Buddhism in the Anthropocene: Opening the Global to the Planetary

Saskia Abrahms-Kavunenko

University of Copenhagen

Jovan Maud

Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

t the Origins Centre, a Buddhist centre in the Southwest of Western Australia, a plastic Earth hangs above the central shrine. Displaying a seamless composite of NASA satellite photographs, the continents and oceans are lightly obscured by patches of cloud, a gentle reminder of the precious, thin atmosphere that protects the Earth from the vacuum of outer space. The planet is suspended above a table made of heavy planks of local timber adorned with recently offered native flowers and four white bowls whose contents symbolise the four elements of earth, water, fire, and air. Next to these, hand-written notes share wishes and prayers made by visitors to the centre for family, friends, and strangers far afield. Forming the focal point of the shrine, the globe is intended as a reminder of the people, animals, and ecologies that depend on the health of planet Earth. As the centre is committed to environmental activism (see Abrahms-Kavunenko, this issue) this perspective of Earth from outer space symbolises the centre’s commitments to “engaged” Buddhist practice (Gleig 2021; Fuller 2021; Hsu 2022; King 2012). Here the Earth is a witness to, and a reminder of, the problems and possibilities of life on a global planet.