

In collaboration with experienced MBSR teacher-trainer Margaret Fletcher, the Eco-Awareness Teacher Development project aims to support established MBSR & MBCT teachers to do three things: 1) address their experiences around our Earth’s climate crisis; 2) bring Earth awareness more directly into their personal practice; and 3) consider and experiment with how to bring the Earth alive in their mindfulness teaching. 

The main component of the project is a six-session workshop series. During each two-hour session, teachers practice a variety of ways to resource themselves with gratitude, compassion, and joy by connecting deeply with the Earth. Together the group connects around the suffering  related to climate change. Each session includes discussions of  the challenges and possibilities of teaching in a way that invites the Earth herself in as a fully worthy recipient in the circle of MBSR care, compassion and embodied action. Teachers seek to identify where, in the established MBSR & MBCT curricula, the earth can naturally integrate into practices and activities, and to experiment guiding earth awareness practices in an intimate and supportive setting.

To see more about the curriculum or to register for a workshop please visit: https://www.mbsr-ecoawareness.org/

For tips on ways to bring earth awareness into any mindfulness curriculum, including MBSR, read our short Earth Awareness Practice Tips for Mindfulness Teachers.

What teachers are saying about these workshops:

“I feel much more of a sense of personal and collective agency to affect positive change, and to support others.”

“I’m seeing nature with a more primary focus than before.”

“It was, and is, such a gift to participate in your inquiry, opening up to deeper connections and taking action with small steps. Learning and teaching eco-awareness  and responsibility, starting with finding my own support and resilience.”

“I feel more intentional about weaving nature/earth centered practices into my own practice and teaching.”

“I feel more connected than ever to the natural world.”

“It’s become more of my practice around teaching, that the awe of the earth and the cosmos, to really let that work on me, which then increases my commitment to the teaching work.