Karmapa – The Official Website of the 17th Karmapa Karmapa – The Official Website of the 17th Karmapa Karmapa – The Official Website of the 17th Karmapa Karmapa – The Official Website of the 17th Karmapa
  • The Karmapa
    • A Short Biography
    • The Lineage of Karmapas
    • Activities & Projects
  • Teachings
    • YouTube Archive
    • Video Library
    • Podcast
  • News
  • Schedule
  • Buddhism
    • Shakyamuni Buddha
    • Buddhism in India
    • Buddhism in Tibet
    • Kagyu Lineage
    • The Golden Rosary
  • Centers
    • North America
    • Europe
    • Asia
    • Oceania
    • Africa
    • South America
  • Office
    • Media
    • Contact
Karmapa – The Official Website of the 17th Karmapa Karmapa – The Official Website of the 17th Karmapa
  • The Karmapa
    • A Short Biography
    • The Lineage of Karmapas
    • Activities & Projects
  • Teachings
    • YouTube Archive
    • Video Library
    • Podcast
  • News
  • Schedule
  • Buddhism
    • Shakyamuni Buddha
    • Buddhism in India
    • Buddhism in Tibet
    • Kagyu Lineage
    • The Golden Rosary
  • Centers
    • North America
    • Europe
    • Asia
    • Oceania
    • Africa
    • South America
  • Office
    • Media
    • Contact
  • English
  • France
  • Germany
  • Spain
  • Italy
  • Canada
  • United Kingdom
  • Australia
  • Poland
May 06

Karmapa’s Urban Activism: Planting Trees on the Streets of New Haven

2015.04.08 yale planting tree
(April 8, 2015 – New Haven, Connecticut) His Holiness the 17th Karmapa put on gloves, hefted a shovel and planted trees on the streets of New Haven, lending his own efforts to the nation’s growing urban ecology movement. His Holiness this morning joined a group of men rebuilding their lives after serving prison sentences, sharing with them the task of bringing new life to the streets of the city. The activity formed part of Yale’s Urban Resources Initiative (URI), which employs ex-convicts and urban teenagers to work on environmental projects across the city. As such, the program supports two major aims dear to His Holiness the Karmapa: environmental protection and social justice.

In his talks to university students across America, the Karmapa has been advocating greater awareness of our deep connectedness to one another and to the planet, and more fully assuming the responsibility that those connections imply. He has also been emphasizing that our sense of responsibility must manifest in direct action. Today he vividly demonstrated his commitment to those principles.

Although His Holiness the Karmapa conversed with the ex-convicts as he was introduced to them one-by-one and later as they worked side-by-side, he gave no general talk. Rather, his teaching this morning was wordless, as he extended his hand in friendship, hauled buckets of water and shoveled compost shoulder-to-shoulder with men whose life experience differed so greatly from his own.

Bill Burch, a founding pioneer of the urban ecology movement, had flown back from the Andes to host His Holiness the Karmapa during his activities in New Haven. As he spoke to His Holiness the Karmapa of the work that is being done in the area of urban ecology and community forestry, Bill Burch said to the Karmapa, “Our work here is fulfilling your vision.” During his Chubb lecture one day earlier, His Holiness had stressed the importance of acknowledging and cultivating our sense of closeness to the natural environment and to one another.

A long-time activist, Bill Burch recounted to the Karmapa how he had returned from the Himalayas where he had been overseeing a community forestry program that combined community building and ecological conservation and was asked to do something similar in an urban setting in the United States. He began implementing community forestry initiatives in urban settings, laying the groundwork for his urban ecological activism and the later creation of URI at Yale. Colleen Murphy-Dunning, program director at the Hixon Center for Urban Ecology at the Urban Resources Initiative (URI), was also on hand to present the URI initiatives to the Karmapa as he visited its sites in the morning.

Among URI’s various programs, the Greenskills program that His Holiness the Karmapa joined trains community members, ranging from urban youth to ex-convicts, in ecological skills, including tree-planting. With links to various institutions, URI illustrates just how mature the urban ecology movement has become in the United States. Housed at Yale University and involving Yale students as volunteers, URI also partners with the City of New Haven. The Greenskills program began in 2007, partly in response to a backlog of requests by residents of the city for street trees. Through URI, New Haven homeowners can submit requests for the city to plant trees on their property, and URI then deploys its teams to complete the work orders. His Holiness the Karmapa joined the team as it was assigned to fulfill one such petition.

As His Holiness the Karmapa and the rest of the crew toiled in front of a house to plant a tree, the owner of the property stood on her front lawn, watching the work crew plant new life in her front yard. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she offered the Karmapa a bouquet of tulips, and sought to express in words her joy and amazement at her good fortune to have His Holiness blessing her home and her family by planting trees on her property.

When the tree stood firm in the ground, the men requested a photo with His Holiness. They shared a final moment together, posing for the camera, and then shook hands one last time, their joint labor complete for the moment. The Karmapa departed to tour the East Rock area of New Haven, leaving to nature the task of strengthening the roots of what had been planted, and watered and nourished together that day.

 

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • E-Mail

Related Posts

  • His Holiness Spends his First Day on Redlands CampusMarch 29, 2015

[ long read ]

MIND TRAINING TEACHING
The Gyalwang Karmapa gave an extensive teaching on the 8 Verses of Training the Mind

[ video series ]

THE PRAJNAPARAMITA
Taught over six sessions, this is a direct explanation of the Buddhist view of emptiness

[ long read ]

THE CHENREZIK PRACTICE
The Gyalwang Karmapa taught on how to practice Chenrezik and recite his mantra

[ video series ]

100 SHORT INSTRUCTIONS
Taught over nine sessions, this text by the 8th Karmapa was taught in great depth by the present Karmapa.

[ long read ]

THREE PRINCIPLE ASPECTS
A comprehensive teaching that condenses the entire Buddhist path by Tsongkhapa

 

Recent Updates

  • Approaches to Understanding the Thirty Verses of the Mind Only
  • The Inauguration of the 23rd Kagyu Gunchoe
  • The Essence of Glory: A Shakyamuni Puja in the Kadampa Style
  • The Gyalwang Karmapa’s Closing Remarks to the Mar Ngok Summer Teachings
  • Differing Perspectives on the First Council and the Compilation of the Tripiṭaka
  • Upāli – the Foremost in the Vinaya and Contemporary Analyses of the First Council  
  • Ananda’s Offenses, Arhatship, and Recitation of the Sūtras

Kagyu Office Around the World

中文 // Français // Polski // Español
The Karmapa’s website is carbon neutral. //

About the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa

His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, is the head of the 900 year old Karma Kagyu Lineage and guide to millions of Buddhists around the world.

Born in 1985, the Karmapa resides in his temporary home at Gyuto Monastery in India after making a dramatic escape from Tibet in the year 2000.

Traveling the world, the Karmapa skillfully teaches traditional Tibetan Buddhist Dharma while also advocating topics such as environmental conservation, feminism, digitization of the Dharma, and much more.

Please use the icons below to find the Karmapa on social media maintained by his office of administration.

// // // //

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. Please view our Privacy Policy. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT
Powered by CookieYes Logo